The first York Knavesmire parkrun of 2022 went off with a bang (not literally) with a fantastic group of GoodGym-ers taking on some of the parkrun volunteer roles. Nick was the Run Director and kept us all organised; Angela and I were timekeeping; Jane was backup timekeeper (data callibration); Mitch was handing out tokens; Jenna and Cara were barcode scanning; Tay and Hayden were funnel managing; Laura was number checking (unscannables); Michal and Maddy were marshalls; Nicky and Ed were pacing and Vicky and Debs were our fantastically dressed tail walkers. It was great to see lots of familiar faces, including our very own ex-York GG-er Becky Mo who was visiting from Prague! We were grateful for the warm temperature and a welcome bit of sunshine for a change, although the Knavesmire provided it's usual stiff breeze. After just over an hour all 564 participants had had their New Year's day parkrun fix and were off to enjoy the rest of their day, with several of the group off to another task - well done to them!

Monday night saw a modest but very hardy crew of five GoodGymmers meeting up with the Rotary Club of York Ainsty and Holly (Christmassy name, very appropriate!) from York Mind to help drum up excitement for the visit of Santa on his sleigh, and importantly funds for York Mind.

There was some great festive attire on show including tinsel, tights and hats, but Lucy stole the show with her Christmas lights illuminating her GoodGym t-shirt! Top work from Paul, Lionel, Emily and Jane too.

After a quick briefing on what to do (erm... be festive, knock on doors, collect money!) we were also told how to use the brand new contactless card payment machines that York Mind now have - another easy way to donate! After that strenuous technology lesson we were on our way, knocking on doors around Woodthorpe and greeting families who'd come out to catch a glimpse of the Big Man on his sleigh.

Two and a half hours on our feet in the chilly weather later, 6.7km completed, we were done. We were all really impressed with the generosity of people, including a couple of people who kindly donated their very heavy, entire copper jars. It was really kind of people to give so much. The kids all loved Santa too, including at one house where the older brother was instructed to wake up his younger sisters from bed to get outside! That shows how much this kind of thing means to the young ones.

36 GG Yorkies came to improve the wildflower meadow at Millennium Fields.

Tonight we all gave massive high fives to Laura, our very own taskforce legend who only joined GoodGym in April and has already completed an amazing 50 good deeds. If you haven't cheered her yet, make sure you do!

Laura also back-marked for us, swishing her cape as we ran along the river to Millennium Fields. Jonathan was in the far corner of the meadow sending morse code signals with his torch.

The task had three parts, all to do with connecting one end of the meadow to the other, and making the edge of the woodland a wildflower haven.

1. Digging an inch of turf up in a large patch, ready to plant seeds
2. Scarifying another large patch ready for seeding
3. Planting wildflowers along the border of the woodland

Digging is popular in winter so the 9 spades got snapped up super fast, followed by the rakes. Everybody else grabbed a trowel and started planting the wildflowers.

Is this definitely a plant?

I think I've just planted some mud

Some of the wildflowers did look a bit like Jonathan had filled a small plant pot with soil and some leaves, but he assured us there were teeny tiny roots in there with perennial plants that would flower next year.

People were planting one plant and then switching with a digger or a raker but the plants were planted so quickly that Jonathan had to come up with a new task which was basically digging a whole new patch, read for seeding... but using the trowels.

Just pretend your trowel is a spade - Jonathan

Then there was another bonus task which was digging up some tansy plants from down by the river bank to plant in our newly dug out area.

Whilst all this was happening, a few people were tool-less so we did a short pilot of the fitness session, and once all the tansy was planted, the whole group gathered for an extremely complex game of stuck in the mud (with plenty of real life mud).

This version involved rescuers who can only hop, baddies who can only lunge and people who are stuck having to squat continuously until they're rescued.

I can't squat anymore, someone save me!

After everyone eventually became stuck in the mud, we made our way back along the other side of the river, with an optional 1km time trial. Kudos to everyone who boshed it, and especially to Debs who managed to run a new mile PB!

Laura made a lot of really delicious apple cake to celebrate her 50th good deed, thanks Laura!

Til next week.

36 GG Yorkies ran to two big tasks where everyone had to dig and shovel a LOT.

This is probably the last time we can claim Amazing Aron as an official GG Yorkie, before he goes off to launch the biggest GoodGym EVER in Leeds. He'll always be an original though and a GG Yorkie at heart, I'm sure!

Aron was the boss tonight and kicked us off with a warm up before we split into two groups. Tremendous Tim led out the long run crew to Foxwood whilst Aron headed up the Rowntree Park team.

At Rowntree Park, our task was to top up the many play areas with fresh bark. The bark had been dumped in the car park in one enormous pile that covered four parking spaces.

As well as shoveling and wheelbarrowing bark, others were on hardcore forking duty, breaking up the compacted surface under the play equipment.

Top up everywhere where a child is likely to fall

I mean, those kids are pretty rogue, so we went with a very wide perimeter around each bit of play equipment.

The wheelbarrows were being filled in double quick time with everyone was switching between forking, raking, shoveling and wheelbarrowing to keep their muscles fresh.

Aron gave us a 5 minute countdown and it was impossible to clear all the bark so we were set the challenge of having only one parking space-worth of bark remaining. Easy!

With our task finished, we ran down to complete Aron's fitness challenge which was a team planking relay race with added burpees (man after my own heart).

Over in Foxwood, Tim led a surprisingly large group for the '7km' (definitely 8km - Tim) round trip to the community centre, where the task was to dig up some patches for planting wildflowers.

Tim's Report

After a long slog over the formidable Hob Moor, we found task owner Neil ready and raring to go. He led us to the far corner to a wonderfully pre-marked area for us to turn over the soil and make it ready for seed sowing.

We surprised him with our speedy and dutiful work and quickly had Herbie, Georgie and Amy pigeon/penguin footing the seeds into the freshly turned over soil.

The rest of the group furiously wrestled over the last tiny patch of soil, desperate to get involved.

%#€$ €#%*, it's raining

Max didn't take well to the light drizzle that hit mid-task.

They say %#€$ in the first Harry Potter book so it must be fine for the run report! - Also Max

As the space ran out, Amy took to regaling Ed with her penguin song which we very much look forward to at a future warm-up!!!

On the way back we executed an amazingly ordered Indian File. Expertly dodging cyclists, cows and renegade run leaders who step out into the sprinting lane! (Sorry Nicky!)

Til next week, be a good'un (and good luck for Leeds, Aron!)