Tonight's Monday Night Group run saw 22 GG Yorkies tackle an overgrown patch of land in Clifton. But before setting off we welcomed the return of Amy practically fresh off the plane from New Zealand. We also celebrated Pete's 200th Good Deed and gave a big cheer to those who had completed the Yorkshire 3 peaks at the weekend. Give them all a big cheer 💪

The run out tonight was just over 5km out and back so we kept the warm up short and headed straight out with Ed leading the group and Abigail and Laura backmarking. Jenna was our sole cyclist whilst Jane, Michal and Martin met us at the task.

Kristina from the council's eco team gave us the lowdown on tonight's task. The area used to be a play park but had since been left to grow over, to the point that it had started to cover the paths that run through it. Our job was to cut back anything that was growing over the paths and generally make it feel a bit tidier and safe for those that use it as a cut through to the hospital.

Emma armed herself with a pretty mean looking strimmer whilst the rest of the group picked up wire brushes, loppers and shears and soon got to work tackling the overgrown foliage. Although it wasn't always easy going, with Amy struggling to get to grips with her wire brush and later not being able to open a pair of secateurs!

But it wasn't just Amy who was struggling. Emma was keen to get going with the strimmer, but wasn't too sure about where to put the rather large battery pack that came with it. Fortunately help was on hand in the form of Abigail who was looking for a mote gentle job to keep her busy, and was more than happy to act as the battery pack carrier, sort of like the GG version of a flower girl at a wedding carrying the brides dress

Before too long the task was completed and we had a quick thank you from local resident Rebecca who was delighted with the progress that we'd made. It was then off to Clarence Gardens, scene of many previous GG tasks, for tonight's fitness session

Since Amy T had been away for 2 and a half years the fitness was all about getting to know each other a bit better. The group ran around in a circle and then came into the middle if they had done the thing that Ed shouted out. We then chose someone to tell us a bit more about that thing. In true GG York fashion, we had more people who had a piece of work published than those that had tattoos but we still heard about the meaning behind a couple of Issy's tattoos as well as learning a bit of Urdu from Pete and being suitably impressed by the various celebrities that our crew had met. Although it's possible Jane's UFO sighting during a Radiohead concert may have been more to do with the light show than flying saucers!

It was then back to base but not before wishing Pete, Laura and Cara a happy birthday with some traditional birthday squats.

We've also had a special thank you from the council for our help across the city. GoodGym has been a huge contributor across multiple projects, so it was fab to do our fitness sesh right in front of a flourishing wildflower garden that wouldn't be the there without us.

See you all next week when we'll be back to West Bank Park

Great turnout for our social run at Kirkham Priory.

Pete led out a 12k route, Michael a 8k and Vicky a 5k. Thank you to the run leaders and to Rich for the route planning.

All the group had an enjoyable session in the lovely countryside and some of Michael's group even managed a quick dip in the river afterwards. Unfortunately I can't include the quote from him afterwards.

We then assembled at the Stone Trough pub for some grub before heading home

We started the evening by celebrating some achievements. David achieved yet another parkrun pb - is there no stoping him! Michal also reached his 200th good deed so got to wear the fabulous cape of good deeds. Not only that but he also arranged tonight's task and was our run leader!

We named off by saying our favourite museum or vaccine! Keswick's pencil museum was popular!

Michal then set off with the runners on a longer route whilst the walkers wandered the whole 700 metres to the task!

We then got stuck in weeding and sweeping City Mills to make it nicer for the residents.

To finish we did some hill reps up Baille Hill, which was very short, steep and slippy. The offer of a longer run back was declined so everyone had a nice gentle stroll.

All done for another evening !

This week's group run marked the start of GoodGym's new Workout for Nature campaign in association with the WWF. Surprisingly, the campaign does not involve wearing lyrca underwear and pretending fight so we had to give that a miss this week. Instead it aims to get people to take part in physical activity to benefit local green spaces. With that in mind we made the short journey to West Bank Park to help turn their compost bins back into a usable resource.

When we arrived, a fleet of wheelbarrows was waiting, along with a selection of tools. We all initially paired off (not like that) and then split into two groups to attack the different compost bins around the park. A pleasing selection of tools was available enabling us to free-form various methods to break up the compost and get it into the barrows.

The waste compost was barrowed to a giant skip where Pete adopted the role of site foreman and marshaled tipping the waste so it would fill the skip safelt and evenly. Initial skip runs were literally runs but the weight of the compost was such that these soon slowed down to a more sensible pace. Team one kept things interesting and local chiropractors in business by pulling their loaded barrows up some steps. Team two played with a dog. Badly.

The task seemed to fly by, especially for me as for once I was leading and not doing it. We made a good dint in both the compost bins but there is plenty left to go at for next week.

After the task, we did an animal themed group exercise in the park which was honestly much simpler than everyone made it look. Wildlife box ticked we headed back to Priory Street to enjoy the novelty of a cool down in daylight.

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!