On a beautiful autumnal morning 2,961 people gathered at York University campus in readiness to run in the Yorkshire Marathon. Another 1,567 folks were patiently waiting to start their 10mile race after the marathoners have departed.

A strong group of Yorkies and visitors from further afield represented GoodGym in the race.

Char, representing her baby charity Bookhounds came all the way from Liverpool to run the marathon in an amazing 03:49:56, making it her new PB.

Amy ran her first ever marathon and made to the finish line in an awesome 04:23:55. She dedicated her efforts to fundraise for the ME (chronic fatigue) Association. Her fundraiser is still open, just click here

Amy's wasn't the only fundraiser. Debs and Amy ran the 10 miler dedicating it to one of our favourite charities Move the Masses. Donations are still welcome here

Nicola grabbed a last minute place in the Marathon relay team helping to fundraise for York Samaritans. Turns out she joined the fastest team and they WON it! You can still donate to this great cause here.

And the rest of us, including me, joined the fun to achieve their own goals wheather it was running their first ever marathon, supporting their partner, achieving a new PB, discovering how far you can push yourself, training for more demanding ultra marathon, getting ready for the 12ks of Christmas, or just simply having fun and enjoying the day.

There are two quotes from the day that I want to share with you. First one is from Tristan's hero, a long distance runner Emil Zatopek and that one really is true:

If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon

The second quote is from one of the spectators. He stood on the side of the road about 10k before the finish line, so at the point where you start questioning the wisdom of your decision to run a marathon and when you are propelled mainly by your willpower.

This pain is only temporary, but Strava is forever

5 GG Yorkies met in a spot of glorious sunshine to carry on the weeding of the beds at Danesgate School. It's also Ellie's 200th good deed - hurrah!

Laura, who attended the first bash at the weeding swore that they cleared two beds, but it had grown back with such vigor that it led to John contemplating if the roots of the weeds were from the Roman times. So, unsurprisingly, the task was to re-weed the bed next to reception before putting down some weed matting to stop them growing back for a third time.

We all got stuck in, but top marks go to Paul who was just a weeding machine. Bonus points are also awarded to our resident archaeologist Jon, who managed to find some pottery which he somewhat vaguely dated as 'post-medieval'. Once the hour was up, it was time to spread the matting over the cleared section and weigh it down with the ton sack of weeds and roots, and two very pretty pots of hostas.

Unfortunately, it looks like it'll need revisiting again to try and wrangle it under control - possibly with a bigger team next time!