Our last head torch group run for a while saw a bumper 26 GG Yorkies turn out for the choice of either soil inversion at Rowntree Park or prepping a flower bed at Southlands Church.

Knowing full well how difficult it can be organising a group of GGers (what is our collective noun?) at the end of a task, tonight started with a warm up which saw Ed introduce some of the exercises the gang would be doing later on as part of the fitness session. We then set off a steady group led by Nick to Southlands church, whilst Laura backmarked the bigger group which headed to Rowntree Park

After the brief run across we met Vicky at the task who had been left instructions by task owner Christine, who unfortunately couldn't be there tonight. Whilst Vicky is confident she got the details about the task correct, we're bot entirely sure that the tools were quite right as there surely must have been better options for shifting wood chip than a small bucket and two children's wheelbarrows! To her credit, Charlotte did make the most of the only full-size barrow, even if it was pretty broken

Whilst one group tackled the wood chipz the rest of the Rowntree Park crew cracked on with soil inversion at two designated areas. One proved significantly easier to get the spades in than the other so there were a few grumblings from Nikki when she was moved over to the tougher area, although her suffering didn't last long as she was handed a tiny wheelbarrow and joined in with the wood chip spreading

Over at Southlands Church....

The two groups came together at the end of the night for a fitness session (with some of the moves we'd rehearsed earlier). The workout featured 10 exercises, with 20 seconds rest between each one, and with each exercise being done for 30 seconds. Vicky was so disappointed that there was no can-can as one of the exercises that Ed caved-in and added a bonus exercise at the end. And this time we were determined to get it right. So after a quick tutorial from Leanne, everyone lined up, linked arms, and performed what felt like a perfect can-can. Although the video tells a much different story!

As run leader for the first time in a while, Leanne finally realised her ambition of getting everyone to name and number off and name their favourite number - tenuously linked to Paul Kelly finally getting to wear the cape for his 400th good deed... (which is a big number). Though initially as chaotic as it was designed to be - the team rose to the challenge and quickly got into the swing of things. Ben's imaginary number and Paul Kelly's π even sparked some maths chat on the run out.

Tonight's Goodgym adventures had the Yorkie crew heading out to Hull Road Park to help out with some (flower) bed shuffling. The route there included multiple traffic light stops which meant that the age old GG York tradition of traffic light selfies could be reinstated (A tradition now so old that barely anyone remembered it!)

Right next to our meeting point, there was an upended bin. Where some of the group saw it as a fun hurdle, others treated it as a bonus task and immediately put it back in its rightful place, clearing the way for those who were less confident on the hurdles.

We had a quick briefing from our task owner, Kristina, who split us into two groups:

💥Team destruction got the more familiar task of completely and indiscriminately clearing one of the overgrown flowerbeds in preparation for some transPLANTing later on in the task.

🌱Team finesse had the more challenging job of being careful about what they dug up from some raised beds, ensuring that specific plants remained in tact so that they could be replanted.

💪 There was some bonus carrying heavy bags of soil, which Vicky allocated to anyone who looked like they were getting a bit cold part way through the task.

At the 5 minute call, it was all hands on deck to get everything that we'd dug up replanted in Team Destruction's freshly cleared beds.

We finished up with a quick musical 'follow the leader' fitness session. About half of the group claimed to have no idea what was going on... Curiously, it did seem to be the same ten people who insisted they were all needed to dig 'one last hole' when the call to join the fitness session was made... make of that what you will. At the very least, it warmed everyone up a bit in preparation for the run back to base where we could all bask in the even warmer glow of another evening of doing good.

The January challenge is officially over and despite the monumental efforts of everyone at GG York, we still had an impressive 20 legends turn up for tonight's session, inverting soil at Millennium Field.

Before we set off we awarded the prestigious January GoodGymer of the month award to the super-human Michael who ran a ridiculous amount of KMs whilst also completing a remarkable 23 good deeds. Top effort Michael, give that man plenty of cheers 🍻

We then set off to Millennium Field with Ed leading the run out and Jenna, Laura and Abigail as our backmarkers. Those at the front got a bit too far ahead so did some very questionable wall sits whilst they waited for the rest of the gang to catch up! And then we arrived at the task to be greeted by Maeve and Nicola from St Nicks.

Nicola stole Mitch, Michael, Martin and Stef (the Mmms for short) to do some forking compost work, whilst everyone else joined Maeve at the South end of the field to start digging out clumps of soil and then flipping it over, ready for wildflower seed to be spread on top.

You can tell a lot about someone by how they invert soil - Vicky

The instruction was to dig out random areas but that didn't stop some GoodGymers from getting quite artistic with their inverting. Ben created two very neat connecting squares, whilst James went for quantity over quality and had dug out the biggest patch by far, if not the neatest!

The task was soon complete and the final ask was to spread the seed around on top of the patches we had just dug out, before trampling them down. We then set off and picked up the Mmms en route to a fitness session on the other side of the bridge

We used the seating area next to Rowntree Park to do a series of exercises followed by a quick dash up the stairs and a sprint round to do it all over again. Mitch was like a man possessed, completing 6 full sets, with Jane not too far behind as our leading lady

It was then time for the brief jog back to CVS complete with a few nore wall sits along the way!