Tonight we returned to Park Grove to give the willow its annual haircut.

We welcomed newcomers Leticia, Matt and David to their first group sessions then headed through town to the school.

When we arrived we split into three teams - loppers, runners and weavers. Within no time the willow was cut down and transported to the dome, where the team added to the structure.

We then finished off with heart shaped strava art fitness for York Cares. The heart shapes were questionable but we spread lots of love and were rewarded with a chocolate heart.

We then headed back to base to round off another fun Monday evening.

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!

Another fab January turnout saw a whopping 29 GG Yorkies turn out for a trip to Back Park for an epic leaf clearing sesh. Before we set off we welcomed newcomers Jody and Matthew who were completing their first Good Deeds tonight. Give them a big cheer 🥳

We also celebrated all those who had taken part in the Brass Monkey Half Marathon on Sunday. Especially to Paul who was celebrating a new PB. Great stuff Paul Kelly 💪

Our walking group of Nikki, Pete and Debs set off whilst the rest of the gang warmed up. Ed then led the run to Back Park with Abigail and Laura on hand to back mark. At the task we were greeted by Kristina from the City of York Council Environment Team who set us off armed with rakes and brooms with the aim of filling up as many tonne sacks as possible. Newcomer Jody was excited to be left in charge of the leaf blower, but her excitement was short-lived when she realised that battery had died and she wouldn't get use the leaf blower afterall.

A select few GGers armed themselves with secateurs and tackled a few brambles that were growing in amongst the shrubs, whilst the rest of the guys got to work on making piles of leaves and getting them bagged up. In fact they did such a good job that we were soon out of tonne sacks and had to call an early end to the task (or so we thought).

Whilst the team proudly posed for photos in front of the 15 sacks of leaves they had collected, eagle-eyed Kristina noticed that several bags had been over-filled and so more work was needed to decant some leaves from the bigger bags into smaller green bags. Only then could the task be completed and we could reward ourselves with some delicious cupcakes courtesy of Lyndsey

It was then time for our fitness session which required a fair bit of coordination. Basically teams of 4 had to line up and pass a cone to each other whilst lunging in sync. It also required people to make teams of people roughly the same height as themselves so that the synchronized lunging would work. However this also gave the team of 6ft something boys a huge advantage when it came to racing against the other teams. So for the second race we mixed it up and passed the cone over our heads then through our legs. This time the contest was too close to call, but needless to say Team Tall were not victorious!

It was then back to the Priory Street centre where we gave a round of applause to David for being the firssst GGer to complete his January Bingo card. Then it was off to the pub for a well deserved pint or 2!

Our first Group Run of 2025 saw a bumper turnout of 32 dedicated but chilly GoodGym Yorkies head off to West Bank Park for a night of leaf clearing in the play area. Buy before we set off we welcomed 4 newcomers Amy, Clare, James and Sam. Give them all a big cheer 🎉

We also had a few things to celebrate tonight, starting with awarding the December GGer of the month award to David who also happened to be completing his 200th Good Deed tonight. Way to go David 💪. There were also cheers for those that had taken part in some of the festive races including Chevin Chase and the Jolly Holly Jog. Well done guys!

It was then time for a quick but much needed warm up, whilst our walking group set off to the task. Vicky led a run/walk group (although by the sounds of it, it was a lot more run than. walk) and Ed led the main group able back marked by Babs and Laura.

At the task we were greeted by Kristina from the City of York Environment team who was expecting a fair fewer GGers than had arrived, so quickly grabbed as many extra tools as possible to keep us busy. We then set off armed with rakes, shovels, brooms, wheelbarrows and a leafblower, with the aim to clear as many leaves from the play area as possible.

We soon got to work with Clare and James sweeping leaves away from the play equipment whilst Babs and Nick got to work shoveling snow. The rest of the gang were busy with turning over the mulch in the leaf bays and getting them ready for the mass of leaves that were soon heading their way. Well, apart from Ellie who was spotted playing on the springy rocking horse type thing!

After a solid 40 mins or so of leaf clearing the park was looking a lot better so we gathered up the tools and got ready for tonight's fitness session, courtesy of Nikki; A game of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Cones. This involved two people battling it out to be the first person to pick up the cone after following Ed's instructions, with the losers completing 10 squats after each defeat (there's a chance Rich might have sore legs in the morning!)

Then it was back to CVS for some stretches followed by left-over festive treats courtesy of Vicky