🙌 25 gregarious GoodGymmers met for our group run this evening, amid discussion that the weather might finally be getting warmer 🌞

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Penny for her first group run and also to welcome Christine back 😁

🥞 After discussing our preferred pancake toppings (much classic lemon and sugar, some citrussy variation with orange and also much love for chocolate and banana or bacon and maple syrup), Mitch led the run to Get Cycling 🍋🍌🥓

🎨 We were heading back to complete the painting that we’ve started previously, finishing off in the shop, doing a second coat in the kitchen and a first coat in the loo! With three (rather than 50) shades of grey, the first hurdle was working out which went where ☑️

📋 Martin B arrived first so was given all the info and tasked with taking a lead role. We split into groups and set to work. All went smoothly, the greatest controversy being around the door colour (the middle of the three greys was chosen). Some people finished swiftly and either joined one of the other teams (if they had a suitable brush) or had a chat/helped choreograph the group photo 🖌️

📸 Leanne helpfully decided that the photo should be taken from the top of the steps rather than the bottom (ie up people’s noses!) so once all the brushes were washed, we gathered for that.

💪 We decided to do fitness in the car park outside so that as many people as possible could join us. We combined Cones of Joy with On the Minute and also included the dance cone, as requested by Lyndsey 💃🕺

👍 Much fun was had and it was soon time to head back to base for stretching and home/pub 🏡🍻

👏 Thank you everyone, and hopefully see you next week. Don’t forget to check what we’ve got coming up 👌

💫30 fantastic GoodGymmers came out on a cool but clear starry night for our final group run of January. Having beaten both our good deeds and distance targets for the January Challenge, we were keen to see if we could get to 500 good deeds, and we’re getting SO close, it’s pretty nail-biting stuff 😬

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Grace and Benjamin for their first GoodGym session. We hope you enjoyed it and would love to see you back if you did 😁

☕️ Our walking group set off for Rowntree Park while we warmed up, lunging/running round the circle while saying our GoodGym highlight of January. Lots of love for all the food and socialising that’s accompanied many of the tasks, and also brilliant to hear from people who have joined (or rejoined!) during January 🙌

➗We split into two groups with Mitch leading half the gang to Back Park. Here’s what he had to say about what they got up to…

🍂 We arrived at Back Park and were tasked with clearing the grounds of all the leaves. With a wide assortment of tools (including the leaf scraper which was amazing!) We quickly filled 10 bags 💪

🗯️ Quote of the night from this gang - "I come with a lot of baggage".

🏃‍♀️🚶🚲The rest of us ran/walked/cycled to Rowntree Park where we were met by Jenny and a list of tasks. We split into different teams, doing various tasks all over the park.

🌳 We had tree-moving teams, shifting a very heavy tree in a pot to a different part of the park (and only discovering afterwards that we weren’t using the trolley to its full helpfulness). The other part of Team Tree were digging up a tree. This was quite the manual labour, requiring much muscle and exertion but also skill to work out where the roots were that still needed cutting.

🌊 Meanwhile, we had a couple of groups on path-clearing, making sure the paths were clear and not slippery, following the recent floods. After some discussion of where the debris should go, sensible homes were found for it and it was distributed. There was also some discussion about if/where/how ducks and swans sleep, after seeing a fair few still bobbing along on the water, even at this time 🦢

🌲 The final Rowntree group started off clearing the top path (by the cafe) of debris then moved onto some topiary, cutting back bushes and considering potential shapes to mould them into. They looked great and there was still a hint of an elephant to one of them at the end (if only there was a GoodGym topiary badge…) 🐘

📸 After failing to drag Team Tree from their task, we posed for a (not-quite-complete) group photo. We heard a cheer while heading back to fetch them and were able to see their felled (by digging) tree, alongside some rosy faces and cheery smiles ☺️

🌟 It was time to make our way back to base where we did some celebratory fitness, featuring sprints and star-shaped exercises.

🍻 And then it was time to stretch and part ways, some to the pub and some off home.

👏 Thank you for some brilliant work tonight everyone, we’re SO close to 500 good deeds now so if anyone’s free to join the final task tomorrow evening to help us get there, we’d love to see you 🙏

*Credit to Cara for the pun 🤣

🥳 Oh, what a night, with so much to celebrate! It was our 6th birthday group run, Leanne's 1000th good deed and David did his 100th at the weekend too! Epic achievements all round 🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️

🚂 Sadly my train was late but I understand that a stellar intro and warm up was completed in my absence and everyone was raring to go when I arrived 👍

🏃‍♀️🚶🚲 Debs led a walking group whilst Leanne led the run to West Bank Park and the rest of us cycled.

🌳 We were met by Kristina who had a list of tasks for 3 groups of varying size. She was determined not to let slip who was doing what before the groups were decided, though we did spot a couple of people swapping groups to be able to use mattocks 😆

🐸 This group were based at the new wildlife area and divided further into two groups. Half were mattocking around the new pond that we’ve been helping with. A particularly challenging task when the ground was frozen solid but hopefully the frogs will appreciate it when they arrive, hopefully in spring 🌱

🪚 The other half of this group were cutting back branches and dividing them into piles based on their size, using loppers and saws. Barbara did a great job of reminding people that the branches needed to be facing the same direction ➡️

🍂 The next group were the first to form, got disappointed with their allocated task, then got lost and finally, were hard to extract from it! They were clearing leaves around the orchard, which was admittedly slightly tricky to find (I also struggled). When I did manage to find them, they didn’t want to finish but once they’d tackled the final few piles of gathered leaves, they joined us for fitness 🍎

🌺 The leftover group became the finesse group who were chopping off verbena heads so that their seeds can be used, and then cutting the verbena plants back to exactly the right point. Tristan did a sterling job with the wheelbarrow, despite me sending him in the wrong direction at one point (sorry…) 🤔

💪 Once we’d gathered everyone together, it was time for a 6th birthday-themed cones of joy. We had 6 cones and did 60 seconds on each activity, before rotating onto the next. The “Dance” cone made a popular return, with various musical accompaniments (the Can Can and New York, New York, to name a couple) 💃🕺

🥶 Hopefully that did a good job of keeping everyone warm before a quick group photo 📸

🎂 We headed back to base on our various modes of transport, to be greeted by at least 4 different types of cake. Most of it was heading to the pub, with most of GG York, to be devoured with a drink and a chat 🍻

🙌 Thank you for a great evening everyone, looking forward to seeing you again soon (don’t forget to sign up to your next task here) 😁

🎉 What a lovely group of excellent folk turned out for our first group run of 2023. We were thrilled to welcome Martin for his first session who we’d recruited at the pub after one of our previous sessions 👋

🎭 After some minor drama with Rowntree Park being closed for possible flooding, we had a last-minute change of task 🌊

🦸‍♀️Fortunately, some superheroes were about to arrange not one but two tasks at very short notice 🙌

🍁 Laura had arranged for some of us to go to Holgate Community Garden whilst Christine from Rowntree got us a task at Woodthorpe Primary School 🚸

👍 Here's what Ed had to say about the Woodthorpe task...

🏃‍♀️🏃We arrived at Woodthorpe Primary School to be greeted by Christine with a selection of spades and loppers, before splitting into two sub groups.

🌱 Team digging got to grips with some pretty epic roots which Rich, or possibly Michael, made light work of accompanied by some very loud grunting. Nikki and Lucy went about their work much more subtly but equally as impressively 👏

🦊 Team Lop tackled the brambles on a hill which apparently is home to several foxes. Unfortunately none were spotted this time, but George may have possibly seen a vole. Amy scaled the top of the hill and tackled some particularly ouchy prickles which even penetrated her double glove combo, but that didn't deter her from cracking on with the bramble clearing 🧤

A 4k jog back meant we sadly missed out on the fitness session (and cake 😞)

📆 Meanwhile, for the Holgate Community Garden task, we had time to warm up while saying what pledge we’d like to make for GoodGym in January.

🚶🏃‍♀️ Our walking crew set off and the runners followed swiftly behind, making a detour down a back alley to collect the tools that Laura had kindly gathered for us. The detour also gave us the chance to sample David’s Strava segment and wowed at the very little ginnel he completed an incredibly impressive half marathon on during lockdown 🤯

🍂 On arriving at the garden, we discovered that the leaves were a tad too firmly stuck/ frozen to the ground for easy removal with brushes. Jenna and Martin gave ita good go though and got a surprising number swept off the basketball court.

🍃 Meanwhile, Paul Kelly, Debs and Martin we’re also tackling leaves, using rakes as their tool of choice.

🚂 The rest of the group were weeding and removing overgrown grass from the train circle. Speaking of trains, being next to the railway gave us a chance to hear a few, and we couldn’t miss the opportunity to pose for our group photo on and around the train 📸

❄️ It was pretty chilly so soon time to finish up and head back to base to warm up with a fitness session. Not hugely original but as it’s all technically within the 12 days of Christmas, we did the 12 squats again, mixing up the exercises. (Debs helpfully pointed out that our leg gates needed closing so as not to let any sheep out.) Oh, and we had the bonus of hopefully getting a couple of extra km for the January Challenge with that extra running 🐏

🍰 After that, it was time for that winning combination of cake and pub 🍻

😄 Thank you for tonight everyone, looking forward to more of the same (with hopefully fewer last-minute task changes) next week when we’ll be painting at Get Cycling 🎨