It was a mighty meetup on a pleasantly mild Tuesday evening this week with 13 GoodGymers joining 12 Edinburgh Trash Club litter pickers for a joint mission around Tolbooth Wynd Park and the surrounding area.

Walking and running groups set off from Edinburgh Street Food and made excellent time down Leith Walk to get to the meeting point. There we met up with Indy and the Edinburgh Trash Club for our first, but hopefully not our last, collab.

Edinburgh Trash Club meet up once a fortnight for cleanup duties around the city (and post cleanup socials in the pub) and are well worth checking out: https://www.instagram.com/edinburghtrashclub/

After some friendly introductions we got to work, armed with bags, litter pickers, gloves and plenty of enthusiasm. Over the next hour we set out to gather as much rubbish as we could, and there was plenty to keep us busy!

And what a transformation it was! So many full bags of rubbish collected and the whole area was noticeably cleaner and more welcoming afterwards. Our efforts certainly didn't go unnoticed too, with a number of local residents stopping to chat and sharing how grateful they were for the work being done with litter being an issue

A huge thank you to Indy and our new friends at Edinburgh Trash Club for welcoming us along and helping make the evening such a success. It was brilliant to work alongside another community-focused group that shares our passion for improving local spaces and bringing people together through local community action.

Here's to more collaborations, more community action and a cleaner city!

Shout out to first time Goodgymers Sam and Maya - hope to see you again soon :)

🧡💚🗑️✨

Please note there is no GoodGym next Tuesday 29th September as I'm on holiday, We'll be back in a fortnight.

Wow, what a great first session launching GoodGym Edinburgh with a bang!

Big shout out to all the runners and walkers who turned up for the debut Tuesday Group Run. We were joined by GoodGym CEO Hannah Crane who made the trip up from London to celebrate Scotland's first GoodGym community getting started.

We set off from Edinburgh Street Food with our running and walking groups and made good time down to Leith Community Croft where the incredible Ali from Earth In Common was on hand to share out tools, tell us about the work they do and talk us through what needed done.

I was blown away by how much weeding, wheelbarrowing, clearing and tidying up we were able to get through in a short space of time. The raised beds were looking in good shape once we were done, we had managed to clear a good chunk of material off site into a skip and made a good start on the market garden (potential for a follow up task here I think).

Finishing off with a 'Bring Sally Up' squat challenge before tucking into some discounted grub and drinks at Edinburgh Street Food was a real highlight for me. Looking forward to seeing what other kinds of short workouts we can squeeze into future runs!

A huge thank you to Places for People for their support in helping bring GoodGym Edinburgh to life. Their partnership has been key to getting this new community off the ground.

For the next sessions I'll be looking for helpers in run leading and photography. There are also opportunities to get involved in setting up tasks as a member of Taskforce. if you'd like to help out with GoodGym Edinburgh just drop me an email.

big love,

Dave