It was the coldest task yet for the Huddersfield GoodGymmers last night. But near freezing temperatures didn’t put off 7 eager beavers (including Matt who had once again travelled all the way from Liverpool), who were all up for the run to Ravensknowle Park for some winter gardening in the Heritage Memorial Garden.

Opened in 2014 Tolson and Ravensknowle Heritage Memorial Garden is a place to honour the sacrifice of Huddersfield service men and women who have died in the service of their country. Situated behind Tolson Museum the task required a 2.5K run to get there (fractionally further than advertised, but GoodGym Huddersfield always likes to give value for money!).

The task had been set up by our own Louise Galvin, who has strong links with the park through her involvement with the Junior Parkrun there. As a result we were fortunate to have access to the Friends of Ravensknowle Park hut, very welcome on a cold night, especially when we discovered a cupboard full of biscuits and sweets!

But GoodGym wasn’t there to sit in a hut and eat, there was work to be done- and quite a lot of it! For a start there were a million leaves that needed sweeping up, a multitude of fallen branches to collect and some dead plants to cut back. So brushes, shovels, black bags and secateurs at the ready we were off and gardening.

This was definitely a night to keep moving, the cold meant we could see our breath in front of our faces and the big winter moon gave us a little winter light to work by. We were all soon stuck into the task, and the black rubbish bags were rapidly filling with the leaves and twigs which had collected in wind blown eddies beside the garden’s many low walls.

The light from the moon was supplemented by Louise’s fancy freebie light from Amazon, which was great, for the 15 minutes the battery lasted....not sure that one will be getting a 5 star review! The team were working well and staying warm, soon enough all the leaves and twigs had been swept, bagged and were being ferried back to the hut by Matt and Kati. Meanwhile Ben, Louise,, Chris and Heather were in the flower beds and armed with the secateurs cutting back some of last summer’s now dead growth.

45 minutes of hard labour later, we were done. It was time to return the tools to the hut and prepare ourselves for the chilly run back to the Stadium. Before we did so however there was just time for a quick snack to keep our energy levels up. We had been given permission to help ourselves to the sweet and biscuit store in the hut as a thank you for our efforts, so we happily obliged. That’s the first time that’s ever happened on a GoodGym Huddersfield run....although I could get used to it!

All that was left then was the downhill run back to the Stadium, and our now customary pushing on of the pace as we ran the final half mile along St.Andrew’s Road.

Thanks as ever to all the GoodGymmers who took part in last night’s task. We have made a little part of Huddersfield a lot better, and in a very small way helped preserve the memory of those local people who selflessly gave their lives for the rest of us. I hope our efforts on a cold winter night have ignited a warm glow of satisfaction in your hearts for having once again done something good for the community.