☀ 32 epic GoodGymmers arrived on a chilly but bright Monday evening for tonight's group run.

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Ali for his first GoodGym session (fresh from a recent, and incredibly epic 4000k cycle from France to Istanbul - huge kudos!). We also celebrated Becca's 50th good deed with the traditional black cape of joy (and look forward to seeing her in a black GG top soon!) We also welcomed the return of Vicky's active transport at GoodGym (a long-winded way of saying she was able to walk tonight, following her recent hip surgery 💪)

🌸 The task was a short 1k trot from our meeting point so we were there in no time. We were greeted by some very organised task owners with a healthy list of jobs for us to do. There was something for everyone, and plenty of time to get stuck in to some serious weeding (of lots of mare's tail), ivy-pulling, shovelling and pruning. Arguably too much time as those in the shady area started to get a tad chilly and had to resort to extra fitness to keep try and warm up!

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️We got lots done though, and had time to pose for a photo before heading to Scarcroft Park for some fitness. Ed had us doing the infamous squat game to keep us on our toes for the main event, which was Vicky's running drills - a variety of exercises designed to improve our running performance (followed by the Can-Can...). Despite some questions as to the validity of the source of these exercises (which Vicky has since quashed by providing said source), we hope to see some epic performances in everyone's upcoming runs (especially if they involve an element of skipping and/or side-stepping). So we can all thank Vicky for our next PB 👌

🚵 Soon, it was time to head back to base for some cool-down stretches led by Ed, accompanied by a run-down of the many opportunities to do good with GoodGym coming up this week. And after that, some of us went to the pub to catch up with Abi and raise a glass to Ali's epic cycle (to bring this report full-circle).

🙌 Thanks everyone, and hopefully see you all again soon!

Today saw a great turnout for our first non headtorch run of the year!

Today was international Victoria day but rather than base our welcome on that we shared what we would do with our bank holiday weekend.

It should really have been Leanne day as she wasn't just crowned goodgymer of the month, but also got to wear the good deed cape for doing an incredible 1300 good deeds!

We also welcomed Ellie and congratulated Nick snd Babs for being married for 35 years!

We then set off to two tasks-

At Rowntree Park we were greeted by Stu who split us into 3 teams. The first team got to grips with a load of soil that we had previously shifted from from the gardens to the back of the lodge. This time we moved it to its final location into the raised beds.

The second group tackled a load of green waste and moved it from across the park over to the table tennis area. With Max particularly enjoying taking a ride in the giant wheelbarrow

Team 3 were instructed to remove the sedge from the garden, and after a quick Google to find out what sedge is, felt competent enough to know what they were doing. However the sedge in Rowntree park was about 50 times bigger than the ones in the photos on Google! Eventually the sedges, Sedgeric and Right Sedge Fred, were moved to their new homes closer to the lake.

All 3 teams finished their jobs with enough time spare to fill a couple of barrows worth of wood chip from the wildlife area and move it to the gardens. We were briefly joined by Jackie who earned her place in the team photo by grabbing a couple of handfuls of wood chip!

The second team stopped off at Southlands church to clear a bed of everything except the Magnolia tree! We pretty much completed the task just in time for team Rowntree to collect us and head to the park for some fun fitness.

Tonight we played heads, shoulders, knees and coins and the team with the most won a creme egg. After much tackling and slightly too much violence for goodgym, it all came down to a deciding game of rock paper scissors.

We then headed back to base and a decent crew stayed on for a drink, possibly to get one of Babs brownies!

Three Goodgymers met on a sunny (but surprisingly chilly) morning to deliver leaflets for Christian Aid Week, having a good chat on the way round and admiring the very high standard of front garden in the neighbourhood. Our contact at Southlands Methodist Church was very grateful for our support as it helped them publicise the fundraising event more widely round the local area.