A Group of Goodgym members dodged the stormy weather on a bank holiday Monday and had Allot(ment) of fun digging out an overgrown allotment for Tang Hall school. On an evening which was surrounded by danger of possible thunderstorms and midges in the air our goodgym team brave and strong made light work of an overgrown nettle and bramble infested allotment, clearing the way for a future haven of nature at Tang Hall school.

Witnessing Jamie deservedly win April Goodgymmer of the month award and after completing the task being subjected to a beasting by Vicky similar to SAS who dares wins, our team battled through and left feeling fitter and with a sense of pride in the work they'd achieved on what had been a beautiful sunny day up to about an hour before the goodgym task!

I'm sure we'll all sleep well tonight and wake a little fitter in the morning.

As it was the festival of Holi we started by saying something colourful that makes us smile as we named and numbered off. With Laura leading, Stef backmarking and Pete keeping track in the middle we ran 2k to St Chad's Scout Hut. We had been prewarned that we couldn't do the painting part of the task which we discovered on arrival was due to a toilet falling off the wall! However there was an abundance of gardening tasks to complete. We were given a tour of the gardens and shown the tasks before setting at them with loppers, secateurs, saws and wheelbarrows.

Ed and Abigail stripped the dead leaves off the palm trees while Pete, Nikki, Max and Stef got sawing. Unfortunately Pete was a bit overenthusiastic with his saw and caught his leg causing the first aid kit to make an outing.

Lyndsey and Leanne did an incredibly neat job of pruning a hedge and everyone else got to work cutting back brambles.

Afterwards we did a twist on our pairs alternate running game with the challenge of swapping with a different person each time with the non runner picking a new way of moving each time they returned. We then headed back to base for stretching and cake courtesy y of Lyndsey.

We started tonight's group run by belatedly awarding our GoodGymer of the month accolade for February to the marvelous Nikki , who had continued her January exploits into Feb and been a shining example for other Task Forcers. Well done Nikki 👏

We also welcomed newcomer Sarah who was doing her first ever task tonight. Let's give her a big cheer 👋

A bit of daytime drama meant that our services were required elsewhere, so instead of going to Ashton Park, tonight's group run saw us head to Clarance Gardens for a spot of unsupervised wildflower seed spreading! Ed did his best to explain what was required of us, and with a few suggestions from the rest of the team, we soon decided on a system that saw everyone lining up a meter apart, with a few seed topper-uppers running between them all 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️

Babs seem to focus on quantity rather than quality and raced ahead of the rest of the line of seed spreaders, whereas Graham took a bit more time and care with his seeds and stamping. Let's see when they bloom who had the best technique!

With most people having whizzed through their seed portions in lightning quick time, we needed to fill the rest of the session with something or risk an early pub exodus. So Leanne led a congo/indian file stamping line to make sure that no spot was left un-stomped.

Before too long it was time for the fitness session and an opportunity to get to know each other a little better. The GGers ran in a circle (again led by Leanne) and made thier way into the middle for an exercise every time Ed called out something that they had done before. Unsurprisingly almost all GGers have baked a cake or planted a tree in their lifetime. Unfortunately we didn't uncover too many secret tattoos though!

Huge well done to everyone for a fab session. Next week it's off to St Chad's scout hut for a classic painting task!

Five minutes before we were due to set off on our group run we got a call saying the council van had been broken in to and they needed to cancel.

A quick phone call and we swiftly rearranged to go to Park Grove and do next week's task a week earlier.

We warmed up and numbered off saying what we'd like a day to be named after as we were unimpressed by it being National Arabian Horse Day. Goodgym and running featured and the other end if the spectrum with do nothing day and stay in bed day!

We also celebrated some outstanding running at Snake Lane 10 with PBs galore. Well done!

We then headed off to task with Leanne as run leader, Pete middle marking and Amy bringing up the rear.

Once we arrived, Gary had lots of tools ready for us to divide into team hedge weeding and team woodchip Spreading (woodchip proving more popular!)

We managed to clear the whole pile of chips with plenty of time for some circuits including a bit of playground hopscotch.

Our route home took in a pit stop at the amazing light display on the art gallery.