Today’s task was a little bit roar-dinary!

Portsmouth is celebrating 100 years as a city with a spectacular trail of 46 lions prowling across the city, and we simply couldn’t resist the pride.

We took the chance to run and litter pick while tracking down some magnificent big cats. Our running group, led by our roar-some leader Jen, made light work of a 5K from Fratton to Gunwharf, while our walking pride, expertly led by Fiona, covered just as much ground—proving there’s more than one way to earn your stripes… even if they’re the wrong big cat!

Together we hunted down 10 lions and pounced on a bag of litter along the way. It was the purr-fect way to tidy up our city while celebrating our amazing community. Safe to say we all had a roaring good time, and a few of us got just a little bit over-pride-d with excitement whenever another lion appeared!

A huge welcome goes to our new GoodGymers, Katie and Lana, who absolutely lion-heartedly threw themselves into the run and every physical challenge along the route. They took it all in their stride and didn’t let anything prey on their minds.

We hope you’ll be back to run with the pride again soon—because once you’ve had a roaring evening like this, it’s hard to paws for too long!

First of all, it was great to meet James this evening, joining us for his very first session - welcome to GoodGym!

We took a brief detour on our way to PARCS to find one of the Portsmouth Centenary Lions at Fratton Park, then tested a new route to get to our task.

Sammy and David took on some hedge trimming, weed scraping and litter picking duties in the front garden. Team work made the dream work, with the pair developing an interesting large broom / small dustpan technique to sweep up the cuttings at the end of the task.

James, Dave and I visited the back garden, which had become an absolute jungle of brambles. James seemed to very much enjoyed using the loppers, and also showed impressive dexterity to both chop and lift the brambles in one movement. We cleared a huge spaces, which is now on its way to being ready for service users at PARCS to tend to.

On our way home, we collected two more Lions, making a set of three ahead of the England match. Fingers crossed for a good result!