So this week the big bosses Vicky and Ed were away on holiday but GoodGym York keep on running and not only did we have 23 returning GG folk but we welcomed Andrea & Nicola who both joined our group run for the first time.

We saluted David's weekend parkrun PB and celebrated Stefan who had hit a fab milestone of 300 good deeds completed.

Then in honour of the Lionesses victory in the European Cup yesterday we named and numbered with whichever animal we would like to be - mostly cats it turns out although we had a Crane, a Wolf and a Honey Badger!

Captain Pete led off the walking group and the rest of the crew ran a mammoth 900m to meet Charlotte from the York River Art Market at Dame Judy Dench Walk to do a bit of light weeding and litter picking to tidy up the riverside ahead of the next 3 weekends events.

We met Jan at the task and not only had she had arrived armed with her own trowel but she conjured up a wheely bin from somewhere for the rubbish.

Not content with weeding around the trees Becca instigated some weeding of the very steep bank - no one fell in so all good and we even managed to enlist a kindly random passing tourist who joined despite not seeming to know what we were up to or being able to speak much English!

We were soon all done and away for a double dose of fitness at Memorial Gardens - first we had 'serious' fitness followed by a couple of rounds of Amoeba Tag in which those tagged joined hands to capture the other players splitting into pairs once they got to a chain of 4. I think Charlotte & Mitch were the last players not caught by an Amoeba.

The runners took the 'long' way round managing to make it a full 1.5km back to base before we rounded off at the pub

Normal service will be restored next week!

With less than an hour to go before the start of tonight's session the rain was still absolutely hammering it down, but the clouds parted and the sun shone on the 21 GG Yorkies who ignored the threat of rain and turned up to help support their local community. Phenomenal stuff!

We started tonight's session by giving a big round of applause to Steve who was attending his frist session since completing the Race to the Stones 100km ultra-marathon. What an incredible achievement. Make sure you give him some big cheers. We then numbered off by naming our favourite junk food courtesy of National Junk Food Day (only in the US, obviously!). As expected our group of runners like their sweet treats including toblerone, cake and chocolates. Amy then led our a walking group making the short journey to the task, whilst Ed led the running group, backmarked by Vicky

Tonight's task was at the Arts Barge. A floating venue and exhibition space which has been a big part of the York arts scene for a fair few years now, but only something that we've recently got involved in having completed a couple of community missions there earlier in the year. At the task we were greeted by Hannah from the Arts Barge team who explained gave us the various nautical names of the parts of the barge that we would be sanding. One was definitely the Gunwale/Gunnel =, but i've completely forgotten the rest! Then we got to work armed with wire brushes, scrapers and sanding blocks and got rid of as much of the flaky paint and dust we could

Whilst the majority of the crew cracked on with the sanding, a few people stayed on dry land and tackled some of the weeds that had re-emerged on the moorings since we last visited. Unfortunately we didn't quite have the array of tools that we had last time, so the guys made do with a broom, a hoe and their hands in order to dig out as many weeds as possible

Despite a few dicey moments, everyone did a remarkable job of not falling into the water and the only distractions were a few cygnets who wondered what all the fuss was, and Cara's half-joking threat of doing a balancing act along the mooring line

After packing our tools away and getting a cracking group photo on the deck, it was then over to Amy for tonight's nautical themed fitness session! We headed round the corner to St George's Field car park and boarded our imaginary boat across 3 vacant coach parking spaces. Amy then proceeded to call out boating terms such as 'Port', 'Stern' and 'Climb the rigging' with each having an appropriate exercise attached. After a few trial rounds it soon became an elimination event with the last person to perform each exercise dropping out each time. Micheal and Issy proving to be tonight's Sea Dogs being the last 2 standing!

We then headed back to port (CVS) with the walking group growing considerably after Ed mentioned taking a slightly longer route back for the run!

On a warm but windy summer's evening, an impressive 29 GG Yorkies turned out for an epic weeding session at Acomb Primary School. We started off by welcoming 2 newcomers Ruth and Kit who were both completing their first ever good deeds with us tonight. Give them a big cheer 🥳

We also crowned the GoodGym Yorkie of the month for June, with the award going to a slightly surprised Jane who completed a fantastic 8 good deeds last month and has also now done well over 25 since joining us in January. Well done Jane!

There was also a cape of good deeds to dish out, with Nikki completing her 400th good deed last week. Fantastic stuff Nikki!! What an absolute legend of GG York

Before we set off to the task we warmed up with a quick game of stuck in the mud. Max, Matt and Mitch being the chasers and everyone else running around like loons to try and avoid them. Abigail led a walking group and so managed to avoid the mayhem back at base, before being followed by the main group with Ed leading the way and Rich and Lucy backmarking.

At the task we were joined by Tristan, Martin and also Jan who was joining us for the first time this evening (Welcome Jan! 👋). The task was a classic clearing task with a bit of destruction thrown in for good measure. No need for too many instructions tonight, just pull up some weeds and cut back some trees.

A small side group were task with shifting a small pile of bricks whilst everyone else got to work on the weeds. Rich seemed particularly delighted when he found out he had the honour of removing and entire bush/tree that had grown as tall as the building. He promptly got the bulk of the bush nicely trimmed before setting to work on the trunk. Meanwhile Steve and Babs tackled a couple of hedges that were obscuring the windows (Babs giving hers a particularly close shave!)

Everyone else found there own space in the courtyard and pulled up a variety of overgrown weeds and even a few herbs, which made for a very nice minty smell lingering around the task. Mitch and Lyndsey focused their efforts on the things growing out of the drains whilst Kit and Lucy made excellent progress on a sycamore that had started to obscure the plant beds. Whilst all the while, Rich was still beavering away at the tree and had now been joined by Nikki in what had truly become a Gover-ish sized task!

With time running out we stopped for a group photo before handing over to Abigail who was leading tonight's fitness sesh. Rich and Nikki remained in the courtyard to continue their tree removal task!

Tonight's fitness had a name which I've completely forgotten but involved people choosing an exercise for everyone to complete before naming something that they have or have done (e.g. wearing a black shirt) and then attempting to swap spaces in the circle with someone else who had also done that thing. It was great fun although probably less so for Babs and Max who both ended up in the middle of the circle on mote than one occasion. Rich and Nikki also finally managed to remove the tree stump and joined the fitness sesh just in time to get the gist of what was going on

It was then time to venture back to base, with a few people continuing on to the pub

Another impressive turnout tonight for the forth installment of barrowing compost at West Bank Park, despite the very hot weather.

We started by saying our favourite hot thing and these included baths, tea, the sun, Pete's chocolate and Nick and Vick!

We also celebrated Rich's epic cycle ride in the peaks and James' 50 miles at endure, in their absence, plus Lucy's round sheffield run.

Top news of the night was undoubtedly Tristan's announcement that he proposed to Christine and she said yes!! Huge congratulations to a lovely couple. Tristan was also crowned goodgymer of the month for May!

We then set off with Barbara and Deb leading a walking group, Nick with the runners and Vicky with a cycling group.

We quickly got to work when we arrived and managed a fair few barrow loads despite the heat! Thankfully Christina brought water and the working areas were shaded.

To end we had a game if walking football- caps v non caps. Some walking styles were a bit questionable!

Another good Monday. Thank you guys!