Tonight was our first balsam bashing of the season and there was plenty for everyone! 🌱

Before setting off all the way to Fulford Ings we celebrated May's goodgymer of the month Hannah Hannah has become a Monday night regular as well as giving up time on many a Friday. To top it off she's upped her running and is training for a marathon! What a legend!🤩

Matt also completed his 250th parkrun so we cheered him too!

Finally we welcomed Scarletto her first group run. Not sure how she heard about goodgym!

After all the kudos we headed off with Ed leading the run and Vicky with a cycling group.

At the ings we were net by Nicola who had been bashing all day but assured us there was plenty left! We avoided midges, nettles and thistles best we could and after 45 mins had accumulated piles to be proud of.

We then headed home with a pit stop on the bridge of pain for some mexican wave fun fitness and then finished off with birthday squats for Peteand Scarlet 🥳

Finally, we wished Ali a bon voyage as he heads back to France. Thanks for joining us and hope to see you again one day!🇫🇷

It was a scorching hot May evening, but it takes more than that to dim our Lust for Life. Fifteen hot, sweaty, mildly-dehydrated Good Gymers ran and cycled to St Aelreds to Search and Destroy weeds in their raised beds - that's My Idea of Fun. There was talk of going shirtless like Iggy Pop, but lacking his leathery charm we decided to stick to our GG tops. We were joined by Jo, a first timer, and Ali, a very new member - welcome!

Delving through the undergrowth we encountered no less than ten frogs of varying colours and sizes. Uncertain of the collective noun for frogs (army, chorus, colony or knot if anyone wondered) we settled on referring to then as the Flurry of Frogs. To protect them from harm (i.e. our haphazard digging and hacking) we compassionately rehomed them in the overgrown area at the back of the field, where they fro(g)licked happily. That was after we'd actually caught the little blighters, which was a task in itself - Naughty Little Froggie!

Once the beds were clear of weeds and frogs we filled them with Dirt, Mud and compost. With only one wheelbarrow we were forced to improvise - the Prime Movers were Nick with a traffic cone and Mitch with his toy dumper truck.

After the task we repaired to the sun deck for some (sadly alcohol-free) beer and a round of birthday squats to celebrate Leanne's big day. One of our longest serving members, Leanne is no stranger to getting in amongst the the weeds - she's a Real Wild Child. Oh yeah, she's a wild one.

Hotter, sweater, and still fairly dehydrated, we headed back to The Ackhorne for further liquid refreshment and a Real Cool Time in the shady beer garden.

☀ 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!