On a truly miserable night in East London, nine of Goodgym's most hardy runners met to run 5km and collected a mound of litter in the process.

Over the three plus years of running Goodgym Redbridge, we haven't had too many truly biblical sessions but last night's run had perhaps the worst conditions we've ever run in. The rain poured, then it poured some more. But Goodgymers are made of sterner stuff and after donning waterproofs, head torches and rubber gloves the squad headed out into the cold wet night in search of discarded litter.

With Vicki (celebrating her 25th GG task by the way!) leading the way towards Redbridge Underground Station the team were soon removing cans, crisp packets and bottles from hedgerows and roadsides. Pretty quickly the bin bags were full and we were decanting the rubbish into bins wherever we found them.

With sacks of rubbish filled all that was left to do was head back to base dry off and celebrate John's birthday with cake and cups cakes. Happy Birthday John!

Finally, a huge welcome to Julia who joined GG Redbridge for the first time and is already working on community projects outside Upminster Station with GG favourite, Marian of Wanstead Community Gardeners. Welcome Julia!