A fantastic morning of leaf-collecting, weeding and litter picking at the Heathcote Community Centre on Saturday! Joannah and Margaret, assisted by the very lovely Rach (the Community Centre's manager) and her daughter, achieved so much in just a couple of hours, ridding the car park of unwanted litter and making the fire exit for the adjoining church a much safer pathway. Phase II to be schedule in in the not-too-distant future to complete the job, which will include more weeding, moss removal, sweeping and jet washing. Do sign up if you want to get involved... coffee and biscuits provided!

3 Goodgymers overcame the temptation of a night in on the sofa to get some miles under their belts and some rubbish in their bags!

After meeting at our usual rendezvous point outside the pump rooms, we had a quick warm up before heading off towards the Heathcote Centre. It was a good run out to the Centre including quite a hill, so we all warmed up pretty quickly.

Once at the Centre, we set to work clearing all the rubbish that had found its way into the car park. The verge had recently been cut back which also revealed lots of rubbish that had previously been hidden. With two bags of rubbish collected it was time to head back on our jog into town, this time enjoying the downhill.

Hopefully the before and after pictures of the car park speak for themselves!

This evening's group run marked 3 years since the first ever GoodGym group run in Warwick and Leamington Spa!

To celebrate 4 Goodgymers ran to the Heathcote Community Centre to help with some weeding and a litter pick.

It was a good run to the Centre with a gentle incline to challenge our legs on the way there. Upon arrival we were provided with tools and bin bags and set to work. Allan was keen to exercise his litter picking skills in the car park area which never fails to provide lots of litter to be picked. The most interesting item this evening being a full sized patio brolly...

Philip multi-tasked, starting first on weeding the path outside the Centre and then lending Allan a hand with the litter picking. James gave the task his usual gusto, adding about a foot to the width of the path by clearing the grass that had started to encroach on the area along with lots of the weeds outside the entrance to the Centre.

With litter picked, paths cleared and all the rubbish bagged up, it was time to head back to the pump rooms. This time we could enjoy the incline as we were running down the hill, finishing off with a quick sprint to the finish via the bandstand.

It was great to have a catch up with familiar faces and chat about upcoming races that people are either running, marshalling, or both!

3 Goodgymers enjoyed the great outdoors on a balmy summer's evening to help Heathcote Community Centre (previously known as Warwick Gates Community Centre) with a litter pick and some weeding.

After a relatively warm jog to the centre catching up on everyone's recent Commonwealth Games watching, we were greeted by Robyn who showed us where the tools were. James was keen to get stuck into the litter pick and managed to collect an entire full bin bag of rubbish from the centre's car park. He also enjoyed a shower of lemonade as he tried to empty a 2 litre unopened bottle that had been left in the sun too long and then exploded all over him!

Nigel and Katherine got to work on weeding between the slabs near the entrance to the centre. Given we were only here a few weeks ago it was surprising how many weeds had grown back again. However, it didn't take long and once James had completed his litter pick he also lent a hand with the weeding, so between us we managed to get most of the entrance looking neat and tidy.

With rubbish and weeds bagged up, it was time to head back into town. The run back was thankfully much cooler, as well as being more downhill than the way there! We had our cool down stretch in the Pump Room gardens in front of the big screen that is showing the Commonwealth Games with a lovely atmosphere surrounded by lots of people on deck chairs watching the action in the sunshine.

It was lovely to welcome James back to Goodgym after a few weeks' break and to catch up on all his news!

2 Goodgymers returned to Heathcote Community Centre to help with part 2 of building flatpack furniture.

With the group having proven their flatpack skills a few weeks ago with part 1 of this task, the challenge had been set for Nigel and Katherine to prove that their tricks with an allen key were up to scratch.

On a warm evening the group enjoyed a gentle jog from the Pump Rooms over to the community centre just under 2 miles away. We were greeted by the caretaker who showed us where the items were that needed to be built - a pub table and two bar stools, as well as a sofa and armchair.

With instructions at the ready and all the items laid out in order, we set to work. The table and stools were put together in no time, giving us a chance to get the sofa and armchair put together as well. The sofas were a little more tricky with some of the screws right in the corners being difficult to get to with the allen key, but with a bit of patient we managed to get the feet in place just in time before we needed to head back into town.

We took a bit of a detour on the way back going through the nearby business park and taking in some of the gardens nearer to town before returning back to our start at the Pump Rooms. It was great to see the fantastic facilities at the centre following the recent refurbishment and the centre was buzzing with all the local community groups. Looking forward to coming back in a few weeks to help with some more weeding and tidying of the outside space.

2 Goodgymers supported Warwick Gates Community Centre with a litter pick and some weeding ahead of their Community Fun Day tomorrow.

Arriving at the centre with our litter pickers in hand it was clear that we had our work cut out as there was an awful lot of litter around the outskirts of the car park. Having warmed up our litter picking skills in Christchurch Gardens this morning, we got stuck in straight away and had the whole area cleared in no time.

This gave us some time to tackle the weeds that had taken root along the path to the centre's entrance, including a rogue tree that had decided to place itself along the path.

With tools in hand we got to work pulling out the weeds, sweeping them up and managed to fill an entire bin bag with what we removed from the path.

Unfortunately we ran out of time to complete the entire perimeter of the building but local residents will at least be welcomed by a much smarter entrance when they arrive for the centre's Fun Day tomorrow.