Plant my Beech Up

An amazing group of 23 GG Yorkies headed to West Bank Park to do some digging and planting.

It was a hot evening but despite that, we welcomed 4 new runners to the gang. Give Katie, Claire, Kay and Nicole a lovely big cheer.

With Maddy as our back marker, we headed the fun way around the back of the train station and over the bridge that has lots of steps. It was beautiful running down through West Bank Park and we arrived at the secret garden to be greeted by Cath and Vicki. Our task was to plant a selection of trees and honeysuckle which has been donated by Urban Buzz - a local organisation who work to enhance green spaces for the benefit of pollinators.

With 25 minutes on the clock, the madness began. There was just one rule:

Do not fall in the pond - Coach Egg, GoodGym Trainer

We were joined by a few locals and even some youngsters who wanted to get involved with a bit of do-gooding. The ground was hard so digging holes to plant the trees was a decent workout. Poor Alex dug over the same bit for about 15 minutes before realising it was actually mostly concrete. Ashleigh and Heather double-teamed the wooden archway and planted four honeysuckle plants whilst everyone else was busy digging, composting, weeding and watering.

Where's my beeches? - Vicki

We finished the whole task and nobody fell in the pond, hooray!

Leaving a beautifully dug over area full of new trees and a few wheelbarrows of weeds, we headed over to the circle of trees for a special fitness game called, Cones of Joy. It was a paired relay challenge with an exercise at every cone, including:

• squats
• mountain climbers
• side lunges
• burpees
• invisible hula hooping
• crab kicks
• pretend ladder climbing
• the DANCE STATION

..and more.

Then everyone slumped in a big sweaty heap and Cath kindly rewarded us with biscuits of recovery. There were still a few left when we were getting ready to run back, so new runner Nicole showed us all how it is done and chugged them down no problem.

Remember we have loads of extra good deeds happening over the weekend so have a look at all the events and get involved!