45 GG Yorkies headed back to Forest School for bonfire night!

It was an epic crew including one brand new Pete, who got stuck straight in at the task (give him a big cheer!)

We had several tasks including:

• digging out silt and sand from the old big pond
• transporting silt and sand to the top of the hill by wheelbarrow and bucket
• digging out several wooden stakes from around the pond
• attempting to pull up the liner from the small pond
• creating a path border with logs and wooden stakes
• sawing lots of fire wood
• building and lighting a fire
• preparing cinnamon and sugar apples for the bonfire
• preparing loads of other random food items for the bonfire

Starting at the new path border, task owner Emma was telling everyone how to whittle the stakes into a pointy end so they would go into the ground easier. Val misheard entirely and thought someone was bringing steaks for the fire, she was bitterly disappointed.

Several small teams were tackling the big wooden ground stakes, digging huge holes around to extract them. Ed and Debs picked the biggest one and commandeered the sledgehammer - but we'll come back to them later.

Whilst all this stuff was happening, Leanne and a few other very committed runners boshed out some hill reps to make up for our run over not being very long. True dedication to the running cause.

Despite having extracted a huge pond liner on our previous visit, as the sand and silt got removed from the big pond area, we realised there were still several more liner layers underneath.

We're five layers in!

Debs and Ed had dug a really quite enormous hole around the stake, and we taking turns to whack it with the sledgehammer to try and shift it.

I think someone might be trying to dig out the other end of this stake in Australia!

The small pond was a much, much dirtier job. After pulling out loads of reeds, everyone was digging up sludge and sliding all over the place. Jo Mo in particular had managed to almost fall over several times and was covered in pond slime.

There's a rule at our flat. If you've been in the pond, you can't come in - Becky Mo

If a pond liner covered in liquid sludge wasn't tough enough to pull up, how about one covered with blocks of concrete, paving slabs and liquid sludge!? EJ even found an old spade in there, which everyone was delighted about because we needed more tools.

The clean team at the fire were doing a marvellous job; Ellie B and Angie managed to get the fire started using an old school bit of flint whilst everyone us had chopped loads of firewood, whittled teeny stakes for marshmallows and prepped all the food.

More people were gathering around the fire as their tasks finished, but the small pond crew wanted to battle on for as long as possible. Most of the stake removal crew had given up with their extractions, Pete was sawing off the stakes at the bottom of their holes and everyone else quickly filled the holes in. Ed and Debs point blank refused to use the saw and had created entirely new personalities for themselves.

He is Bawhack Obama and I am Captain Whack Sparrow

The stake reached a critical wiggle level and we all thought it was ready, but it held firm. After a few marshmallows though, they headed back and fuelled by sugar, they finally whacked it out of the ground - victory!

We celebrated a good night's work with lots of marshmallows, smores, nachos and err.. bacon. Apparently bacon on a stick is a thing.

Happy bonfire night everyone!

GG Yorkies split into three teams to tackle different tasks across the city!!

We welcomed four fantastic new runners to the gang tonight; Jenny (who's one of the crew trying to start GoodGym in Harrogate), Emma, Pete, and Darren, who accidentally found himself at a Community Mission at the weekend and loved it.

The first report of the night comes from Nick (who forgot he was leading tonight but made it across Hob Moor without getting lost once!):

We set off across Hob Moor with newby Darren at the front and Ed controlling the back of the pack. Our task was to widen the cycle path by cutting back the well known shrubs Evergreenii Redberryus and Thornybushicus Ouchmythumbii (Note, possibly not their real names, Egg)

Pretty soon the builders bag was full of cuttings and we elected Ed to jump in it and squish as he was tallest. One broom, a bin bag and another Ed squish later and it was time to turn for home.

Leanne 'I am always very prepared and responsible as Run Leader' Allsopp suggested Indian File as a run back but because we finished our task super quick we slowed it down with:

• squat stops
• star jump intervals
• Morecambe and Wise style skipping intervals (copywright of Jenna
• lunging in a long line only pausing briefly under the rail tunnel for a wall sit

We should hold it until a train came past!

Seconds later, one did. Needless to say we held the wall sit until the last carriage went by - hardcore.

The next report is from my team at Rowntree Park

We set off to meet Beki in Rowntree Park for an exciting lock in. There were actually two cyclists who were really locked in, so we left them out first. Our task was to shift two tonnes of soil from bags, and onto the borders, ready for new grass seed.

5 minutes in and there was still no sign of our three walkers.

We're en route! - Katie

2 tonnes just is not enough for GoodGym, and it didn't take long for the last wheelbarrow to be filled. In fact, we filled the last wheelbarrow before the walkers even arrived, but that's because they'd gone the wrong way up the river and were basically out for a lovely evening stroll and covering many more kilometres than the runners.

The final job was to stomp down all the soil and there team were feeling particularly bouncy, so we did bouncing on the soil to compress it.With all the headtorches, we decided it was a bit like a disco/rave but with much dirtier feet.

With the walkers now in situ, we completed some mini exercise challenges on the way back to base including:

• Rail squats
• Rail presses
• Wall sit with cactus hand presses (yes, that's the real exercise name)
• Mini sprints
• Star jumps

...followed by a core session which included sit ups with high fives, all sorts of partner exercises, plank tag and a team plank tunnel with Richard doing one massive commando crawl!

The final (heavily edited) report is from Tim's team, 'Shed Seven'

Shed Seven were Going for Gold in the toughest task yet. Sprinting across Hob Moor in the twilight sun, we arrived at Foxwood in record time. After quickly assigning 3 different project managers (who put Tim in charge? Egg) we rapidly made progress wasting time orientating ourselves. Then the screwing began. Craig started screwing whilst Stef held firm. Then Tristan decided to have a go screwing and got the second screw in with a bit of force from Tim. Max "pro-screwer" Spicer stepped into action and found a screwdriver with appropriate girth to start screwing at record pace!

Is that label meant to be upside down? Paul

Turns out the doors were in fact back to front and upside down. That 'L for left' sign really had been important.(Sorry Tim, felt that 'we remedied a slight technical error and left', wasn't detailed enough. Egg) Once that was sorted, we realised the rain guard that held it all together was missing, so we just screwed everything we could and left.

&%

amp;$£% SHED!! - Stef

Next week will be more normal, promise! Sign up here

7 GG Yorkies headed to Scarcroft Allotments to get twiggy with it and remove lots of branches and logs from a couple of allotments, moving them into neat piles by the entrance. We split into two teams and set to work, one team dragging big twiggy branches whilst the other filled wheelbarrows with increasingly wibbly wobbly piles of logs. In no time at all, all types of stick-shaped objects had been relocated and our job was done!

As we set off into the evening, we discussed a race that has GoodGym's name all over it - the Cakeathon. Better start training immediately! http://www.saxon-shore.com/cakeathon_yorkshire/

It was also Huw's 50th and Becky's 100th task tonight so lots of cheers for them please!

41 GG Yorkies showed up to do some meadow keeping duties with St Nicks!

We welcomed along one new runner to the gang tonight, so make sure you go and give Stuart a big Yorkie cheer. Fresh from donating a kidney, very good Huw also joined for his second post-surgical good deed as our official photographer (and almost enough good deeds for the cape!). Helen was also fresh, though she would probably say slightly less fresh, from completing the Yorkshire Three Peaks at the weekend, and offered to be our achy-legged back marker.

I literally fell out of my car this morning - Helen

It was an unexpectedly large group and there weren't quite enough scythes and rakes to go around but Jonathan has never let us down on task-finding before and this was no exception. He quickly showed us a "creeping thistle" and asked anyone without a tool to pull all the heads off them, or just pull them out entirely. There was instantly a lot of debate about what was a creeping thistle and what was a regular thistle, but Bev summed it up well.

Pull out them brown things! - Bev

Whilst the thistle gang were busy getting their gloved hands prickled, some seriously hardcore scything was happening, and none of the scythers or rakers were willing to give up their tools. The new rule was that if you completed a mini workout, you could go and claim a tool from someone who didn't complete said workout. The first mini workout on offer was the brilliantly mad Thunderstruck workout, which comprised lots of running, high fives, squat jumps and burpees. As soon as the workout finished, everyone ran over to swap in for some scything or raking.

Our second optional mini workout of the evening was the infamous Cups workout. I suggested that we gather in a circle for this one and make it a slightly more intimate affair.

Intimate workout? Should we keep our gloves on? - Babs

Cups is either a very effective press-up and sit-up workout, or basically just rolling around on the floor - enjoyable either way and people seemed happy with rolling around as an alternative to pulling out thistles.

There were a few more tool swaps and it pretty much ended up with just Aidan on thistle duty whilst everyone else either eagerly anticipated the next workout, or tried to look busy with some bag holding or something. Emily always managed to end up with a new tool at the end of every workout and none of us knew how she did it.

The third workout was the quad-burner that is Sally Squats. Leanne and I were trying to explain to people that if you dance a bit with the upper body, it makes you feel better about all the squatting. Leanne was demonstrating some pretty serious armography it has to be said. Some people were so gutted they missed the workout that we had to do it a second time. Kudos to the Pauls, John and Becky who all boshed through a Sally Squats double.

There was just enough time to finish raking up all the grass and take what might just be our last group photo in full light of 2018. Time to start bringing the headtorches along!

Leanne's the boss of GoodGym now until October, when I'm back from my holidays. Do what she says, even if it's dancing!

This week's pun credit goes to Aidan