This week we swapped running for sorting, helping give old running shoes a second lease of life through JogOn.

A huge shout-out to Katie, who arrived towing a wheeled suitcase packed with running shoe donations from her colleagues. Her impressive haul helped us reach a grand total of 44 pairs of running shoes, all matched, boxed and ready for their next chapter.

Those 44 pairs have been saved from landfill and will now be sent to JogOn, who redistribute unwanted running shoes around the world so they can continue to be used.

And if each pair has already covered around 500 miles, that's an astonishing 22,000 miles of running between them, roughly the distance from Oxford to Sydney, with plenty left in the tank.

A simple task, a great team effort, and a small step towards a more sustainable running community.

🏃🏃🏼‍♀️‍➡️

This evening was our final visit to the Meadow Lane playground for 2026. With planting due to take place on Sunday we were in a tight deadline to get compost and ballast moved to prepare the beds.

This was one of those tasks that really put the Gym into Goodgym. We dug out one bed and topped it up with rich (and rather smelly) mushroom compost. The rest of the time was spent filling a fleet of wheelbartows with ballast and ferrying them to other planting areas. Core muscles were engaged, raking was done and we even had to deploy the mini flood lights. The result did make us look a little like were creating or investigating crime scenes.....!!

Our rewards was some gorgeous feedback from Usha and delicious brownies from Celestia which contained black beans, making them a health food.

Congratulations to Angus for your 100th Good Deed!!

This evening we were back at the Meadow Lane playground. It has been so fun and rewarding to be involved in this project! From removing acres of ivy and brambles and unpicking dangerous metal fencing to digging new flower beds and building dens, no task has been left untried by our gaggle of Goodgymers.

Today we made some more progress on the flower bed designs - removing a few pesky roots and then shoveling and spreading loads and LOADS of ballast. A true shoulder and core workout!

We will be back next week for more digging and spreading so that some hardy plants can take root before the winter.

The evenings are drawing in and this was probably our last natural light Wednesday session of the year. We were back at The Children's Allotment to do battle with the longest, fiercest, thorniest brambles I've ever seen. Before the onslaught, we warmed up by moving a few years' worth of accumulated rubbish into a skip; this part of the task was accomplished quickly.

The brambles, not so much. Long, thick, scratchy, entangled in the trees and other "good" vegetation. Our best efforts made some headway but they will no doubt regroup ready for our next battle in the Spring.

After a group snap in the yurt we celebrated the end of a great summer of GoodGymming with a drink in The Magdalen Arms.