Spirits were high tonight as we continued our excellent start to 2026 with another great turnout. Ed, clearly struggling from over-indulging at weekend, just about remembered what to do for the group run intro as we celebrated all those that had helped out at another hugely successful York Community Woodland parkrun, especially run director Michael 💪

I'm not being held responsible for a load of wet trainers - Ruth

After numbering off and much debate about whether the river path was open, Rich led out a small walking group, whilst Ed led the main group backmarked by Vicky and Babs. There was a little bit of confusion when we arrived as Ed and task owner Nicola hadn't agreed exactly where we would be meeting at Millennium Fields, so we gambled on a light in the distance belonging to Nicola and not a dog walker.

I was never sure whether I was supposed to be the bird or the bee - Rich

Fortunately the gamble paid off and we were soon being led down to an area that we had worked on previously where apparently the bird and bee seeds had been hugely successful. Cue some interesting conversations about the birds and bees and even bears!

Meanwhile a small splinter group featuring Jane, Daniel, Kit and Jamie got to work turning over the compost bays that have been a bit of a staple of good gym millennium fields tasks over the years. This time with the added challenge of just having 2 spades between them.

Another group armed with trowels got to work on the bee bank although I'm not entirely sure exactly what it was they were doing, but i was informed by Abi that it was very good for a particular type of butterfly 🦋

Once enough seeds were sown it was then time for a quick fitness session involving running around and getting into different sized groups depending on the number that Ed shouted out. There's still some confusion over exactly how many people were at the session tonight with every number seemingly dividing well enough to not leave anyone without a group 🤔

Stef, Abigail, Laura and David tidied up the beds at Holgate Community Garden around the raspberry canes. Abigail litter picked around the garden and the condition of the sleepers on the raised beds were also assessed and some measured up for replacement - a future task.

After the success of the inaugural parkrun at York Community Woodland last week (and the fact that under the 'Griff parkrun protocol' numbers had been kept low), run director Michael was expecting bigger numbers for that difficult second album (event). No one knew how many, but it was best to be prepared. A quick shout towards goodgym was all that was needed to help fill up the Saturday morning roster.

All was quiet at the woodlands at 8am, just a solitary horse out for a morning trot, and then a few volunteers arrived to help setup. Leanne took on the (sometimes feared) task of timekeeping, Hannah and Vicky had phones charged ready for scanning, Laura donned a high vis vest ready to cajole runners through the finish funnel, and Michal authoritatively stood by with a clipboard to keep a track of times (made much easier as a bunch of Yorkies had turned up to run so he could write down their times).

The forecast in the week had threatened rain, but thankfully it held off until later in the day, we were all thankful for this as rain can play havoc with phones for timekeeping and paper that needs to be written on, and that's before you add in getting wet and cold! The cold was still present (it is February after all), and there were a few numb fingers by the end!

As the clock neared 9 o'clock, more and more runners and walkers kept arriving, a noticeable increase on the previous week, and still they came. News reached us that the parking wasn't quite chaos, but it wasn't far off, so Michael held on until just before 9 as RD to make sure as many people as possible had made it to the start line. After a shouted run brief (no speakers yet, hopefully soon) it was time to count down and the runners were off. Vicky predicted there were 650 present, and clearly the crystal ball was working well, as after the GG'ers had helped everyone across the line, scanned them and sorted through the results the final total came to 648.

It was great to see so many GG Yorkies out running too (especially for Michal who was tasked with spotting known finishers).

By 10 the rush was over, the runners and walkers headed back off home, or to Dobbies for a well earned breakfast, and it was time to pack up.

Another task well done by the York GG'ers, who have been fabulous throughout in helping York gain a new parkrun