Whipped into Shape

28 GG Yorkies and the first ever GG Newcastler ran 6km to plant 100 hawthorn whips!

We gave a warm welcome to Anji - the new GoodGym Trainer from Newcastle, who came to lead our session to Monk Stray. She kicked us off with a massive warm up and got us sharing our very own hidden skills. Who knew we could basically make up a GG York band and a GG York circus with all the mad skills in the room! We also welcomed along two brand new runners, so let's have some hearty Yorkshire cheers for:

• Vanessa
• Saul

We also celebrated run leader and all round good'un, Paul, doing his 50th good deed. He was awarded the Cape of Good Deeds to wear with pride for the evening.

On arrival at the task, we trudged all the way across the really mucky field before realising there was a gate right at the far side that comes in from the pavement. Nevermind, we were destined to get muddy anyway. Beki explained how we plant the whips, with a support cane and plastic casing too. We had to dig little trenches and stagger the plants.

Don't worry, they'll definitely be staggered! - Paul, those 50 good deeds giving him all the experience to know that we are not good at straight lines

We had 30 minutes to get 100 whips in the ground around the perimeter of the stray. Before you could blink, trenches were being dug, plastic casings were being extracted and canes were flying everywhere.

I'm on whip distribution - Mel, important job

Fortunately the ground was really soft so the trenches were being dug very quickly and the progress was amazing, in under five minutes, 19 whips were already planted and the team were gathering steam. There were a few moments where people were armed with canes and waiting, so we boshed some star jumps and hammer blow squats to stay warm.

With our challenged completed, we ran down to the cycle path where Anji led the group in some running drills which almost certainly had made-up names:

• High knee walk
• Penguin run
• Horse run

We were loving the animal theme and some members were more coordinated than others. New runner, Vanessa, was absolutely amazing and nailed every single drill!

All that was left was the run back up Micklegate and a good team stretch out with some of Anji's top stretching tips. We can't wait to see the launch of GoodGym Newcastle, thanks Anji for a brilliant session!