Our second ever GoodGym Edinburgh group run is officially in the books, and it was a fantastic follow up to last week's launch. Six runners met at Edinburgh Street Food, had a quick warm up and covered over 6km on our route to and from our litter picking task working with the brilliant Fountainbridge Canalside Community Trust (FCCT) . We even managed to fit in a quick workout in Harrison park.

FCCT is a great charity working to improve the area around the Union Canal through social inclusion, environmental projects, and community action. Their work keeps the canal welcoming, safe, and vibrant for everyone who uses it. A big thank you to Rob for coordinating and Annie who volunteered to be on hand to dish out equipment. We were supplied with bin bags, metal hoops, gloves, grabbers and a net and got to work quickly.

🧹 In a short space of time we managed to cover Fountainbridge Green and the area around Boroughmuir High School, a section of the canal tow path and Harrison Park East. We estimated around 900 bits of litter collected between the 6 of us. I did manage to embarrassingly misjudge a patch of mud and spent the rest of the session with soaked shoes, but we emerged unscathed otherwise. With some energy to spare we squeezed in a quick pyramid workout challenge before heading back across town

By the time we tied off the final bags, the difference was clear — cleaner paths, safer spaces, and a noticeably more welcoming stretch of canal for the community.

🏃 A Growing Group With Growing Impact Even though we’re only two runs in, the Edinburgh crew is already finding its rhythm: meet, run, help, chat, repeat. It's a pretty simple formula.

🙌 Thanks, FCCT

A huge thank you to Fountainbridge Canalside Community Trust for partnering with us so early in our journey. Their commitment to community‑led stewardship of the canal makes them a perfect match for GoodGym’s mission — and we’re excited to keep building this relationship. For anyone wanting to get more involved with them, check out their website www.fcct.scot/ which has more info on their activities including:

RE-UNION CANAL BOATS – 3 boats providing funded social inclusion and mental health trips and activities, special events, community group trips and private hires VOLUNTEERING – activities, training and development opportunities on and around the canal CANALSIDE WELLBEING WALKING GROUP – weekly walks part of the Scottish Health Walks Network EDINBURGH CANAL FESTIVAL – our flagship annual event on the third Saturday in June COMMUNITY EVENTS – we also organise and get involved with other local events, particularly those with an outdoor, creative or wellbeing focus CANALSIDE GREENSPACE GROUP – exploring and improving our local greenspace, for people and for nature