We have eyes and ears everywhere, and this week it was Axelle's turn to direct us to the litter hot spots of West Oxford. After a pleasant jog the back route to our rendez-vous point we exchanged podcast recommendations as this weeks ice-breaker. For your listening delight here are the GG Oxford Top of the Pods:

• Adam Buxton
• Who trolled Amber Heard
• Gardeners World
• Just one thing
• Dungeons and Daddies
• Changes by Annie Mac
• The rest is history
• My favourite murder
• This podcast will kill you
• The rest is entertainment
• Taskmaster the peoples podcast
• Blank check
• 28 ish days
• Ukraine cast
• Bad women
• Things fell apart
• How to fail
• Duolingo Intermediate French

Then on to the more serious business of clearing up the trash. It's always quite interesting the different litter we find in different parts of town. This is an area full of retail parks, so although we picked up the usual food detritus we were surprisingly low on booze cans and bottles this week.

Welcome to GoodGym Andy! Always a joy to have Django the pup along, and glad to have made Botley a little safer for his paws.

With 10k to run we wasted no time at all this evening. Welcoming Laura from the Canal and River Trust and Ruth, then whizzing through the run briefing, we set off west into the evening sun (yes! sun! we somehow escaped today's April showers!).

Despite it being a double task night we were all headed to the Oxford Canal, so we ran together chatting as we went. Mixing up the surfaces we ran through the University Parks then down onto the canal towpath, stopping at Makespace to deliver them 6 Goodgymers.....

From Bethan: We arrived at Makespace to be greeted by Emma with water and biscuits. After a quick snack and an impromptu photo shoot Emma provided us with a variety of tools, including a cargo bike, skillfully controlled by Tim. We headed along the canal to where the council had felled some tree branches which were hazardous. They were already chipped, so we split up and merrily filled our containers: a bucket, a wheelbarrow, 2 coffee sacks, and the cargo bike. We were quite a sight on our return journey to Makespace! After transporting as much woodchip as we could across the canal bridge we unloaded the chippings ready to be used in the garden, said our goodbyes and headed off to link up with the rest of the Goodgym team.

As a bonus we spotted some judge-y ducks, some glorious waterside houses, and a delightful French bulldog pup!

Meanwhile, Team Plog carried on up the canal for a few hundred metres to meet Tim, the City Council Waterways Co-ordinator. Distributing litterpickers and a combination of litter and recycling bags, Tim sent us off back down the towpath, litter-picking as we went. We all love a good plog (although, we'd obviously rather people didn't drop litter in the first place), and the competition for oddest object got off to a great start with the find of a plastic comb. We picked litter, we admired the bridge murals, we scooted around Aristotle Lane Recreation Ground to pick up the litter left from Easter Egg hunts and bank holiday picnics. We couldn't resist a quick go on the monkey bars at Aristotle Lane, although it turns out there's a distinct advantage to being tall enough to keep your feet on the ground (!), then kept on plogging on until we reached Walton Well Road.

Regrouping at Hythe Bridge Park, we left our beautifully sorted litter and recycling bags ready for collection, waved goodbye to task owners Laura and Tim, and enjoyed a scenic run back to base through central Oxford, trying to take in as many different streets as we could for Trevor since he has a goal to run every street in Oxford before Race to the Stones in July.

What a lovely evening!

Next week is May Day, and we'll be off to Meadow Lane Nature Park for the task.

Good luck to Stu who is running the London Marathon on Sunday. Bring your medal to show us next week!

This evening was our 10th Group Run, and it was great to welcome some new runners to Goodgym - Tom, Adam, David, and Sam - as well as Abi visiting us from Camden for the first time.

Give them a cheer on the website!

Once you've completed 10 Group Runs with Goodgym you'll get an invitation to get a little more involved by joining the Taskforce (it's totally optional), so it was great to hear a bit about how this works from Abi, who is on the Taskforce for Camden.

With bumper numbers this evening we set off in gorgeous sunshine on the first run to Iffley, with Sophie kindly making sure no-one got left behind.

At Iffley Glebe we met Rachel from the Oxford Preservation Trust, who was ready with gardening tools and explained our task for the evening. Iffley Glebe is one of Iffley village’s most important open spaces, playing a vital role in maintaining the rural atmosphere of Iffley within it's city setting. The field is full of wildflowers each summer and the ancient hedge across the field provides birds with nesting places, and insects and berries for food. At night the glebe is an important hunting ground for bats and owls. The stone wall surrounding the site has a lot of weeds growing in it which, although pretty, needed clearing in order to keep the wall in good condition. Ensuring that we all knew to avoid the stinging nettles, we gloved up and set to work.

It turns out 21 pairs of hands makes light work of weeding a wall. Despite some minor traumas (spiders, sleepy bees), snickering over childhood names for galium aparine (aka...sticky-willy), and resisting the urge to stick goose-grass on anyone's back, in 35 minutes we had stripped the main wall along the Glebe of the worst of it's weeds, and made a good start along the side wall too. Taking a brief breather for some water and squash (thank you Rachel) and a group photo, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful evening sunshine by taking the scenic route home along the Thames Towpath, with Ash back-marking this time.

Iffley Lock didn't disappoint by providing me with my first bug-swallowed-on-a run moment for 2019 . Running's a glamorous hobby isn't it?!

Hopping off the river path at Donnington Bridge, we had to do the Meadow Lane lamp post fartlek session because it is fast becoming a Goodgym Oxford tradition (In the spirit of primary school level humour - fart! and willy! in the same run report!). Then....

FRISBEE!

It seems that frisbee brings out the killer instinct in all of us. Who knew that our most mild-mannered runners are actually fiercely competitive when given a frisbee and a goal to aim for?! 3-1 to the non-red-clothes team clearly calls for a re-match as soon as a few more people have their Goodgym Tshirts through the post.

We completed the Tour of Iffley by running home past the Roger Bannister track, where the 1st sub-4 minute mile was run: had to show off Oxford's Claim to Running Fame! Then back for drinks to celebrate our milestone 10th run.

Next week we are helping the Children's Allotment. Long trousers are advisable because of nettles and brambles on site.