The promise of painting enticed a good turnout for tonights run.

We started off by naming and numbering off and we marked 112 years to the day since the titanic sunk by saying our favourite ways of crossing water featuring paddleboards, pedalos and platypuses!

Ed then led the group over to Park Grove in somewhat blustery conditions .... perfect for painting surely.

We were met by Vicky and split into two groups. The first set about repainting the fence (and grass in some cases). David did a great job as quality control making sure there were no gaps and Barbara's drippy bits were spread out!

The second group were tasked with freeing a bench from tree which had grown through it and clearing away plants from the fence.

All was going to plan until we felt the wind pick up and clouds gather. We quickly packed up and then the rain came just in time for fitness.

We put on brave faces and did some circuits until we finally moved under cover to do some star jumps and penguin huddling until the clouds passed.

We were greeted with a rainbow and split into four teams for a tug or war tournament. The Area Activator team won in the final (I think a coordinated effort was key rather than strength!).

We then headed back to base for a stretch and to hear about the week ahead.

Well done for braving the weather. See you next time!

on our final day of the January challenge the committment of the Yorkies was still strong.

We efficiently barrowed a big pile of woodchip around the forest school and built up an appetite for curry!

❄️ 21 of us met on a chilly but dry Monday evening for our group run. Once we’d dragged ourselves from the (very) warm room into the cold, we named, numbered and warmed up while discussing our favourite Christmas food. Lots of sweet and savoury classics featured, along with Max’s “traditional” Christmas Eve lasagne. I think we know where we’ll all be heading on the 24th this year…

☃️ We also celebrated Rich‘s achievement of not (quite) being caught whilst dressed as a mince pie in the 3k Chase the Pud race yesterday.

🚚 Once warmed up, Tristan led our run to the task (while two of us cycled). After a last-minute cancellation due to a broken-down van, Vicky had saved the day by letting us come to Park Grove School. Once there, we split into three groups to get to work.

🎄The first task was to finish chopping willow, something that a number of people were so keen to do that they started heading off there without any tools! Trees were climbed and branches were sawed to the sound of shouts to warn anyone in the vicinity. And I can confirm that the prettily-decorated (non-willow) Christmas tree was not harmed in the process.

🍂 Meanwhile, another team were doing some classic autumnal leaf-clearing, sweeping/raking the paths and nearby grass and gathering a good haul.

🌱 Thirdly, what was thought to be the least popular task also gathered some noble volunteers, for some weeding. New plants have been planted near the fence we’ve helped erect and then paint. Sadly, weeds have started appearing (including our arch-enemy, the infamous bindweed). Said weeds therefore needed removing to offer these new plants a chance to thrive.

🙌 All the teams got to work with gusto and make a big difference to each of their areas. Before we knew it, it was time to finish. It was therefore all hands on deck to gather the remaining willow branches and drag them to the wildlife area.

😁 Thank you Vicky (and Gary the caretaker), we hope we’ve managed to do something helpful in return for you helping us out with a task last-minute.

💪 Thank you also to Tristan who led our fitness session based on that classic primary school game “Stuck in the Mud”, with added squats, skipping and lunges. It was soon time to head back to base for a cool-down before heading home/to the pub.

🎅 Thank you everyone, and see you for more Christmassy fun, at the Santa sleigh on Wednesday evening and/or our Christmas party on Friday evening.

goodgym turned out in force tonight despite the very cold weather. perfect night for an indoor task.

The early arrivers helped to set up, then we all got started on wrapping a wide array of goods and books.

Fuelled with mince pies we worked hard for an hour and got lots done!

Some foll then headed off for another task and everyone else headed home!

🦉 22 excellent GoodGymmers gathered on a chilly Monday evening for our weekly group run. We named, numbered and warmed up whilst discussing our favourite birds. Owls were popular, although some folk went for the innuendo options!

✌️We had two tasks this evening so split into two groups and parted ways. Here’s what Ed had to say about the Park Grove crew:

🧸 On arriving at Park Grove we split off into two teams. Nikki G had unfinished business with a mound of earth so swiftly got to work with a spade along with Laura, Jenna and Cara. The second team armed themselves with loppers and saws and set about cutting the willow trees down to size. All was going well until the lights from the school went out and Lucy discovered a very creepy doll nestled in one of the trees.

🃏 After completing the task the two teams joined together for a round of card based fitness. Each person taking it in turn to 'draw a card' (press a button on Ed's phone) which determined the subsequent exercise. There may be a few sore logs after waaaaay too many squats!

🍎 Meanwhile, at Holgate Community Orchard, we’d been promised destruction (hence it was a popular option!)

💥 They’re wanting to build some new sheds so the area surrounding the old sheds needed clearing, which involved some fairly heavy labour! Rich, Dan and Max set to with removing a stake from the ground, digging, mattocking and tugging until eventually, it came out! Others were shifting bricks, picking them up and digging them out. Again, a very manual task!

🪵 The other half of our Holgate crew were “Team Stick”. These guys were moving previously-piled sticks to a new location and removing side-branches/“nobbles”. The sticks were then sorted by girth and shortened to the 60cm standard. Much discussion over the accuracy of everyone’s 60cm measurement ensued, with Dom claiming to have “an unerring sense of 60cm”.

🌳 With two minutes remaining, Helen asked if one final job could be completed - sawing down a (small) tree stump. Rich volunteered and completed this quickly.

📸 And with that, it was time for a group photo and fitness session before a run back to base and on to the pub for some.

👏 Thank you everyone, good work 💪

For the second week in a row, we had a last minute task cancellation, and once again, our triumphant taskforce overachieved by pulling a trio of tasks out of the bag to replace the original one.

We welcomed Rachel to her first Goodgym task and Marianne to her first Goodgym York session, and congratulated Mitch on his epic PB at Kielder half marathon yesterday.

Then, after a Mr Men themed warm-up, we split into three teams:

Delightful Dom took his team of four around the corner, a whole 140m away, to continue weeding at Prospect Terrace.

He said: A small group braved the 140m run to Prospect Terrace, continuing on the good work started last week. Local councillor, Pete, brought us a heavy bag to fill and we got started.

Four of us cleared weeds from the beds, making space for a wider range of plants and pollinators in the spring. We spent a good chunk of time, and pretty much cleared the beds of all the 'weeds', meaning more plants will have a chance at growing - to the benefit of the humans and pollinators of Prospect Terrace!

We then went on a gentle 1.6km run to cap things off before heading to the Ackhorne

Marvellous Mitch took his team of 8 to meet Valiant Vicky at Park Grove School

(His legs were a bit worn out from his epic run yesterday, so Pete actually led the run, while Mitch pedalled slowly behind!)

Mitch said:

We arrived at Vicky's school and faced the large pile of soil we needed to shift. The task was to barrow and shovel this soil and fill in some raised beds.

In GG fashion we got stuck in. It may have been pitch black, some of us may have forgotten our headtorches, but after 40 minutes we made a massive dent in the pile!

One more session and we will have this pile cleared!

Legendary Leanne took her team of 7 to Fishergate Triangle to continue to prepare the ground for creating a wildflower meadow (aka weeding)

She said:

St Nicks were pleased to find that we could offer an extra session this week which may very well bring us closer to victory in the war against those remarkably resilient weeds. Fortunately they're much easier to dig up nowadays due to our previous efforts, and we managed to (re)clear two significant sections of the triangle. Our task owner, Maeve reported that there should soon be a delivery of woodchip which will be spread over the soil to slow down the regrowth and give the wildflower meadow a chance to get underway.

On the mention of a triangle-based fitness session on the way back to base, a trio of goodgymers mysteriously remembered they had some urgent business to attend to back home, so didn't run back with us. The last four standing made our way to Tower Gardens where we ran some intervals along the sides of the triangle there, and threw in some skipping, lunging and galloping for good measure.

Another successful trio of tasks completed. See you next week for more Goodgym York adventures!