Tonight we were back at the Old Flag Lane Swimming Baths. We haven’t been there for almost 12 months, so it was great to be back and helping to make a difference. It’s almost time for the renovations to start on the building, so we’re really excited to see how things develop over the coming months. It will be a wonderful and much needed hub for the community to enjoy.

We started our evening with a warm-up to get the blood flowing. Some of us were suffering with injuries and niggles tonight, so we decided to take it easy and have a steady run. We still managed 2 miles though, so we can’t have been too bad! As always, it was lovely to chat and catch up along the way.

We set off on a circular route, heading out down Wistaston Road towards our lovely Queen’s park. It’s always lovely to take in part of the park on our route and we must make the most of it as it’s not open at night in the winter months. There were plenty of squirrels around tonight (hopeful for some nuts I think!) and Nigel had quite a lengthy chat with one – apologising for his lack of nuts I think!!!! As we headed towards the exit for leaving the park, we spotted a crow attacking a piece of rubbish, which prompted us to do a very quick litter pick while we were at it (well it wouldn’t be a Goodgym task without a bit of litter picking!!). I’m not sure how grateful the crow was as I think he was possibly trying to get some slim pickings off a chocolate wrapper!

Back to the task, we met up with Paul from the Lighthouse centre (they’re the driving force behind this project) who provided us with tools, gloves, and bottles of fizzy pop (thank you so much Paul, the pop was a very welcome refreshment at the end of the task).

We set to work weeding and litter picking outside the old baths. It was surprising how much litter Claire, Emma & Emily collected. At least two large bags – and not from a very big area either! Maurice, Nigel, Karen, Paul and I set to work on the weeding and were later joined by the others when they’d collected all the rubbish. I think we definitely made a big impact as you’ll see from the photographs. It was lovely to have our weekly natter and catch up as it always is.

Just as we were beginning to bag up all the weeds, the heavens opened and the rain started! Luckily, we’d got most of the bagging up done before the light rain became a downpour! We took refuge under a tree and stayed there until the rain had mostly stopped!

It was a really productive evening and was great to be back with the gang for our Goodgym fix!

Well done everyone – another great job done!

See you at the next one!!

Have a great week!

Love always Nicola xx