A crowd of GG Yorkies ran to Applefields School to do all sorts of good!

First of all though, we had some massive cheers to give out:

• New runner Gabby joining us on a big run despite 'not being a runner'
• Barbara gaining her wings having done 100 good deeds
• Veteran Leanne casually slipping in her 200th good deed on a coach run last week
• Another cheer for Carl who got to wear the (delayed) Cape of Good Deeds for 50 good deeds!

At the school we were met by May, who had a clipboard and a plan. In the plan was a photograph, which was our guide of which plants were plants (and needed keeping). May handed the plan to me but I knew this was a terrible plan so I quickly palmed it off to Caped-Carl who did an excellent job of being in charge and making sure the weeds got pulled and the plants stayed safe.

People were saying they didn't think you'd get all this done! - May (little did she know....)

Another group had been tasked with painting a bench. Easy? Well.. no. This group had 12 minutes to paint said bench, which was in the computer room, before the school went into lockdown at 7pm. Not only were there concerns about being trapped in the school overnight, but the bench was on a tiny sheet in a very clean room with very clean carpet. Paint-team member, Mel, does not have the best track record with paint but the challenge was on.

Meanwhile Paul had found himself solo in the sensory garden, emptying all the old pot plants and tubs and thoroughly enjoying himself in amongst the smell of all the rosemary and sage.

BEST TOOL EVER! It's a turbo gripping tool! - Leanne

Leanne had found her happy place with a tool which scraped the ground like no other before it. She gleefully grappled the weeds whilst everyone else was digging some holes for the roses which needed to be planted. We'd made quick work of that job and so it was onto another; digging over a grassy/weedy area to lay compost and plant more plants (and roses) along the edge of a big wire fence.

I feel like I'm looking into a prison of manual labour - Emily

Again, the team made quick progress, even with Tim just constantly trying to throw compost in all the wrong places. Loz and Nick ran off to plant the last rose whilst Norb finished up sprinkling the rest of the compost over both the newly scarified beds.

The painting team had escaped and it was all fine, so we ran back via a celebratory workout.

The 100 workout!

Small teams had a series of exercises to complete and could choose how many of each they did so long as the total added up to 100. Simple. The team log roll was extremely popular and some people did a forward roll for the first time in many, many years.

Becky, Ellie B, Norb and Gabby had gone to our originally planned destination and so stickler Tim ran to them and made sure they did their workout too. Ellie B apparently kicked Becky in the face (but everyone was fine) and Becky had extremely tired legs so opted to pretty much do 100 sit-ups, phew!

Gabby was new so I had to try really hard not to kick her in the face - well done Becky

We came back and ate lots of lovely cake from Huw and brownies from Babs, yay!

An enormous team of GG Yorkies ran to complete three tasks helping out in Scarcroft Green, Glen Gardens and 'The Nose' at St Clements Church

After welcoming our new runners we gave some massive cheers to Carl as it was his 50th Good Deed! Carl has been with us since the very first run and he shall wear the Cape of Good Deeds next week once err.. I've found it in my house move.

We also gave a massive shout out to all the runners who raced at Endure24 over the weekend and turned up all tired and with sore legs, especially Tim and Becky who not only came 2nd in the mixed pairs, running 135 miles, but also both volunteered for the longer run this evening!

Hardcore Endure24 runner, Paul, led out the longer run team to Glen Gardens whilst other hardcore Endure24 runner, Leanne, led out the second longest group to St Clements Church (which was a whole extra 200m past our shortest run of 550m).

At Scarcroft Green we had loads of different tasks going on:

• edging the pathways
• clearing overgrown greenery from the path
• cutting back low branches on trees
• clearing a huge area of overgrown shrubbery
• doing a litter pick

Everyone swiftly split into their teams, grabbed some tools and ran off. Whilst Graham was chuntering away about blisters on his delicate hands, new runner Karen was straight in, scraping the path edges and pulling up the rogue turf and weeds. Everyone on path edging was very amused with the teeny tiny brushes that sort of looked like giant toothbrushes, but they were surprisingly effective.

Whilst John was litter picking he found a painted stone which we gave to Helen to take on an adventure to the Lake District. So thorough with his task, he accidentally found the same stone 5 minutes later!

Maddy managed to find a tiny bicycle on her litter picking adventure and it was taken for a spin before being added to the growing pile of bags. With 3 minutes left on the clock, everyone joined in to frantically sweep and clear the last of the paths before we met the other teams for a group pic and fitness sesh.

Team Nose Weed (written by Leanne)

This super six must have run really fast on the way out as they arrived at St Clement's Church 10 minutes early. While they waited for taskmaster, Lyndall to arrive they located "The Nose" and had a 'nose' around. It's a community garden full of delicious treats: raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, potatoes, courgettes, and much more.

Lyndall asked us to edge the flower beds and get rid of any weeds to make it look more presentable for a forthcoming open day.

It wasn't long before everyone was hard at work. Every so often there was a shout of:

Has this bit been done? (practically everyone at some point)

Despite this, it did look a fair bit neater and most certainly 'done' by the end of the task. At the 30 second call, Mitch quadrupled his productivity in removing some grass from the last flower bed and just managed to finish his patch within the allotted time.

We paused for a quick snack picked freshly from the garden before the long run back round the corner to Scarcroft Green. There we joined the rest of the crew for Egg's fitness session.

FITNESS!!!

Tonight's fitness session involved a bit of push/pull with a partner and I think we have to applaud Katie F who gave a heroic effort in pushing Huw who is at least double her height. Kudos to Barbara also who paired with her own daughter and immediately regretted it, Ellie G is an absolute powerhouse!

After all that we split into four big teams for a planking and commando crawling relay - which everyone definitely completed and there was no cheating, none.

As we gathering for our final group piccie of the night, we were joined by the ward councillor, Jonny Crawshaw, who gave us a big thank you before we ran the whole 550m back to base.

A fantastic 50 GG Yorkies came along for a huge task to help Tang Hall Smart!

It was brilliant to welcome along so many first timers to the run tonight, and a big shout out to Amanda who rallied the troops from her own Monday night running group to help us out, we love a bit of collaboration.

With Leanne leading the way, we headed over to the Burnholme Community Hub and were welcomed by the extremely well-prepared Sue Williamson, Founder of this incredible community company. Sue told us a little bit about all the amazing things they are doing before showing us all the stuff we needed to move. Furniture, tables, computers, amps and more, it all needed moving from the old building to the new, fancy purpose-built building which was just next door.

If the sticker is red, it has to go upstairs. If the sticker is blue, it also has to go upstairs.

Everybody desperately tried to find something with a yellow or green sticker and soon a swarm of good was making it's way across the bit of wasteland in between the old and new site. Over at the new Hub, Al and other Tang Hall Smart folk were on hand to make sure all the kit ended up in the right room.

We were all delighted to see Sean, who was our official GG photographer for the evening. For those that don't know, Sean has been a keen GG Yorkie and mission runner from the beginning, but has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. You can read his story here. It's brilliant to have you back Sean!

As you can see from Sean's fabulous photos, some of the equipment was particularly large, with filing cabinets, a piano and a huge photocopier in the mix.

I think you shouldn't carry the piano up the stairs - Becky, very sensible

A few of our runners got distracted doing a spot of filming with Abigail from BBC York, but she was getting them to lunge so I didn't mind and let them crack on with it.

In an unbelievable 25 minutes, everything was moved, way ahead of schedule! It is really mind-blowing what you can achieve with a bit of people power.

With all that time to spare, we had a great little percussion session and made beautiful GoodGym music (or a truly terrible din..) with Laurence on the drums and Sue on the sax. There were also jumping squats and lunges, obviously.

With all our good done, we completed mini running drills to get our legs fired up for the 3km run back to base.

A massive 32 GG Yorkies turned out to dig up bits of Rowntree Park and then fill them in again

Since Egg is off 'recovering' from her foot operation, Leanne was leading the charge tonight. We started by welcoming new runners Katie and Freya, and nearly new runner Ed who was trying out his first group run after having such a good time on a community mission last week.

There was a quick health and safety themed warm-up (probably more fun than it sounds) before setting out on our short run to Rowntree Park. Stef immediately ran off into the distance, like he hadn't run a trail half marathon yesterday. He was first on the scene, with the rest of our cheerful crowd not too far behind him. Egg had also managed to hobble from the car park and decided to make herself useful by being on photography duty.

We split into three teams, each with their own distinct job, all at different ends of the park. It turns out that Egg had stitched Leanne right up - instead of a nice relaxing chat with the task owner whilst making sure everyone stayed safe and worked to time, she spent 45 minutes sprinting from one end of the park to the other to make sure everyone was okay!

The first group were tasked with digging up the perimeter of a rectangle of turf, to make just the right size foundations for four giant planters. Fortunately, the task owners had spray-painted the outline on the turf. For the first time in the history of GoodGym York, some straight lines were dug! Not to make it too easy, they also needed to dig out some litter bins with concrete foundations, then replant them elsewhere in the park.

Our second group of good deeders got to work in preparing a long trail of worn down turf for new grass seeds. They grabbed forks and spades to turn over the sections that had worn away after becoming waterlogged. Without this work, the worn out sections of grass would just get larger, eventually turning the park into a mud bath.

Meanwhile, group three were presented with a wheelbarrow and shovel each, and 5 tonnes of topsoil. Their task was to relocate the soil on top of the newly turned-over turf so that it was ready for the digging group to sprinkle grass seeds and then stamp them into the ground. It looked like heavy work. Even so, Aidan declined the suggestion of swapping jobs with someone else at the half way point:

It's not really a workout unless you're destroyed at the end

On the other side of the coin, Marathon-Legs-Nick declared that this was enough of a workout and he should be excused from any sort of fitness session.

After 45 minutes, the group gathered back together for the end-of-task photo before being led to a patch of park for a relay challenge with added fitness stations. The relay included:

• Star jumps
• Walking lunges
• Squats
• Skipping
• Mountain climbers
• A bit of running.

One of the teams was short a member, so one-legged Egg stepped in and heroically hobbled through all of the exercises, helping her team to come last!

Since it was Lucy's birthday, everyone completed some 'Happy Birthday Squats' to celebrate before running back to base for a cool down, then a post run pint.