The first thing to say about last night’s run is that we had thirteen, lucky for us and definitely lucky for the task provider! Another attendance record for Huddersfield GoodGym.....we are certainly on the up! Some Huddersfield old timers, Kati Law, Ben Godfrey, Louise Galvin, Heather Wilshaw Jones, Mark Donnelley, Wendy Redmire, Vicki Knight Phillips, Peter Phillips and David Bilton were joined by GoodGym newbie Rachel McCormick and second time GoodGym returnees Richard Byrne and Laura Merriman. It was fantastic to see so many people up for a run and doing a good deed in our town.

And what a good good deed we had lined up. Longtime Huddersfield GooodGymmer Louise Galvin also spends her spare time volunteering at the Lawrence Batley Theatre and had got us a great gig clearing weeds from its impressive courtyard. Seldom has GoodGym Huddersfield done job in such a stunning location. But as ever before the work came the play, and we had 3.5K curtain raiser run to get there first. Fortunately it was a very flat 3.5K along the canal towpath into the town centre, and making good time we arrived at the theatre a fraction after 7pm.

Without any drama and with typical commitment the GoodGym crew were straight into the night’s main performance, grabbing the available tools and swiftly getting on with the job. The theatre which was formerly a Methodist Chapel is arguably one of the grandest buildings in Huddersfield, with an imposing frontage and a large courtyard area paved with Yorkshire stone. However it is these Yorkshire stone slabs which gave us our task. Weeds, moss, dandelions and various other unwanted vegetation needed scraping from the cracks between them, so the crew divided into four teams of three and immediately set to work. It was actually quite relaxing sat on the stone, warmed from the August sunshine chatting away as we wheedled the weeds from the crevices. Fortunately the recent rain had softened the soil making the weeds easier to remove, and with so many hands at work progress was relatively rapid.

After 60 minutes of endurance weeding it was pretty much job done, and following obligatory group photographs to mark the occasion the final act was to run the 3.5K back along the canal from whence we came. A stretch in the sunshine and a standing ovation from the assembled GoodGymmers almost concluded the night, but a final encore was provided by Kati who had kindly organising a ten pin bowling tournament. Eight GoodGymmers contested the inaugural Huddersfield GoodGym 10-Pin Trophy, with Wendy Redmile narrowly beating Heather Wilshaw Jones to the title.

Thanks to all 13 of you who took part in yet another top evening, I hope to see you all again next week.

When it comes to a job shifting fly tipping on the Rawthorpe Estate the GoodGym crew are tenacious. They have a tendency not to rest rest until every sofa has been shifted, coffee table collected and all other rubbish removed. I’m not so sure that the tenants of the estate are always so grateful, but Sharon Donaghy the local housing officer is always pleased when GoodGym come to help tidy her patch.

As is often the case Sharon had been preparing for our visit by scouting around the estate and making lists of the locations of the discarded items for us to collect. The GoodGymmers listened attentively as she explained the tasks and distributed her handwritten lists to the three teams of three GoodGymmers each, who were eager and ready to be off hunting for tipping.

And it wasn’t difficult to find, the more we looked the more we tended to find. We were soon accumulating all manner of household items, chairs, tables, sofas, and TV’s from around the estate. All the items carefully were stacked in piles for the Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing Housing caretakers to collect with their truck the following day. The biggest challenge of the night came in the form of a huge fridge freezer which required a lot of attention (and effort) from four GoodGymmers to carry the length of Netherhall Avenue.

All our previous clear-up jobs on the estate have been done in the winter under cover of darkness, so it was quite novel to do one in the light. This of course brought with it a little bit of audience participation from the local kids and teenagers who were hanging around. Their comments, far from being tense were (on the whole) quite good natured and encouraging.

After quite a bit of hard labour and some intense effort, with muscles possibly a little tender we were done. All the tipped items from the Sharon’s lists had been safely shifted and the estate was ten times tidier than it had been an hour previously. Following the obligatory photo of the group with our massive pile of rubbish we said farewell to Sharon and headed back down Kilner Bank for the short run home to the Stadium.

Oh....just in case you hadn’t realised we had a total of TEN GoodGymmers for last night’s task. This is the first time we have reached double figures since the launch run last September. Thanks to Kati Law, Louise Galvin, Ben Godfrey, Heather Wilshaw Jones, Meg Deacon, Katrina Crossley, Peter Phillips and Victoria Knight Phillips for a truly record breaking fly tip shifting effort. There was nothing tentative about your commitment tonight, as ever you all got stuck in and tackled another tough job. Definitely ten out of ten for effort guys!

The plan for last night’s task was to have been painting fences at Berry Brow Infant School. However the heavy rain would have been washing away any paint quicker than we could put it on, consequently Katrina from the school had to be inventive and come up with another job for GoodGym at short notice.

By the time we had completed the 2K run to reach the school, all 8 of us GoodGymmers were already pretty wet, but Katrina’s characteristically warm welcome lifted our dampened spirits. One of the great things about GoodGym is that generally people are always very happy to see you when you arrive to do a job!

So whilst there was no painting to be done, the school’s Birthday Garden needed a trip and tidy up, a job which could be done in a downpour. It is not entirely clear why the Birthday Garden is so called, but what was clear was it would benefit from a little GoodGym attention, and a crew of 8 there was a good chance we could make a real difference in the time slot available.

Resisting the (very strong) temptation to stay in the warm and drink tea, we were all swiftly on the job. Kati Law and first time GoodGymmer Wendy Redmire got to work on a particularly wild looking flowerbed, whilst Katrina Crossley and Helen Rutherford neatly trimmed a Laurel hedge taking care on some extremely slippery decking. Mark Donnelley cut back some bushes, whilst Louise Galvin, Katrina Whale and myself wrestled weeds from between paving slabs, all accompanied by the sound (and feel) of the incessantly heavy rain.

After 45 minutes of hard labour we were definitely wet, possibly a bit cold, but feeling satisfied that we’d done a top job and that it was better to be out doing good than in and feeling bad about not being out doing good (or indeed watching Take That at the Stadium, which had been Huddersfield’s other top attraction last night). Saying our farewells to Katrina and promising to return and paint her fence in the hopefully more clement conditions of September, we set off back to Lockwood Park. There were no complaints at my proposal for a shortened relatively direct route, although the rain had eased a little by then, and by the the time 8 soggy runners were stretching in the car park it had largely stopped.

Thanks to everyone who braved the conditions last night, it was great to have 8 runners out GoodGymming. I shall hope to see you all again next Tuesday!

Thanks to Helen Rutherford to the run report title.

More leaflets this week, Kirkwood Hospice wanted a load of leaflets distributing to promote their forthcoming Midnight Memories Walk. In about a month’s time over one thousand walkers will be stepping the streets of Huddersfield in the middle of the night to raise funds for our local hospice. But on this particular Tuesday evening seven GoodGymmers had the task of delivering leaflets on the walk route, to make local people living in the area aware of the event.

We had two newbies this week, which is always good to see. Catherine Gormley and Katrina Crossley had joined us for the run leafleting around the Rawthorpe, Dalton and Waterloo areas. They were joined by old timers Kati Law and Louise Galvin, along with more recent recruits Helen Rutherford and Mark Donnelley, so with myself that made a team of seven to get stuck in posting the flyers.

I’m not exactly sure how many flyers we posted through letterboxes but once again the crack GoodGym team worked with precision and efficiency. Dividing up into two teams, taking one side of the street each they relayed their way along ensuring every house was covered. In fact so efficient were we that we’d run out of leaflets after about 60 minutes, leaving time for a nice run back to the Stadium along Kilner Bank and the Riverside Way.

Thanks to everyone who worked so well last night, I am sure our efforts will be well appreciated by Kirkwood Hospice. Why the Elton John inspired title to this week’s run report? Well following our exercise we relaxed with a team trip to the cinema to see Rocketman. Thanks very much to Kati for organising once again.