Magdalen Wood is a lovely spot. A little network of paths, lots of lovely trees and natural clearings. It is also, unfortunately, a HUGE litter grot-spot.

The main path through the woods has just been resurfaced in a very lovely track-like material (note to self, maybe a good place for an interval session.......) which has potentially attracted more pedestrians.

Wonderful, but the litter was ASTONISHING.

Working along the main paths we quickly filled up loads of bags - mainly beer cans and cigarette packets but with the usual smattering of clothes and weird and mystery items - anyone need a coin sorter?!?

Then a call came from Vicky who had discovered the aftermath of what must have been QUITE the party. Cans, cans as far as th eye could see. We considered just reporting it to the council but figured strength in numbers we could get it sorted. 5 goodgymers (who would have appreciated nose pegs) and 5 minutes later it was clear - good work team!!

We all appreciated lots of hand sanitiser and a good post-task scrub after all that.

Welcome to Goodgym Meg and Mae, it was wonderful to meet you.

On Wednesday we did our own mini Morse plog around Oxford.

Taking inspiration from the locations used in Inspector Morse films we set off to visit the sites of significance in central Oxford and Jericho, litter picking as we went.

From the Oxford police station (sadly, no Morse cut out in the windows) to the Phoenix Picturehouse we ran and walked our way across the city, amassing 2 sacks of litter and covering 3.75 miles.

Favourite sightings: The Oxford Story Museum telephone box (definitely worth a detour down Pembroke Street), and the murals on Canal Street.

On Wednesday we rounded off a January full of Good Deeds with a litter pick in Headington. In an exciting development we were joined by a journalist from ITV, who was filming a piece on GoodGym which will show on the 6pm news in a few weeks' time. So, alongside our expert litter picking, this week we got to polish our public speaking/acting skills. Cue some 'fake' running (there was real running too!), performative litter picking, and expert handling of hecklers while being interviewed by Ben.

Filming complete, we picked up the pace on our litter picking and made sure we'd done a thorough clean up of Gipsy Lane before we had to call time on the session.

Welcome to GoodGym Stephen!

We usually try to get to West Oxford for a litter pick early in the year, and despite the ongoing challenges of accessing the Botley Road, we headed there last night for a clean up.

We split into 3 groups and allowed ourselves an hour to blitz the trash. Given the cold weather we found a surprising amount of discarded clothing (wouldn't you notice that you'd left your coat on the cemetery gate?!), as well as a bags full of the usual suspects (cans, bottles), and more unusual items (a whole block of cheese, part of a car bumper, MANY Christmas trees, a French dictionary).

All in all, a good amount of rubbish got picked and bagged, leaving the area looking a little more loved.

Welcome to GoodGym James!

This Wednesday we had a spooktacular plogging poster distribution challenge.

Here at GoodGym Oxford we like a bit of healthy competition, and nothing quite gets that spirit fired up like a scavenger hunt with a purpose. With Halloween just around the corner we had a ghost-themed hunt this week. We divided into 2 teams: Runners and Walkers. Each team was given a list of haunted locations, 5 GoodGym posters, a litter bag and 2 litterpickers. Points were awarded for every poster pinned up, every haunted location visited, and for spotting a variety of Halloweenesque decorations (ghosts, broomsticks, pumpkins, cats and witches hats). There was also a requirement to clear up litter as you buzzed around the City.

It was neck-and-neck between the teams on posters displayed and locations collected, but the walkers truly spectacular 50 pumpkins had them whipping the win out from under the runners feet.

Our brains got a good workout from the strategising, our legs got moving, litter was picked, we learnt about the history and mythology of Oxford, and GoodGym was publicised...a win on many levels!

Our friends at Flo's The Place in the Park asked for our help to get the word out to locals about their great refill shop. Stocking everything from toiletries and cleaning products to pasta and pulses, it's a great resource for the local area, plus using it saves lots of plastic waste from going to landfill.

We were advised that the best tool for getting leaflets through doors without getting fingers pinched by aggressive post flaps are wooden spatulas. Sadly, we were spatula-less this time, but managed to avoid and leaflet-posting injuries, got all our flyers delivered, admired some ambitious front gardens, and made friends with several local cats.