🏅 A gaggle of excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our weekly group run. First of all, we heard about some incredible running over the weekend. David Barrett won a race and not just any race, a (very) extended bleep test! Much kudos to David! Meanwhile, Matt won a parkrun (not a race, apparently...) And Ed did a Hardmoors half (but sadly got injured partway round, and still completed it, somehow!)

🦸 Next, it was time to celebrate 3 more heroes, of the 50 good deed variety. Huge well done to Jen, Matt and Jamie, who got to split the 50 cape between them!

🪏 After a quick warm-up, it was time to start running/cycling to Greenfields Garden for some (slightly) guerrilla gardening. We were helping the no-dig crew tonight, digging up grass to put on layers of cardboard to mulch down onto the bed below. There were a few tool options available to assist, including spades and loppers, or some of us used our hands...

🦗 A few grasshoppers/crickets were spotted (hence the pun), leading to a discussion about how to tell one from the other. It turned out no one was quite sure how to tell them apart but the internet tells me that crickets have longer antennae and are nocturnal. So we probably saw grasshoppers...

🍎 Anyway, it was hard work digging up grass so when we given the option to search the orchard for windfalls, many of us took it with open arms.

💪 Soon, it was time to down tools and start fitness with Nick. He claimed to find a way to make squats and planks fun and was almost right, though our moving tunnels of planks ended up in some particularly itchy grass!

🍪 Time to head back to base for a cool-down stretch and birthday biscuit-beer combo at the pub (thanks Nick!) We heard about lots of fun things coming up this week so plenty to get involved with. Thanks everyone!

We started tonight's session by celebrating all the goodgymers who ran York 10k. We had pbs galore as well as Matt getting a P1 at parkrun. We also welcomed Christine to her first task.

This week’s GoodGym adventure then took most of us to Scarcroft Allotments, a mere 800 metres away, to help keep the site in tip-top shape, whilst Mitch took a splinter group to Hull Road park to do some raking.

Our first task was giving the hedges a well-earned trim, tackling overgrown branches to leave the paths looking neater and more welcoming. A group also did a bit of heavy lifting - dragging a pile of old carpets down to the car park. This upset a nest of wasps and unfortunately Nathan got stung a few times.

This us what the Hull Road gang got up to-

We arrived at Hull Road Park and needed to clear dried and cracked plants. It was important we cleared the tinder as it was a massive spark risk in this heat.

We quickly filled 10 Tonne bags and cleared the area...luckily in time for the rain tonight!

With the allotment looking smarter and the park clearer, we finished the evening with a fitness session. The highlight (or depending on who you ask, the toughest part!) was teddy bear rolls, which had everyone rolling, balancing and laughing in equal measure. A fun way to round off a productive evening of volunteering and exercise.

A huge well done to everyone who came along and helped make a real difference at at both sites. From hedge pruning to carpet shifting and teddy bear rolling, it was another brilliant example of GoodGym combining doing good with getting fit.

Tonight we welcomed Louise from London and adorned her with the cape of good deeds for completing 1000 tasks! Amazing work, well done!

We then headed off to Green Lane allotments with Ed at the helm and David and Jenna bringing up the rear.

upon arrival we were met by Colin and Mario who took us to our tasks. Our main jobs tonight were barrowing woodchip and raking up twigs and leaves from the path.

We then finished off the night with a quick game of body part match! We promise we kept it all above board!

It was then time run back to base when a few had worked up enough thirst for a trip to the pub!

Tonight we started the session by sharing something that brought us joy today. We had lots of lovely ideas- hanging washing outside, waking up next to Barbara, daffodils, having leftovers for lunch .... nobody said coming to goodgym but i guess that was just a given!

We then set off to Clementhorpe Community Centre. As it was only 900m away Rich took a running group in a detour while others took the steady option with Vicky.

When we arrived the majority were tasked with scraping and washing walls. Others emptied and helped sort a cupboard and a select group disappeared into the loft! We discovered all sorts of random 'treasure' - a guitar with 4 strings, sunglasses, alcoholics anonymous resources....

By then time time was up we agreed putting 25 sweaty runners in a small enclosed space was not the most pleasant. It was so bad Chatlotte had yo leave with a headache!

We therefore decided to do fitness outside, led by James. He'd created a party conga games, complete with hats and creme egg prizes. We decided to have a wall sit off for the last three. Barbara, Max and Kit outsat everyone! Great work guys.

We were then back to the pub with Rich's slightly smaller group taking a different longer route.

The problem with the January challenge is that we do so many good deeds that our taskowners run out of things for us to do, as was the case late last night with the council's eco team and the scheduled task at Clarence Gardens. We'd already done all the work earlier in the month. Fortunately, with a flurry of WhatsApp messages and our wonderful run leader Laura we were able to come up with a couple of tasks to fill the void and keep everyone just about busy enough.

Tonight we gave a big GG Yorkie welcome (and one dissenting boo) to Jenni who was joining is from GoodGym Reading. Great to have you here, despite Pete's rivalry! We also welcomed back Carys and Rohail who had enjoyed themselves so much last week tjat they decided to return. There were a fair few tired legs tonight after some fantastic running at the Brass Monkey half, so a lot of people were grateful for the steadier run out to the allotment task with Vicky, whilst Ed led the larger group to the community gardens with Pete and Lucy bringing up the rear.

Dan very quickly realised we would be working on the gardens at the end of his road and was almost tempted to get his "goodgym-curious" partner out to join us. Another night perhaps. At the task Laura had prepared a list of jobs that needed doing and the GG York crew got to work weeding, pruning, digging and sweeping. As we worked away we managed to spend a bit of time getting to know our newer members a bit better. Turns out Rohail is yet to try a jacket potato (cheese and beans seemed to be the best choice for an entry-level jacket) and Carys just casually dropped that she done some pretty epic running events in the past, including the Berlin Marathon!

Meanwhile, over with Vicky...

A splinter group of ladies headed to Holgate Allotments and were tasked with covering all the community allotment paths with woodchip. We quickly got stuck in and soon had a conveyor of wheelbarrows going back and forth. Alongside this was team weed, who cleared some of the paths before the bark arrived.

We had almost finished when the other group arrived, but being the perfectionists that we are, we had one final push to make sure we got the job done! We were very proud of our work and the paths look ace, if we do say so ourselves!

Once both tasks were completed we regrouped for an epic game of musical cones, with a little bit of cheating and some heated debate over the rules, before we headed back to the pub where some joined in with the cool down but most got themselves a reasonably well earned pint

Lovely stuff