Kudos to all the GoodGymers who went out and collected litter in their neighbourhoods or where they are on holiday. The streets are cleaner and you burnt off some of the Christmas food and drink - win win!

Bank holiday today so some challenges as limited stores open and public services also reduced. A bit of running, walking and bus to get to Ms D and checked out in her area if shops were open etc. Knew I was up for a challenge today! Ms D welcomed me and realised it was bank holiday, and was not too worried if I could not get all the items. She had family around the last few days so had plenty of food and just needed some essential items. This was a typical Goodgym mission as had to run between stores due to bank holiday : roughly 3km to go from one to another. Ms D normally gets items from Waitrose but was ok to get the essentials from elsewhere. So I ran with a list and some cash to 2 different waitrose's I the area...closed!!!Next was Mark's and Spencers which was normally supposed to be open, but not today!! Then last attempt was a Tesco that I noticed a bit further : yeah we have a winner. Limited items as reduced opening hours today and not refilling due to limited deliveries. Got all the main essentials for Ms D like the milk, bread, fruit ,soup etc...only 4 items missing which were not critical for her like the TV list. Ms D was happy to have her shopping done despite it being a bank holiday.

Xmas day and a few Goodgymers from different areas joined other park runners on a very cold and windy morning in Gunnersbury Park. Nearly 900 runners/walkers took part on a very special Park run : Xmas day parkrun. Different outfits were seen and seems that Santa has twins, triplets or quadruplets and he was all over the park. Obviously we could see snowmen, elves and other festive characters running around. Some runners also volunteered at the end as bar code scanners : Harvey, Tom and Maria. Chikako was guide running with her daughter. At least the outfits and hats kept all of us warm. Merry Xmas to everyone. After parkrun some Goodgymers walked to St Mary's Road in Ealing to enjoy free coffee, pastries and savoury snacks at Pulp X Paperback : donations from customers when getting a hot drink and tasty freshly baked pastries. Donations going to Prostate Cancer UK and Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter.
Good to see people coming out on Xmas day to run. walk, volunteer and be social.

Ah, the dark Walpole Park in winter, a fleet of wheelbarrows, and the usual suspects with head torches, shovels, spades and rakes. Sounds familiar? Another trip to the Walled Garden, a path surface that needed refreshing and the scent of... woodchip? Or maybe something else?

Tonight's task was the second part of the 2025 edition of replacing woodchip on the Walled Garden path, so we've been doing a fair amount of digging, wheelbarrow runs, shovelling, and raking. Certainly not weeding, which in turn was the speciality of other visitors to the park garden - a different kind of weeding.

When walking with wheelbarrows past Rickyard, each time we heard party tunes. Did the Christmas miracle come early, transforming Walpole Park into a nightclub? Everyone seemed to be having fun - and so did we! With a small, but powerful team of four: Harvey, Steph, Sevan and Kash, we've finished off the job in no time! Now we're getting ready for the start of 2026, kicking off the group runs with another session at Walpole Park - sign up now!