A balmy night (given that it is December) and 24 good Goodgymers met at our usual meeting point in good spirits, with as usual, lots to be positive about. Firstly a big shout out to our very own Vicky who is always very busy at the beginning of Dec and yet again organised a very successful Chase the Pud over the weekend. Over £4000 was raised for the British Heart Foundation and having 250 Santas chasing a xmas pudding or mince pie round the racecourse now seems like a normal thing to watch in early December. She was of course helped by several GGers but the credit for such a successful event must absolutely go to our amazing Vicky.

As well as several GGers volunteering at the fun run, it is another big shout out to Rebecca and Sam who both ran the fun run. Sam came second and nearly caught the pud while it was an incredible effort from our very own Rebecca who completed her first ever 10k run :-). Finally before warming up it was a pleasure to welcome Ruth who joined us for the first time and who in getting muddy and wet later fully got fully involved with the delights of a GG task. while numbering off every 5th person had to come up with a different warm up while Pete led the walk group to the task. Ed led the rest with Vicky backmarking to Rowntree park - our destination for the night, while Michael hot footed it direct from work.

As usual Stu had plenty for us to do. Babs and Leanne were quick to volunteer for shovelling bark chip and pushing the load up the hill to the garden in a vehicle more akin to a tip than a wheelbarrow - strong (!); another group headed up to the gardens for various tasks while the remainder of the group started attacking the debris that had collected in the pond. Using a variety of rakes, spades and other long handled devices the amount of debris collected and deposited in the undergrowth was both impressive and smelly. Teams at both ends of the park worked hard, although when Micheal and Alex went to help out with Amy's group later in the evening with seemingly clean lower legs, Amy was heard to say that she thought that her team had got the slimey end of the stick that night - at least I think that is the phrase she used ? Meanwhile the garden team had worked hard - with Helen and Jane quickly finishing their sawing task - Stu remarked that he had forgotton how hard the GG team always work.

Finishing with the team photo, Ed split us into 4 teams with tonights fitness involving a team member running while the remainder did exercises but in sync with each other. Surprisingly they were done quite well and whilst perhaps not ready to form a syncronised swimming team everyone acquitted themselves well. It was then just time for sharing round some home made xmas themed ginger biscuits before returning to base....

We had bumper turnout of 27 GG Yorkies tonight as we came back to tackle the wildflower meadow at Clarence Gardens. But before setting off we had a couple of things to celebrate. Well done Michael who completed a 20mile race in Czechia that i won't attempt to spell! And an even bigger well done to Jane who was completing her 50th Good Deed. Jane joined us midway through the January Challenge and has been a regular ever since. Great work Jane 👍

Our warm up was inspired by Paul Kelly's dedication to seeing Radiohead at the weekend after securing last minute tickets and jumping straight on a train to London to just make it to the O2 in time! So we named the great lengths we had gone to for an event or a thing. Turns out a lot of us have travelled a very long distance just to get dumped! 💔

We then set off with Vicky leading a walk/run group, Ed leading the main run and Lucy backmarking. Upon arrival we were greeted by task owner Iain and future task owner Rachel who has just joined the council's eco team. We then grabbed some rakes and got cracking, scarrifying (no idea how to spell it, sorry) the ground ready for it to be seeded. The GG crew formed an almost perfect line other than one head torch which could be seen in the distance raking their own corner of the meadow. Turned out our lone raker was Bec who, not wishing to conform, had decided to rake a different spot

Meanwhile, Alex, Nikki, Mitch, Paul and David were busy with their own task which involved clearing quite a large amount of green waste and shifting it over to the skip. There are few things certain in life other than death, taxes and seeing Mitch on top of a skip when we need to create more room!

Over with the rakers, Jan and Nicola were doing an excellent job of gathering up the arisings and shifting them to the skip giving Mitch more to jump up and down on!

Before long it was time to down tools and start our fitness session, which this week involved teams competing against each other to jump forwards with a cone and then sprint back to their team for then next person to sprint out to the cone, jump and then sprint back. The result of the race was too close to call, so they had to go again to decide a clear winner, which I think ended up being Leanne's team, although possibly with a little bit of cheating

We'll be back at Clarence Gardens in a few weeks to finish the job

Tonight we met for our bonfire special. We started by discussing the best thing about autumn, where leaves features heavily, then set off to Wild Things Forest school. Ed led the runners, Stef guided a walking group and a few made their way on bike.

When we arrived Emma met us with a long and varied list of jobs ranging from sawing wood and raking leaves, to removing ivy and putting up bunting.

Once the tasks were complete we headed over to the hill for fun fitness hill reps. Some of the techniques were questionable for the exercises, in order to get back to the team quickly! The winner were rewarded with extendable forks for the bonfire.

After fitness we headed back to the fire pit and had marshmallow or camembert smores. Martin also brought a tub of aptly named heroes, because thats what you all are!

can anyone guess who's knees are on the Photo?