5 Goodgymmers and one honorary fluffy Goodgymmer met on Tuesday evening to litter pick a section of riverbank. Between the Lidl footbridge and Windsor Bridge, we filled a binbag each, leading someone (me) to lament that "people are gross and terrible" and subsequently be dared to make that the title of the run report...I can only apologise. We were very lucky to catch a break between rain showers, left with a satisfying feeling of leaving a small corner of Bath looking a little bit nicer and saved lots of bits of plastic and approximately 50 bajillion cigarette butts from ending up in the river. Good job, team!

Armed with litter pickers and bin bags, 5 goodgymers made their way in the rain across Brickfields park in search of litter.

Usually a open litter bin, the park was surprisingly clean, however within an hour we did manage to fill a whole bag, amazing what you can find that is not too obvious at first glance.
From broken glass, glass bottles, plastic bottles, crisp bags and chocolate wrappers we filled the bags.

It might have been raining but we felt good after our session knowing that we had made a difference in just one hour, much more useful than sitting in on the sofa!

Three GoodGymers turned up on a cool Saturday morning for some painting action!

The local councillor, Jess, had noticed that the black railings on the boundary of the park and pavement needed some TLC. Who knows how long ago it was when they were last painted, probably when installed?

Jess had got the black metal paint and brushes, paid for by the council, and so now it was just a matter of man and woman power.

We got to work, scraping the old flaky bits off the railings and then sploshing and splashing the black paint on.

We worked together on one area to make that good, but we'll definitely have to come back to finish the whole stretch off railings along Englishcombe Lane.

Four Goodgymers met to tend to young trees planted earlier this year. Some looked worse for wear given the amount of sunshine and lack of rain in recent months so hopefully we had arrived just in time.

We cleared the grass from around the base of the trees, making way for wood chippings to help protect the tree from climbing weeds and grass that would steal it's nutrients.

A good job done, and fingers crossed the trees agree and bounce back really quickly.

The railings along the edge of Moorlands Park adjacent to Englishcombe Lane stretch for a couple of hundred metres or so. Today we meet up to help paint a small section of that.

The task involves brushing off the older flakier paint, then Hammerite-ing (other outdoor metal paints are available) the rails in nice new black paint.

Young Izzy supplied us with coffee, tea and minty Penguins while we got on with the job.

By the end of the session, we’d managed to finish maybe another 9 or so sections of railing, plus most of Jer’s clothes and exposed skin. More painting may follow in the coming months…?

17 GoodGym volunteers ran to Victoria Park to tidy the play area and the skatepark. We did some litter picking and raked the sand in the play areas. Lots of people and young families use this space and we were proud to help keep it safe and clean for all to use.

All hail Clean Mary!

We met at the leisure centre and crossed our fingers that the rain wouldn't come back! Firstly, we awarded Mary a custom t-shirt to celebrate her 200 runs milestone that she recently smashed. Now she has two 'Clean Mary' t-shirts to wear when she goes out running! Well done Mary! Keep up the running!!

I then shared running news from the past weekend. Several of took part in a fantastic Running Omnium that was part of the Top of the Gorge festival in Cheddar. It was great fun and we got really cool medals! Hopefully see some of you there next year.

We also got involved in a great Community Mission at the weekend where we ran to help out at the annual Sunday Funday organised by the team at St James and St Phillips' church.

The Great Get Together

I talked about The Great Get Together which is a project that GoodGym groups across the country are partnering with this week. The project was set up to remember Jo Cox who was killed three years ago. The aim of the initiative is to celebrate the things that bring us together and what we have in common and to reject divisive politics that tear our communities apart.

We all reflected that although we are from different walks of life the one thing we all have in common is a love of running and helping our community. We wore some stickers and wristbands to show our support for coming together and being part of an inclusive community.

After our warm-up we took the scenic route to the play park. We ran through Bath city centre, around The Circus and past the Royal Crescent. What beautiful city we get to run in!

The Rake Get Together

We made it to the park and surveyed the task ahead. After passing out the pickers some of the runners got on their way picking litter from all around the park. There hasn't been too much rubbish dropped lately because of the poor weather ... but there was still too much for us to bear and so we took action!

In for a penny in for a pound

Some of the more interesting things we found were a £1 coin, half of a lego person and a bike chain. We also found a plastic 'skate' on wheels in the bushes. Unsure exactly how this got there (or even what it is for!?) but we dug it out and safely removed it anyway!

Come and give us a sand with this work!

Lots of sand escapes from the play areas out onto the path which can make it slippery and dangerous to walk across. We shovelled a load of it from the path back into the sand pit and then raked it in.

At the end of the task we admired our hard work from the vantage point of one of the climbing frames. We climbed up and had a picture looking out across the sands.

Upcoming runs

• This Sunday there is a fun and FREE 10km race for all in GG South-West to celebrate GG Swindon's 1st birthday. More info here.
• Next week we are running to help out at Cleveland Pools
• Next Thursday we are taking part in our monthly pub quiz. Even if you just started to coming to GoodGym it is a great way to get to know other runners and have some fun!