Nearly 5 years ago, one of GoodGym Stockport's earliest tasks was to help Alexandra Park Primary School to de-weed and clear up their outdoor area to allow it to be utilised by the pupils in the warmer months. 5 years on and we were back for more of the same!

We set off from our Life Leisure base for an uphill sprint, with a scenic park loop added for mindful measure and clocked up 3km before arriving at the School.

Peter, the school's Business Manager, greeted us with tools and tasks and we set off with the challenge of clearing the area of weeds.

We dug, we shovelled, we weeded and we chatted before completing the task (bang on time!)

Last night was the first of the sun runs and we welcomed some returning newbies, first time GoodGymers and also a Taskforce member from the soon to be set up Manchester GoodGym!

We were doubling up on our tasks this week, for our regular task owners - The Stockport Post and Together Trust. It was a double whammy delivery deed!

We set off from base for a downhill, weighted 2.5km - and were joined along the route by another GoodGymer, (The hop on bus!) before heading to our task point where we split our delivery load and cracked on with the task in hand!

With the number of food banks on the rise and the number of people using them also increasing, we're once again simply asking the running community: Will you run to your local food bank?

During the last Winter, we were astonished by how many runners wanted to support their local community through the Food Bank Run.

Over 500 groups, clubs, events, parkruns and other got involved.

In total, over 77,000 KG's of supplies were donated which is the equivalent of 3 arctic lorries full. That translates to 336,875 meals for families and individuals who are struggling to put food on their tables.

This month, GoodGym areas did a food bank run takeover to support our local food banks with much needed items.

7 Stockport GoodGymers (with two runderful newbies) loaded our sacks and ran the 2.5 km weighted, uphill route to our local foodbank. We stocked the shelves with our goodies before running the distance back!

We (tin) CAN do it!

Back for its ninth year, the Great British Spring Clean is the nation’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign.

The Great British Spring Clean and Great Big School Clean 2024 takes place from 15 - 31 March, and you can pledge to pick up a bag of litter – or more.

Last year, the army of amazing #LitterHeroes pledged to pick more than 400,000 bags of litter.

Several times a year, GoodGym Stockport take part in Plogging group runs to help to keep our wonderful community free of litter and debris.

Our run began from Life Leisure Avondale, with 7 runners in tow, armed with litter pickers, gloves and bags! We ran a circular 7.5km route, covering Edgeley, Cale Green and finally Adswood.

We focused some of our attention on the area around a local school and received wonderful feedback from the Headteacher who appreciated our efforts to keep the area clean.

We even had BAGS of fun doing so!

Last night's group run was a 7km circuit in aid of Comic Relief. A local community leisure centre, and our designated start base, had set a challenge to raise support for Comic Relief and so we jumped (or ran!) on board.

Our challenge was to run the miles between two of the leisure centers. So that we did, with smiles on our faces and talk of gardening tasks to come!