Four Goodgymers (which became 5 when a Tristan spotted us and joined in) met up on a beautiful sunny morning to help set up for the Keep Your Pet event.

We were given one gazebo to put up then told we weren’t needed for anything else. Feeling cheated we decided to loiter and offer our services to various stall holders and the agility course people and our taunting for jobs was rewarded with the erection of several more gazebos (some more complicated than others) and fencing off the agility area.

We even fitted in a bit of junior parkrun cheering and a post task coffee at Jenna’s

On a grey September Sunday morning, a crack team of 4 GoodGymmers headed to the Knavesmire to help Age UK set up their annual Keep Your Dog event.

We'd been asked if some GoodGym runners can help with the setting up for an event being run to support the Keep Your Pet scheme. Keep Your Pet is a service which helps people meet their pets' needs while in hospital or recovering from time there; their support includes walking dogs, popping round to feed pets, and so on.

We helped put up a few gazebos and pen out an area to be used for the dog agility course later in the morning, being careful to avoid the junior parkrun happening meters away. - before long we were done, and we headed to grab some brunch with Mitch who had just been on important clipboard duty at the junior parkrun (the run report title is both a hilarious pun linking gazebo erection and our canine beneficiaries, and a reference to Mitch's favourite style of dancing probably).

On an early Sunday morning, 4 GoodGymers went down to the Knavesmire to help set up a fair for 'Keep Your Pet'. Keep Your Pet are an amazing service set up by AgeUK and RSPCA York who provide short term assistance for domestic pet owners who are older or vulnerable and living in the York and Selby areas at times of ill-health or other emergencies. These services include feeding and walking pets and short term fostering.

We arrived and offered to assist in any way needed. Whilst we helped out with unloading and moving tables and chairs, our main task was to set up the gazebo's. Luckily as we have been camping a lot recently, we all (...mainly Leanne) knew exactly what to do and made quick work of setting them up.

We were also available to help when any volunteer required some assistance:

Can I have all volunteers around the back of the van

Are we about to be kidnapped? Abi

Whilst we were setting up the stalls, junior Parkrun was happening nearby and we needed to make sure not to get in the way. Luckily Nick was on hand to keep us away! Despite that we all still found the time to give the runners a cheer.

After an hour of graft, the fair was set up and it was job well done. What better way to celebrate than an long run...or cup of tea.

Day two of GoodGym partnering with Age UK York and First Bus York to deliver presents to the elderly and/or vulnerable.

Dressed in our best christmas hats and elf outfits, Jenna came with a flashing necklace, jazzy trousers and an elf hat! We all hopped onboard Santa’s Sleigh and rode around Woodthorpe and Acomb where we then split off to run to peoples homes.

“Who decides who gets these gifts?” “Isn’t it obvious? Santa’s been making a list - he even checked it twice” Richard exlaimed!

After covering around 7km running to deliver the gifts (plus a little extra for Rich who needed to finish off a few of his ‘run every street’ runs) we were delivered safely back to Grimston Bar: The North Pole & Ride.

Myself and Michal joined Jenny the chief officer at Age UK York along with some Age UK volunteers this afternoon in the winter sunshine. We hopped on board the specially decorated First York bus at Grimston Bar with our face masks on and spaced out across the bus. Us two GoodGymers took up the back seat and discovered that this is probably the coldest part of the bus to sit in as we got the full effect of all the open windows as we went along. Our mission was to deliver Christmas packages consisting of a card and some edible goodies from Age UK and we were to deliver to the ones furthest away from wherever the bus stopped, whereas the other volunteers walked to the addresses closer by.

Our first stop was to a lady in Tang Hall then we got back on the bus over to Heworth where we made our second delivery. Our next stop was Huntington where the bus dropped me and Michal off to deliver to two addresses and then we were to run back to the bus which would be parked quite a bit further down the Huntington Road. Our first delivery was not at home but we successfully delivered the second package and navigated our way back to the main road and trundled along until we saw the bus waiting for us. Due to a lot of traffic and a fair bit of distance covered (the bus made a stop in Strensall as well) we didn't cover as much ground as we would have liked and as it was getting dark this was to be our last stop.

In all our group had delivered 20 presents and myself and Michal had run just over 6km. We got back to Grimston Bar just after 4pm to go our separate ways home. We've left tomorrow's group plenty to do!

On a bitterly cold Yorkshire evening, no less than 19 GG Yorkies turned up to help out at Age UK!

We were met by the awesome Sally, who came on our very first ever group run in York nearly two years ago. We had barely even looked at the task and Sally was telling us about all the snacks she had for us and offering us tea. We decided we had better do some sanding first.

Age UK is based in a very tall, building with multiple floors. There is a lot of banister, and as part of a renovation project, they needed all the banisters (including rails and columns) sanded down ready to be either varnished or painted.... at a later date, by us.

Fresh from her holidays, Legendary Leanne made the very sensible decision to start at the top because dust doesn't go up. The top was also where all the quality streets and vegan chocolate coins were stashed, along with 3kg bags of tea.

The sound of frantic sanding filled the air and the dust crept up on us. It wasn't until you left the room and came back in that you realised quite how dusty it was.

This is much better than my day at work - Maddy

Sally was busy dishing out water, encouraging us to eat chocolate and making lots of cups of tea to keep our dusty mouths hydrated.

I might ask if she'll made me dinner, I reckon she would - hungry Ben

Once bits of sanding had been completed, we used damp sponges (or really wet ones to drop on the people below us, sorry Deborah!) to wipe away the dust and we moved down to the next floor. The white painted banister on the middle floor made crazy white dust and turned everyone's hair (and clothes, and shoes) white.

I never thought I could be whiter than I already am! - Ellie B

Debs took on the enormous job of hoovering up and was doing a very thorough job, getting in all the corners and everything. She even managed to create a dusty GG logo on the carpet, hero.

One of our groups will be back at Age UK on Monday as part of our group run to do more stuff, you can sign up here!