Collected a bag of litter , anytime , any place, any where! I couldn’t say it better myself and we will do it again in April! I ran out of bags and I found a department in my local council that would send not only bags but litter pickers! You can probably do the same!

A quick bit of litter picking on today's travels!

Edit from other volunteers: Elsewhere various Goodgymmers from Merton, Kingston and Barnet joined in to support The Great British Spring Clean Up - what a great weekend and reason to get outside, we encourage everyone to get involved locally to help, this event is running until 6 April although why not continue with regular litter picking efforts whenever you can. more details here: https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/get-involved/support-our-campaigns/great-british-spring-clean

As today's gloomy light faded, one wonderful group - Emilie, Gosia, Jackie (on their first GoodGym good deed - welcome!!!), Jacqui, Nivia, and Steve - stood by 1 pallet of rocks ⛰️ + 1 (huge) pallet of compost 🏋️ + 1 (giant) sack of mulch 🐂

I couldn't shake the thought - it was the only thought I had - that we must simply (mistakenly) have turned up to Camden's Strongest Voluntary Group.

This collection of heavy things was positioned outside the Caversham NHS Practice in Kentish Town - an unlikely destination for Camden's Strongest Voluntary Group (it's usually held in an out-of-town industrial estate) - and we were there to ferry ⛴️ this collection of garden essentials to the Caversham's quite beautiful Listening Space garden.

While I scoped things out (searching for other voluntary groups lifting weights and pumping iron) this ace group made light, happy, and swift work of everything. The route between the pile and the garden became a flurry of wheelbarrowing + carrying + running + laughing. My dry day became bright, and all because of these lovely people.

Finishing early and with smiles, we said our goodbyes to Jo and the Caversham (now home to rocks, compost, and mulch), and we all agreed how good it will be to visit again soon ☺️

No-one missed the train, which was a good start. Most of us began at St Pancras, three Tower Hamlet-ers got on at Stratford International, then Geraldine and JC, having almost done a ParkRun, joined us at Ramsgate. We had to wait for Kat to arrive on a later train, which was a good thing as there was a long wait for the toilet.

The first five paragraphs of the walk instructions only took us as far as Ramsgate Old Harbour, but Lucinda had arrived early to do a recce, so we followed her along the attractive old High Street, down to the sea.

Because of the low tide, we were initially able to walk along the beach. We hadn’t done a warm-up routine, but instead performed repetitions: leaping away from a series of mountainous waves crashing over the promenade.

Eventually we came across some steps and continued along the cliff top, finding beautiful views of Kingsgate Bay, with its accompanying castle, and Botany Bay, at Broadstairs.

As we approached Margate, we thought we spotted a swimmer, actually a statue in the water, which we correctly speculated must be an Antony Gormley effort.

Amazingly, we hadn’t lost anyone, so there were too many of us to get in the first pub we tried in the old town, the situation not helped by rugby internationals on telly. However, we managed to squeeze into a second hostelry, which had plenty of room upstairs, for those who wanted a thai meal – others went off to the chippy. Which indeed is what you’re supposed to do, at the seaside.

Thanks everyone for coming, there wasn’t much persuasion needed this time! A special welcome to Vidur – it was his first GoodGym experience, so we hope to see him at an upcoming task. And let’s do another walk soon!

Wendover Woods - home to the Gruffalo, Stick Man, several well marked walks and runs and, to date, my favorite parkrun.

A gorgeous one lap course through the woods, with a stinker of a hill in the middle, this parkrun was glorious! We were very lucky with the weather - blue skies and sunshine all the way, and there was an excellent ratio of dogs to runners, including our Poppy.

As usual we finished up our trip with a coffee and a chat - mainly plotting and planning our next runs and day dreaming about property in France or Croatia!

Welcome to Emma! Thanks for coming to your first (official) Goodgym session!

Dinton Pastures next month, can't wait!