We started tonight's group run by belatedly awarding our GoodGymer of the month accolade for February to the marvelous Nikki , who had continued her January exploits into Feb and been a shining example for other Task Forcers. Well done Nikki 👏

We also welcomed newcomer Sarah who was doing her first ever task tonight. Let's give her a big cheer 👋

A bit of daytime drama meant that our services were required elsewhere, so instead of going to Ashton Park, tonight's group run saw us head to Clarance Gardens for a spot of unsupervised wildflower seed spreading! Ed did his best to explain what was required of us, and with a few suggestions from the rest of the team, we soon decided on a system that saw everyone lining up a meter apart, with a few seed topper-uppers running between them all 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️

Babs seem to focus on quantity rather than quality and raced ahead of the rest of the line of seed spreaders, whereas Graham took a bit more time and care with his seeds and stamping. Let's see when they bloom who had the best technique!

With most people having whizzed through their seed portions in lightning quick time, we needed to fill the rest of the session with something or risk an early pub exodus. So Leanne led a congo/indian file stamping line to make sure that no spot was left un-stomped.

Before too long it was time for the fitness session and an opportunity to get to know each other a little better. The GGers ran in a circle (again led by Leanne) and made thier way into the middle for an exercise every time Ed called out something that they had done before. Unsurprisingly almost all GGers have baked a cake or planted a tree in their lifetime. Unfortunately we didn't uncover too many secret tattoos though!

Huge well done to everyone for a fab session. Next week it's off to St Chad's scout hut for a classic painting task!

The promise of sweeties tempted 27 GGers out on a chilly March evening to lend a hand to the front garden at Fishergate Primary School, which was in need of a bit of a face-lift.

We started proceedings by numbering off whilst listing things to be afraid of. Lyndsey conveniently listed her number (13) as something to fear, but we also Jamie's suggestion of FOMO and Joanna's fear of decision making as some great examples. It was then time for the short dash across to the task with Ed leading a sea of red shirts, and Vicky bringing up the rear.

At the task we were joined by Martin, Jenna, Anna and Charlotte and soon got stuck into the gardening. Rich declared himself the man with the bin and collected the various bits of rubbish dotted around, whilst others got stuck into weeding, pruning and clearing.

With everyone working hard on the ground to get the garden looking 👌, Mitch decided he'd think outside the box and look higher up for his opportunity to make a difference. A rogue black bin bag stuck up a tree was the goal and it was no match for Mitch armed with a spade, who had acted against all advice and climbed the tree to retrieve it.

Opportunities for further weeding and pruning were dwindling as the task wore on, so mind's started think about potential future tasks with Rich spotting a tree guard that looked like it was in need of removal. Obviously GG York are absolute pros at tree guard removal nowadays!

After a few last minute bits of weeding it was time for a team photo before heading off for Vicky's fitness sesh - Head, Shoulders, Knees and Cones! The game involved moving around a circle of cones before dashing into the middle to pick up a sweet reward. The sweets dwindled as the session went on, which led to a bit of pushing and shoving to get the most in demand sweets.

We then headed back to CVS for a photo with the coveted Golden Trowel (the prize for the most good deeds done in the January Challenge) and then sampled some of Nikki's delicious fudge which also turned out to be part of your 5-a-day 😋

Great session everyone 💪

☀️ We had a whopping 30 people at our group run this evening, on a gloriously light (and still sunny!) Monday evening.

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Rose for her first good deed, and Louisa for her first group run. We also had Rachel Maskill (MP for York Inner) along, which was great.

👻 We were heading to York Cemetery so waved off our walking group (led by Debs) then warmed up for running/cycling. We named and numbered off by recalling our favourite dead celebrity (in honour of our cemetery excursion). We discovered a lot of Bowie fans, along with other great and good, including Nelson Mandela and Casper the friendly ghost (hands up who’s ever put those two people in the same sentence before!)

🏃‍♀️🚲🚶‍♂️Ed led the running group to the cemetery while the rest of us cycled. We were met by the lovely Clive who was slightly surprised at our large number and tried to get a few more tools together.

4️⃣ We were given four jobs to tackle:

1) Digging and moving snowdrops to increase their spread around the cemetery for next year 🌼

2) Digging up brambles that we’d successfully cut back in January. (This required hunting down said remaining brambles, which was the first task!) 🪴

3) Lopping bank brambles in a particularly overgrown area 🌱

4) Digging and loading up bags of woodchip before dragging and distributing said bags 🌳

💪 Everyone tackled their jobs with aplomb and got a lot done. It was soon time to down and gather tools, take vegetation to the pile and head to the open area for fitness. In honour of our task location, we did a musical fitness session to the tune of Ghostbusters (thanks to Stef’s speakers). Many lunges and copious burpees later, with the backdrop of a very pretty sunset, we were Ghostbustered out and ready to head back to base.

🥳 We stretched off and said goodbye, lots of us heading to the pub for a drink and catch up.

👍 Thanks everyone, it was great to see you all. We’ve got other sessions coming up this week so you can find out more and sign up here.

🐣 I hope you have a great Easter weekend and see you for more of the same next Monday evening.

😁 21 fantabulous GoodGymmers met on a cool but dry Monday evening ready to #runbrightatnight for our group run 🌠

💪 We were thrilled to congratulate Michal and David on their epic Ultra running this weekend. Incredible stuff guys 🏆

🥳 As the task was a bit further tonight, Laura led a party pace group who led the way to the task, into the moonlight 🌛

🎆 Meanwhile, the rest of us named, numbered and warmed up whilst stating our favourite thing about Bonfire Night. Turns out there are a lot of fire-lovers among us (and food-lovers, but we knew that anyway) 🔥

🏃‍♀️🏃 Soon, it was time for the rest of us to set off, with Pete leading this group to Derwenthorpe, along a pleasant route via a well-lit cycle path. After some confusion (and much wandering whilst Google Maps-staring) as to which part of the housing estate we were meant to be, we made it and were met by a very happy Maria from St Nick’s. She was excited at the prospect that work on the meadow was soon to be completed, having started a good few months ago 👍

🌾 Maria showed us the tools available and we were particularly excited by the prospect of a brand new tarp (as well as a few with holes in, aka what we’re more used to!) After trying to trick as many people as possible into using quite possibly the world’s heaviest rake, Max got to work, along with the rest of the group. Smaller groups were formed as we divided to conquer the meadow. The rakers raked whilst others (particularly David) enjoyed pitching said rakings onto the tarps to be dragged to their collection points 👨‍🌾

🍄 Oh, and Abi found a large mushroom, which was cool 😎

👌 Pete and Jenna were so efficient that by the time I’d reached them with some extra pairs of hands for their patch, they’d finished! En route to help, Abigail and I spotted more rakings to be gathered and tarped. Cue the embarrassing moments when we subsequently lost said rakings temporarily. They were eventually rediscovered and gathered into the fold with the rest 🧐

📸 The overwhelming efficiency of (most of) the group meant that we finished our task with aplomb, much to the joy of Maria (and the rest of us). It was therefore time for a group photo before we said goodbye to our party pace crew (significantly larger than on the way out). There were still a few brave souls left for our “explosive” (tenuously fireworks-themed, obviously) fitness session, which we continued into the run back to base with inter-lamppost-sprints. With four different paced groups on the run back, we were soon reunited back at base for stretching. And then it was on to The Ackhorne for our monthly social, good times everyone, and thank you for a great evening 🍻