Despite the pouring rain all day and the original task being cancelled, we still had 19 hardy goodgymers turn out for the last group run of 2025!

We are very grateful to Laura for stepping in last minute and finding us a wide array of jobs at Holgate Community Garden. We had budlea cutters, compost shifters, leaf sweepers and woodchip weeders.

We soon rattled through the jobs then ended with some Christmas themed tag, where you had to sing a line from a Christmas song to release the tagged reindeer/snowman/holly/santa.

It was then back to base led by Pete and thats it for this year... except the party on Friday!

🏆 A mega (post-COVID record-breaking) 40 people attended tonight’s group run. We kicked off December with a bang and donned our Christmassy cheer for some present-wrapping fun.

💪 But first, it was time to celebrate some excellent Goodgymmers. James T was named GoodGymmer of the month for his sterling work leading clothes swap and book sale tasks very regularly. Then we had not one but two PBs to celebrate from the weekend - Charlotte with a 5k and Matt with a 10k at the Abbey Dash. Amazing stuff everyone!

🎄 Next up, we had a Christmassy warm-up in the shape of (an abbreviated version of) the 12 squats of Christmas (a different exercise for each day of Christmas). Pete led the walking crew while Ed led and Laura backmarked the runners to Park Grove School.

🦁 Vicky met us there with our instructions - to wrap whatever was in front of us. For some people, that was incredibly cute teddy lions, for others it was keyrings.

🍭 And for others (not for the faint-hearted), it was pass the parcel. Wrapping up to 30 layers of paper and making sure there was a lollipop in each layer (cue lots of double-checking for lollies) was quite the challenge, but one that was impressively tackled by Team Parcel.

🍫 And if that pass the parcel wasn’t enough, once we’d finished wrapping, it was time for Vicky’s special fitness pass the parcel. With a different fitness challenge for each layer and the ultimate reward of a Crunchie for the winner, it was the perfect way to finish our task (especially for Alex who won the golden Crunchie).

☔️ Although the rain had held off on our run out, it wasn’t so kind for the return journey. The walkers therefore made the sensible decision to head straight to the pub where lots of the runners joined afterwards for a meeting to discuss the January Challenge. And with some exciting plans being made, there’s lots to be looking forward to (and some more fun group runs in the meantime).

👏 Thanks to Vicky for a really fun task, and to everyone for coming along.

What a great turnout for tonights task - thank you!

We welcomed back Joanne tonight who brought along her partner Ben to his first task, but hopefully first of many!

We quickly set about the job of cutting strips of paper into the specified size, then wrote some questionable jokes on the back! There were different methods- Ben had an efficient way of cutting, whilst team Babs and Claire divided into odds and evens.

Time flew by, and fueled by pizza, we managed to make 6 sets of 50 ready to be sent off to CAMHS to support young people in hospital at Christmas.

Great work for a great cause.

Tonight's social run was a short and sweet one - Rich led a faster 5k group whilst Vicky's group did a more leisurely 3k.

Back in plenty of time for paper chains at the pub!

The cold weather has arrived in earnest but it didn't stop a hardy team of goodgymers rock up ready to go off to the trenches for their weekly workout.

We started the session by celebrating Barbarapassing her 700th good deed and Laura her 50th, and welcoming new comer Alex to the group.

Vicky set off first with the party pace group and were met at Glen Allotments by an enthusiastic team. Ed's group arrived very soon after and we were all armed with spades and set to work.

The task was to dig one trench of 30 metres and another 20 metres, in preparation for a water pipe. There was some discussion about how deep 18 inches is - quite deep it turns out! No problem for our crew, who rose to the challenge! Within our alloted time we'd completed the task and were rewarded with home made flapjack.

Vicky set of back with the party gang whilst Ed's group did a spot of fun fitness.

Back at base we were rewarded by more delicious homemade biscuits courtesy of Laura!

A very enjoyable task!