It was glorious Yorkshire Marathon Day. A day people count down all year for. Wait up all night in anticipation for. A day of greats, of victories, swollen knees and sweaty faces.

The weather Gods were smiling down on us. It was a crisp and sunny morning. The Goodgymmer’s came rolling in two by two hurrah hurrah! Some of a bit more cheery than others…

As Chief today, I knew I needed to motivate everyone with the lure of points. The rules were: impress me and you get points, be sassy with me and you’ll soon see those points tumbling away!

After a brief briefing - where we found out there were no bacon sandwiches on the way - we got to work. Everyone pitched in, carrying the water, stacking it on the tables, opening the lids ready for the runners. We were quick. Well some of us were quicker than others. Jane was a pro at flipping the lids, but she mocked my lip flipping skills which lost her many many points. Hannah and Jenna had lid flipping tips so they were +15 each! Laura was quietly efficient, +10!

We were so quick at the prep, there was even time for a few shop runs for pain au chocolates in lieu of the bacon sarnies. Max delivered the first round and then Nick came with the bakery goods. This earned them both 30 points!

Then the countdown to the first runners was getting closer. We discussed tactics, we checked our reserves, we got into formation. Nick had the good intentions of bringing a speaker (+20) but alas, the speaker’s charge didn’t even last a whole song (-5).

Then the runners came, slow at first. The speedier, but still very polite and thankful, runners came through. Then it hit. Thousands of runners, desperate for our water, came pouring in. We couldn’t hand it out fast enough. We couldn’t restock. It was chaos! Max turned into a genuinely helpful goodgymmer and replenished our water reserves so fast (+20)!

I was pulled away from the action to help an injured runner and missed all the fun. Leanne described it as “the most chaotic ever!” So everyone can have +50 for being superstars during the madness.

Some respite came soon after where we got into some water fights. Ed lost most his points at this stage. Rule of life: never anger the Point Giver-Outer. Lionel won many many points for having my back.

Final Points Tally: 1. Jane: -80 (far too sassy!) 2. Ed: -33 (work ethic was sub optimal. Also attacked me with water!) 3. Helen: -13 (disobeyed orders!!) 4. Paul Kelly: +15 (obeyed my orders, even if reluctantly) 5. Leanne: +20 (there was a lot of sass, but general work ethic was good) 6. Neil: +64 (is married to someone cooking me a roast) 7. Laura: +72 (for being clever with blister plasters!) 8. Hayden: +77 (the sun god) 9. Nicky: +83 (star helper) 10. Lisa: +94 (It was lovely to meet you, but minus points for being related to James.. sorry!) 11. Rebecca: +97 (efficiency pro) 12. Emma: +99 (water queen!) 13. Max: +101 (gave me food!) 14. Amy: +102 (extra points for being an Acorn) 15. Nick: +103 (gave me better food!) 16. Hannah: +104 (great lid flipping tips) 17. Jenna: +107 (also good lid flipping) 18. Sam: +112 (Acorn and defended my honour) 19. Vicky: +146 (is currently cooking me a roast dinner so I have to be nice) 20. Lionel: +1063 (THE LEGEND)

There was a slight change to the task tonight as the expected skip had not arrived at the allotments. Luckily there was a backup plan to get all the rubbish into a van so we were still able to help buy barrowing and carrying it to the car park. It looked like there had been some serious fly tipping at the allotments as a lot of the rubbish was not the kind of stuff you would usually find on an allotment site.

With six of us we made light work of the task. Unfortunately the van did not arrive in time for us to help with the loading.

A big shout out to Lisa for completing her first GoodGym task after signing up more than a year ago! To be fair to Lisa, she is also a run leader with Community Fit in Harrogate and has done more than a hundred good deeds with them over the last few years.