Last night had all the elements for a perfect group run: A seemingly impossible task, a huge turnout, loads of new faces, bags of teamwork, a proper physical workout, a bit of therapeutic stress relief, some silly quotes, great photos, a new tool to add to our collection and a pun inspired by High School Musical. What more could you possibly ask for?!

The night started with some big news. Joe was reaching his 10th good deed with us, and Rach had just smashed her 50th good deed over the weekend. Way to go guys! Nationally, we'd also just broken through our 8,000 good deed target, and Leeds was approaching 200! Incredible. It's amazing to see us sat in 11th place nationally for good deeds, especially as we're one of the newest areas. Give yourselves a big pat on the back, you deserve it!

We had seven new runners which is absolutely incredible! Give a big warm welcome (via cheers of course) to Ella, Dan, Cecilia, Daniel, Kate, Peter and Andreas.

We also welcomed Jenny to taskforce, taking us up to a massive 9 taskforcers already, and to celebrate she was backmarking our run down to Meanwood Farm along with Helen. Aron took the lead, and as Liz had already set off for the walk down, we were aiming to pick her up on the way down.

For a lot of the group, this wasn't their first trip to Meanwood Farm, so they knew the drill. We arrived at the Farm to find Ben, the task owner, ready and waiting for us with around 10 wheelbarrows. As a group we headed over to inspect our trench that we'd dug last week, and after a week away it made last week's achievement look even more epic.

Ben likes to give us a challenge though, and so he had an even bigger task for us this week. We had to:

• Fill the trench with rubble.
• Break up the larger bits of rubble so they would all pack down neatly.
• Fill in the gaps between the rubble with wood chip.
• Stamp it all down, and mix it around so there were no air pockets.
• Build a wall out of sandbags and gravel bags.
• Fill in the gap behind the wall with all of the soil we'd moved last week.

At this stage Trainer Aron was starting to look a little confused, because we definitely weren't planning to come back next week. Maybe we'd finally bitten off more than we could chew, but if this group is anything, it's ambitious, so the only thing for it was for us to crack on on with it!

We split into groups with half of the wheelbarrows heading for the woodchip pile and half heading for the rubble. Everyone got to grips with the challenges (including the perils of trying to direct your spouse as a GoodGym Trainer) and in no time at all everything started to move along smoothly. Barrows were filled, with rubble being tipped into place in the hole, where the Sledgehammer crew were goggled-up, ready and waiting. This was an exciting moment as it was our first taste of sledgehammer action. Immediately, Julie took on the role of resident expert, and promptly directed Katie on how to ensure maximum smash for your swing:

"I think you're hitting it in the wrong place!" You need to aim for that bit." Julie, giving a technical analysis of Katie's sledgehammering.

The sledgehammer really seemed to be a way for people to work out the stresses of their day, with some putting a bit more into it than others! After realising that the concrete blocks wouldn't be broken down any further, these were removed but the bricks and other rubble were bashed and smashed until they all sat together in a nice, relatively smooth layer. Julie later admitted the secret to her hammering technique:

"I was just imagining myself as Thor" Julie

Over at the woodchip pile, the barrows were also being filled and then transported across to the trench. The woodchip pile was a little further away which apparently just gave the group more time to get a bit giddy before they started working. It was only her second week, but it already feels like Naomi's run report worthy innuendo has been a part of the group forever. She didn't disappoint tonight:

"Fill me up George!" Naomi, requesting the filling of her wheelbarrow

We started to get some bottlenecks at this point as the woodchip was arriving faster than we could break up the rubble, but with a bit of shifting around of the group we soon got it under control again. Once we had enough rubble, and the woodchip had been thrown on the top, everyone needed to pitch in and shuffle the bricks around, stamp the woodchip down, and just generally wiggle and dance their way across the foundations to ensure there were no air gaps. We were now desperate for more woodchip wheelbarrows, and so loads of people were redistributed, and a steady stream of bobbing headtorches made their way to and from the woodchip pile.

With the woodchip and rubble mix now level with the original path, it was finally time to Build the Wall. We formed one massive chain of GoodGymers, passing bags along the line to put them in place. The bags were up to 30kgs so most people passed in pairs, but some were feeling super strong and passed the bags along by themselves. The bag shifting took super teamwork and reminded one particular runner of something:

"Have you ever seen the film 'Antz'? It feels like that" Carol (I think), although to be honest it could have been any one of the colony!

In no time the wall started to take shape, and Ben explained that we would lay the bags in brick fashion, with the second layer offset from the first, as this is what would give the wall it's strength. In just a few minutes, we'd built the wall four bags high, and around 10 metres long! While everyone collected the tools, a few people speedily shifted the soil back into the gap behind our wall and the job was complete! Absolutely outstanding work everyone.

With the satisfaction of another task well done, we returned all of the tools, took a quick snap and made our way back to base for a stretch.

I would normally conclude by letting you all know how amazing you are, what a great thing we achieved, and how I can't wait to do it all again next week, but in honour of our report title, I thought I should I should let the immortal genius of Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and co do it for me. Enjoy!

Wow!

I didn't think GoodGym Leeds could get any better, but it just did today! An amazing 27 runners joined our starter session, including 14 first-timers! You guys are already legends!

This run was all about encouraging some new runners who maybe can't usually make it on a Wednesday evening, find some of the distances a little daunting, or who just wanted to give it a go when they could actually see what they were doing! Hopefully you all got a taste of what GoodGym is all about and we'll be welcoming you back for more!

We started the session with a bit of a fun warm-up called "Aron says". It's essentially Simon says but with a bit more movement and jumping around, and while it took a while to get going the group cracked it in the end. The main thing was that everyone was happy and smiling before we set out on our runs and walks!

Aron took the running group with Helen backmarking to make sure nobody was left behind. We headed a slightly more scenic route as we took advantage of the light to venture onto Woodhouse Ridge. Liz took the walking group and took the most direct route so she even managed to beat us there!

Once we'd all found each other and reconvened at Bedford Fields, Ian ran us through the list of jobs. We were tasked with:

• Consolidating 2-3 piles of wood chip into one big pile.
• Removing old wood chip/soil from a path so we could lay down new wood chip.
• Clearing weeds/brambles/everything else from a section of verge, and putting the cuttings into a dead hedge.

The team quickly split into groups, grabbing the necessary tools and taking instructions from Ian and the other volunteers at Bedford Fields. Everybody got straight to it, with a few of them realising that shovelling in particular is pretty heavy work! Jackets came off as people quickly started to work up a sweat.

Some of the more experienced members of the group were coming to terms with doing a GoodGym activity in the daylight for the first time, and weren't quite sure what to make of it!

"It's a little bit more intimidating doing it in the daylight, you can actually see whether you've done a good job!"

Carol continued her tradition of ending up using one of the least appropriate tools for the task, by trying to clear soil off a two foot wide path using only a trowel! The rest of the group were using shovels and spades, but apparently Carol is so keen to make sure everyone else has a tool she's often left without! So selfless!

Meanwhile, over at the verge clearing, regulars Helen and Anne were getting to grips with brand new tools! As far as we could work out, they were mini scythes used for hand-held cutting of plants. It's a new one to our to our collection anyway. (**edit: apparently this is a sickle. I think I should have known this by now)

The wood chip shifters definitely had the hardest task as it was seriously tough going! However, even when given the option to switch they were having none of it.

"We're just suckers for punishment! We can't give up now, we want to finish it!" Naomi, first timer who was really relishing the challenge!

The verge-clearing crew were also finding it strangely enjoyable, with Joe spending most of his time posing for photos (whether the camera was on him or not) and another GoodGymer finding their own sense of satisfaction in finding space in the dead hedge.

"It's quite fun, it's like a game of Tetris!"

With the piles of woodchip almost completely gone, and the path cleared, there was just enough time to get some new woodchip on the path. Everyone was redistributed to a new role, wheelbarrows were filled, and the most energetic amongst the group ran the wheelbarrows the short distance to the path. With time running out, the last few wheelbarrows were raced into position for a final bit of smoothing out. Phew! We would hate to leave the job unfinished!

After a quick pic under the pagoda, we trotted over to the park, where Aron had a cheeky little fitness session planned. We split into 5 teams, and using the four sides of the monument, we had the following stations:

• Step-ups
• Sit-down squats
• Wall/step press ups
• Tricep dips

The fifth team had a short out and back run which set the time that the rest of the teams would be working for. While there was a suspicion that some groups were running extra slow to make it harder for everyone else, we had a great little workout and really worked up a sweat! Great job everyone!

With that, we were all done for the day, and had a gentle jog back to base, where we had a lovely stretch, and few of us hung around for a sociable drink.

It was absolutely fabulous to welcome so many new faces to GoodGym today, and we really hope you'll be able to make it back again soon.

Thanks for another fab group run, you guys are ace!