On what was a wonderful Wednesday for Team GB in Paris, Team GG (Nottingham) were going for gold at Victoria Embankment at what proved to be one of our most challenging events yet – litter picking where there wasn’t much litter! After meeting Emily for a quick briefing, the pack split and headed off at pace, armed with litter picking batons and a determination to bag some rubbish.

It was a lovely warm bright evening (grateful that we don’t yet need our torches), although we were competing with a bit of wind which caused our bags to flap like flags. We were also thrown by all the feathers lying around the place which looked a lot like bits of rubbish. Thankfully, all our litter-picking training leading up to this event paid off and we all managed to rise to the challenge. By the end we were running rings around all those pesky cigarette butts and lolly sticks!

After 45-minutes or so, we met at the finish line for our usual closing ceremony – a chance to relay to each other what we had collected followed by a group podium photo. There were no stand-out items worthy of a gold medal on this occasion – a BBQ grill, a toy car, a silver key ring and a picnic blanket qualified in the ‘slightly exciting’ category.

For those of us who ventured down to the riverside itself, we were treated to the sight and sound of some dragon boat teams training out on the water, as well as the occasional group of paddle boarders and kayakers gliding by. Being so close to Trent Bridge, we also heard a lot of whooping and cheering from what sounded like an exciting cricket match. Oh, and a huge group of runners went by en mass(cot) – unfortunately we all had high-viz vests on so we don’t think they would have spotted our red t-shirts.

Thanks to everyone who attended for being such good sports - Serafina, Nigel, Bozena, Hannah and Vicky.

Come and join us at one of our next sessions – find out more here.

What a successful evening for our very first Starter Session! We're setting up a few of these at some of the places we've visited most over our first year, and they're designed to be extra specially friendly for people who've never come to a session before.

The weather didn't seem to know if it was coming or going, which made our run (led by Peter) particularly fun. He'd prepared lots of funky drills to get us warmed up (and garner a few odd looks from passers-by) before we split into runners and run/walkers so that everyone had a pace to suit them. Only the walkers stopped for a pic with the massive rainbow though!

After we reconvened, slightly soggy, slightly sweaty, we met up with some more GoodGymers and headed inside to find out what Mark had in store for us.

As usual, he was super- organised and had plenty of jobs to keep us busy. Peter started out breaking down cardboard, then joined Bozena and Leah sorting out donations of sheets and bedding to make them more easily identifiable and accessible on the shelves. Bozena and Leah also helped bag up the Winter Kits of socks, gloves, hats, blankets and Cup-A-Soups for the Food Bank to give out later in the year.

Meanwhile, Hannah and Jules were tasked with bagging up food parcels ready for the service users to take home – a bit like Supermarket Sweep but for a much better cause – and Rachel, Tom, Rosemarie and Vytautas were on dating donations and getting them onto the right shelves.

We had to cut off a little early as Mark needed to lock up, but we still got a huge amount done – many hands make light work, after all!

We returned to the Windmill Community Gardens last night for the second week running, with a bumper 9 GoodGymers in the group (one of our best attended sessions).

This time we were met by Carley who gave us a tour of the gardens and told us about all the amazing initiatives that go on there. This includes the beautiful space dedicated to the Growing Forward scheme which supports people in Nottingham to improve their mental and physical wellbeing through gardening activities. Even those of us who had been there before saw spaces we never knew existed!

Once the tour was complete, our task was to remove weeds from some of the paths in the main section of the garden to make them look tidier and more ‘path-like’. Each armed with a hoe, we set to work tackling the weeds – ‘decapitating not digging’, as we had learnt the previous week. As we were all working in close proximity on this task, the conversation flowed and the group had a good natter about all things GoodGym and beyond.

To complete the job, we spent the last part of the hour fetching wood chippings to lay on the paths we had cleared. By the time we left the paths looked as good as new!

Earlier in the evening Carley had mentioned that one of the beds contained some edible flowers, so after we had downed tools we couldn’t resist having a little nibble and a photo! We also raided the herb bed (at Carley’s invitation) so several of the group also went home with a selection of herbs.

We welcomed Rosemarie and Vytautas to their first GoodGym session last night, and also Hannah back for her second. Serafina also returned after a few months away travelling.

Next Wednesday is our first birthday party – we hope to see everyone there!