😁 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!

😳 Well, this week’s group run started with a bit of drama as our task cancelled 20 minutes before the session!

🦸‍♀️ Never fear though, a trio of terrific Taskforce members organised a task each, providing a triplet of terrifically taxing tasks for our gang of 24.

🔨 Laura led a group to Holgate Community Garden for the infamous “post-whacking”. Here’s what she had to say:

🍐 6 of us carried the posts and equipment to the garden and bashed in posts around the young fruit trees to stop council mowers from damaging them.

🌱 Meanwhile, Abi, Dom and Martin C kept it local, cracking on with some weeding at Prospect House. Apparently they made a “good ol’ dent”, which is excellent news. They also “apparently” did 500 press ups each. I think I’m tempted to believe the former more than the latter!

🚸 The rest of us headed to Park Grove to continue shovelling the big pile of (now sodden) soil, clear more of the ground for it to be laid and cut the under-layer into just the right shapes.

✂️ With the three wheelbarrowers working incredibly hard (despite wonky wheels and uneven ground), we made good progress with the soil pile. Meanwhile, the weed-clearers dug and extracted to their hearts’ content, under a variable level of shelter from the rain. The cutters had fun tessellating various shapes of underlay to be covered with soil.

🌧️ Progress was swift, undeterred by said rain and Vicky was “delighted” that we were able to come tonight. It was soon time for a group photo and fitness.

🪜 Fitness took place under the shelter, with steps handily provided to offer us our theme. Step-based fitness it was then, and a co-operative affair, with everyone offering suggestions of their favoured step-based activity. Step ups, heel raisers, press ups and tricep dips all made the cut, and were then repeated.

🍋 Nicely warmed, it was time to head back to base for a cool-down and stretch. We were treated to some delicious lemon bar bites (thanks Barbara!) before parting ways to head to the pub/home.

🙌 Thank you everyone, for your patience in the initial chaos and particularly for the sourcing of the triumphant task trio. See you next time!

• I’m aware this isn’t actually a pun but the opportunity to use the word triumvirate was too good to miss 👌