Princes Park is the Goodgym Liverpool’s Parkrun home ground, and we’ve litter picked the areas around it – Princes Avenue, Kingsley Street – in the past. There’s a little patch of green just off Granby Street, home to the locally beloved Granby Street Market, which previously was very overgrown and unaccessible due to brambles. The green patch has recently been cleared right back, which revealed both the depth of the greenery, but also a lot of collected litter which was crying out to be collected.

The first pre-task task was hunting down the scattered litter pickers, many thanks to Sallyann for going on a little tour of South Liverpool to collect litter pickers from various goodgymmers and taking them to the task so the others could run unencumbered from our usual spot at the Suitcases on Hope Street.

With litter pickers, hoops, and bags, we met at the corner of the green patch for the task briefing. Bekah stressed the importance of remaining in groups of minimum 2, and gave strict instructions no-one was to wander off on their own!

The task was more challenging than expected, as the overgrown site seems to have attracted some fly tipping. Amongst the litter we could collect were larger items such as a mattress, plywood, and larger household items. Jess commented it was like trying to litter pick a tip! We came across an array of items plus quite bizzarely a load of vegetables, including red cabbage, parsnips, and lots of sprouts. We saw a saw and a saucepan, collected a kettle, and passed a plate. Whilst we had to choose our battles on what we could realistically remove, there was a lot of litter and after filling 16 full bin bags, a crate and a bucket, we had to admin defeat when we ran out of bags!

Given the area has recently been cleared right back, we’re hopeful that was the first step in reclaiming the site. Although there’s still a lot of work to do, we’re happy Goodgym had a solid contribution in making it that little bit clearer.

Personal thanks to Steph for being organized enough to have a spare torch and kindly loaning it to me when I foolishly forgot mine! Congratulations to Naser on his 15th task, and welcome to Mohamed, who we met at Parkrun and who joined us for the first time this evening.

Next up: the first ‘Sticker Saturday’ of the year, there’s much excitement for the return of our monthly Parkrun stickers which so captured our imagination in 2025. The listing is live for sign up and you’re welcome to join us for the run, for breakfast, or both to earn one of the prized stickers for your loyalty card. See you Saturday!

Well the Christmas community  spirit was in tremendous force on all three fronts for the good gym Christmas  partae:

1) THE HIGH-Achievements : We celebrated our goodgym park run awards, not just about celebrating runs, stickers, or times but about celebrating people. Especially Sallyann Sallyann who thought of this amazing park run sticker contest and who always encourages with relentless enthusiasm no matter at which level or in what way. But little did Sallyann realise in 2025 she had not only encouraged Bekah to run her first 10K, Heetu for >10K, whole bunch of us to 25K trail, Jess to become runleader but also encouraged the fiesty little sticker monsters in us all!

Here are the standout moments...

🏆 Top Attendance Awards

Lucien Lucien: first place. The heart of the group, showing up every week despite health challenges, keeping stickers and cards ready, and supporting everyone with consistency and warmth (13/13).

BekahBekah: joint second. From non-runner to regular supporter, now running consistently and encouraging new and returning runners (10/13).

Sian Siân: joint second. Balanced PhD studies and family visits while still showing up, running effortlessly and supporting the group (10/13).

Amina: close fourth. Champion of stickers, always checking in on people, and ensuring we had 13 sticker days this year (7/13).

🌟 Special Recognitions

Leo Leonardo: New this year, became an ambassador, spreading the word and even scoring café discounts (6/13).

StephSteph: Validated nerves at the start line, always pulling out strong runs (6/13).

ElileEleanor: Sacrificed her run to secure café tables for the group (5/13).

Jess Jessica: Supportive and knowledgeable, became our new run leader (4/13).

MiriamMiriam: Came to film, ended up running her first parkrun (4/13).

SophieSophie: Offered calm conversation that helped others overcome fears (3/13).

JoJo: Completed parkruns all year across locations, volunteering at junior parkruns (3/13).

LiamLiam: Ran before flying halfway across the world to Costa Rica (3/13).

DikeDike: Fastest runner, always waiting at the end with a smile (3/13).

Dan: Ray of sunshine, excellent runner, now in London (2/13).

HeetuHeetu: Worked abroad most of the year, but brought enthusiasm when present (2/13).

Afrah: Showed up despite a demanding charity job and freezing weather (1/13).

Laura: Returned after two years with family, looking like she’d never been away (1/13).

💖 Spirit of GoodGym

Every award reflects more than running—it’s about friendship, encouragement, and small acts that ripple outwards. Sallyann and Lucien’s dedication, despite not being able to run always, embodies the very essence of GoodGym: consistency, support, and community.

2) THE FAT- The Grub: upon arriving there was a vast array of options to try on our Christmas buffet and drinks cabinet!!!

Variety of from almost all continents Africa, South America, New Zealand, Vietnam ... -Brie and cranberry swirls care of Siân -Salt n peppa sausage rolls care of Bekah -Amazing chicken lickin care of Dike -Most gorgeous perfectly portioned ratios mini mince pies care of Jessica -oh there was so much more to mention but I am just making myself hungry!

But really thank you absolutely everyone for everything you bought to the party it was a lovely collective effort to bring everyone together to catch up on the year over some very tasty bites.

3) THE FUTURE-Aspirations: : we also made a to do list for 2026 from starting the 1st day of 2026 with a run, to attend more GG sessions/missions/runleadering, grow our team/charities we help and of course for all our sticker monster addicts more park-runs/breakfasts/tourism!
In conclusion what a fab partae and the only other thing we can aspire to is better christmas tunes!

So each of you has made this year unforgettable. Whether you ran, volunteered, cheered, finding a café or simply shared a coffee afterwards, you’ve built something connected and special. Every person is a winner so here’s to more miles, more smiles, and more memories together for 2026 where the sticker fanaticism continues!

The Santa Dash has been a regular fixture in the Goodgym Liverpool Christmas calendar, and this time we were participants and fundraisers. This event grows and grows - we heard over the tannoy that with over 11,000 Santas, this is the largest Dash in the world!

Steph, Clara, Miriam, Dike, Rachel and Bekah donned the red suits to run, and Pauline and Steph showed their colours with blue suits to walk the route with friends and family. Leonardo was intrigued by the idea of thousands of Santas running around the city centre, and came out to support the runners and see it for himself - yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. We passed pubs already full of Santas, and Leo was surprised at how early the Santas had started on the beer. Those of us more familiar with the dash - less so.

We were fundraising for The Choir With No Name, a choir for those impacted by homelessness or otherwise marginalised by society. Each week the choir meet for a cuppa and a catch up, choir practice, then sit down to share a hot meal. With a budget of less than £40 to feed up to 55 people (!) this type of fundraising makes a real difference. At the time of writing, the Goodgym Liverpool team have collectively raised over £775, a fantastic amount which will go directly to the Liverpool chapter we've volunteered with before.

It was a pleasure to meet Rachel for the first time, who was instrumental in the fundraising and contributed some very generous donations. Lovely to meet you Rachel - we hope to see you at a Goodgym task soon.

The Santas worked their way around the route through the city centre, and even the rain couldn't dampen the festive spirit and the streets were lined with people cheering us on. We were serenaded by a choir, treated to live music, joined by stilt walkers and the running Santas even struck up their own songs as they ran (no mean feat). Due to terrible planning, this was Bekah's third 5k in 26 hours (with Sally Ann partly to blame for making those stickers so damn appealing at yesterday's Goodgym monthly parkrun), but this was the big one, and with the thought of all those generous donations pushing her on, she was able to dash the dash and finish the third and final run of the weekend. Several of our runners were either new to 5ks or getting back into it gradually, and everyone put in a fantastic effort and exceeded their own expectations - we came away with some well deserved medals!

It's a lovely event, super fun to see the Santas all over the city and such wonderful community spirit. See you next year!

P.S. many thanks to Clara for the winning pun!

We arrived at the Princes Park run on a wet Saturday morning. It had been cancelled but a lot of people were milling around unaware Sallyann went into promo mode and handed out goodgym leaflets. She managed to recruit three people to the goodgym special run, Lillika, Daniel and Dan. Sallyann , Steph and Bekah embarked on the run with the three new friends while Lucien Leonardoand Miriam walked to the final meeting spot, the Oasis cafe in Sefton Park. The runners ran out of Princes park, did a lap of Sefton and then ran to the cafe. For Bekah and Steph this was one of multiple 5Ks this weekend with the Santa Dash on Sunday morning and Bekah taking on a third this afternoon. Steph was really pleased with her result today as she had wanted to run under 40mins and managed a 37mins. Lillika, Daniel and Dan didn’t join us for breakfast but Ellie came along just in time for the awarding of stickers. Lucien celebrated a full card of stickers- 12 for 12 months of park runs plus a bonus red glittery sticker for the added park run we did when our London friends were visiting. Bekah nearly filled her card just one off, Eleanor gained a fifth sticker and Leo confessed to washing his card in the washing machine. So aside from an addiction to stickers what is the incentive to collect stars?… Sallyann suggested that there might be some awards at the Christmas party this week! There was some discussion about next year’s park runs, what cafes we could go to. Looking forward to another year of park runs.

On the first day of December, whilst the last of the evening showers continued, 6 determined Goodgymmers met at our usual suitcases spot for the run to the task. This was to be my supervised run session to consolidate my Goodym fitness leader training. I was grateful for the motivated bunch that met me in the rain, showing that classic Goodgym Liverpool support.

After a welcome and warm up, we weaved through the streets of Liverpool Central, to finish at the 2km mark on Park lane, where Bekah was waiting to welcome us. Joined by Lucian and Elaine, we were ready to start our evenings task.

The idea of clearing some of the more persistent nettles and thistles had Lucien eagerly rushing into the Park Lane garden to get stuck in Bekah , on the other hand, had an hour of exposure therapy. She braved her fears to provide much needed light and nettle spotting expertise for the group!

After an hour of weeding, a little bit of December and January planning and the mandatory group photo, the runners set off back up the notorious parliament hill! Having well tested our fitness levels, we arrived at the suitcases for a much need stretch. I was thankful to receive some lovely feedback from the group. We said our goodbyes and headed off into the night towards home. Another successful task completed!