16 GoodGym Yorkie legends braved the chilly conditions, threat of rain and longer than usual run to join us for tonight's group run. Vicky and Babs headed off as the steady group whilst the rest of the crew warmed up and celebrated Charlotte getting round the Rosebery Topping Half Marathon in conditions that would be enough to make other people stay home and complete a Lord of the Rings Marathon (no names mentioned). Give her a big cheer 💪

We numbered off by celebrating the anniversary of the first traffic signal and naming what new colour and rule we would add to traffic lights if we could. Stef's suggestion of a rave face smiley got the most kudus! It was then off to Ashton Park to catch up with the rest of the gang and get to work on a massive pile of bark chip.

James, Cara and Debs joined Babs and Vicky at the task and got stuck straight into the mound, before being joined by the rest of the runners. This wasn't out first bark chip pile rodeo so no instructions were needed and the whole team were soon working away like a well-oiled machine. Pete was the first to jump on to raking duties whilst Paul Kelly, Cara and Mitch were the team of sack draggers. Everyone else was armed with shovels and wheelbarrows and before too long were putting a huge dent in the the pile.

Whilst Vicky was trying to remember her latest rude word and Ed was busy climbing on top of the pile, the rest of the gang genuinely got properly stuck in and made excellent progress. But as the time was running down we needed to get a bit more inventive with shifting the bark chip. Paul Kelly's suggestion of filling up a full tonne sack and getting 4 people to drag it seemed like an excellent idea at the time, that was until we realised we'd ripped a massive whole in the bottom of it and accidentally created a perfect new path with the bark chip that was spilling out of the bottom. Ooops!

After that we quickly wrapped things up and headed to Memorial Park for a sprinting fitness sesh with a difference. Two teams competed to make it as far around the circular path as possible. Unfortunately for Vicky's team the rules for winning seemed to change to negate their underhand tactics

Then it was back to CVS for a quick stretch and a round of applause for our last outdoor group run of 2024. We'll be back to the warmth of Park Grove for present wrapping volume 2 next week!