🥶 Tonight was the night for a bumper turnout (37 people!), particularly impressive given the dark and chilly conditions. Nevertheless, we all gathered at the Ackhorne, including 3 newcomers - Tamsyn, Ellie and Julian - who we welcomed warmly. We then celebrated some epic achievements, including applauding everyone who tackled the Dalby Dash yesterday. We also had the cape of glory for not one but three heroes for tonight, we celebrated Amy's 400th good deed, Cara's 300th and Kit's 50th. Oh, and it was Laura's birthday. Amazing stuff 🦸

🚲 Vicky led a cycling group while Ed led the runners to the carriageworkers memorial arch - a particular impressive structure when lit up! (And one that lots of us had somehow never noticed before...)

🌸 There, we were met by the council environment team with tools and instructions to rotivate a (particularly long) strip ready for wildflower planting. Despite some initial confusion as to what we were meant to be doing, we soon got to work with enthusiasm, with our various tools. Jen had particularly impressive technique that led to some very uniform-looking rotivations (not sure that's a word...) Meanwhile, George had very kindly given away the most useful tools so contributed good chat and skipping advice, ready for the fitness session.

💪 Speaking of which, after an atmospheric group photo, we were led down the road (to much grumbling from our local GoodGymmers who were being led further away from home) for our fitness session. Vicky had set up circuits with 6 stations, including skipping, which caused lots of amusement as we admired some very different styles. Running while balancing rings on our heads was another challenge, as was running backwards (which may have led to a minor collision but I believe everyone was fine afterwards!) Sore quads from yesterday's Dalby Dash were starting to show themselves in the adaptations required of some of the exercises!

⏰ Soon, it was time to head back to base (or straight home for some of the cheeky locals, including one who 10 minutes earlier had claimed that wasn't an option...Not mentioning any names, Ed...)

🏃‍♀️ James very helpfully stepped up to lead the runners back while Vicky led the cyclists. Soon, we were back at base, stretching and hearing about everything that's coming up this week.

🍰 Laura and David had kindly brought cake, which was greatly appreciated and enjoyed, both outside and then in the pub. Jenna had done a sterling job lugging a huge number of Disability Week booklets in her pannier, which need delivering. Some heroes took some to deliver but there are still lots more. So if anyone's able to help with this this week, please contact Jenna directly (or Vicky/Ed who can put you in touch with Jenna if that's easier).

👏 What a night! Thanks everyone, for some great good-deeding, and hopefully see you all again soon!

*10 points for anyone who spotted the (probably quite obscure) Beyonce song reference...

Tonight we started by celebrating Becca's 100th good deed! Amazing work, well done

After a quick warm up Ed headed off to York in Recovery's allotment with an elite group of 8... heres what they had to say

The Hob Moor allotment crew headed out to carry on the work we did last week with the guys from York in Recovery. We picked up Tristan on our way down and met up with taksowner Tracey at the allotments.

The tall chaps, Neil and Michael carried on with trimming the hedge that had been getting out of hand. Nick, Mitch and Tristan got stuck into turning over a raised bed. Carys and Sanjay helped to clear out a compost bay ready for everyone else's off cuts. And George and Ed helped to rat proof (hopefully!) the bottom of the shed by nailing some planks of wood across the bottom.

We made great progress on the various tasks and left enough time for a quick "hill" rep session on hob moor before jogging back to base

Meanwhile Leanne led out the rest of the pack to the bowling club where we did some weeding in preparation for tree planting. We were finished in plenty of time for some running drills and a slice of Lyn's delicious Victoria sponge or lemon cake! They do spoil us!

It was then back to base and a few went off to the pub for a refreshment.

👋 An incredible 35 people arrived for our group run tonight. There was a lot to celebrate, including two people attending their first task - both called Nick! Welcome to both of you. We also had Pete winning our prestigious GoodGymmer of the month for some excellent good-deeding and helpfulness in September. Well done Pete! We also had a duathlon, 15k PB and marathon PB to celebrate - well done everyone.

🏃‍♀️ 🚴 We warmed up all together then split into two groups for our tasks, with running and cycling groups. 10 people headed to Rowntree Park to help set up the Make Space for Girls art installation. Here's what Lucy had to say about it:

🛏️ Following a preliminary trip to prepare the ground in August, we returned to Rowntree Park to support an art installation as part of the Make Space for Girls project. Based on the concept of creating a safe space - the bedroom - outdoors, it involved carefully positioning (and half-burying) a table, bedside cabinet and headboard in the ground. The earth was still fairly hard after the recent dry spell, but the team set to work with a will, using all the tools available (spade, fork, hoe, sharpened stake...) to "bed" everything in as securely as possible. The artwork looks fantastic and it was great to be able to support this great initiative for girls.

🪏 Meanwhile, the rest of us headed to Park Grove School to help maintain the forest school area. There was plenty to dig up and cut back so we all got stuck in, with a huge range of tool sizes, from the small children's hand forks to the full-sized versions.

🐝 Unfortunately, a wasp/bee nest was found and a couple of people got stung. Not very fair karma for the good they were doing. But Vicky acted quickly and we avoided that area for the rest of the task.

🙌 Luckily, there was plenty of space to be able to avoid that area and we managed to make good progress clearing the space.

💪 After that, it was time for a group photo and then a proper fitness session! Still fun though, especially attempting to traverse a child-sized climbing wall!

🍰 Soon, it was time to head back to base/the pub to enjoy some delicious lemon drizzle cake, courtesy of Babs. Thank you! We also enjoyed some fairly in-depth chat about campanology (although apparently bell ringers prefer the term bell ringer...) 🔔

👍 Thanks everyone, and see you soon!

Lots to celebrate tonight. Parkrun pbs for Neil and Claire, Claire hitting 300 and Nick completing a triathlon. We also welcomed Beth to her first group run and Katie who was visiting from Edinburgh.

We named and numbered off saying our favourite beverage in honour of national beer drinking day. There was a surprising amount of tea and coffee!

We then off to Holgate allotments. A select few were tasked with clearing the communuty orchard - Kit and Jane looked to be having a lot of fun the lawnmower. The remainder of the group collected tools and set to work on digging over an overgrown plot. Due to the high concentration of goodgymers we made rapid progress, leaving the plot ready for new tenants. And if that wasn't enough Nick, Claire and Michael went hunting for balsam in the beck!

We finished off with a game of catch squat, with Ed's team getting very excited over their victory!

Thanks team, another bumper week.