On a very wet and cold morning a group of intrepid Good Gymers, JO, john, Louise, and Nick, joined the London Fields Junior Parkrun core team to set up and marshal a quickly improvised wet weather route. Thankfully no one's spirits were dampened by the rain as lots of enthusiastic juniors put in epic performances to both run and orienteer around the course. With customary zeal the parkrun GoodGym combo made swift work of packing up in record time so we could all dash off somewhere warm and dry.

Despite the biting cold before the snow hit yesterday, 20 hardy GoodGymers and friends braved the elements for a Bonus Saturday Litter Pick in and around Mile End Park. Armed with litter pickers, bags, hoops, and a whole lot of enthusiasm, we were determined to make a visible impact.

After gathering at the Art Pavilion, we split into smaller groups to cover more ground. One team worked their way over Mile End Bridge, while others tackled the towpath. This helped us to sweep through a large section of the park, ensuring we reached some of the more littered areas!

We were lucky to have John from Friends of Mile End Park join us, bringing along Fendi, his enthusiastic little dog! John provided all the necessary kit and shared insights about the park’s ongoing upkeep. He explained that Friends of Mile End Park run a monthly litter pick, with the next one happening next week - but any extra help in between is always welcomed, as it’s a well-used park in constant need of care.

Over the course of the afternoon, we collected an impressive 34 bags of rubbish, including some rather bizarre finds - a large plastic grasshopper and a broken pack of top trumps among them! It was a fantastic team effort, with people joining in as we went along.

With frozen fingers and a well-earned sense of satisfaction, we wrapped up the session and a good group of us headed to The Star of Bethnal Green, where we thawed out with a well-deserved celebratory drink!

A huge thank you to everyone who took part - whether you’re a seasoned GoodGymer or a first-time volunteer, your efforts made a real difference and it was a great way to spend my birthday. See you next time!! 🎂🥳

Emma

A wonderful Christmas Run and Drinks this evening, spreading some Christmas cheer!

Part of the group ran a social 2K run from All Good to Beer to the Pembury Tavern, playing Christmas hits such as:

Christmas Wrapping, Sleigh Ride, Wonderful Christmastime, It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year and Santa Baby 🎅

We had a good social catch with our Goodgym friends, thanks to everyone for coming down

This was GoodGym's first time helping out at the Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground and we had a glorious sunny morning for it.

On arrival, we were offered a range of tasks. Jo and Anne chose to rake sand in the climbing area to even out the ground level.

Meanwhile Matt, Gayle and Jack headed off to the wood pile to shift logs to another area where they can be cut up with the chainsaw without annoying the neighbours.

The hour passed in no time at all, in which time, a mountain of logs had been shifted and the sand was definitely more stripey, if not necessarily more evenly spread.

Sounds like there is plenty to do for this group so look out for more tasks here in future.