The promise of painting enticed a good turnout for tonights run.

We started off by naming and numbering off and we marked 112 years to the day since the titanic sunk by saying our favourite ways of crossing water featuring paddleboards, pedalos and platypuses!

Ed then led the group over to Park Grove in somewhat blustery conditions .... perfect for painting surely.

We were met by Vicky and split into two groups. The first set about repainting the fence (and grass in some cases). David did a great job as quality control making sure there were no gaps and Barbara's drippy bits were spread out!

The second group were tasked with freeing a bench from tree which had grown through it and clearing away plants from the fence.

All was going to plan until we felt the wind pick up and clouds gather. We quickly packed up and then the rain came just in time for fitness.

We put on brave faces and did some circuits until we finally moved under cover to do some star jumps and penguin huddling until the clouds passed.

We were greeted with a rainbow and split into four teams for a tug or war tournament. The Area Activator team won in the final (I think a coordinated effort was key rather than strength!).

We then headed back to base for a stretch and to hear about the week ahead.

Well done for braving the weather. See you next time!

This week we started by presenting our GoodGymer of the month award marvelous Max, who has been active behind the scenes on the whatsapp community as well as being a more active and engaged taskforcer. Well done Max 🍾

We also awarded the Cape of Good Deeds to our fab co-area Activator Vicky, who was completing her 400th(!) Good Deed. Amazing effort. Give Max and Vicky a big cheer.

We then set off to York Cemetery with a nice run along the river, with some obligatory wall squats along the wall. Upon arrival we were greeted by superstar Clive who was well prepared for us as always. We soon got to work with loppers, rakes, spades and shears clearing an area that was previously part of a sensory garden but was in need a bit of TLC.

It took a little while for some of the GG crew to get to grips with the difference between a rose and a bramble, but we soon found our rhythm and started making some excellent progress in what seemed like a pretty straightforward task.

However things quickly took a turn for the worse when the midges decided they didn't like being disturbed and soon started feasting on any exposed GoodGym flesh that they could get their teeth (do they have teeth?) into.

With morale dipping and the midges biting, Ed put an early end to the task and started the fitness sesh - our GG York version of Paper, Rock, Scissors featuring Squats, Pencil jumps and Star Jumps. Fortunately everyone knows that Squats blunt star jumps, pencil jumps wraps squats, and star jumps cut pencil jumps, of course!

We had a group run like attendance at the task this evening and I'm grateful for that, as we really needed every available muscle to make a dent in the 19.2 ton rain water soaked pile of sub base material. Welcomed by Jan, Callum, few other volunteers from the Friends of Group and Daisy the dog we were promptly involved in a GoodGym classic, namely spadework and wheelbarrow racing, all with the aim to create a path making Fishponds Wood accessible to all. A big number of barrow rounds was completed within our one hour task slot, however a lot of sub base material still remains for those who are keen to give it another go and see the path to completion.