Fresh from beach cleans at Love Trails, and having spent 4 days enjoying litter free countryside trails, Nathan was disheartened to see how out of control litter in his area was (again).

With the hot weather, the Taff is low, and people have understandably been enjoying a few drinks or bonfire on the riverside. What isn't understandable is why they can't take their rubbish home with them, or to the nearest bin a whole 100m away.

Nathan took a break in his run to fill a rubbish sack of cans, bottles and food containers. Getting in there before the river rose and swept it all downstream

Shortly after I first moved to Cardiff (in 2011), I started a photo blog called 'Umbrella Graveyard'.

This is because no Umbrella is a match for the wind and rain of Wales.

In fact, this was even referenced to an extent in the 'A Study in Pink' episode of the first series of the BBCs 'Sherlock' (which was filmed in Wales, at a similar time).

After a wet and windy day in Wales, you can find pavements and bins serving as the last resting place of many an umbrella.

They were however far to big and cumbersome to make it into any of my litter pick bags. But they do serve as some of the photos and title of this report.

In conclusion - I did a litter pick! Or two. I litter picked my way to the GoodGym mission at Cwtch Together. And afterwards, I litter picked my way home.

Whilst litter picking I met a Cardiff Council worker who asked if I needed any extra bags, and invited me to add my current bag to his van.

Not every bit of rubbish made it's way into my bag. Some bits of rubbish has snails attached. It was better to leave them there.

Most interesting bits of litter picked:

A vanity bag A gift bag Socks (multiple)

Most interesting bits of rubbish spotted

A blue light up owl High heeled shoe (singular) Nike trainers (complete set) Snails attached to crisp packets

Sunday morning of Love Trails 2025 saw Goodgym again team up with The Green Runners and Trash Free Trails to run to Whiteford Sands for a litter pick.

A breeze in the air was taking the edge off the heat, and five goodgymers were joined by 23 others to run 6km to Whiteford Sands for another seemingly beach clean.

With another three prizes provided for the best finds of the day, the group split into pairs to tackle another seemingly clean beach. After a 40 minute search to group gathered together to tally up the items of litter collected (1,503) and vote on the top 3 finds (1st - BB gun and plamobile man, 2nd - loafers, 3rd - goal posts).

With 10 full sacks of rubbish collected from what was at first glance a clean beach, the Goodgym run showcased the power of using your run for social good and the impact less than an hours volunteering can have en-masse.

Despite following his social media, attending his talk, and having tracked his Cape Town to London journey, run leader Nathan managed to miss that runner and activist Deo Kato had joined the run and chosen to spend some of his time off stage at the festival to join a Goodgym beach clean.

Goodgym was back at Love Trails and this year teamed up with The Green Runners and Trash Free Trails to run to Broughton Bay for a litter pick.

With the sun blazing down, 10 runners headed out 8km to the beach, which at first sight was litter free, however closer inspection of the dunes and tide lines revealed there was lots to be collected.

With a prize on the line for the largest or oddest item found, Lucy dug deep to reveal an abandoned plastic tub, and backed up this find with a wooden stair spindle. Other finds included shorts, shoes, tshirts and seemingly endless amounts of rope off cuts.

After a sweep the length of the beach, the group had collectively found and removed 500+ items of rubbish.

A great start to the festival. The group then headed the now 9km back to the festival site and hunted down some well earned shade.

Today down at Llandaff Fields, Nic, Michael and Flo from GoodGym were helping out at Cardiff junior parkrun.

We were all in a similar part of the course. Nic was marshalling about 100 metres from the start and finish area. Michael was marshalling at 'run in' (the main duty being to direct the runners into the finish area). And I (Flo) was marshalling 'start/finish'. Somehow despite my previous practise as a human cone, a lot of juniors did not realise they had to go round me and follow the actual cones to the finish funnel area. There were definitely some cut corners, but I suppose I should be blamed as the marshal for providing inadequate instructions. To redeem me, I did an excellent job of putting the 'Caution Runners' sign on the gate leading to the park. Nic did not have any issues with marshalling, and was able to provide great support and advice to the runners.

Michael was also given the honour of performing the 'first timers welcome' briefing. Cardiff junior parkrun has had some trouble recently with 'briefing duckers'. A briefing ducker is someone who is new to Cardiff junior parkrun or parkrun in general, but does not attend the first timers welcome. These aren't put on just to give Michael something extra to do. They are important to explain the course, the health and safety instructions, the rules, and how the barcode scanning and finish funnel tokens work. I didn't hear of any problems at the end though, so Michael clearly did a perfect job.

I was off to Trelai Park parkrun to volunteer as a marshal. I've also been made aware from previous trips to Trelai Park parkrun that they like to do a bit of a litter pick before or afterwards. And I've become very skilled at them!

So I helped pick up a bag of trash whilst the other volunteers were arriving. I then went over to 'triangle turn' with one of the volunteers to marshal. The title of this run report comes from one of the runners. I should mention that the weather this morning was not the nicest. It was raining, it was windy, it was a bit tough. The runners were making the most of it though, including one who ran past up and exclaimed 'thank god for dance music', which must have been the headphone power source for her.