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!

We had quite the turn-out for our excursion to Emsworth this evening, which was super-handy as there was a lot of work to be done!

Rebecca, the Head Teacher, and the Caretaker had started some prep work, so we got stuck straight in to the task. Katie and Sam got stuck straight in with scraping and sanding, whilst Judy and Andy were on priming duty for the woodwork. Double Dave caused Double Trouble with an exploded tin of green paint. Sinéad arrived after her run around Thorney Island to lend a hand. Birthday Gal Val found her calling as a wallpaper instructor, helping Rebecca to get the lining paper on some of the walls.

Val also provided music and snacks, so we got to channel our inner dancing queens with an Abba soundtrack.

A contractor had quoted the school close to £5000 to do the work needed, so GoodGym's efforts have certainly helped to keep school funds supporting the children, which is wonderful. Well done, you are all awesome!