🙌 21 incredible GoodGymmers met for our final group run of 2022 🎉

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Imogen to her first group run session and hope to see her again when she’s next back in York (and maybe at a London session in the meantime!) 👍

🎅 We named and numbered off while saying what we’re most looking forward to over Christmas. There was a lot of excitement for food (sprouts?! Controversial, Dom…), drink, extra parkruns and time off work 🍾

🌳 Ed led our run to Rowntree Park, with Laura backmarking. We were there in no time and were met by Christine who was thrilled to see so many of us. She quickly set us to work, dividing us into rock-movers and nettle-bashers. David and Paul got their own task as gazebo-extraordinaires, a title they earned by smashing the job in no time 🎪

🪨 The rock-movers got to work quickly (literally, some opting to run with the heavy barrows). The site for the new rockery was identified quickly and the rocks unloaded swiftly. After some discussion about the best rockery layout (and also the correct term for a lizard habitat), the first stones were laid. Again, the task was completed with aplomb, and more stones were located to add to the rockery/lizard habitat. And yet more swift and efficient work meant that Team Rock soon became Team Soil as they also shifted the soil to go next to the rockery/lizard habitat 🦎

🌱 Meanwhile, Team Nettle were doing a stirling job, testing the varying degrees of nettle-resistance of everyone’s gloves. There was significant variation (and also the conclusion that rubbing leggings are most certainly not nettle-proof) but Tay's appeared to come up trumps, whereas Barbara's nettle-pulling technique was admired by all who saw it. Stef and Cara were incredibly helpful barrowing the pulled nettles to the big grass pile 🧤

☃️ It was soon time for your activity that we’d all been waiting for - the 12 squats of Christmas. Adapted based on feedback from last year, everyone did a brilliant job and (hopefully) much fun was had 💪

🍻 After a quick jog back to base to stretch off and issue Christmas greetings, it was time to head to the pub (via the Micklegate Mingle for some where the controversial reindeer were sadly nowhere to be seen). Everyone’s (including a random small child’s) sugar fix was saturated with a variety of delicious cakes and bakes that were expertly demolished by some clearly ravenous runners 🍰

😃 Thank you for a brilliant session to round off a cracking year of getting fit by doing good. Join us on New Year’s Day to kickstart 2023 (and the January Challenge) with more of the same. And keep an eye out on the social WhatsApp group for fun stuff happening in the meantime 👌