An epic turnout of 30 GoodGym Yorkies braved the soggy conditions to give us every chance of hitting our January challenge target of 500 good deeds. We started the night celebrating another milestone for Legendary Leanne who was completing her 1100(!!!) good deed. Well done Leanne. And then it was time for a rather special cheer for Louise who was presented with her trophy for winning this year's Sean Coxhead Inspiring Individual award 🏆. It felt extra special to present this award to a York GoodGymer given the meaning behind the it. Well done Louise. We're all so proud of you 👏

Then it was off to the tasks...

Does going to the pub count as a good deed - Max

Ed led one group to Back Park where we welcomed newcomer Lucy who is apparently a friend of Vicky's and so helped her tick off another January Challenge Bingo Square.

The team got to work shifting leaves, bagging them up and litter picking to make the park a lot more tidy than it was. Taskowner Kristina was suitably impressed with the number of bags we filled, but felt like she might have some explaining to do to those whose job it is yo collect them all the next day!

The debate also continued around how many holes are in a straw and took a turn that is probably not suitable for the run report, but needless to say we're no nearer a conclusion.

Mitch led the other team out to Heslington Lane and had this to say...

We braved the rain to go to Heslington Road to help St Nicks continue their task of turning a grassed verge into a wildflower meadow. The thought is turning over the grassed verge will create the ideal habitat for wildflowers, which in turns will help the biodiversity. All good stuff.

We didn't let the rain and claggy mud deter us. We got our shovels stuck in and got to work. After half an hour of graft, we managed to dig out a large area. Job well done!

Then it was back to CVS for a spot of fitness. This time featuring game that was a mix between ring of roses and touch rugby. Everyone seemed to get the gist of it pretty quickly and kudos was given to the level of danger involved!

A team of hardy GoodGymers defied Storm Isha to head out for another night of digging and weeding. We started the night by celebrating not one but two people hitting milestones, with Lyndseycompleting her 50th good deed and Martin doing his 100th. Great work guys 💪. There was also a round of applause for Max becoming the first person to complete the January challenge bingo (who'd have thought it!?!?) and for all those who completed the Brass Monkey half at the weekend including a big PB for Paul Kelly

We then split into two groups with Ed leading the run out to Heslington Lane for another night of soil inversion for the long stretch of soon-to-be wildflower verge. I have a feeling we're going to be back to this task quite a bit! Jamie, Anna and Stef started where we'd left off last Monday, whilst Jenna, Mitch Max and Lucy got to work slightly further down. The soil was a lot claggier (is that a word?) than our last outing in sub-zero conditions, so the going was somewhat slower and shoes a fair bit muddier. But we preserved and made good progress regardless.

Michal led the rest of the group out to another session at Holgate Community Garden. Here's what he had to say...

10Goodgymers departed from our meeting location, 12 were at the task and 6 came back. We never leave anyone behind…. I promise. On the way to the task we ran through some back alleys to Laura’s house where husband David was waiting for us with a selection of hoes, forks big and small, brooms and other gardening tools ready for the task in a wheelbarrow. From there it was a short walk to the play area/community garden where the task was to dig out weeds around the wooden play equipment frame in preparation for a layer of bark chippings - our next task.

After about 20min of light weeding and chatting we moved to the swing basked and raised bed for an inpromptu fitness circuit featuring swinging in the basket, pushing the basket swing, broom handling, log lifting, lunges, wide squats, star jumps, triceps dips, bench jump overs and incline push-ups. “Accurately” measured 40sec repetition of each exercise before moving to another was perfectly done by each and every one of the 12 goodgymers present. My watch said 9min50sec when I pressed the stop button making our maths spot on. Right?

After that dose of exercise we made our way back to CVS, had time to stretch, chat about GG badges and if you would re-mary your ex to get a GG badge - that is if there was such a badge, stretch more, more chat before the second group arrived. Apparently they were running late, but what do I know?

On a super chilly January evening, a team of dedicated GG Yorkies braved the sun-zero conditions, and Blue Monday to get that warm and fuzzy feeling you can only get from getting fit whilst doing good.

Tonight we were joined by newcomer Edd who was already very well known to a couple of GGers! We also congratuled Max for his 250th Good Deed, whilst Amy doffed a cape for her 200th. We then named and numbered off by listing our favourite blue things 💙 (a lot of love for blue whales 🐳) with some quiet warm up movements so that we could hear everyone's answers!

Ed led the longer run out to Fulford where the team were met by Nicola from St Nicks and some lovely folk from Greener Cleaner Fulford. After some very clear instructions about ensuring we kept straight lines with our soil inversion, the guys got to work.

Everything seemed to be going well until Max and Nikki realised their digging had gone astray and two lines merged into one. At the other end of the scale Michael, Rich and Jamie managed a circle so perfect that it could have been drawn with a compass.

After some posing next to their beautiful circle, we had our group photo and then headed back via Millennium Bridge for a needlessly complex fitness session. Lesson well and truly learnt by Ed for daring to introduce an element of counting into the fitness.

Mitch led the other team out to Holgate Community Garden and had this to say..

On a chilly winters day, 16 of us went to Holgate Community Garden to help remove areas of heavy grass and weeds, with a view of laying barkchip later. We were also tasked with finding some missing posts surrounding some trees that GG tamped in...unfortunately none were found 🙁

Unfortunately for us, despite all the tools and willingness of GG, the ground was frozen solid, which hampered our progress. However we pressed on and were able to remove a massive load of grass. The temperature was freezing, so for the first time, we had mid task fitness! Half way through we did some hill reps, and after some more task we did some circuits. We made much progress, however the cold and frozen ground did hamper us slightly. However we will be back very soon!

A bumper crew of 29 GGers turned up for the 2nd group run of 2024. This time things got off to a much better start with Ed managing to operate the alarm panel correctly, if not the door.

We also welcomed 2 new people tonight, so give a big cheer to Kathryn and Emma. Radu also made his first appearance at a Monday night Group Run.

Before we headed off to the session, Leanne got everyone warmed up with an epic Cha Cha Slide (see Instagram for the video). Mitch then led the run out with Laura bringing up the rear.

We met Kristina at the task, who gave the team various tools to help remove the old guards from the trees around the outside of Ashton Park. Some tools were more useful than others, with hammers being in particularly short supply 🔨

Whilst most people got to work on the tree guards David, Graham and Tristan picked off a January challenge bingo box by doing a litter pick. David was particularly impressed with his haul, if not the soiled nappy.

The tree guards proved to be more challenging than anticipated, and with time running out, all eyes were on Max's team to finish their tree guard in time for the fitness sesh. Fortunately they were up to the challenge and were able to join in.

After the group photo, the fitness session got underway. Several cones were set out in a grid, with one team responsible for keeping them the right way up and the other for flipping them over. Carnage ensued and all sorts of rule breaking, with our dear AA Vicky being the biggest cheater of all by hiding her cones behind Ed. Either way it worked, and her team were declared the winners, with the losers having to pick up the cones at the end.

Great session everyone!

The Fishergate Triangle is a mysterious musical instrument discovered by local archaeologist and adventurer Percival Raleigh in 1837. The triangle's sound is said to be so beautiful that anyone who hears it can never find joy in any music ever again.

Realising the terrible power of the triangle, Percival buried it forever on a tiny plot of land between Fulford Road and Cemetery Road. No one knows why he didn't just melt it down or smash it or something but because of that oversight, St Nicks must now keep a watchful eye over the site in perpetuity to ensure the area is kept reasonably tidy and the triangle never falls into the hands of Ed Sheeran.

With four of us and some reasonably soft ground due to the weather we were able to make some serious progress in getting rid of the weeds and preparing the ground for the wood chip St Nicks intend to lay. The hope is that the weeds will be replaced with some beautiful wild flowers in the spring so the site looks much more pleasant.

Triangle safe and weeds tamed, we headed to the café for some well earned breakfast sandwiches and cake.

Three of us met Maeve from St Nick’s to carry on digging up the weeds and grass that we started on Monday night’s group run.

This time we were at the pointy end of the triangle where there was thick grass, which proved a lot harder to dig up. However, we gave it our best efforts and after an hour we had managed to clear most of that end of the triangle.

Maeve was very pleased with our progress and is hoping to get some woodchip delivered to keep the weeds at bay, so we may be back there again soon.