The day dawned bright and sunny with not a cloud in the sky - or so it must have done outside Mitch’s window seeing as he cycled the the mission in his less than waterproof jeans. In fact, the weather was very soggy and had the rest of us wishing we had worn more clothes, waterproof socks and with a tinge of jealousy over Vicky’s umbrella (Mitch take note).

However, this did not put off 24 Yorkies who braved the rain, not to mention the large number of Junior parkrunners. Organised by GGer Michael, who was also the run director, we were given our roles and offered plenty of encouraging words to the runners as they passed.

Big shout out to Lizzie on braving the conditions and in doing so notching up an incredible 200 good deeds. Standing at the turnaround point next to a big puddle did mean getting a splash every time a runner went pass but given the conditions this hardly seemed to matter.

At the end of the task it would prove a while before getting warm and dry as most of the team were still out and about either on the next task of the day or supporting and running the infamous Brass Monkey - congrats to all for braving the conditions including Michael who seemed relieved parkrun finished just in time for him to sprint to the over in time for the start

Twelve of the Goodest Gymers of York gave up on a lie on on the first Sunday of the year to spend it encouraging the next generation of runners!

Leanne did numbertokenintostickymittpositioning

Babs did barcodebeeping

Craig did wouldntscansohadbetterwriteitalldownonaclipboardthening

Hugh, Nikki, Angela and Hannah did standinginthecoldhighfivingandcheering

Michael did trottingalongatthebacktomakesurenoonegotlosting

Paul and Rowena did littlerunnerwrangling

Nick did clickywatchbeeping

And Adi did a passable impression of a run director

Hannah and Paul were so Goodgym they didn't even have time to stop helping tidy up for the group photo although we did sneak a special photo of Paul to help compensate.

if you have never volunteered at a junior parkrun then you're missing out on one of the best ways to start your Sunday so check out the volunteer roster for future weeks - its great fun!

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/knavesmire-juniors/futureroster/

36 GG Yorkies came to improve the wildflower meadow at Millennium Fields.

Tonight we all gave massive high fives to Laura, our very own taskforce legend who only joined GoodGym in April and has already completed an amazing 50 good deeds. If you haven't cheered her yet, make sure you do!

Laura also back-marked for us, swishing her cape as we ran along the river to Millennium Fields. Jonathan was in the far corner of the meadow sending morse code signals with his torch.

The task had three parts, all to do with connecting one end of the meadow to the other, and making the edge of the woodland a wildflower haven.

1. Digging an inch of turf up in a large patch, ready to plant seeds
2. Scarifying another large patch ready for seeding
3. Planting wildflowers along the border of the woodland

Digging is popular in winter so the 9 spades got snapped up super fast, followed by the rakes. Everybody else grabbed a trowel and started planting the wildflowers.

Is this definitely a plant?

I think I've just planted some mud

Some of the wildflowers did look a bit like Jonathan had filled a small plant pot with soil and some leaves, but he assured us there were teeny tiny roots in there with perennial plants that would flower next year.

People were planting one plant and then switching with a digger or a raker but the plants were planted so quickly that Jonathan had to come up with a new task which was basically digging a whole new patch, read for seeding... but using the trowels.

Just pretend your trowel is a spade - Jonathan

Then there was another bonus task which was digging up some tansy plants from down by the river bank to plant in our newly dug out area.

Whilst all this was happening, a few people were tool-less so we did a short pilot of the fitness session, and once all the tansy was planted, the whole group gathered for an extremely complex game of stuck in the mud (with plenty of real life mud).

This version involved rescuers who can only hop, baddies who can only lunge and people who are stuck having to squat continuously until they're rescued.

I can't squat anymore, someone save me!

After everyone eventually became stuck in the mud, we made our way back along the other side of the river, with an optional 1km time trial. Kudos to everyone who boshed it, and especially to Debs who managed to run a new mile PB!

Laura made a lot of really delicious apple cake to celebrate her 50th good deed, thanks Laura!

Til next week.

An amazing 37 turned out to help with three tasks in the Groves

We welcomed along three brand new runners; the McAvoy clan of Nichola, Susan and Richard, one new-to-York and ex Norwich GoodGymer, [Rowena] who had met a bunch of the GoodGym crew whilst volunteering at junior parkrun and last but not least, an Adi who we all know from junior parkrun fame and had decided to come along and see what this GoodGym business was all about. Big cheers for all five of them!

Massive kudos to CENTURION CARL who did his 100th good deed tonight and shall run in the Centurion Cape next week.

Sadly our main bulb planting task had been scuppered as the bulbs hadn't arrived but there wasplenty to do and once we arrived at a central location, we split into three groups.

Group ONE headed to the Secret Garden with Jane

It's not that secret, I can see it from the street - Stef

Most of the team busied themselves planting crocus and daffodil bulbs in various flowerbeds whilst others dug up turf to make way for some new raised beds. Ed did the extremely vital role of leaning on a spade and initiating some debate about the plural of 'crocus'.

Group TWO weeded and extended the borders with Sara in the YUMI/Flower Power corner plot, cleared leaves and dug out borders around the trees.

Neatest border EVER (Izzy and Charlotte both LOVE a straight line)

Group THREE ran across the road to meet Vicky and Groundsman Gary in Park Grove Academy where they were tasked with cutting down a lot of willow which will be used by the kids to weave a giant wigwam.

Our walk leader and resident lumberjack Ellie was in her element, clambering amongst the willow and cutting down the biggest branches she could reach. Whilst half the team were sawing and generating a huge pile of willow, the other half dug up saplings and cleared the urban buzz garden so the wild flowers can thrive again next year.

Teams one and two finished a massive ten minutes ahead of schedule and were rewarded with a mini circuit of:

• hurdles
• press-ups
• tricep dips
• squats

...before running across the school field to help move the giant pile of willow. Anyone that stood still for too long ran back for a second circuit whilst the very last willow branch was being cut down. Tim was in charge of the circuit-zone and had added can-can kicks to the regime whilst Leanne added lunges for good measure.

That's the first time I've EVER done a lunge - Adi

We had one last run across the school field and attempted a group photo on the climbing wall before giving up and doing a normal one.

If that isn't enough good for you, there are community missions a-plenty this week so come and get involved!.