Stroke my Geranium

31 GG Yorkies ran to do two good deeds across the city!

We celebrated loads of exciting race news from a PB-tastic weekend before welcoming along Are who had turned up for his first ever GoodGym session - make sure you give him a cheer. Then we wished a big happy birthday to Ellie B before cheering on not one, but two GG Yorkies who were completing their 50th good deeds! Massive cheers for Aidan and Christine, who got joint custody of the Cape of Good Deeds on tonight's run.

Rowntree Park

Half the group ran over to Rowntree Park to help Cath and Rosemary clear a big patch of weeds and plant new plants (which had to be symmetrical to the opposite side). It was almost as though Rosemary knew about our lack of horticultural knowledge as she described which plants had to go where.

The big spiky one has to go in the middle, really sharp and spiky!

It was like a description and a risk assessment all in one go, perfect for us. Cath still had faith and tried to educate Freya, Shelley and myself on some of the plants. Apparently it was not "all geranium" as I had guessed.

You can tell the lady mantle because it's furry - Cath

So once we definitely knew what we could dig up and what needed to stay, we were away. Wheelbarrows full of weeds were dumped, holes were dug in all the places we could avoid old concrete and we planted day lillies, hebes, forget-me-nots and skimmias.

There was one enormous potted plant that needed to go in the middle but even our strongest GoodGymers couldn't dig a big enough hole into the hard ground, so we had to mess with the symmetry and dig a hole elsewhere. Birthday girl Ellie proudly held up a big rooty bit of plant which she had dug out only to be informed that it was a special dogwood that had been planted a couple of weeks back... so she quickly re-planted it and pretended nothing had happened. The last bit was to water all the new plants in, and Ian got a duff bucket with a hole in it but was very stoic with his wet foot.

With our task complete, we boshed out a fitness session in the park. We started with some lunges, jumps and duck walks, and followed that with a partner exercise relay before finishing with the Happy Birthday Squat Challenge!

Sanderson House

While Rowntree Park got the birthday girl, the Sanderson House group had the two caped crusaders, celebrating their 50th good deed. On the way there, it was only fitting that we stopped outside of St Aidan's Church for a quick photo shoot. After all, Aidan was now practically a Saint, and he had the Cape of Good Deeds to prove it.

Over at Sanderson House, we were met by the Treasurer who had been asked to bring the paint for the fence, but didn't know any more than that. Fortunately it was pretty easy to spot all of the things we could do when we walked round the corner to see a garden full of overgrown grass and weeds, and a fence covered in peeling paint.

Our hosts soon found us a selection of tools and a battery powered lawnmower. Nick armed himself with a pair of shears and started hacking at the grass, to make it short enough for the lawnmower to get through, while others took a more rustic approach and pulled up handfuls of the stuff with their bare hands.

Anyone want a hair cut? (Nick)

Once the grass was tamed to a suitable level, Tim raked off the cuttings, and Max swooped in with the lawnmower to finish the job.

Meanwhile, Carl started work on sanding down the fence, assisted by Alaya. She was delighted to find a job that didn't involve squatting after completing her first half marathon yesterday!

Over in one corner, new runner Are was working with Emma and Jenna to uncover some healthy looking fruit and vegetable plots. Across the other side of the garden, Aidan and Lucy wrestled some nettles and brambles into submission and Christine set to work scraping weeds out from between paving stones. Within 30 minutes, green bins and compost bins were filled to bursting. We still hadn't opened the paint tins - but that would have to be a job for another day.

Aidan handed the Cape of Good Deeds over to Christine for the return journey. On the way back, we stopped off at West Bank Park to unveil another Egg special fitness session, led by Nick. While half of the group did step ups, pull ups and tricep dips (and a bit of monkeying around) on the outdoor equipment, the rest did some running drills, before swapping over. Then it was a swift run back to base for birthday cake-assisted cool down stretches.