Tonight was all about the amazing exploits of all our runners at the Yorkshire Marathon and 10 Miler on Sunday. Well done to everyone who took part either by running or supporting at the water station. An extra shout out to Carys, Sanjay and Lucy who had all run the 10 miler and made it along to tonight's session, and very special mention for Michael and David who had both completed the marathon and still felt like they couldn't possibly miss an epic GG session!

We were back off to Heworth Holme, a site of an awful lot of previous GoodGym group runs, however tonight was nothing to do with laying the path through the middle and instead was all about raking up an awful lot of cuttings from a grassy area. We met Maria from St Nicks at the task who gave a brief overview to the team who soon got to work. There was a mix of rakers, pirchforkers and draggers as the GG crew got stuck in and shifted an awful lot of the grass cuttings in no time at all and with remarkably few complaints from those who may have been carrying tired legs from the weekend!

After a good 45mins of some serious raking we stopped for a team photo around our marathon heroes before a quick fitness session which put them in the middle of our group and relied on them to guess who was leading the choreographing of the exercises. David picked out Paul Kelly in absolutely no time at all, whereas Michael probably could still be guessing now and would have no idea that Nikki was in charge of the exercises when he was in the middle! To be fair Michael took his punishment of a single star jump remarkably well.

It was then back to base with Ed leading the run and Neil backmarking, and with the slightly longer distance than usual we were very grateful for some of Jenna's delicious apple and cinnamon cake when we returned!

Lots to celebrate tonight. Parkrun pbs for Neil and Claire, Claire hitting 300 and Nick completing a triathlon. We also welcomed Beth to her first group run and Katie who was visiting from Edinburgh.

We named and numbered off saying our favourite beverage in honour of national beer drinking day. There was a surprising amount of tea and coffee!

We then off to Holgate allotments. A select few were tasked with clearing the communuty orchard - Kit and Jane looked to be having a lot of fun the lawnmower. The remainder of the group collected tools and set to work on digging over an overgrown plot. Due to the high concentration of goodgymers we made rapid progress, leaving the plot ready for new tenants. And if that wasn't enough Nick, Claire and Michael went hunting for balsam in the beck!

We finished off with a game of catch squat, with Ed's team getting very excited over their victory!

Thanks team, another bumper week.

An invite from Middlethorpe Hall led to 8 GoodGymers standing on the driveway waiting to cheer Kevin Sinfeld as he ran past on his way to Bishopthorpe Palace. With GoodGym banner aloft we cheered with gusto as Kevin and his entourage passed by. He waved and gave us a thumbs up as he passed so we then dispersed but still in awe of just what Kevin has and is achieving. (More pics to follow)

We started the evening with what was supposed to be a quick and fun beanbag name, but turns out it works better with well behaved children than goodgym!

We celebrated Matt's Great North run and other achievements before splitting into two groups- a faster group with Ed to Clarence Street Gardens and a steady pace plus walking group with Vicky to the Groves.

At the Groves- we were met by Tracy plus a lady from York TV. The group split and headed off to do various tasks- hanging lights in trees, shifting slabs, weeding a courtyard, moving soil and raking piles of earth. Whilst all this was going on John kindly did the interview for tv.

In Ed's group

The Clarence Garden crew arrived and quickly continued the work that we'd started a few weeks ago. Mostly filling sacks full of the wildflower cuttings, shifting them over to the skips and then tipping them out.

The skips quickly filled up so Michael and Ed, in the absence of our usual bin dwellers, got stuck in and trampled down the cuttings so we could continue to pile the loads on top.

With time running out and the skips being fit to burst, we finished off by filling up the remaining tonne sacks and making a quick dash back across the gardens before leaving them next to the skips with just enough time to get creative for our team photo

We then all reconvened at the art gallery for a bean bag race with the new teeny tiny beanbags and hoops, posed as statues, then headed back to base.

Another successful night!

Our weekend away in the Peak District had it all: camping, running, kayaking, paddle boarding, pub food, composting toilet facilities and some extremely important scientific debate.

We kicked things off on Friday with the traditional BBQ. It was a but chilly so we (Michael) tried to extend the bbq time but were politely asked to put it out!

The campsite was basic but with beautiful views and came with joys of compost toilets — because nothing says GoodGym weekend quite like doing your bit for the environment before breakfast.

Then it was trainers on for a run to Ashbourne parkrun, where we joined the Saturday morning parkrun crowd. Becca got a pb! Great running! Following this was s pit stop for breakfast in f'coffee.

Next came a run or walk down to Carsington Water, where we swapped running shoes for paddles and took to the water for some kayaking and paddle boarding. There was plenty of splashing, wobbling and the occasional dip. There was of course an alternative pub crew who were enjoying liquid of a different sort.

After all that activity, there was only one sensible option: pub food at the Red Lion. Food was consumed, conversations flowed and the weekend’s most pressing question was eventually raised:

Which animal could Steve Rice take with his bare hands?

Naturally, this became the subject of serious discussion, with various increasingly ambitious wildlife contenders considered. I'm not sure we got to the bottom of it as the discussion carried on well into the night, with a short break to play 21 and test out knowledge of prime numbers.

A brilliant weekend of running, camping, paddling, eating and laughing with an excellent bunch of GoodGymers.

Peak District? Peak performance? Probably not. Peak GoodGym? Absolutely. ⛰️❤️