It was an enthusiastic crew of GoodGymers who braved the Sheffield drizzle to join new task leaders Dave and Chris from Sunnybank community centre to kickstart the community garden. the garden had been unkept for a good few years and the community is keen to develop it into a beautiful resource.

Local residents also joined us and within no time Dave and Chris had us getting into the wilderness with spades, forks, loppers, shears and...spoons. * we cleared the border of one of the plant beds * we dug out pesky sycamore seedlings * we cleaned the paved area of its moss and weeds * we cut back the big bush by the gate to its border * we cut back what used to be a lawn and had long overgrown.

After 45 minutes, the paved area looked good enough to sit on and picnic, the gate had been freed up of its invasive bush and the plant bed had been edged around.

There is still plenty to sink our teeth into before this jungle turns into an oasis and we're keen to come back!

Four GGers got up early to help tidy up Endcliffe park on a drizzly Saturday morning. We were also joined by the lovely Seiko. The park has been struggling with litter due to there being lots of parties during the hot weather, but we were pleased to see that the main field didn't look too bad. We got to work removing bottles, cans and take away boxes from the children's play area and then moved on to tidy up the field behind the duck pond. Andrew and Tall Tom rivaled each other for most disgusting find of the day, but Celine came away 15p richer!

Hopefully our efforts will encourage other park users to keep the park clean and tidy!

GoodGym runners Tall Tom and Celine joined Sustrans and River Stewardship volunteers on a gloriously sunny day by the river Don near Oughtibridge. We cut back brambles, ivy, picked up litter (an insane amount of poo bags!) and mostly cleared encroaching soil from the path. We nearly doubled the width of the path in places! Awesome vegan flapjacks were shared to sustain us through the morning and by the time we'd finished, we'd freed about a kilometre worth of cycling track;in the light, it looked just like a beautifully clean and inviting red carpet! Working by the mighty river Don in the spring sunshine was a treat and we hope more people can join us at the next Sustrans volunteer day!

Happy Birthday to us!

We just turned 3 years old! Seems like yesterday when we started with a handful of regulars and no post run beers to now with a big bunch of regular runners, regular post run beers and a whole host of extra curricular things going on all thanks to our amazing community of runners who like to get fit and do good

We welcomed first time GG runner Charlotte Owen who was up from London to get her first taste of GG fun.

Give her a cheer!

This week we were back off to help SENSATIONAL SUSTRANS SIMON on the National Cycle Network. We ran uphill to Manor to and an access point to the NCN which is covered over with trees, which makes it beautiful, though very slippery at this time of the year with the leaves falling.

Fear not, GG were to the rescue with a mass of people with stiff bristled brushes we soon got the technique to a tee with lines and then piles being formed in sweet synchronicity. We very quickly filled two builders bags with leaves and pilled the rest of the leaves on the side of the path to compost and leave the path free of slippery leaves.

In addition to the leaf sweeping we did a litter pick which ended with 9 bags of rubbish and a heater fan!

Two other teams formed and help to edge the path and cut back any overgrowing overgrowth!

With it being the birthday with beers and cake awaiting we gave the fitness session a miss just this week so that we had time to get to the pub in time for our booked buffet, kindly organised by Kim who had also made a pro level cake which was delicious.

Good times and celebrations were had and happy birthday was sung!

Here's to the next three years!

Happy Running :)

On a hot summer evening the GoodGym Sheffield crew embarked on one of Sheffield’s rare flat(ish) running routes to return to the Abbeydale Picture House. We were helping CADS South Yorkshire, a charity which aims to restore the grade II listed building and relaunch it as a social and community arts venue. We met with the lovely Mark from CADS who took us through the tasks for the evening which included:

• Filling in the car park potholes
• Weeding around the picture house and in the wooden planters
• Litter picking
• Painting over graffiti on the outside of the building.

Splitting into groups we made speedy progress. Our clear up was well-needed with James claiming to have picked up 162 cigarette butts and a significant number of bin bags being filled. Caroline's resourcefulness saw kettles acting as watering cans for the picture house's shrubs. When our work was finished, Abbeydale Picture House looked neater and tidier. The walls of the building gleamed in the sun with its new coat of paint and the car park was a less holey place to be.

We headed to the local park for a ‘spuddy good’ time (Tom H). Following a successful potato harvest at Becky’s allotment, GoodGymmers competed in potato and spoon races and a fast-paced steal the potato game. Antonia, James and Chris’ team claimed victory and were crowned King Edwards.

We then returned to the Showroom to stretch and rehydrate.

Massive thanks for all the hardwork!