Another double figure attendance for GoodGym Huddersfield, for the second consecutive week! 11 runners last night for a relatively short 4K run and a gardening task for our old friends at Christ Church Moldgreen.

Prior to the run I was proud to present now regular GoodGymmer Wendy Redmile with her “no expense spent” trophy for becoming the inaugural GoodGym Huddersfield 10-Pin Bowling Champion last week. Thanks to Kati Law who unfortunately couldn’t be at the presentation for taking the time to hand craft such a beautiful trophy.

After the formalities it was on with the warming up and of course the running. About 2K, (admittedly mostly up hill) took us to the church where congregation member Andrea and her dog Piper were waiting for us with tools aplenty. Our task for the night was to clear the “Jolly Big Bank” which lies between the church and the vicarage. Over the winter GoodGym had an ongoing battle with a former resident of the bank, “The Jolly Big Bush”. During the course of a number of sessions we had entirely removed the bush, but now the bank was regrowing with weeds of all varieties.

There were also a few flowers and shrubs in there, and fortunately we had GoodGym Huddersfield’s resident gardener Wendy Redmile on hand to advise us less green fingered runners what needed digging up and what needed leaving to flourish. It was a big job but with 22 hands cutting, digging, scraping and praising reluctant roots from the earth we were done within our time limit of an hour. In the process we had entirely filled two large wheelie bins with weeds, cuttings and other garden waste, and the Jolly Big Bank was looking far prettier than when we had started.

Waving goodbye to Andrea and Piper we set forth back to the Stadium, with a little trail running over Kilner Bank, dropping down to the Stadium through the secret pine forest behind the cinema. Once back there was time for a swift stretch and the usual debate about an appropriate title for the run report.

Thanks to all last night’s GoodGymmers, as ever your efforts are much appreciated. Good to see Zena Whalley and Megan Higgins who were new to the group runs, along with all the old GoodGym favourites David Bilton, Vicki Knight-Philips, Peter Phillips, Meg Deacon, Mark Donnelan, Wendy Redmile and Louise Galvin. Hope to see you all again next Tuesday to make it another double figure attendance.

Particular thanks to Louise Galvin also for some of the photos, which are far superior to my efforts.