Tonight we started by celebrating Becca's 100th good deed! Amazing work, well done

After a quick warm up Ed headed off to York in Recovery's allotment with an elite group of 8... heres what they had to say

The Hob Moor allotment crew headed out to carry on the work we did last week with the guys from York in Recovery. We picked up Tristan on our way down and met up with taksowner Tracey at the allotments.

The tall chaps, Neil and Michael carried on with trimming the hedge that had been getting out of hand. Nick, Mitch and Tristan got stuck into turning over a raised bed. Carys and Sanjay helped to clear out a compost bay ready for everyone else's off cuts. And George and Ed helped to rat proof (hopefully!) the bottom of the shed by nailing some planks of wood across the bottom.

We made great progress on the various tasks and left enough time for a quick "hill" rep session on hob moor before jogging back to base

Meanwhile Leanne led out the rest of the pack to the bowling club where we did some weeding in preparation for tree planting. We were finished in plenty of time for some running drills and a slice of Lyn's delicious Victoria sponge or lemon cake! They do spoil us!

It was then back to base and a few went off to the pub for a refreshment.

👋 An incredible 35 people arrived for our group run tonight. There was a lot to celebrate, including two people attending their first task - both called Nick! Welcome to both of you. We also had Pete winning our prestigious GoodGymmer of the month for some excellent good-deeding and helpfulness in September. Well done Pete! We also had a duathlon, 15k PB and marathon PB to celebrate - well done everyone.

🏃‍♀️ 🚴 We warmed up all together then split into two groups for our tasks, with running and cycling groups. 10 people headed to Rowntree Park to help set up the Make Space for Girls art installation. Here's what Lucy had to say about it:

🛏️ Following a preliminary trip to prepare the ground in August, we returned to Rowntree Park to support an art installation as part of the Make Space for Girls project. Based on the concept of creating a safe space - the bedroom - outdoors, it involved carefully positioning (and half-burying) a table, bedside cabinet and headboard in the ground. The earth was still fairly hard after the recent dry spell, but the team set to work with a will, using all the tools available (spade, fork, hoe, sharpened stake...) to "bed" everything in as securely as possible. The artwork looks fantastic and it was great to be able to support this great initiative for girls.

🪏 Meanwhile, the rest of us headed to Park Grove School to help maintain the forest school area. There was plenty to dig up and cut back so we all got stuck in, with a huge range of tool sizes, from the small children's hand forks to the full-sized versions.

🐝 Unfortunately, a wasp/bee nest was found and a couple of people got stung. Not very fair karma for the good they were doing. But Vicky acted quickly and we avoided that area for the rest of the task.

🙌 Luckily, there was plenty of space to be able to avoid that area and we managed to make good progress clearing the space.

💪 After that, it was time for a group photo and then a proper fitness session! Still fun though, especially attempting to traverse a child-sized climbing wall!

🍰 Soon, it was time to head back to base/the pub to enjoy some delicious lemon drizzle cake, courtesy of Babs. Thank you! We also enjoyed some fairly in-depth chat about campanology (although apparently bell ringers prefer the term bell ringer...) 🔔

👍 Thanks everyone, and see you soon!

Age UK ran their first 'Race the Boat' event in York. This was an over 50's race organised by our very own Carl Wain which entailed a race down the river to beat a York Boat. GG were invited to help with running this first event, hopefully in view of future races!

Mitch led a warm up before the boat gave three bellows of the horn. Time for the race to start! Our marshall's Charlotte, Dom and James were already in position, as well as our trusty timekeepers Rebecca, David and James, and finally Laura was prepped for time conversion and certificate writing.

After 20 minutes or so, and a smooth operation, the race was finished, with lots of happy runners excited to do it again next year.

Well done Carl, it was an amazing event.

Tonight we returned to Greenfields for another night helping out the fab team there. But before setting off we congratulated Jane for completing an epic half marathon at the weekend, Matt for a very speedy relay effort, and Ed for managing to drink a fair bit during a half marathon round Sheffield 🥂

Jamie led the run out with Vicky, Babs and Pete bringing up the rear and as soon as we arrived we were off to work focusing on 3 key jobs. Team 1 were in charge of picking the apples from the main orchard area, Team 2 were tasked with tarting up the entrance to the community garden and Team 3 were trimming weeds and bushes closer to the storage shed.

There was a bit of confusion over at Team 1 when some rotten apples kept appearing in Leanne's good apple tray but the crises was soon averted (even if no one did own up). Meanwhile Jane got a lesson in how to use a little hand scythe thing and Becca tried her hand at modeling.

Things appeared to be going a bit smoother over at Teams 2 and 3, although there was a fair bit of stoppage time to get some pretty photos of the sunset, the tasks were completed promptly, even though Ed struggled to get a photo of Abel as he kept hiding behind a tree!

Once the task was done it was time for the obligatory symmetrical group photo, as is tradition at Greenfields, with the team getting more and more adventurous with their poses. There were even bikes involved in this one!

Then it was time for a quick fitness game featuring some skipping, some rock paper scissors and a bit of carnage to decide an overall winner!

We started the evening with what was supposed to be a quick and fun beanbag name, but turns out it works better with well behaved children than goodgym!

We celebrated Matt's Great North run and other achievements before splitting into two groups- a faster group with Ed to Clarence Street Gardens and a steady pace plus walking group with Vicky to the Groves.

At the Groves- we were met by Tracy plus a lady from York TV. The group split and headed off to do various tasks- hanging lights in trees, shifting slabs, weeding a courtyard, moving soil and raking piles of earth. Whilst all this was going on John kindly did the interview for tv.

In Ed's group

The Clarence Garden crew arrived and quickly continued the work that we'd started a few weeks ago. Mostly filling sacks full of the wildflower cuttings, shifting them over to the skips and then tipping them out.

The skips quickly filled up so Michael and Ed, in the absence of our usual bin dwellers, got stuck in and trampled down the cuttings so we could continue to pile the loads on top.

With time running out and the skips being fit to burst, we finished off by filling up the remaining tonne sacks and making a quick dash back across the gardens before leaving them next to the skips with just enough time to get creative for our team photo

We then all reconvened at the art gallery for a bean bag race with the new teeny tiny beanbags and hoops, posed as statues, then headed back to base.

Another successful night!