Our merry band of litter pickers, and some little helpers, were at Chelmsford Marathon this morning, helping keep the race village tidy as a whopping 25,000 runners took part in the half and full marathon events. It was great to welcome Farid to his first session and for Jen and Richard to be encouraging the future generation of goodgymers to get involved in helping the community. Great work everyone.

A crack team of determined GoodGymers overcame adversity to clear two bags of litter from the streets of Chelmsford.

Richard braved a squeam-inducing injury he sustained a few days earlier, Fay shook off illness and Jen battled through traffic to join the group.

The runners met Fay by the river where we started our litter picking duties.

As the night got colder and darker, Jane and Andy made everyone jealous with plans for breaks in warmer climes, while Martin wondered if there were any GoodGym groups in Scotland. Apparently not.

After finding the south of the river surprisingly tidy, the group crossed a bridge so new that it doesn’t appear on Google Maps’ satellite view and struck litter gold around the Meadows car park, with cans and bottles carefully extracted from hedges.

Good work everyone!

After a late change of task, a small but perfectly formed group of GoodGymers removed a bag of rubbish from the streets of Chelmsford.

With the GoodGym tasks starting to get an autumnal chill, Richard and Sallyann sensibly turned up in several layers. Martin did not.

The Brook Street car park and footpath towards the river proved a fertile testing ground for a new double handed approach to litter picking, with a grabber in each hand, and the trio’s efforts were rewarded with compliments from passing cyclists.

The group binned an airplane and several bottles of dubious looking liquid but drew the line at two abandoned bikes, before debating when it was acceptable to turn the heating on at home (the correct answer is: when the clocks go back).

Look forward to seeing everyone at next week’s task. Don’t forget to wrap up warm!