Behind the greens

What a fantastic afternoon with a large group of GoodGymers we had today.

We welcomed our new member George, who made it just in time for the warm up. Give him a big Cheer!

The news announcements included a round of applause for Carl and other runners who took part in York 10K last Sunday, a cheer and a medal for Zinnie for taking part in the RunWithPride back in June and introduction of the 'milestone' cape. The cape will be used by us to celebrate milestones such as 200, 300, 400, 600 and so on good deeds. Paul had the honour to try out the new cape and celebrate his recently achieved 200 good deeds.

Following the news was the usual H&S brief and a warm up. Vicky departed earlier with the walking group while the rest went through a set of movements to get us ready for the run. With everyone warm and ready we ran to the York Medical Group community garden and caught up with the walking group just before our destination.

Anna, the task owner, welcomed and shown us around this hidden gem. No one knew about existence of this garden as it is located at the back of a building and surrounded with a tall brick wall. The decent size space is planned to become one of the social prescribing destinations and needed a clear up before the plans can be progressed. We were allocated a number of jobs including weeding a gravel path, trimming any overhanging brambles and other branches, removing unwanted bush and its roots, moving paving slabs and a massive clearance of vegetation from the very overgrown back of the garden. Under a close supervision of project volunteers and with use of the tools gathered for us by the York Medical Group staff we managed to complete the task in just over 30 minutes.

This time we were quick with putting the tools away, as everyone was eager for the fitness part of the day. We were thanked by the task owner and were on our way to the Memorial Garden where we stopped for the Olympics themed circuit. 10 minutes long session took us through exercises based on Olympic events including cycling, gymnastics, boxing, basketball, karate, swimming, running, rowing, synchronised diving and climbing. The synchronised diving was a lot of fun as we all tried to synchronise our high jumps bringing knees close to chest.

Following the exercise it was a good opportunity for a team photo next to the war memorial monument and a jog back to the HQ where we wrapped the session up with some news about forthcoming community missions, next week's group run and a cool down stretch.