35 GG Yorkies ran in opposite directions (and avoided the rain!) to get some good done across the city

Another Monday calls for another fantastic celebration and tonight, it was the turn of Terrific Tristan to run his 50th good deed and don the Cape of Good Deeds, he even made a spectacular entrance and brought brownies for the occasion. Apparently it was mostly Becky Mo who actually made them though.

You did quite a lot of stirring though Tristan!

Tim led a crew to St Aidan's Church, where the church warden - Rachel - was ready and waiting. The group were split into three teams as there was a bit of a list of tasks but first and foremost: the bush. Extra special 50-deeder Tristan and normal Jeff were tasked with trimming the overgrown garden on one side of the church. Their team were also handed shears and unleashed upon a large hedge as well as some invasive plants that had burst out of their flower bed.

Go as hard as you like

Music to a GoodGymer's ears.

Group run newbie George and Anna's team were tasked with finding the edge of the car park, a skill Anna had learnt at a recent Foxwood mission and was keen to pass on!

There were plenty more invasive reed-type plants which Paul Kelly and Mitch were hacking away at, only to find underneath a petrified hedgehog. Katie sprung into action and took the hedgehog to safety, phew!

After the tasks were complete, the team embarked on a tour of the Three Hills of Acomb, with sprints up Acomb Green Hill, Windmill Rise (both ways) and the Mount. They definitely earned their brownies, even Katie who apparently skived off the windmill rise rep to play with a cat

Lots of people were very happy to stop to look at the cat - Leanne

My group ran north where we met Mike from the River Foss Society. Our mission was simply to bash balsam along the river bank but at the beginning we couldn't find very much in amongst the massive nettles. It was a narrow, slippery and muddy path after all the rain and the focus was definitely on not slipping down the bank into the nettle-filled ditch.

Once everyone was absolutely sure what Himalayan balsam looked like, we meandered slowly down the path, picking the odd one out. Then we discovered a jungle of the stuff slightly further down. Laura had made herself a veritable den by clearing a huge patch and piling it up, whilst Vicky and Babs competed for the biggest balsam root.

We had a further 10 minutes to power pick before the long totter back along the muddy path and onto our Clarence Gardens fitness session. In pairs, everyone had to wall sit whilst their partner completed an exercise around the flower bed, and then they swapped over. There was a lot of wall sitting (Babs loved it, check out her happy face in the picture!).

We all regrouped back at the Priory Street Centre for some stretches and to scoff mint chocolate brownies. So many brownies.

It's like you smell toothpaste, and then eat chocolate! - Tim

In a fantastic display of community project symbiosis, our task was to remove some piles of bark for an organisation who wanted rid of it and get it ready for another organisation who needed it. Perfect.

The only small challenge was that the piles of bark were located approximately 200 egg metres down the cycle path (550 actual metres) and were inaccessible for a vehicle.

Armed with two wheelbarrows, four tonne sacks, and 8 spades, we started the long 'barrow relays to the van which was parked at the nearest access point.

Shortly after the mission started, three young teenagers came past us, two on bikes and one with a marginally dysfunctional supermarket shopping trolley. About a minute after they passed, we realised we could really make use of the trolley and they were almost certainly not supposed to have it anyway so I started jogging after them - at which point, they legged it. Three teenagers, however, were no match for a GG Yorkie and I caught up to the terrified teen who was absolutely delighted that I only wanted to make use of the trolley and not tell her off or something.

The three teens then asked if they could help out and I suggested they go further up the path and ask the van-based GoodGymers to bring a bag down to line our new trolley with. They were very agreeable. As I ran the trolley back down to the bark piles I realised it had quite a diagonal trajectory and was impressed with the teen who had actually managed to push it this far from the supermarket. Debs even managed to fix the gammy wheel using a spade whilst Lizzie did safety supervision.

With a two wheelbarrows and a trolley, we were away and the bark loading and unloading strategy started to come together. Graham and Mitch were boshing the wheelbarrow loads up and down whilst people had to manage the trolley in pairs. Mitch doubted Ed and Debs's ability to extract a full bag of back from the trolley.

There's no way that's coming out!

They promptly disproved him, hoicking the bag effortlessly into the back of the van.

We finished with four full bags of bark in the back of van, and err.. the trolley, which will be returned to the supermarket very shortly!

Our lord admiral Egg has entrusted the mighty ship Gg York to Captain Tim. So after a controversial nautical warm-up. John doubted my seafaring knowledge and led a minor mutiny on the concept of starboard and port. One must confess i might have got that one wrong. But it speaks to Gg yorks shiptight crew that most followed my orders even in the face of mutiny!

Lieutenant (run leader) Paul led one crew to paint over the graffiti that had built up on a bridge over a cycle path. His crew included hardy newcomer Angela who had run a massive 3km to our meeting point already. Also the legendary first mate Emily has completed 50 good deeds with us now. So was sporting the magnificent cape of good deeds, a worthy reward for an epic achievement! Upon arrival they were told to paint over everything:

"What even the two headed llama?" - Emily 50 deeder extraordinaire!

First problem was to answer the question how many goodgymmers does it take to open a can of paint. The answer was many, plus Stef and his handy multiltool keyring!

Lietunant Nick and Captain Tim then led a group up to Greeenfields Nursery, where after negotiating complicated signal flags (traffic lights) where we made short work of a mound of wildflowers. Digging them out, carefully making sure we had as much of the roots as possible. Despite my doubts we had the trireme tricycle) full of wildflowers in double quick time.

"Look at Nick's perfect clump!" Leanne

Lieutenant Nick then stayed behind with a trusty crew to complete some very much needed tlc in the nursery. Digging up lots of dock leaf weeds that had spread. Once complete they ran on home, making a quick pitstop at haxby road park to complete some of Tim's silly circuits. Barb was less than impressed with bunny hop section afterwards apparently all the passer-bys were staring!

Captain Tim set off with a speedy crew following St.Nick' trireme (tricycle) down the cycle path. Luckily we timed it just right to free Maria from st nicks who was pedalling the trike from a few tight corners. Task owner Maria had definitely put the work in by the time we arrived. As had the speedy crew running 2.5km in under 14 minutes! As we set to work planting the wildflowers in their new home, we received reinforcements from lieutenant paul's crew. Who helped us finish with plenty of time for Tim's silly fitness game.

We split into two teams and played a quick game of rob the nest. Trying to collect as many balls as we could for our team. Even raiding the other team, Craig even opted to cheat by carrying more than one ball but still his team lost that round. Cheating doesn't pay when it comes to goodgym exercises! For the second round we did a burpie each time before picking up a ball, this time Craig's team won so he couldn't have been cheating (or perhaps he was just getting better at cheating!)

"It was the best game ever" Stef said at the end of the session. Definitely without sarcasm!

Then we all jogged home for a quick cool done. Well done everyone!!!

One final line for Jesse who has been an much-loved contributor on our groupruns for a year or so now. Unfortunately for us Jesse is starting his next big adventure in Canada next week, so this was his last session with us :( Make sure you all give him a big cheer as a thank you for his hardwork with us over the last year.