Welcome to Heather who joined for their first goodgym session on a balmy September evening!

After a pleasant jog from Life Leisure Avondale, we arrived at Grit Studios with Sophie already trying to scrape away some of the paint from the wall in preparation for their event on Sunday. With Heather kitted out in protective attire, think a mixture of Ghostbusters and Orange is the New Black (alas there were no photos), we set to work... at least we tried to but the outdoor masonry paint looked more like cottage cheese or very thick hummus and was unusable.

But fear not, we were put to work instead to prepare the wooden back boards for the Street Art paint jam at the weekend. With rollers and endless paint, we managed to whitewash ALL of their wooden boards ready for the weekend, all before it got too dark.

We finished off by taking the painted boards inside for safe keeping, with some tricky manoeuvres to get them around corners.

Thank you to Sophie for the task and good luck for the Paint Jam on Sunday!

A first group outing for some of the Taskforce from Goodgym Manchester.

We met up at Piccadilly train station on a warm September evening armed with spare GG t shirts, refuse sacks, a first aid kit, and Juno. Peter, Eoin and I plogged our way along Ashton canal in the general direction of the Etihad campus to scout out heavy littered areas. Given the nice evening and it being a first community task outing, we got as far as Philips Park where we really started to collect and fill up a few bin bags.

After a blitz in the park, we returned to the canal path towards New Islington metrolink before it got too dark.

We collected 7 full bin bags with an additional freezer drawer overall. It was great to meet up in person and get a good Monday mission in the log. We covered ~6.5 km in the end.

With the course finally clear of fallen trees following storm Lilian, we were back at Fletcher Moss parkrun event #220. 418 runners and walkers completed the 5 km course, with lots of smiles in the cool autumn sunshine.

Juno and I were marshaling at Old Bedians corner by the river Mersey to clap the participants on. Thank you to the 19 volunteers who helped out on the day!

After a frustrating week with trying to get a tree cleared at Fletcher Moss parkrun, leading to its cancellation, I took on a local litter pick in Ardwick organised by Ardwick climate action.

They are a local community group formed 2 years ago to enhance the local environment, monitor local pollution levels along the A6 and A34, and generally improve the biodiversity and pollinator health in the area. They currently have 11 sites that form a pollinator corridor enhancing the local flora and fauna, ranging from orchards, wild flower patches, and open allotments.

Dan, their CEO and founder, came prepared with litterpickers and bags and between the two of us, we managed to collect 6 overflowing bags of rubbish plus a few larger pieces, including a high chair, a TV, a mop, and various other kitchen paraphernalia. Pretty good for an hour's work and we covered 4 or 5 of their sites in the end!

Was great to meet a Manchester-based local community group with Goodgym Manchester close to being active in the area. We'll likely be asked for some weekend tasks in the future so keep an eye out for those!

We saw the first Tuesday of September in with a run to Stockport's new Viaduct Park on top of the Interchange.

We each had turn at testing out the mini trampoline (Juno the dog watched eagerly from the side) before running up the A6 for another glimpse at the Thompson Bridge mural and back to our starting point.

5.6km complete 💪