Plenty of digging and lifting this evening for Esteban, Sanjeev, and Ben!

Katie from Gorse Hill Studios was looking for some help sprucing up the Gorse Hill Studios garden, with plenty of plants getting delivered soon and events coming up over the summer.

After the 4.5 km jog from the city centre along the canal, our first task was to unload one of the bags of compost that we prepared last year and to construct a mound of soil. Lots of the plastic matting was removed but the heavy lifting didn't end there.

Next up was to replant some of the trees that had been planted last year after getting dug out during the fence construction around the outside. With more digging over of a patch ready for planting of the incoming plants, we weeded what we could. The plastic matting, broken bench, deadwood, and other bits of rubbish were carried around to the skip, with the bags of fresh compost carried around to the front for people to use this week.

Lots of jobs and Katie seemed very happy with the day's work, not just from us but also from other volunteers at the Studios. Looking forward to seeing the end product in a week or two!

Great effort on the jog to the task and back this evening! Super effort!

Welcome to Esteban for your first GoodGym session! 👏

This evening was a Manchester Post delivery around a residential area in Longsight. After the morning rain, we were both very thankful for blue skies and sunshine in the evening for a stroll, criss-crossing the streets in between deliveries.

300 newspapers containing local news and community events, with some residents very happy to receive some good news media! In just 75-80 minutes, we managed to deliver them all, discussing jobs, volunteering, GoodGym, running clubs, and other topics in between.

Next week we have a litter pick planned meeting in the city centre for a gentle run out to Ardwick or Hulme where known litter grot-spots exist.

Day out for Scott, Ben, and Juno at the Manchester Volunteer Fair in St Ann's Square in the city centre.

Lots of conversations and connections with those looking to get involved, making links to community organisations, and giving GoodGym a thorough introduction to the people of Manchester.

Juno earned her grub by bringing in people with her natural charm, while t-shirts, photos, posters, and flyers giving us a way to show how much GoodGym groups can help out to local groups and to overcome social isolation often becoming an issue across many demographics.

Looking forward to following up on a few new potential tasks and activities, and good to see Sam and Sanjeev briefly during the day.

With Deansgate having transformed since the Great Manchester Run yesterday, Derek (first session with the GoodGym t-shirt 👏), Peter, and Ben met up to run the 4-5 km along the Bridgewater Canal towards Old Trafford and Gorse Hill.

After meeting Katie at Gorse Hill Studios with the key, we headed down to the community allotment to tackle any weeds and look after some of the beds.

While Peter and Katie had a handle on what was planted where and helped maintain or thin out some of the beds, including the boom of carrots 🥕 and beans 🫘, Derek and Ben took short shrift to the weeds 🌱

Lots of horse tail, grasses, bindweed, and sticky weed removed, freeing up some of the fruit trees 🌳 and clearing the paths and entry ways in the allotment. The potatoes 🥔 are growing well, with lots of lettuce, salad, and more beans growing, with tomatoes 🍅 and chilli 🌶 growing inside the polytunnel.

It's always amazing how much gets done, and how time flies, when working on the plot, with a final watering giving the finishing touch to a productive session.

We'll be back intermittently throughout the summer so watch this space 💪

Big well done to all the runners today! 👏👏

• Congrats to Caroline completing the half marathon with a new PB!
• Well done to Scott with a new PB in the 10 km!
• We'll done to Ben completing a foodbank run full of tins and pasta in the half marathon, welcomed by Juno at the finish line

Kudos to all the spectators too including Peter coming out on a day of mixed weather 👏

Busy crowds with nearly 38,000 runners plus a lot of spectators!

Well done to the 468 finishers this morning! Special welcome to the 126 people visiting us for the first time, including 22 completing their first ever parkrun 👏

🦺 Big THANK YOU to the 22 volunteers who helped out with everything to ensure a safe and welcoming event. Scott was on the bike and marshalling at Old Bedians rugby club while Ben was Run Director near the finish area.

Good luck to all those taking part in the Great Manchester Run tomorrow! 💪