People say that you get that warm fuzzy feeling after volunteering, but what I got today was frozen fingers... Seriously now, a group of us went to the Knavesmire first thing this morning to help with delivery of Parkrun York. Not deterred by sub zero temperatures just under 800 people turned up to run, or walk seeking that endorphin boost. GoodGym volunteers busied themselfes with roles such as the Race Director, pacer, funnel manager, barcode scanner and finish tokens handler. Many "thank you" , "well done" and "Happy New Year" wishes were shared and exchanged and from my perspective 99.9% participants had a good time, even if that wasn't their initial thought at the 3km mark. After the task the bravest of us went to another stint of volunteering on Holgate Allotments, while others went to seek some warmth at home and a cup of tea.

Theatre@41 is an independent theatre in York in a beautiful old church. Perhaps just a touch more beautiful in the outside than the inside - some of the back stage areas need a bit of TLC. In classic GoodGym fashion we made it look way worse before hopefully someone else makes it look better again.

We were tasked with stripping all the peeling paint we could reach in the green room and a stairwell. I say "green room" it was either brown or purple depending on who you asked but definitely not green. Either way, the paint was held on the wall only by force of habit and came off in sheets with the lightest on touches - in some areas not even needing a paint scrapper, it could be brushed off with a broom. For the team on the stairs it was more a case of knowing when to quit: it was a blurry line between peeling paint and crumbling plaster.

In much less than the alloted hour we'd stripped the paint from everything we could reach and turned to sweeping up, cheered along by Michael playing if you're happy and you know it on the piano. Then Nikki brought out her delicious banana and date cake before a team photo on the stairs like the bunch of luvvies that we are.