Gosh, that was a blustery one!!

In slightly different running conditions from last week's heatwave, four of us headed off from Hilsea Lido before collecting the rest of the crew at the Mountbatten Centre. We welcomed Paul to his very first session - epic commitment to come to a beach task when it's blowing a hooly!

Judy's recommendation to bring smaller bags was certainly a good idea, as bin bags would probably have doubled as parachutes with the additional sea "breeze". Weighed down with a few large stones (and a random shellsuit), we got to work filling our bags.

The more interesting finds included a drill picked up by Katie, Andy's mysterious 6 / 9 / g and most fun of all, a message in a bottle!! Sinéad messaged the number on the note, I'll keep you posted if we find out from where and when it came.

Epic work in challenging conditions, folks, well done! I think my favourite photos might be the ones featuring Andy in a t-shirt and shorts whilst Louisa looks ready for an Arctic Expedition 🥶

On a beautiful sunny morning it was finally time for my 300th parkrun and 100th volunteer. I chose Highcliffe Beach parkrun to celebrate as it was my Nearest Event Not Done Yet (NENDY)! It was an excellent choice being at the seaside with great views all the way to the Isle of Wight as it was a clear day. It was lovely to be joined by our GG Portsmouth neighbours to volunteer, parkrun, parkwalk, swim and eat cake! Thank you so much everyone who took the time to come and help celebrate with me. Here's to the next 100!

Thanks to everyone who cleared out their bra collection for donation to the MS Therapy Centre. When i dropped our big bag of bras off it contributed to filling up their donation box. Excellent work.

They will continue to take donations so please feel free to drop off any other things you find in your Spring cleans!

Photo from Portsmouth 100 group run as i didn't think anyone would want their old underwear immortalised on the internet!

Firstly, a warm welcome to Pauline who joined us for her first GoodGym session. We also welcomed Matthew to his first session, Fiona's fiance (congratulations to you both!)

Tonight was all about celebrating 100 years of our great city. Sinéad and I both wore our Portsmouth leggings. As part of our 100 litter picks in 2026, we did a speed litter pick in Victoria Park. 2 large bags filled in 25 minutes. Best finds included an octopus, barbie lip balm, a fork and a man in a bush (after a very short conversation, Val left him there).

We managed to collectively do 100 exercises in 3 minutes. This was team work at its finest, with a side order of GoodGym laughter thrown in. Not sure we'll be releasing a fitness video just yet.

Finally, on the way home we collected some words for the Portsmouth 100 found words word search. I haven't included all those here otherwise the album would be massive! But they will all get sent to Think Big Do Bigger for their collection.

The city centenary (& my birthday!) have been well and truly celebrated tonight!