It’s my life

We all know a runner can never have enough kit, just not enough space to store it all. A runners wardrobe, bursting at the seams, can act like a personal museum of their running journey. Memories of the ups, and the downs. Showing the shape we were, the shape we want to be. Helping us to hold on to our aims and aspirations, remembering where we started and hinting at where we’d like to be.

Just lace up and run

Running is popular due to its simplicity, accessibility, health benefits, and the ability to fit into various lifestyles and fitness levels. It has often been said that at its simplest running is the cheapest way to get fit. Just lace up and run. But not everyone is in the position to be able to access even the most basic of kit.

Community Support

Who better to approach to support disadvantaged groups being able to participate in physical activity than those who both value exercise, and support their communities. GoodGymers never disappoint. 190 items (literally enabling kitting out from head to toe) have been donated, all of which have sufficient life and wear in them to support someone starting out on their fitness journey.

And come on, own up, who has already got their eye on replacements to fill those wardrobe gaps!

The Hot Walls got the meticulous GG treatment: we did almost a fingertip search of the beach, from east to west, from shoreline to the Walls. Not a single piece of plastic, fishing line or bottle-top was safe from capture.

We scanned the beach until the light was too low to distinguish plastic from pebble.

So, then we went to the pub!

A lovely stroll along the new sea defences offered limited litter which was nice to see.

A very clear afternoon afforded some lovely views across the Solent. And Dave and Val climbed to the top of the round tower to have a look around.

Lost count of the amount of cigarette butt's we found after the first 100!

I wandered down to Bransbury park to meet up with the team from Pompey Pedals to see what was needed for a potential task.

Dave showed me the container and asked if we think the graffiti will be able to be cleaned. And to give the container a bit of a wipe down.

Plan is to run a test spot of removal to determine of the graffiti can go without the paint underneath being affected.

Keep your eyes peeled for some potential elbow grease tasks popping up!

"Eh-oh!" Goodgymers have lots of tubby lovers - that is, their friends and colleagues love a tub of chocolates at Xmas time!

We collected stacks of the colourful plastic tubs, for shredding and re-forming to be used "Again, again"!

"Big hug!" to Sinéad for her mountain of plastic tubs from friends and colleagues.

We switched our donations from Final Straw (who are not shredding this year) to Greene King's Tub to Pub. Some GoodGymers took a trip to the pub to drop off their tubs. The rest will be delivered on our Emsworth outing later this week.

As long as the single-use plastic gets a second-use, we're happy to say "Tubby bye-bye"!