This morning at least five GoodGymmers did a litter pick around Wanstead. [Writer's note: I say "at least" purely because I volunteered to write the report after we'd already started litter picking, and counting numbers using hindsight isn't my strong point, (especially when some GoodGymmers litter pick incognito). Thankfully, I'm not doing the register! 😅🤣]

Goodgym Redbridge has been supporting local residents, led by Dan, to tidy up Wanstead Green and the surrounding streets since they started in 2017, a tradition we intend to keep up this year as well!

After meeting at 10-ish and interfacing with real members of the public who were also volunteering, we swiftly divided into several groups.

The three significant figures of the main GoodGym contingent, Dharmesh, Peter and I (i.e. those GoodGymmers wearing Goodgym branding) started off by litter picking around a block formed by the green and Wanstead library (where word on the street says you can hire a litter picker).

Aside from an awful lot of cigarette butts, it was along this route that Peter decided to share a little Wisdom toothbrush with us, and Dharmesh found the probable soundtrack to his life (not looking particularly happy about it). Other cig-nificant finds include a hub cap and a box full of used coffee creamers, that I'm sure were ONLY used for creaming coffee-related things. Personally, I was pleased to finally do a litter pick that didn't result in me finding either condom wrappers or underwear, with the closest find being a naked smoothie bottle (Peter was enjoying considering the potential nicknames for me if the trend continued, so I really am very glad these nicknames will now never see the light of a run report! 🤣).

As our hour of litter picking came to an end, we briefly considered some team building in the form of a temporary glitter/face tattoo. However, Peter felt that might scare his rugby mates more than the rugby opposition at his game later, and so vetoed this team building exercise. He looked quite keen though, so hopefully this will happen next time, or at a group run instead.

We deposited our rubbish (3 bags in total) next to the bags of rubbish that some of the other volunteers had collected and did some jazz hands for the road before making our goodbyes. Dan organises these litter picks fairly regularly, so no doubt we'll be back again soon! 😄