🎄 22 brilliant GoodGymmers gathered for our final group run of 2023. We were thrilled to welcome Jamie for his first GG session and hope that we’ll see him again soon.

🎁 We named, numbered and warmed up while discussing our favourite Christmas traditions. Food featured heavily, including some classic pigs in blankets, alongside singing, games and presents!

🍂 It was soon time to head to West Bank Park for some leaf-clearing, with Ed leading the run there. Kristina was there to meet us, with a different van from usual but still all the tools we needed. We got to work quickly, choosing tools wisely. Martin and Abigail volunteered for the leaf-blower Ghostbuster suits while others deliberated between rakes, brooms, leaf-hands and scoops. We spread out up the path, tackling different areas and gathering as many leaves as possible in the time available. Martin and Abigail gathered a huge pile in their patch, clearing the ground to give the spring bulbs chance to thrive. It was then all hands on deck to get them bagged and barrowed to the compost bins.

🎅 Before we knew it, it was time to gather tools and pose for a group photo before our annual Christmas fitness session - the 12 squats of Christmas! After some debate as to the appropriate tree to run to and deliberation as to whether the words actually fit the tune, we got stuck in! I’d like to say that everyone enjoyed it but that might not be strictly true. Hopefully we all had a good workout and felt better for it afterwards though 💪

🍫 It was then time to head back to base and enjoy some truly delicious brownies courtesy of Barbara before/in the pub.

☃️ Thank you for all your help everyone, and a huge Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Don’t forget that Planet Food is continuing over Christmas, with sessions on the 21st and 28th December. We’ve also got some parkrun (and breakfast) tourism to Millfield parkrun in Easingwold this weekend, and a lovely Christmas walk and pub on the 28th December. Don’t forget there are plenty of social visits to do over the Christmas period.

💥Then we’ll be starting 2024 with a bang on New Year’s Day. Sign up for parkrun volunteering here (and email york@parkrun.com to get on the rota ASAP). Keep an eye on our website here for what else will be happening that day and the rest of January.

😁 21 brilliant Goodgymmers gathered for this evening’s group run, cited as possibly one of the most random and/or mudtastic yet. More on that later though.

🌧️ Sadly, the weather wasn’t quite as good as we might have hoped but we’ve never let that put us off!

🍮 Ed led the warm up where we got our mouths watering discussing our favourite puddings, in honour of national cream pie day. Winter classics such as crumble and sticky toffee pudding (with a variety of accompaniments) made the cut, along with some inspired by recent baking activity (cinnamon buns or white chocolate and ginger cheesecake, anyone?)

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️With our legs warm and our stomachs rumbling, Ed led the running group to West Bank Park whilst Abi led the walkers.

🌹 On arrival, Kristina gave us our expected compost-shovelling instructions for the new flowerbeds in the rose garden, along with some unexpected bonus tasks. Martin and Stef leapt into the skip to start shovelling from there into the first barrows. Meanwhile, Kristina took a few people with her to construct temporary barrow paths with cardboard.

⚽️ She also sent some people to the goalposts on the football pitch with tampers to commence one of our more unusual tasks, something that was fondly named “wet mud flooring” (as opposed to dry stone walling). Once the barrowers had dropped off their compost at the new flowerbeds in the rose garden, they collected “turf” (mostly mud with the odd blade of grass) and barrowed that back to the football pitch. The ground around one goal mouth in particular was particularly sloppy so Team Tamp were charged with laying/tessellating the pieces of turf and tamping it down to form a new (and slightly less sloppy) layer on top.

🤔 Whilst some doubt was expressed when some water started soaking upwards through the new layer, Kristina reassured us that this is a tried and tested technique that will improve the ground. Whilst our housemates may not have appreciated the next level mud attached to the tampers’ trainers, hopefully the footballers will appreciate their efforts.

💪 Soon, it was time to down tools and do a quick couple of rounds of “Meet and Retreat” for fitness before we headed back to base, stamping mud off en route.

🙌 Thanks everyone, and don’t forget that Kristina’s kindly letting us have the final compost scrapings for our Tiny Forest on Kimberlow Hill. So if you’ve got any spare time 11-12 on either Thursday morning or Friday morning please join Claire to help gather this invaluable resource!

It was a beautifully bright and sunny morning as 7 GG Yorkies met Kristina at West Bank Park. We carried on from last night's group, shovelling lovely compost out of the huge skip into awaiting wheelbarrows. Alastair took first shift in the skip, then Tom and Stef had a go as well. Said wheelbarrows had to be trundled a fair distance across the park and along the yellow brick road (aka the beige/muddy brown cardboard path).

We delivered our first loads of compost to a large flower bed where another group of volunteers were planting bulbs. We then moved on to the next flowerbed and dumped the compost ready for more bulbs and wildflower seeds to be planted.

After an hour or so we left Kristina and the other volunteers to carry on and hopefully reduce the compost further before we are needed again!

An unexpectedly dry evening!

Confusingly for those who haven't been to this task before, instead of filling a skip, our task was instead to empty it, but of lovely compost (made from the contents of York green bins I believe).

To avoid messing up the very boggy grass with our barrows, Kristina had sourced a kitchen's worth of cardboard packaging which we used to make our very own yellow(ish) skip road, avoiding the steps and up the little slope to the lovely new flowerbeds-to-be.

Ed and then Michal did a sterling job of skip diving for compost and filling up our barrows, while the rest of us hi-vis heroes trotted our barrows up and down. Soon enough our hour was up and we headed into the night for our teas. Plenty left for the next team tomorrow!

🌧️ 18 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our weekly group run. The rain may have been present when we first arrived but it quickly absented itself for the rest of the evening, which was greatly appreciated.

🎇 We named, numbered and warmed up by discussing bonfire night. There were some fans and some not-so-fans (mostly for pet/environment-related reasons, so fair enough). We did learn that it took Lucy’s family 17 matches to light a sparkler though, which is pretty impressive!

✌️ We split into two groups, with Mitch leading the way to Holgate Community Orchard. Here’s what he had to say about their task:

🧱 At Holgate Orchard, we were tasked with clearing a large area of ivy, transferring the soil pile into this section and flattening it. The idea is the area will have a shed, shrubbery and raised beds on it by spring. With that in mind we had no time to lose! A few of us got to work clearing as much ivy and roots as possible, whilst the largest group were digging up a large pile of soil and laying it over this section. There was even time for some litter (i.e. brick) picking.

🍎 After making progress, we came to our two main obstacles. Very large roots and old carpets. We needed to remove these before we could transfer any more soil. So through teamwork (driven by a determined Carl) we removed the roots and carpet.

👌 We made a large headway on this task, and will definitely be back soon!

🌹 The rest of us headed to West Bank Park, Ed leading the running group while four of us cycled. We knew the drill and quickly got to work. Ed and Stef were appointed skip-based shovellers while the rest of the gang shuttled wheelbarrows of compost to and from the rose garden. With one more barrow than barrowers, we were able to maximise efficiency this time (though some people were sad they didn’t get a break between barrow-loads!)

🐾 Kristina has brought cardboard and plastic sheets to try and protect the ground from getting any more muddy and Penny (and Wookie!) did a good job of directing everyone on their first trips there!

💪 It was certainly quite the workout, with tonnes (maybe not literally) of compost moved, miles covered and muscles built. Good work everyone, and if you missed it, don’t worry as we’ll be back there next week.

🗻 After a quick group photo, Mitch has invited us to join their group for some hill reps on Windmill Rise. So without further ado, the runners headed there while the cyclists helped Kristina pack up (ensuring the wheelbarrows were appropriately tessellated and the little stuffed pig that appeared from nowhere found a home!) It was soon time to head back to base and onto home or the pub.

👏 Thank you everyone, see you again soon!

🥶 25 GoodGymmers gathered for this evening’s two-task group run, the first genuinely chilly one of the season.

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Megan for her first task with us, and to congratulate Carl for his 200th (slightly belatedly but he got to wear the cape at last!) 🦸‍♂️

💪 More congratulations were in order for everyone who ran the marathon and 10-mile races yesterday, including some who ran PBs and/or their furthest distance yet! Some even walk/ran/cycled tonight, so impressive!

🎨 We named, numbered and warmed up while discussing our favourite GoodGym tasks. Painting featured highly, along with various forms of (constructive?) destruction.

🍎 Ed led half the group to Greenfield’s Garden. Here’s what he had to say:

🗺️ After a bit of an extended run out to the task, thanks to Ed forgetting his way around York, we arrived at the task and split into two teams. Team A were armed with forks and loppers and got to work on shifting some piles of cuttings and cutting up some larger branches. Team B were armed with sickles, forks and spades and made light work turning over the compost bays and clearing the area of nettles and brambles.

🏠 Not before too long it was time for the fitness session, which featured Lyndsey showing everyone how she bungalows and then everyone else deciding how they bungalowed too.

🚚 The rest of us headed to West Bank Park where we were soil-shovelling with Kristina. We were greeted by a big skip and told that some people could get in it! We didn’t need telling twice and had some very willing volunteers hop straight in. The enthusiasm increased yet further when Abigail realised how warm the soil was!

🦺 There were also six wheelbarrows that were filled and taken (a fair distance) to the rose garden, for a big new flowerbed. This involved crossing a road so Kristina had brought hi-viz so we could do so safely.

🌹 We had a few people stay up at the flowerbed, some to rake the soil as it brought up, some to tamp down other areas up there. There was some discussion on how to maximise efficiency, both this evening and for future tasks, of which there will be a few given the amount of soil left and the prospect of another skip being ordered to fill a second new flowerbed. I think the answer was more wheelbarrows (always) and possibly a relay system!? Watch this space as I’m hoping Leanne’s elaborate plan will be complete for the next equivalent task!

🥳 After a quick cones of joy-based fitness session, it was time to head back to base, on foot or wheels then on to the pub for some and home to warm up for others.