A 20-strong crew ran to remove Blackthorn for the Foxwood Residents Association.

We were joined by four fabulous new runners on our 26th GG York group run, let's give a massive welcome cheer to:

• Alistair
• Becky
• John
• Venera

After dividing up into three running groups, and with the half-ironman fresh Lizzie as our back-marker, we had a lovely run across Hob Moor and waved at the cows on our way to Foxwood.

We were met by the lovely Neil, who explained that the FRA really needed some help removing the blackthorn from the borders of the park area. The residents association (which comprises of a small group of volunteers) took on the park management and were struggling a bit with some of the bigger clearance jobs. Keeping the borders clear of spiky, overgrown bushes means that it's easier to keep the place tidy from litter and dog poo, as well as providing better visibility from the outside to reduce any anti-social behaviour.

The team set to work forking and digging into the hard roots. Many of these were well established and took some serious effort to pull out of the ground. Two forks were maimed in the process of this task as the ground was so hard, so it didn't take long for everyone to get a good sweat on.

There were various cheers and high fives from small teams who had been victorious in the battle of the blackthorn, with Hayden and Michal winning the prize for the biggest, baddest root yanked out of the ground.

We had cleared a massive area after 25 minutes of hard graft and so the only fitting way to celebrate is with a little bit of group exercise. We did some push/pull partner drills as well as working on our lunges, before running back across a sunny Hob Moor.

Remember we have hill reps on Wednesday this week and it's our monthly social on Friday too. Come along!