The problem with the January challenge is that we do so many good deeds that our taskowners run out of things for us to do, as was the case late last night with the council's eco team and the scheduled task at Clarence Gardens. We'd already done all the work earlier in the month. Fortunately, with a flurry of WhatsApp messages and our wonderful run leader Laura we were able to come up with a couple of tasks to fill the void and keep everyone just about busy enough.

Tonight we gave a big GG Yorkie welcome (and one dissenting boo) to Jenni who was joining is from GoodGym Reading. Great to have you here, despite Pete's rivalry! We also welcomed back Carys and Rohail who had enjoyed themselves so much last week tjat they decided to return. There were a fair few tired legs tonight after some fantastic running at the Brass Monkey half, so a lot of people were grateful for the steadier run out to the allotment task with Vicky, whilst Ed led the larger group to the community gardens with Pete and Lucy bringing up the rear.

Dan very quickly realised we would be working on the gardens at the end of his road and was almost tempted to get his "goodgym-curious" partner out to join us. Another night perhaps. At the task Laura had prepared a list of jobs that needed doing and the GG York crew got to work weeding, pruning, digging and sweeping. As we worked away we managed to spend a bit of time getting to know our newer members a bit better. Turns out Rohail is yet to try a jacket potato (cheese and beans seemed to be the best choice for an entry-level jacket) and Carys just casually dropped that she done some pretty epic running events in the past, including the Berlin Marathon!

Meanwhile, over with Vicky...

A splinter group of ladies headed to Holgate Allotments and were tasked with covering all the community allotment paths with woodchip. We quickly got stuck in and soon had a conveyor of wheelbarrows going back and forth. Alongside this was team weed, who cleared some of the paths before the bark arrived.

We had almost finished when the other group arrived, but being the perfectionists that we are, we had one final push to make sure we got the job done! We were very proud of our work and the paths look ace, if we do say so ourselves!

Once both tasks were completed we regrouped for an epic game of musical cones, with a little bit of cheating and some heated debate over the rules, before we headed back to the pub where some joined in with the cool down but most got themselves a reasonably well earned pint

Lovely stuff

A crack team of Goodgymers met in the park to help the Council Eco team with some maintenance - the removal of an assorted pile of branches, wood chip and rubbish, with a bonus pair of pants (!). We then raked out the remaining compost to reveal the bulbs coming through in the neighbouring flowerbed, leaving the park ready for spring.

Yorkies you are all legends for turning up tonight for our first group run of 2026, in sub zero temperatures! 🥶

It wasn't easy leaving the warmth of our new meeting place in the Ackhorne, but we zipped up and made our way out. We had a pre warm up warm up to keep warm, then welcomed newcomer Daniel (to York anyway), and celebrated Excellent Ed's 500th good deed and adorned him with the cape of good deeds. 👑

We named and numbered off by saying our goal for the year. Many involved not getting injured or getting a PB. We also had racing for the first time, being less late and cooking from a recipe book!

Without further ado we set off for Glen Allotments. The ground was too hard for the original digging task, but the ladies there did a great job in finding us alternatives. We had woodchip spreading, 🪏 , weeding 🌱 , prepping for a dead hedge 🪵 , and litter picking.

Our work was rewarded with some delicious flapjack before an energetic tabata workout to get warm.

We then headed back to base and a few stayed behind for a liquid refreshment at the pub 🍺

Well done gang! you're all superstars and have added to our January target!

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!