Despite the slightly lower numbers for tonight's group run we had lots to celebrate. First we welcomed Emily to her first Goodgym session, despite her only arriving in York a week ago. We celebrated Abigail and Claire both achieving 200 good deeds. We celebrated Rebecca being crowned August's Goodgymer of the month, having completed lots of Goodgym tasks in her first few months since joining, including some Goodgym tourism. We also congratulated Emma on completing the Vale of York half marathon and Liv and Mia on completing the Great North Run. (We also thought there may also have been a few other York Goodgymers doing a race at the weekend and having a few drinks along the way.) Finally we celebrated World Ampersand Day by going round and naming our favourite food and drink pairings worthy of the & symbol. After all the congratulations we headed to the task at Holgate Community Garden. We did two main jobs, cutting a circle of grass and weeds away around the trees and tidying the beds nearest the road. Abigail, Leanne and Jenna joined in once they had finished staging a teddy birth for Abigail. As her due date is in three days we were hoping that we didn't have a real birth to contend with. Claire and Laura Bennett went down to the Holgate Allotments and brought back two barrows of bark chip for putting on top of the soil circles around the trees. Imran and Jenna did a great job clearing all the brambles on the beds. We managed to complete both tasks before doing some training related fitness, including squats while we were stopped for leaves on the line, lunges for shovelling coal, creating tunnel arches for the other team's train to go through and then finishing with all aboard the train for a photo and some delicious chocolate and courgette cake from Claire before running back to base.

Another bumper turnout for a mammoth task! Tonight we headed to West Offices all of 450 metres away! After naming and numbering off and discussing past injuries Ed took a slightly longer route whilst Vicky led a short run group and Abigail led some walkers.

When we arrived Ian met us armed with maps and a long list of jobs. There was deadheading to do, planters to weed and large areas to clear. Ian said he had lots of bags for us to fill but in true gg style these didn't last long so we had to make a big heap against the wall!

By 7.30 we'd make huge progress so stopped for a game of musical cones. There was some fierce competition but Lyndsay finally took the crown!

Thanks team for another productive evening!

For this month's session at the Oaks we were greeted by a bumper turnout of residents who, as usual, didn't know quite what to expect from a GoodGym visit. Fortunately for them there was no fitness involved and instead this week's activities included playing with a giant inflatable pink ball, followed by a very quick go with some oversized tennis rackets.

The old faithful parachute soon came out and we attempted a game of trying to get the ball over the edge of the other side of the parachute. When that got a bit one-sided we moved onto the a beanbag target game followed by shooting some hoops

Throughout the task a white board displayed an anagram for the residents with the clue being 'nature'. The letter were HAMPER TOES. 5 GG points for anyone who can guess the correct answer

After the long bank holiday weekend a very impressive 25 GG Yorkies turned up to help out at Hempland Haven, a community events space in Heworth Allotments. There were no celebrations this week although many of the group had been away camping for the now annual GG Yorkie's August Weekend Away (if you've not been before, you should definitely come to the next one) and a few others had spent the day doing some serious training for their upcoming attempt at the Marathan du Medoc, which features a fair bit of wine across the 26.2 route in the vineyards of Bordeaux. Tonight we also welcomed newcomer Jenny who was doing her first ever GoodGym task. Giver her a big cheer 📣

The task was just over 3km away each way, so Vicky led a cycling group out whilst Tristan led the running group with Ed bringing up the rear. The cycling group arrived first and were joined by Nicola and James who were meeting us at the task. Taskowner Gayle got them set up with tools to get the weeds out of the cracks between the patio stones, whilst the running group were still struggling to find the right allotment space, before realising they'd stopped their run a touch too early and needed to head a little bit further into the allotments to join the others!

The team made great progress clearing as many weeds out from the cracks as possible before spreading sand onto the ground and sweeping it into the gaps. Gayle and her small assistant were on hand to provide a few bottles of water to the more thirsty GGers (mostly those that had been wine training earlier in the day), and before too long the sand was being filled into every crack the team could find. There was a mad dash to sweep it all away in order to finish with enough time for the group photo and a fab nautical themed fitness session from Tristan, which showed that a lot of us could do with swotting up on our ports and starboards, as well as our left and right!

It was then back to the Priory Street centre for a bit of a fruit and veg giveaway thanks to various gluts and some delicious cake from Jenna!