We were supposed to be painting a room at Sheffield Futures tonight, but a final check with the team there revealed that the person meant to be meeting us was off. Therefore Plan B was put into action at the last minute. This, of course, was plogging. A contact from the Pitsmoor Pickers was contacted on the off-chance she was free, alas it wasn't meant to be!

Luckily some equipment was at hand from past picking trips, so we didn't have to resort to bare-handed tactics. We decided to visit an area of cycle path which GoodGym takes care of for SusTrans, the route behind the Durham Ox. We cleared this section of cycle path as a team, and even witnessed some people using it for once!!! After this, we headed up the road and across to the opposite side to clear the grass verges and scrubland.

We 'refuse' to quit

After an action figure (see photo) packed time filling a bag full each, we set off in search of a street bin where we could leave our refuse. This involved running in the general direction of the canal, where our route back to the Showroom was planned to go along. We eventually found one, thanks to some superb scouting from Rachel, and left our bags by it to be reported to the Fix My Street app later on. We then continued on to the canal towpath where we were treated to a viewing of some new 'street' art before jogging back to the Showroom to stretch off and refresh.

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!