On the first day of 2025, Steph Ducat and Kash met in front of the GoodGymers' favourite coffee shop in Hanwell. The place was closed, but the runners were not coming for a coffee! The two braved the weather (which had already caused the cancellation of several morning events, including Steph's race) to start the year with a clean slate - literally, by cleaning up the local area. The storm outside was not as bad as in the morning. It was worse! The wind had calmed down slightly but brought quite miserable rainfall. Would that scare off the GoodGymers? Never!

Steph and Kash ran 2km to the border between Hanwell and Southall and stopped at Greenford Road, which they knew from their December litter pick tends to accumulate a lot of rubbish! This time the duo headed East for their litter hunt, using the walkway leading to the Ealing Hanwellians Cricket Club. On the path, they met Mohamed - another pair of eager hands to help with the clean-up!

The trio discovered plenty of empty small vodka bottles and half-empty beer cans - evidence that the path between golf courses was to some people a true drinking trail! Other findings included a masala-flavoured mouth freshener and a number of pens and pencils - very suitable assets to write the GoodGym history: the first chapter of 2025!

Despite the gloomy aura, Mohamed, Steph and Kash found satisfaction in the task, having collected 3 bags of litter. To get the blood flowing in the soaked arms and legs, all three set off for a journey to the Care4Calais donation sorting task. With 5km to cover in 30 minutes, the three opted for a well-paced run. Despite the uphills and very slippery mud on the paths, the GoodGymers made it to the task ahead of time, phew! It was a fun and rewarding start to the year and all three felt it was a much better alternative than sitting at home, avoiding the rain!