It was a hot evening down at the Showroom I'm Sheffield! 8 people gathered to run down to Lynwood Gardens where we met up with our friends at Sustrans.

****Big shout out to Linda for being our backmarker and photographer.

Simon and John from sustrans gave us an introduction to the fantastic things they do maintaining active travel routes across the country.

****NB my fact about sustrans including bridleways may be fake news.

Thanks to all the rain (and a the odd sunshine) Lynwood Gardens was looking magnificent and a little overgrown! Our task: to clear the path - lopping, trimming and sweeping. Once we'd started a cyclist arrived on the route - but it was no regular cyclist - it was Annie on a bike coming to join us. That made us 9! Lynwood Gardens is a beautiful space that is partly canopied by greenery and has a lovely little pond.

Tools were handed out and we got to work. After a solid 45 mins of clearing Simon and John were more than satisfied - we did a stellar job clearing the path and making it a safer space to cycle and walk. We even cleared the cycle network signpost that was a little lost in the greenery.

We thanked Simon and headed off up the path we'd just cleared to admire our work.

****We wiggled our way back to Showroom but not before a musical stop outside the Light Cinema - if you've not been yet it's a must!

Great work everyone, looking forward to seeing you all soon!

3 Goodgymmers joined other volunteers to steward at local community event Sharrow Lantern Carnival.

We helped set up by moving lanterns at the start, then we engaged members of the public at the starting point, whilst collecting donations. We then walked the parade in pairs whilst being a point of contact for people needing first aid, lost children and general queries, whilst still rattling our buckets for more donations.

Highlight was a little boy at the end who had saved up all his pocket money to donate after enjoying the previous year so much 😍

On a dark and drizzly Monday eve a group of hardy and committed GG members met at The Showroom Cinema and ran to meet other member of the GG SHF family at a beautiful little community garden in Heeley to help local residents and volunteers improve this community space for other local residents and passers by.

The route to the task was unavoidably hilly, especially towards the end. But where there is hardship, there is also learning opportunities. We took this opportunity to work on our backward arm drive to propel us forward and up the hill with the mantra in our minds of;

Lips to hips, lips to hips, lips to hips

This helps us to have a full backward arm drive, keeping our elbows in and using our arms to help our legs and lungs!

Before we knew it we had topped out and met FANTASTIC FRAN and friends who had all tools readily laid out for us and gave us the brief on the evenings task which involved:

• Weeding
• Cutting back
• Planting
• Litter picking

The space was already looking better than last time we visited with murals from local artists in place and much more plants being established and growing through. It's so great to see spaces like these being cared for and looked after by the local community and we were proud to be able to play a small part in it's continued growth and evolution. We hope to be back again soon!

Happy running :)

A FANTASTIC FOUR set out from The Showroom cinema on a February evening to lend a picking hand or four to Karen of the Pitsmoor pickers who do a fantastic job battling the littering that blights the area.

It was fantastic to welcome Jasmine who is new to Sheffield and goodgym, we had some really nice chats about cats, dog dating and violins! Give Jasmine a follow and ask her about any of these when you meet her! Sounds like she's pretty good on the violin!

It was also great to welcome back Rachel who has been away for a wee while in the Netherlands. We had some good chats about cycle infrastructure, screen printing and making houses more efficient. Hope to see both of you back again in the future.

Meeting outside the Vestry Hall we got pickers and bags and got straight to work, filling our bags up with all kinds of litter on the surrounding street and collecting up larger items to carry to a nearby bin at the end of the session.

Although a constant task in the area, it was appreciated by passer by's and hopefully the visual presence of people picking up litter will make others think twice before dropping theirs.

Until next time, happy running :)