Sunday morning began early, grey and wet, as 8 GoodGymers made their way, on foot and by bike, to Otterspool Prom.

We had been asked to help out again at one of Liverpool's most popular running events, the BTR Half Marathon and 10 Mile race. Our job was to help set up and give out water at the Mile 9 water station, and help marshall the runners onto the prom. Of course, we were also there to cheer on all the runners with our famous GoodGym energy and winning smiles!

This event is always a great opportunity to promote GoodGym, and we all wore our T-shirts with pride!

We arrived at 08.30 for set up as the race was to start at 09.00. First finishers were expected around 9.30 (10 mile runners) with the bulk of the runners coming through by 11.00 and the final half-marathoners by 11. 30 ish.

We would then have about an hour to put away the tables, clean up any litter and collect in all of the discarded water bottles!

As always, the GG team worked non-stop: carrying packs of water, filling each of the 5 tables with over 200 bottles, bagging rubbish and dealing with members of the public who were trying to drive through the race area.

As the first runners came through, everyone cheered and waited for them to take a water bottle from one of the tables... all very calm and quite relaxed... that didn't last 😁

Gradually, the numbers coming through increased until we had a constant throng of runners for about an hour... at one point, we could barely keep up with the demand... but no runner was left without access to water 👍

The smiles on the faces of the runners as we cheered them on, and the genuine gratitude and thanks as we kept the tables filled with water, made all the hard work worth it.

Everyone encouraged the runners, but for my money, Siân and Dan take the award for the top cheerleaders... making sure every runner was encouraged and using the runners' name when handing them their water bottle 🌟🌟

After 3 hours, the last of the 12,000+ runners passed through our station...amazing!

We had a brief moment to enjoy the feeling of a job well done... then the clean up began!

Unfortunately, this is the part of the task that is not enjoyable. Thousands of single use plastic bottles... and their lids... are discarded along the route, littering miles of Liverpool's streets, parks and riverfront... a problem that is repeated at many running events in many cities across the world... and an issue that definitely goes against the grain for any GoodGymer. Quite an ethical dilemma for us all.

BTR organisers are obviously aware of this environmental issue and are working towards viable solutions:

**'In recent years we have all become more aware of the high volume of natural resources that go to waste in our daily lives and in many respects the same can be said of waste within race events.

One of the first items to come under BTR scrutiny was single use plastic and in the three years since BTR stopped using plastic Goody Bags at events we have reduced use by around 60,000 bags that would have otherwise have been used.' Alan Rothwell BTR Liverpool Ltd

Other actions that have been/are being introduced by BTR include: 🔸️using paper to protect medals, instead of plastic bags 🔸️providing smaller bottles of water 🔸️at some events, paper cups are used alongside bottles 🔸️at the Wirral Half Marathon, blocking drainage gaps in the sea wall, to prevent polluting the water ways.

We can only hope that these sustainability measures, and more, are adopted at every running event, as soon as possible. BTR seem to be heading in the right direction, and we wish them every success in this regard.

It would be a great shame if BTR and, by association, the many community groups, including GG, who volunteer at their events, were to attract negative press for this single use plastic problem... as this is such a positive, community-based event.

As always, we would like to end on a positive note, and thank our 'extra' helpers today, so: A huge shout-out to Dan's sister and nephew, who came to support Dan and ended up helping out! Well done Esther and Alexander... our star water station volunteer 🌟 Also, Myles who rode into Liverpool with me to make sure I arrived safely, and then helped to carry water bottles to the tables. 😁👍

While we're finally beginning to feel Spring in the air, on Monday the GoodGym gang braved a dark wet evening once again, on a mission to clear up yet more litter around Grove Street. This session started out emotionally as we said our goodbyes to a long-term member Jake, who will be moving on to exciting new pastures. After sharing some cake to celebrate Jake's time with us, we steeled ourselves and got stuck in at a particularly littered patch of greenery we'd scouted previously. The going was rough in places, but in an hour we left the little corner considerably cleaner, and with our Grove street litter bag total boosted up to 28. While it was just a little unnamed corner of Liverpool, the spot is home to a range of birds and even some rabbits, so hopefully they will appreciate the cleanup alongside the many passers-by commuting into the university.