Deck the hall with lights and holly!

GoodGym Leeds is really starting to feel Christmassy! The temperatures have dropped again, but that just meant it was a great excuse for a few goodgymers to get out their Christmas jumpers and festive hats!

There was plenty of news to share as Karly ran with GoodGym for the first time, and GG York superstar Leanne joined us for a spot of tourism. Go and give them a cheer!

I also unbelievably forgot to tell everyone that Helen has reached ten good deeds! Well done Helen. She definitely deserves some extra cheers!

With a few quick partner drills, including knee tag and high fives, working on our balance, strength and just getting our bodies moving. There were a few mismatches but that's all part of the fun!

We then headed off down the now-familiar route, up towards headingley and then all the way down to Kirkstall. There had been a slight change of plan, as the wind had blown over one of the marquees, and so we were back at Unit 11, meaning a slightly shorter run.

We stayed as a fairly tight group on the run down, and arrived to find a spread of decorations for us to put up. There were strings of fairy lights, tinsel, a few nets of wall lights and a huge bag of holly and ivy. The fairy lights and tinsel needed to go up on the lengths of washing line which had been spread across the room, the wall lights needed fixing to the walls, and holly and ivy needed cutting up before slotting it in amongst the strings of lights.

Adam and Alex went straight for the big task of hammering hooks into the wall to fix the huge net of lights up. As if the pressure of such an integral feature wasn't enough, some people thought they should pile on a little more...

"It's like a real test of character whether you manage to complete it or not" Riobhne

Everyone else spread out around the room, looking for spots they could start tackling. There were different techniques, with some all action, and others putting a little more thought into it. Looking around the room there were were plenty of confused faces, but one looked particularly perplexed.

"I'm just trying to work out how to do it in an effective and efficient way" Sarah, taking her responsibility very seriously!

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the holly and ivy was being cut up into smaller pieces and brought into the main room to be slotted in amongst the tinsel and fairy lights. The whole space was really starting to take shape, and with only two ladders, and much of the easier to reach areas now already decorated, teamwork was the order of the day. The taller people were recruited for reaching into the far corners while everyone else busied around filling the gaps.

Just thirty minutes after arriving, we'd put up all the lights, wrapped them with tinsel, filled the gaps with holly and ivy and the whole place looked much much more Christmassy. By now the yoga group had arrived, but it gave them the chance to see what we had got up to!

"You're like an army of Goodness!" Yoga teacher

For the way back we had another shot at the GoodGym Leeds pursuit, with one group leading the way, with some faster runners in a chase group behind. Heather took the lead of the first group, while the chasers prepared themselves with another run through of the partner drills, this time making sure we were all as evenly matched as we could be. The chase group didn't manage to catch the advance party last time, so the pressure was on.

After leaving a long enough gap for a suitable head start, the chase group were off! Only to be stopped at the first set of traffic lights. And almost every subsequent set. This just meant it turned into more of an interval effort. The race was close, but this time the chasers managed to catch up with a few hundred metres to go. We're now at 1-1 so we'll definitely have to carry on the rivalry.

After we'd all regrouped, Sarah led us in a nice round of stretches before we all went our separate ways, dreaming of next week's Christmas social!