River Runners

Tonight we were delighted to welcome GoodGym Founder Ivo along to visit GoodGym Leicester hot on the heels of his trip to GoodGym Worthing the previous evening - tremendous touring!

After an update on the weekend's running (and post-run breakfast eating) adventures including some parkrunning, the Sherwood Pines 10k and a fry up in a hollowed out loaf of bread, the runners headed up river taking the off road route towards our destination. Arriving on site as the vaccination centre we found Lindsay and Mel ready to greet us and Stu already hoovering up metal faster than The Iron Man from the classic Ted Hughes novel!

Trash Back

Lindsay and Katy set off for a lap of the centre ensuring their main car park and the surrounds were tidied while the rest of the gang set to work on the temporary staff and patient parking areas notorious for their whiskey bottles and Holsten Pils cans. To add to the regular pieces of junk, our age old favourite discarded item was discovered this week by Mel - the pair of shoes! We should really award a prize for whoever finds the shoe(s) on these litter picks - the Cinderella Award perhaps? As ever, we were given plenty to feast on to the point where Huw yet again struggled to drag people away from the task as time ran out! While it can be frustrating not to get the area completely cleared the sheer amount of junk we clear away from that site is phenomenal. As we gathered to finish up, Ivo noted his scepticism at the start of the task that we would each fill a bin bag full of litter...only a first time visitor to this task would say that! As ever we separated out as many aluminium cans as possible for Stu to take off to the Helipads for Hospitals big red bin - extra good deeding!

The Home Straight

Taking the slightly shorter (but certainly not as flat) route back to catch up some time, we landed back at the back of DMU to use the little off road set of lampposts as markers for our 30m every 30 seconds sprint drills. We'd previously tackled this fitness task on the outfield of Electricity Sports Cricket Club after we did some painting there and outside the deserted King Power Stadium - plenty of space, no obstructions! Tonight we encountered a few more people in the way but some creative alternating from side to side of the central planters ensured we powered home in style.

Great work tonight everyone!

HD

Mel Jen and Stu met up for a litter pick of the notorious car park near to Peepul Centre. Notorious only for it being one of the best spots in Leicester to find discarded drinks cans! However today was different, yes there was the usual rubbish to pick up but also an unfortunate visitor to the Peepul Centre had misjudged the angle of the car park exit ramp and drove her car onto the low side wall where it was stuck with wheels off the ground. Jen went to investigate what and how it had happened. Though on arrival at the car, it was obvious the driver needed help so Jen did what she could and the AA was called. A quickly placed orange traffic cone stopped any further accidents occurring. Peepul Centre staff came out to assess the situation and comfort the driver. So Mel Jen & Stu carried on with their original task.
Two bags of cans collected which Stu has taken to the H4H collection bin. One bag of general waste collected and added to the pile left from our last litter pick. Back to the car stuck on a wall story: the AA man arrived and with help from the Peepul Centre staff the car was eventually jacked up and towed up and over the wall. Mel Jen & Stu gave a quick round of applause then left the rescuers to finish up their rescue.

Last community mission of 2021. Jen and Stu arrived early at the litter picking tonight and true to form the task didn't disappoint. They were joined by Mel and Lyndsey who started the tidying up. Cans,cans and more cans were soon crushed by Stu and bagged up by Lyndsey and Mel. Jen collected general litter and also found a bed and a tv obviously fly tipped . During the litter pick Stu found 12 empty whiskey bottles , adding to the 5 bags of cans and 5 bags of litter. A good evenings pickings . Merry Christmas everyone .

There's clearly been a party in the car park, we just turned up too late!

Eight GoodGymmers blitzed the car park outside the vaccination centre, clearing 14 bin bags full of cans, bottles and other assorted litter in a productive hour! With a sorting squad in full operation we managed to separate out the bulk of the cans, glass and plastic for recycling as well as clearing most of the rubbish in the area.

Super work everyone!

HD

Mel, Jen,Stu and Lindsay met at The Peepul Center tonight and were not dissappointed by the amount of cans and litter that needed clearing up. The Four set to work and within 45 mins had collected 7 bags of cans and litter. Jen kindly volunteered to take the cans to a local drop off at The Plough in Birstall who have said they will allow cans to be deposited until we secure a permanent red collection bin. Well done to Stu who ran the Leamington half marathon last Sunday. Well done everyone Goodgym really made a difference to our local community tonight.

A scorching June day as Team GG got to work removing the never-ending supply of litter from the surrounds of the mass vaccine centre in Leicester.

The car park was as usual littered with cans, crisp packets, discarded masks and leaflets for Jen, Mel, Stu and Huw to get stuck into.

There are always some more unusual discoveries and today we found 2021 in balloon form, quite how we only came across this in June is a puzzle!

Great work gang, join Dave next week to help get prepped for the Watermead Challenge with a cool little task sticking chips to race numbers!

Huw