It was a wet and windy one tonight, but that couldn't dampen our spirits because there was just so much to celebrate this week! We kicked off with a shout out to Stef who took on one of the 'Grim Up North' events at the weekend, and despite his lack of training, managed to get round in a very respectable time. We also give a big cheer to the crew who had tackled the Marathon du Medoc featuring 23 glasses of wine over 26.2 in the French sunshine. More importantly, we also had the news this week that GG regular, Abigail, had given birth to baby Dylan. Huge congratulations to her and Martin. We'll forgive her for not being at GG this week but expect normal service to resume next Monday!

After all that celebrating, and with the rain lashing down, Mitch set off with the walking group whilst Ed led a quick warm up before setting off the running group, ably backmarked by Laura and Babs. We then arrived at Park Grove Academy to be greeted by an already soggy Vicky and Gary who soon got the everyone off to work to avoid any unnecessary standing around. The group were split into wheelbarrow and shovellers, raised bed weeders, tree choppers, willow weavers and rakers.

This task definitely wasn't for fair-weather GoodGymmers as the rain continued to pour down, giving a real test to the new GG branded jackets that were on show. A few people may have spent a bit more time hiding under any shelter they could find, but Ed wasn't going to be too much of a taskmaster tonight as it really was pretty grueling conditions.

There was a little bit of confusion when the walking group were gathered to begin their route home, with word getting around that the task was complete (possibly more out of hope than anything else) despite there still being a good 10mins or so left. But we decided to call it a day before anyone suffered from hypothermia and so downed tools ready for a warming fitness sesh.

Before the fitness began we heard the news that Sophia would be leaving us for a few months in order to go and work abroad. It's been fab having her join us and we look forward to seeing her back next year. Give her a big cheer!

The fitness then involved some wacky relay racing which included lunging, jumping, skipping and crab walking. After the first round of racing we did some traditional birthday squats in honour of Area Activator Vicky's birthday, before a second round of relay races before a dash back to CVS to warm ourselves with Lyndsey's chilli chocolate brownies.

With our task leader, Penny, resting up post op, Bec, Elle and Mike made short work of cleaning up Planet Food. When Jenna got there, it was nearly all done. In a whirl wind of brooms, cloths and table moving the task was complete ahead of time. We were in for Penny, and left with a pound of blueberries and potatoes. Thanks Planet Food!

Despite the slightly lower numbers for tonight's group run we had lots to celebrate. First we welcomed Emily to her first Goodgym session, despite her only arriving in York a week ago. We celebrated Abigail and Claire both achieving 200 good deeds. We celebrated Rebecca being crowned August's Goodgymer of the month, having completed lots of Goodgym tasks in her first few months since joining, including some Goodgym tourism. We also congratulated Emma on completing the Vale of York half marathon and Liv and Mia on completing the Great North Run. (We also thought there may also have been a few other York Goodgymers doing a race at the weekend and having a few drinks along the way.) Finally we celebrated World Ampersand Day by going round and naming our favourite food and drink pairings worthy of the & symbol. After all the congratulations we headed to the task at Holgate Community Garden. We did two main jobs, cutting a circle of grass and weeds away around the trees and tidying the beds nearest the road. Abigail, Leanne and Jenna joined in once they had finished staging a teddy birth for Abigail. As her due date is in three days we were hoping that we didn't have a real birth to contend with. Claire and Laura Bennett went down to the Holgate Allotments and brought back two barrows of bark chip for putting on top of the soil circles around the trees. Imran and Jenna did a great job clearing all the brambles on the beds. We managed to complete both tasks before doing some training related fitness, including squats while we were stopped for leaves on the line, lunges for shovelling coal, creating tunnel arches for the other team's train to go through and then finishing with all aboard the train for a photo and some delicious chocolate and courgette cake from Claire before running back to base.

Three GG Yorkies helped with setting up for the Foxwood Family Funday, an annual community event. We picked some litter in the park and put up four gazeebos outside the community centre. It was a short task, but appreciated by the event organisers.

Like a well oiled machine, the carpets were hoovered, tables wiped, folded and put away, the chairs were stacked and heaved into their storage places, the floor was swept and photo taken. Penny runs a tight ship! Oh and we received pots of hummus for our trouble. Thank you Planet Food!