It was a wet and windy one tonight, but that couldn't dampen our spirits because there was just so much to celebrate this week! We kicked off with a shout out to Stef who took on one of the 'Grim Up North' events at the weekend, and despite his lack of training, managed to get round in a very respectable time. We also give a big cheer to the crew who had tackled the Marathon du Medoc featuring 23 glasses of wine over 26.2 in the French sunshine. More importantly, we also had the news this week that GG regular, Abigail, had given birth to baby Dylan. Huge congratulations to her and Martin. We'll forgive her for not being at GG this week but expect normal service to resume next Monday!

After all that celebrating, and with the rain lashing down, Mitch set off with the walking group whilst Ed led a quick warm up before setting off the running group, ably backmarked by Laura and Babs. We then arrived at Park Grove Academy to be greeted by an already soggy Vicky and Gary who soon got the everyone off to work to avoid any unnecessary standing around. The group were split into wheelbarrow and shovellers, raised bed weeders, tree choppers, willow weavers and rakers.

This task definitely wasn't for fair-weather GoodGymmers as the rain continued to pour down, giving a real test to the new GG branded jackets that were on show. A few people may have spent a bit more time hiding under any shelter they could find, but Ed wasn't going to be too much of a taskmaster tonight as it really was pretty grueling conditions.

There was a little bit of confusion when the walking group were gathered to begin their route home, with word getting around that the task was complete (possibly more out of hope than anything else) despite there still being a good 10mins or so left. But we decided to call it a day before anyone suffered from hypothermia and so downed tools ready for a warming fitness sesh.

Before the fitness began we heard the news that Sophia would be leaving us for a few months in order to go and work abroad. It's been fab having her join us and we look forward to seeing her back next year. Give her a big cheer!

The fitness then involved some wacky relay racing which included lunging, jumping, skipping and crab walking. After the first round of racing we did some traditional birthday squats in honour of Area Activator Vicky's birthday, before a second round of relay races before a dash back to CVS to warm ourselves with Lyndsey's chilli chocolate brownies.

We had a bumper turnout for group run - not sure if it was due to the sunshine, the painting task or talk of pineapple! We celebrated David's parkrun PB, Barbara's season's best and Carl's good for age time, then warmed up and discussed chocolate bars we didn't like. I wasn't there but am firmly in the anti snickers camp!

Once we arrived at Park Grove, we swiftly got into groups and started work. A small team continued the willow weaving, another small group worked on the blackboards and another clearing up the mud kitchen. This still left a good crew to paint the fence.

There was lots to do but because of our big numbers we raced through and left the area nicely spruced up!

We then had time to test out the new fitness dice. Carl put the group to shame by being the last one going when burpees to failure was rolled!

It was then back yo back until next time!

Tonight we returned to Park Grove to give the willow its annual haircut.

We welcomed newcomers Leticia, Matt and David to their first group sessions then headed through town to the school.

When we arrived we split into three teams - loppers, runners and weavers. Within no time the willow was cut down and transported to the dome, where the team added to the structure.

We then finished off with heart shaped strava art fitness for York Cares. The heart shapes were questionable but we spread lots of love and were rewarded with a chocolate heart.

We then headed back to base to round off another fun Monday evening.

Tonight we started our group run by welcoming Alacia then naming and numbering off. In honour of the Boston tea party, we stayed which British institutions we’d chuck into the sea!

Pete led a small walking group, whilst Ed led the rest back to Park Grove for a second indoor wrapping task. This time we were wrapping water bottles and prizes given for the most speedy wrapper and the neatest.

We soon made our way through 250 bottles, counted them into bags and cleared away for our Christmas edition of pass the parcel fitness. Each layer unwrapped a treat and a fitness task. Mainly for Vicky’s entertainment, everyone embraced walking like Santa and turkeys and passing a smile, as well as some more traditional exercises like press ups and lunges. Sadly we ran out of time for musical statues of pain - we’ll save that for January!

Time soon flew so the gang headed back to base one last time in 2024.

Hope to see lots of you on Friday at the Christmas party! If not, happy Christmas!

Tonight we had a bumper turnout for one of the favourite festive tasks of the year - present wrapping. Maybe it was also the rare treat of being indoors!

Rich led out the group to Park Grove, with Ed in the middle and Laura and Barbara back marking.

Once we arrived we celebrated James' 50th good deed, then set to work wrapping. As some gifts hadn't arrived some of the taller members of the group offered to help put up some decorations instead. Once we all finished, we packed up and fueled up with a mince pie ready for fun fitness.

We decided to make use of the gym and had a few games of dodgeball. The idea was to hit members of the opposite team to get them out. Turns out some goodgymers have quite a competitive streak!

After a few rounds we headed back to base for a stretch and run through of the tasks for the week ahead. We also asked claire to pass on congratulations to Alistair for doing 50 good deeds.

The ever hard-working Gary at Park Grove had already dismantled the decking when we arrived so we were able to get stuck straight into the task of shifting it to the skip. Those planks are pretty heavy but we managed to make fairly short work of it and thought we might be in for an early finish. Gary had us covered on that one too though, and quickly unearthed an enormous pile of willow that also needed to go to the skip. The more we shifted, the more willow was unearthed. This kept us busy for a while until the skip could take no more - they don't mean it when they say "level fill only" do they? ;-)

After neatening up the skip to Vicky's satisfaction, we headed off to the next task.