🙌 21 excellent GoodGymmers, undeterred from the recent rain shower met for our weekly group run, and were rewarded by no further rain for the evening 🌦️

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Lizzy for her first GoodGym session. We hope you had fun and would love to see you again 😁

👑 We were also delighted to welcome Ivo who founded GoodGym who visited us from London 🏙️

🥳 There were celebrations aplenty for some brilliant efforts at the Vale of York half marathon on Sunday, which was Laura's first half, a PB for Ed and Nicky and excellently run by Vicky and David. Well done to everyone for getting back out on tired legs tonight 🏅

🍫 We named, numbered and warmed up while discussing our favourite chocolate bars/snacks. From dark chocolate Bounties to salted caramel Twixes and the classic Milky Way, it was an enlightening (if not mouthwatering) experience 🤤

🏃‍♀️🚲🚶 It was then time to head off to Greenfields, with running, run-walking and cycling options. We were greeted with an introduction to the space and quickly split into four teams to get to work 💪

🍓 Some people were lopping brambles while others were neatening up the compost piles. We also had a scything and raking team, giving Ivo his first experience of scything (maybe a new life skill to take back to London?!) 👨‍🌾

⏰ Time flew with the fun that was had so it was time to finish up in no time. After gathering for the obligatory symmetrical(ish) photo, we said farewell to our run-walkers. Tonight's fitness session combined the cones of joy with (two different) dice of doom and some appropriate fitness music to create something that could be adapted to the soreness levels of the legs 😴

🤩 After that, it was time to head back to base to stretch off, cool down and hear about all the exciting sessions we've got coming up, before heading to home or the pub 🍻

🙈 Sorry for the poor pun tonight, my inspiration levels were low 🤦🏼‍♀️

👌22 GoodGymmers met on a pleasant post-bank holiday Monday evening for our weekly group run🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

💍We celebrated the very exciting news of Amy and Ed's GoodGym engagement and chatted about what we've got coming up this week.

👑 We named and numbered whilst saying what we'd provide a never-ending supply of if we were a monarch. From beer to cycle lanes to love, we'd make a lovely monarchy 🍻 🚲❤️

🎨After a quick warm up, we set off to run/walk to Park Grove School to continue painting their fences. Most people remembered to wear suitable painting clothes (some of us didn't 😳).

🤺 We got to work quickly, splitting into pairs and groups to cover as much of the fence as possible. Some excellent teamwork meant that we were able to finish painting the fence (including underneath!) a lovely shade of green in the time we were there 💚

🥳 While a few people completed the finishing touches, the rest of us played a quick game of Stick in the Mud. Once everyone had finished painting, those of us with painty hands cleaned that off before we were stuck with green hands for life. We then grouped together for some "Dice of Doom" fitness. Our lack of weights may have got in the way of the shoulder presses but there was some excellent planking and push ups, making for a good workout. A group photo and birthday squats for all the recent birthdays completed our fitness 📸

🍪 Thus, feeling fit, we ran/walked back to base to stretch off, eat baked goods and head homewards or to the pub. Three folk had baked tonight, which was greatly enjoyed, alongside a Taskforce chat about what we'd like to do at GoodGym York going forwards. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, do let me (or anyone in Taskforce) know 🤔

Thanks for a brilliant evening everyone 🙌

☀️19 optimistic GoodGymmers met on a sunny Monday evening, generally pretty confident that the rain had passed for the day (more on that later) 🥳

🌴We discussed our favourite trees (featuring some controversial Googling from Paul Kelly and Leanne) then participated in an ever-so-slightly different based on Chinese whispers warm up 🤔

🌤️We headed off into the sunshine towards Greenfields Garden. On arrival, the eagle-eyed among us spotted a very dark cloud on the horizon. Some of us remained optimistic that it would wait until after our session to deposit its rain 🤞

🌱Continuing this optimism, we split into three groups and set to work. One group were on compost bin duties, another group were working on the big green pile (featuring some joyous jumping by Amy) while the final group dug/scraped weeds off paths to be woodchipped 🌿

😢We were sorry to hear of the fire that had affected the garden recently and hope that the damage benches can be replaced and the shelter mended 🔨

🌧️Despite (or maybe because of) our optimism, the rain fell. And it didn't just rain, it poured. Some of us were prepared with coats/jumpers/waterproof hats (Paul Kelly) while others just got very wet. Despite the slight (and very literal) dampener, we cracked on and worked through the short(ish) and (very) sharp shower ☔

💪When the compost and green pile group had finished, Louise from the garden decided she'd really like the woodchip spreading on the cleared paths this evening. So we all joined in to make that happen. There was scraping, digging and barrowing galore and soon, the woodchip was moved and spread to make some lovely new paths 🌟

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️That left time for a quick (and ever-so-slightly competitive) fitness game before we jogged back and stretched together. We then parted ways, heading home or to the pub to dry our soggy bottoms 🍻☕

🙌19 excellent GoodGymmers arrived for our double-deed group run today. We were thrilled to welcome Madeleine for her first session with us and hope you enjoyed it 👋

🎤After a quick round of "What did you want to be when you were younger?" (which featured Blue Peter presenters and pop singers), Mitch led his team in a running warm up as they set off for Heworth Without. Here's what he had to say about what they got up to...

⚡So despite the far distance, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five arrived at Jubilee Wood. Unfortunately, some vandals had removed some trees, so we were first tasked with planting some new ones 🌱

💪After a quick 15 minutes of digging, we had the trees all planted!

🌳Since we'd made quick work of the trees, we were then tasked with filling in some low spots with bark. These are getting waterlogged in rain, so needed topping up. Not wasting any time, we got straight to work, barrowing and spreading the woodchip. After 30 minutes, we'd made a massive start, but will need to come back to fill in the rest of the low spots 💦

🚚Meanwhile, the rest of us warmed up round the car park then set off for West Bank Park. After leading us to the wrong entrance (sorry everyone), we eventually tracked down Kristina and the van. The rain threatened but luckily didn't really materialise into anything significant (which Ed was particularly grateful for). And what a treat she had in store for us, with not one but two "interesting" tasks for us 🤔

🌊Half the group were tasked with clearing the pond. Armed with heavy metal spikes (aka fake mics for the wannabe popstars among us), we started off watching Ed and Stef stab holes in the pond liner, whilst being on frog and newt watch. Sadly, this wasn't overly successful so other tactics were employed. These included shovelling out stones, digging trenches and eventually organising a bucket relay 💨

🤢Oh, and all of this with the background smell of pond water and the very real risk of being splash with/falling into said smelly pond water. We like to live on the edge here 🤠

🦎On the plus side, a newt and a frog were both rescued from the pond during our work 🐸

💡Kristina has a number of ideas of what she'd like to do with the pond. One idea is to build another pond, with various options for alternative lining material (possibly concrete). Another is to build a bog area 🐾

🤺Meanwhile, the less mucky crew were constructing a fence. Dom and Martin banged fence posts in while Claire, Madeleine and Amy foraged for and cut up brash, which will eventually form part of the fence. The background to this task was the satisfying clunk of the fence posts being pushed in 👌

😳 Both our West Bank Park tasks revealed themselves to be bigger than we'd bargained for. And when we realised that all the pond tools should probably be cleaned before being put back in the van, we sadly had to sacrifice our intended hill reps. Everyone was pleased to learn that there was still a hill on the route back to base though, so we got some fitness in there (along with the mattocking, malloting, shovelling and barrowing that was part of the tasks) 👍

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️A slightly speedier run back to base minus a few people who decided to head straight home meant that we were less late back than we might have been, and were nearer in arrival time to our Heworth friends 😁

🥳Thank you for your hard work tonight everyone. We may not be able to say that the West Bank Park pond looks better than when we arrived but it's in a position for the work to be continued by Kristina's group on Thursday. And I understand that there may be another session at Heworth to finish the work there too 😎