💫30 fantastic GoodGymmers came out on a cool but clear starry night for our final group run of January. Having beaten both our good deeds and distance targets for the January Challenge, we were keen to see if we could get to 500 good deeds, and we’re getting SO close, it’s pretty nail-biting stuff 😬

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Grace and Benjamin for their first GoodGym session. We hope you enjoyed it and would love to see you back if you did 😁

☕️ Our walking group set off for Rowntree Park while we warmed up, lunging/running round the circle while saying our GoodGym highlight of January. Lots of love for all the food and socialising that’s accompanied many of the tasks, and also brilliant to hear from people who have joined (or rejoined!) during January 🙌

➗We split into two groups with Mitch leading half the gang to Back Park. Here’s what he had to say about what they got up to…

🍂 We arrived at Back Park and were tasked with clearing the grounds of all the leaves. With a wide assortment of tools (including the leaf scraper which was amazing!) We quickly filled 10 bags 💪

🗯️ Quote of the night from this gang - "I come with a lot of baggage".

🏃‍♀️🚶🚲The rest of us ran/walked/cycled to Rowntree Park where we were met by Jenny and a list of tasks. We split into different teams, doing various tasks all over the park.

🌳 We had tree-moving teams, shifting a very heavy tree in a pot to a different part of the park (and only discovering afterwards that we weren’t using the trolley to its full helpfulness). The other part of Team Tree were digging up a tree. This was quite the manual labour, requiring much muscle and exertion but also skill to work out where the roots were that still needed cutting.

🌊 Meanwhile, we had a couple of groups on path-clearing, making sure the paths were clear and not slippery, following the recent floods. After some discussion of where the debris should go, sensible homes were found for it and it was distributed. There was also some discussion about if/where/how ducks and swans sleep, after seeing a fair few still bobbing along on the water, even at this time 🦢

🌲 The final Rowntree group started off clearing the top path (by the cafe) of debris then moved onto some topiary, cutting back bushes and considering potential shapes to mould them into. They looked great and there was still a hint of an elephant to one of them at the end (if only there was a GoodGym topiary badge…) 🐘

📸 After failing to drag Team Tree from their task, we posed for a (not-quite-complete) group photo. We heard a cheer while heading back to fetch them and were able to see their felled (by digging) tree, alongside some rosy faces and cheery smiles ☺️

🌟 It was time to make our way back to base where we did some celebratory fitness, featuring sprints and star-shaped exercises.

🍻 And then it was time to stretch and part ways, some to the pub and some off home.

👏 Thank you for some brilliant work tonight everyone, we’re SO close to 500 good deeds now so if anyone’s free to join the final task tomorrow evening to help us get there, we’d love to see you 🙏

*Credit to Cara for the pun 🤣

A rather sizeable GG contingent who were taking on the Dalby Head Torch race, plus a few who weren't, headed out the fab play area at the excellent Dalby Forest for a spot of bark chip raking

A few late-comers who were delayed by a forgotten head torch (classic mitch!) took on the leaves that had built up on the glorious Dalby cafe patio.

After 45 mins of "work" and after a few murmurs of Ed just getting GG to do the work of his team at Dalby, we were soon ready to down tools and get ready for the epic head torch challenge in North Yorkshire's finest outdoor recreational facilities

Good times had by all

Despite the promised skip being cancelled due to not enough stuff (yet!) to fill it, nobody signed out, and Kristina had plenty to keep us busy, with a completely overgrown flowerbed needing a good forking. After careful instructions as to weed Vs not weed (then relayed to Mitch just after he pulled a not-weed out!), we set to it, and in no time had spruced up the bed nicely. Mitch even perfected his "spaghetti technique" for twirling up the grass from around the lavender. Kristina had meanwhile been tidying up the raised beds so they were pretty much done by the time we got to them, so we headed off to Café Gover for a well-earned cuppa.

🥳 Oh, what a night, with so much to celebrate! It was our 6th birthday group run, Leanne's 1000th good deed and David did his 100th at the weekend too! Epic achievements all round 🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️

🚂 Sadly my train was late but I understand that a stellar intro and warm up was completed in my absence and everyone was raring to go when I arrived 👍

🏃‍♀️🚶🚲 Debs led a walking group whilst Leanne led the run to West Bank Park and the rest of us cycled.

🌳 We were met by Kristina who had a list of tasks for 3 groups of varying size. She was determined not to let slip who was doing what before the groups were decided, though we did spot a couple of people swapping groups to be able to use mattocks 😆

🐸 This group were based at the new wildlife area and divided further into two groups. Half were mattocking around the new pond that we’ve been helping with. A particularly challenging task when the ground was frozen solid but hopefully the frogs will appreciate it when they arrive, hopefully in spring 🌱

🪚 The other half of this group were cutting back branches and dividing them into piles based on their size, using loppers and saws. Barbara did a great job of reminding people that the branches needed to be facing the same direction ➡️

🍂 The next group were the first to form, got disappointed with their allocated task, then got lost and finally, were hard to extract from it! They were clearing leaves around the orchard, which was admittedly slightly tricky to find (I also struggled). When I did manage to find them, they didn’t want to finish but once they’d tackled the final few piles of gathered leaves, they joined us for fitness 🍎

🌺 The leftover group became the finesse group who were chopping off verbena heads so that their seeds can be used, and then cutting the verbena plants back to exactly the right point. Tristan did a sterling job with the wheelbarrow, despite me sending him in the wrong direction at one point (sorry…) 🤔

💪 Once we’d gathered everyone together, it was time for a 6th birthday-themed cones of joy. We had 6 cones and did 60 seconds on each activity, before rotating onto the next. The “Dance” cone made a popular return, with various musical accompaniments (the Can Can and New York, New York, to name a couple) 💃🕺

🥶 Hopefully that did a good job of keeping everyone warm before a quick group photo 📸

🎂 We headed back to base on our various modes of transport, to be greeted by at least 4 different types of cake. Most of it was heading to the pub, with most of GG York, to be devoured with a drink and a chat 🍻

🙌 Thank you for a great evening everyone, looking forward to seeing you again soon (don’t forget to sign up to your next task here) 😁