All of Worcester descended on to Pitchcoroft to set up stands for different organisations, groups, clubs and stalls. In amongst them we had our little GoodGym gazebo with banners, posters and two smiling faces in red t-shirts. Kirsty helped me hand out leaflets to lots of potential new members and explain what GoodGym was all about over the course of the day. We also got to chat to a few organisations that could make use of our task force so we look forward to building those new relationships into future sessions. There's so much good stuff happening around the city and it's great that GoodGym is now a part of all of that.

Many tasks simply require us to move dirt from one place to another. That was the case this week when we were asked to fill some raised beds at the Community Gardens. After a run down from The Hive under ominously grey clouds we were greeted by Bob and Clancy who showed us the barrows, the shovels and the pile of soil that needed to be moved. "It should take you at least 40 minutes to fill one of these". After 20 minutes the first one was full so we filled a second one! It was great exercise for Kirsty and Marcus with plenty of strength and conditioning work. Meanwhile the skys cleared and we enjoyed a lovely sunny evening down at Pitchcroft. The beds will soon be planted up with colourful flowers that are then used to make bouquets. We can't wait to see how the garden grows!

The long hot summer continues which is making life hard for trees and plants in parks all around the city, none more so than Fort Royal. All the young trees need a good drink at least once a week at the moment so GoodGym were brought in to get the wet stuff to where it's needed. What we lacked in numbers we made up for with enthusiasm as Natalie and Marcus pushed barrows full of water containers all over the park to be emptied on to the grateful trees. The most important recipient being a relation of the famous liberty oak that was visited by Thomas Jefferson. It wasn't just the trees that needed a drink so Karen from Fort Royal Rangers kept us hydrated too before thanking us for a job well done. We'll back for more in a few weeks unless we get some rain.

Running alongside the River Severn on our way down to Chapter Meadows we wished we could pipe some of that water over to the newly planted saplings we were about to help. The meadows are beginning to look more like a desert with parched yellow grass instead of lush green pastures. Poking out from the undergrowth, our plucky saplings are trying their best to keep going. To help them out we removed the long grass around them and put it back down at their base to form a mulch. It gives them more light, helps to get more nutrients to their roots and helps retain any water if and when it rains. Most of the trees are doing OK but a few had already dried up completely so couldn't be saved. Hopefully we'll get some rain soon otherwise we'll be back with some buckets to get some of that river water on to them. Liam and Marcus ran back to The Hive while Kirsty enjoyed a spin on her bike.

It was a nice (and very familar for parkrunners) run round Pitchcroft racecourse to get to the Community Garden on Tuesday. We were there to build a flood garden but arrived to find another volunteer group had beaten us to it. The job was already done! Luckily the Community Garden is never short of jobs for people so we were quickly assigned some new tasks to keep us busy. It helps that Alison is a regular volunteer at the gardens so knew her way around and showed us the ropes, or in this case the chips! In front of us was a large pile of wood chips that was cluttering up the entrance to the wildlife garden and needed to be bagged up. Soon we had a fleet of wheelbarrows queued up and Kirsty, Fiona and Liam armed with shovels and ready to fill them up with the chips. Meanwhile Alison and Marcus were set to task cleaning up a bench in the wildlife garden and a kitchen sink unit that will be used...well we never found out what it was for! After 30 minutes of shovelling and scrubbing the whole place looked neat and tidy again with the chips in the bag and everything swept. We finished our lap of the racecourse to get back to The Hive and had definitely worked up an appetite for some chips of the potato variety!

Mid afternoon I receieved a message from Carry from St Wulstan's Church to ask if we were still coming given how hot it was forecast to be. I said of course but suggested we might be moving a bit more slowly than usual!

In the end we all met at the church with a gentle cycle ride for some instead of a run and as usual Carry met us with a smile and stack of cups ready to keep us hydrated. Alison and Kirsty took up the brushes and the grey paint to give a bench a new lease of life while Marcus was given the task of painting a well used picnic table. They should dry in no time! Half an hour of our time saved Carry 2 hours of her time and we all enjoyed an evening in the sunshine.

Great work GoodGymers!