Spirits were high tonight as we continued our excellent start to 2026 with another great turnout. Ed, clearly struggling from over-indulging at weekend, just about remembered what to do for the group run intro as we celebrated all those that had helped out at another hugely successful York Community Woodland parkrun, especially run director Michael 💪

I'm not being held responsible for a load of wet trainers - Ruth

After numbering off and much debate about whether the river path was open, Rich led out a small walking group, whilst Ed led the main group backmarked by Vicky and Babs. There was a little bit of confusion when we arrived as Ed and task owner Nicola hadn't agreed exactly where we would be meeting at Millennium Fields, so we gambled on a light in the distance belonging to Nicola and not a dog walker.

I was never sure whether I was supposed to be the bird or the bee - Rich

Fortunately the gamble paid off and we were soon being led down to an area that we had worked on previously where apparently the bird and bee seeds had been hugely successful. Cue some interesting conversations about the birds and bees and even bears!

Meanwhile a small splinter group featuring Jane, Daniel, Kit and Jamie got to work turning over the compost bays that have been a bit of a staple of good gym millennium fields tasks over the years. This time with the added challenge of just having 2 spades between them.

Another group armed with trowels got to work on the bee bank although I'm not entirely sure exactly what it was they were doing, but i was informed by Abi that it was very good for a particular type of butterfly 🦋

Once enough seeds were sown it was then time for a quick fitness session involving running around and getting into different sized groups depending on the number that Ed shouted out. There's still some confusion over exactly how many people were at the session tonight with every number seemingly dividing well enough to not leave anyone without a group 🤔

This month's clothes swap was ridiculously busy. Lucky we had five of York's finest Goodgymmers on hand to keep things running smoothly.

Today was Penny's 100th GoodGym task so it was her turn to wear the traditional cape. I think she also went home with at least one new outfit from the clothes swap so all in all a success day for her.

It was also good to welcome back Amy after a long gap since her last clothes swap.

After an hour and a half and some serious steps, I allowed the team to get on with the rest of their Saturday. Me and Leanne stayed on to enjoy some excellent scones (thanks to Vicky for subbing me some old fashioned money to pay for it 😂)