Thrown in at the deep end

An awesome 19 runners ran to the Greenfields community garden in York to dig a massive trench!

With Egg away for the week taking a well earned break, 'Amazing Aron' stepped in to lead a massive task to dig a ditch to create some much needed drainage for one of EdibleYork's green spaces.

Tonight we welcomed Christine to the GoodGym gang, so be sure to give her a cheer!

After a seamless introduction from Aron, and an Olympian inspired warm up (it was Dame Kelly Holmes by the way), Nick led the way out towards the task. With newly signed-up regular Chloé bringing up the rear, the new era of Egg-free GoodGym in York (for one week at least) was underway.

We met Bill from Greenfields who filled us in on our task. We needed to dig a 30 foot trench from the centre of the garden out to a sump in one corner, and in order for the water to flow, it had to be deeper as we got to the outside. We were aiming for a steady slope from 1 foot in the centre, to two feet at the edge. With 40 minutes to get the task done everyone was encouraged to grab a tool and get cracking.

"You're a tougher task master than Egg!" - Graham, GG Yorkie

As there weren't quite enough tools for everyone to get involved, Bev and Siobhán were whisked away to pick some blackberries and plums for the troops while they waited for the first wheelbarrows to be filled. They obviously enjoyed themselves as they never quite made it back to the trench digging!

With Aidan and John leading the line digging the turf, and everyone shoveling soil away to be used for planting more fruit trees, we started to make some real progress. The trench may not have been perfectly straight but Bill said that it was totally fine.

"If anything it means it will collect more water" - Bill, Greenfields community garden

In the excitement of digging we managed to unearth what was thought to be drainage pipe, and then perhaps a land mine, but thankfully turned out to be an old car part. While the digging was pretty heavy going, with lots of stones and bricks to dig out, the gang were absolutely smashing it, and were apparently really enjoying the physical nature of tonight's task.

"I feel like my dad!" - Alice, GG Yorkie

With the digging almost completed, there was time for a check on the depth of the trench (we were so keen that it was too deep in places), before we quickly tidied everything away, collected handfuls of blackberries and plums and headed off for a quick fitness session.

It was a new activity tonight with The Vortex being introduced to GG York for the first time. We also managed to discover that most Yorkies:

• Would never pull a sickie unless they're really ill
• Regularly take dirty clothes out of the washing to wear for a run
• Prefer Aron's runs to Egg's (or at least they would rather pretend that than do 1000 press-ups)

After all that excitement, Nick led us back to base, with just enough time for a cool down and stretch.