Tonight's Monday Night Group run saw 22 GG Yorkies tackle an overgrown patch of land in Clifton. But before setting off we welcomed the return of Amy practically fresh off the plane from New Zealand. We also celebrated Pete's 200th Good Deed and gave a big cheer to those who had completed the Yorkshire 3 peaks at the weekend. Give them all a big cheer 💪

The run out tonight was just over 5km out and back so we kept the warm up short and headed straight out with Ed leading the group and Abigail and Laura backmarking. Jenna was our sole cyclist whilst Jane, Michal and Martin met us at the task.

Kristina from the council's eco team gave us the lowdown on tonight's task. The area used to be a play park but had since been left to grow over, to the point that it had started to cover the paths that run through it. Our job was to cut back anything that was growing over the paths and generally make it feel a bit tidier and safe for those that use it as a cut through to the hospital.

Emma armed herself with a pretty mean looking strimmer whilst the rest of the group picked up wire brushes, loppers and shears and soon got to work tackling the overgrown foliage. Although it wasn't always easy going, with Amy struggling to get to grips with her wire brush and later not being able to open a pair of secateurs!

But it wasn't just Amy who was struggling. Emma was keen to get going with the strimmer, but wasn't too sure about where to put the rather large battery pack that came with it. Fortunately help was on hand in the form of Abigail who was looking for a mote gentle job to keep her busy, and was more than happy to act as the battery pack carrier, sort of like the GG version of a flower girl at a wedding carrying the brides dress

Before too long the task was completed and we had a quick thank you from local resident Rebecca who was delighted with the progress that we'd made. It was then off to Clarence Gardens, scene of many previous GG tasks, for tonight's fitness session

Since Amy T had been away for 2 and a half years the fitness was all about getting to know each other a bit better. The group ran around in a circle and then came into the middle if they had done the thing that Ed shouted out. We then chose someone to tell us a bit more about that thing. In true GG York fashion, we had more people who had a piece of work published than those that had tattoos but we still heard about the meaning behind a couple of Issy's tattoos as well as learning a bit of Urdu from Pete and being suitably impressed by the various celebrities that our crew had met. Although it's possible Jane's UFO sighting during a Radiohead concert may have been more to do with the light show than flying saucers!

It was then back to base but not before wishing Pete, Laura and Cara a happy birthday with some traditional birthday squats.

We've also had a special thank you from the council for our help across the city. GoodGym has been a huge contributor across multiple projects, so it was fab to do our fitness sesh right in front of a flourishing wildflower garden that wouldn't be the there without us.

See you all next week when we'll be back to West Bank Park

We started the evening by celebrating some achievements. David achieved yet another parkrun pb - is there no stoping him! Michal also reached his 200th good deed so got to wear the fabulous cape of good deeds. Not only that but he also arranged tonight's task and was our run leader!

We named off by saying our favourite museum or vaccine! Keswick's pencil museum was popular!

Michal then set off with the runners on a longer route whilst the walkers wandered the whole 700 metres to the task!

We then got stuck in weeding and sweeping City Mills to make it nicer for the residents.

To finish we did some hill reps up Baille Hill, which was very short, steep and slippy. The offer of a longer run back was declined so everyone had a nice gentle stroll.

All done for another evening !

We had a bumper turnout for group run - not sure if it was due to the sunshine, the painting task or talk of pineapple! We celebrated David's parkrun PB, Barbara's season's best and Carl's good for age time, then warmed up and discussed chocolate bars we didn't like. I wasn't there but am firmly in the anti snickers camp!

Once we arrived at Park Grove, we swiftly got into groups and started work. A small team continued the willow weaving, another small group worked on the blackboards and another clearing up the mud kitchen. This still left a good crew to paint the fence.

There was lots to do but because of our big numbers we raced through and left the area nicely spruced up!

We then had time to test out the new fitness dice. Carl put the group to shame by being the last one going when burpees to failure was rolled!

It was then back yo back until next time!

Today we started by celebrating some amazing milestones- Leanne doing 1200 good deeds, Amy doing 300 and Neil 50! They all wore their capes with pride!

We also congratulated David on running an amazing 50km ultra on Saturday (and still able to run tonight), and the many runners who did the Helmsley 10k. We also marveled at Rich cycling back from the lakes!

After naming and numbering off, and saying what we'd do to help the planet in honour of earth day tomorrow, we set off to the cemetery.

We were met by Clive and set to task clearing an area of brambles to make way for tree planting later in the year. After 45 mins of graft we'd made good progress and also uncovered some hidden graves.

To finish the session, the new discs of delight came out which involved doing lots of our favourite exercises. If your disc said hunt your team got to go hunting for eggs. Winners got a creme egg then we headed back to base. We promised Clive we'd be back soon to finish off so watch out for that task.