It takes a special kind of person to wake up early on a dark, damp and cold Saturday morning in November, but never the less, four GoodGymers arrived bright(ish) and early at Holbrooks Park to clear as much litter as possible before Parkrun. The rain was persistent and the ground wet and muddy. It didn't take long for our trainers to become saturated, although we had come prepared with multiple warm, waterproof layers.

Allan and James got to work with the pickers, while Chris and Claire collected the finds in bin bags. It's always fun to see what unusual litter you can find and amongst the finds were numerous fireworks, some quite quite sizeable! It would also appear that the drink of choice in the local area is Chekhov vodka, as we certainly found copious empty bottles of it. Not forgetting my personal bugbear... disposable vapes! (Grrrrrr...)

With as much litter picked as possible in the time available, we then made our way to the volunteer briefing where Chris and Claire donned blue 'Park Walker' bibs, James donned a pink bib over his existing hi-viz jacket (making him ultra-viz!), ready to barcode scan and Allan lined up on the start, ready to leg it round the course and pick up scanning and close down duties after finishing.

With Holbrooks Parkrun closed down for another week, James made his way to his next community mission while Allan, Chris and Claire had a much needed hot drink and breakfast at Food @ Whitehalls.

Holbrooks Parkrun have expressed their gratitude to GoodGym for their support with the events and always welcome volunteers. We'll be back there again in early December, but you can always help them out at any of their events. Check out www.parkrun.org.uk/holbrooks/futureroster/ to find upcoming volunteering opportunities.