Despite the weather being a complete washout we still had some strong GG stalwarts brave the wet weather to run to Regather and meet with Rachel & Gareth to help get their events space back on track!

On arrival everything was beautifully organized and well laid out ready for us, which meant we could really crack on with the task after a quick brief from Rachel.

We had long and short rollers and brushes at hand to help give the old community event space a new lick of paint and get it ready for welcoming people back to this fantastic community venue for film and music nights to comedy, to maybe even a hummus party hosted by Jono!

After what seemed like no time at all we had gotten around the entire room, even getting on to glossing the top of the stairs!

Sergiu gave us a quick tour of the other spaces at Regather for those who hadn't seen them before and we were generously offered a bottle of fresh organic apple juice from Regathers latest harvest, hot of the press and a prickly pear for those that dare!

It was great to be back with our old friends at Regather and we look forward to coming back again and seeing the events space in full swing again post pandemic!

Until next time, happy running! :)

Well the nights are most definitely closing in and the time for head torches once again coming out are here once again!

For tonights task they come in particularly handy as they make the litter sparkle and shine ready for the picking!

We met with Pitsmoor Litter Picker stalwart Karen who continues to fight the ongoing difficult challenge of battling the litter in Pitsmoor and Burngreave areas. She is amazing and it's good to be able to support her.

We met at 'My Dentist' and got tooled up with bags, pickers and hoops and got to it, collecting as much litter as possible.

We were serenaded by locals, thanked for our work and had a lovely friendly disco dog joining us which is always nice!

Becca came with a 'can do' attitude and offered to be the 'can lady' for the eve collecting all the cans in the area that Karen would take away to be recycled.

Lovely stuff.

Tonight, we welcomed two new GoodGymers, Alexi and Christina, who joined us for a slightly longer run than normal, almost 6.7km altogehter. The run was glorious, even if it was raining!

We headed west to meet the Super Simon of SUSTRANS who was ready with litter pickers and shearing gear to tidy up the newest permanent section of closed road to link up the cycle routes. The majority of the team brought in the 5 bags of litter with Katie snagging and umbrella, and Celine grabbed some shears and a spade to tidy up some of the over-hanging and out-stretching foliage.

Overall, a great session all round!

After an uphill run to Heeley Green Community Garden, we marvelled at the view with a beautiful sunset and admired all the hard work the community group had put in since we visited last - a new mural was added over the pond, the flowers were in blossoms and the fruit trees - including a peach tree! - looked strong.

Our host Fran explained the task: a pesky and unruly border was encroaching over the path which was taken over by nettles and other weeds and a bush.

We then grabbed our spades, dug, scraped, uprooted and plugged branches through fences, putting on our head torches in the process. Ah the days are getting shorter!

In no time, the path had been litter picked by Michelle and Jono, while Rachel, Tim, Sergiu, Cat, Charly, Becca and Celine freed most of the path up.

What a gorgeous community project led by the local residents of Heeley Green!

A midsummer nights team of 8 runners gathered together with the express intention of ridding a river of rubbish. We were tonight meeting Karen of Pitsmoor Pickers fame and a couple of extra wombles she was bringing along to help out. There is a section of riverbank along the Don that has needed clearing for some time and Karen felt that this evening was the perfect time to tackle it given who was to be in attendance!

The evening's run was also one of special celebration... one of GoodGym Sheffield's most stalwart and prominent volunteers was on her 300th deed. This of course meant the obligatory cape had to be brought out from the GG vault and bedecked with the requisite sequins denoting '300' for Rachel to don on the run to the Don.

We all gathered together outside the Showroom, had a brief briefing and count up of runners (so as not to lose any again) and set off to Cobweb Bridge. The leading group had a totally intentional detour courtesy of the good folks at GoogleMaps but soon re-merged with the others to run on to the five weirs walk near the arachnid filled underpass.

Bin there, Don that!

Arriving to see a brightly coloured Karen waiting to welcome us, we distributed the kit consisting of pickers, hoops and bags she had brought for us. We then heard a little about the precise areas to focus on and set about making this section of the Don sparkling!

We found the usual array of objet d'art by the riverside consisting of wrappers, cigarette butts, cans, bottles and shards of glass... with some oddities thrown in too such as a length of board wrapped in metal... an old road sign perhaps?

After a good 50 minutes of picking there was no more terrible trash to be found in the vicinity. We collected the bags together for a group photo with them, said our goodbyes to Karen, and set off a tiny way down the path for a rapid river workout activity. Just a quick wall sit this evening- it was gone in 60 seconds! The activity got the thumbs up from everyone... well apart from a couple of folk.

After this we had a short and steady run back to the grass outside the Showroom where we stretched off and heard announcements before heading inside to indulge in some confectionery that Rachel had brought along for us all to share!