A HUGE #GGSHEFF welcome to new runner:

Ben

Give him a whoop, hola, cheer and follow!

Great to meet with you and have a chat Ben, hope you're back again with Steph in the near future!

This weeks task took us back to Lynwood Gardens, a lovely section of a re-routed part of the Sustrans National Cycle Network (NCN) that keeps people off the busier Glossop Road.

We'd not been back for a while, so we got stuck straight in with the following tasks:

• Graffiti removal
• Sign cleaning
• Leaf sweeping
• Looping and chopping back

In a short space of time the path was looking a whole lot clearer and the line of sight much improved, making it much more accessible and less intimidating for any users.

We also hear that the next task with Sustrans would be Simon's last as he passes the reigns to John Kirkword who will be leading on all things Sustrans and goodgym in 2025. He has kindly offered to buy us a drink at the end of the next Sustrans task at The Durham Ox on Dec 2nd. I think it should be us buying him a drink for the efforts he's put in though!

Until next time, happy running :)

In the city we live in, the city of Steel, we ran to meet SUSTRANS SIMON who was on site with his chariot of tools ready to welcome us to an area of the cities cycle network that was in need of some love.

The area just off the ring road, under a railway bridge is a key link from the city centre up to the hospital. Unfortunately it can collect a fair amount of litter and dirt, making it less appealing for people to use it.

We got brushes and shovels and got straight to work collecting litter and bagging up soil and rubbish to clear what is actually a really good bit of tarmac when it's clear. There was also a bit of weeding to do where the plants were fighting back through the cracks.

After a decent spell at the site, it was looking soooooo much better than before. Simon gave us some interesting facts about the link and the railway line above our heads before we said our goodbyes and headed home to The Showroom for some drinks and chat.

Until next time, happy running :)

Five GoodGymers left the Showroom on another glorious Monday night with half an idea of where we were going! After finding Sustrans Simon and the other Sustrans volunteers, we found Curly Cat too. Armed with litter pickers, shovels, snippers and brooms we spent 45 minutes clearing up an overgrown section of the cycle network. We snipped picked, brushed and scraped at the vegetation that was narrowing the path and cleared up around the benches and stairs to make the area more appealing for both foot and bike passengers.

As ever, there were some excellent finds including a duvet! We dragged out a load of Himalayan Balsam and stinging nettles. We also saw a beautiful flock of geese land themselves in the river.

By the time we left, this area of the cycle network which it very widely used was much more inviting for the public and as we were working, lots of the users thanked us which is always lovely to hear!

Another great job for the GoodGymers.

Looks like the evenings are drawing in us again and so from next week, it is probably time to dig out those head torches!

On a very muggy Sheffield eve we headed out to meet Sustrans Simon and the 'owner' of the patch of the NCN we were working on; Jerry.

Simon had arrived on his legendary trailer full of all the tools of the trade from pickers and hoops to spades and brushes, all delivered and returned using sustainable transport.

We got stuck in with some of us litter picking and others weeding and shoveling all sorts of detritis into bin bags for the council to collect at a later date.

By the time we were done this stretch of the National Cycle Network was looking much more inviting to all who would use it.

Whilst on site we had a number of joggers and cyclists thank us for our efforts which is always nice.

Until next time, happy running! :)

After an initial 'design concept' visit we returned to the Sustrans Sheffield lock up to finish what we had started and make the lock up more organised and in doing so make it better for other volunteers to quickly grab what they needed tool wise before heading out to improve and maintain our fantastic National Cycle Network!

We welcomed a new runner this week. Give a whoop, hola, cheer and follow to:

Nathanael

Thanks for joining us Nathanael and hope to see you back next week!

We split the group as the space was small and litter was at large! Some got to picking the litterbug hotspots whilst some of us got on with finishing tidying and organising the lock up.

Rachel did a fantastic job finishing the tool racking, ready for tools to be safely organised and maximise space in the lock up.

Tom and Annie set about re-organising other areas of the lock up to maximise the efficency of the space!

Annie was even planning colour schemes for the walls!

After we had spent our time there, the place was looking more organised than ever and ready for future efficient and organised volunteering!

Nice work everyone!