An amazing 44 GG Yorkies ran to St Nicks for an epic log sawing task!

Paul came along for his first ever group run with us tonight so give him a big old cheer. We also need to give some massive cheers to Jeff because he came to do good with us on his birthday AND banned birthday squats, an unprecedented move but once which pleased lots of people.

If you make anyone exercise in my honour, I won't provide cake! Jeff

We arrived at St Nicks and were met by Maria who not only challenged us to saw many logs of varying shapes and sizes, but also challenged us to build a wood store using some planks, bits of wood and plastic sheets. It's fair to say her expectations of how the wood store might end up, were not high.

A team of eight created a project plan for the wood store construction whilst everyone else split into pairs or threes and grabbed a saw and a log. When there were no more logs, we sent people to get more.

If you haven't got wood, come with me!

New logs were arriving thick and fast by the barrow-load and everyone was working quickly to saw the logs into 30cm(ish) long pieces. There was an intriguing array of sawing techniques going on including lots of bum wiggling and Babs sawing whilst running on the spot to keep warm.

The wood store team were on top form and kept calling me and Maria over to proudly show us their perfectly measured sawn planks and their expert tongue and groove fittings.

Look at our diagonal strut! You should make up a 'diagonal strut exercise' to celebrate - Nick

Abigail and Lucy were trying to saw an especially girthy log with the shortest saw I've ever seen. The rate of sawing action was off the chart. Flying insect wings don't even move that fast.

Why are we doing this? Max

Good question Max! Maria explained that the donated wood will be "seasoned" (fancy word for "dried) and after a year or so it will be used as firewood to actually heat the Environment Centre, making it even more sustainable.

In just 30 minutes we had created a huge pile of sawn logs and I have to give massive kudos to the wood store team for creating and constructing something completely robust and very impressive. Maria's mind was totally blown.

After a group picture we split into two groups with an easy-paced running group heading back whilst a faster-paced running group stayed back to form a human log chain and get all those logs into the new wood store.

We're having a log of fun!

We finished up staying on the woody theme with a few planking exercises to finish a brilliant evening.

Next week is my last ever group run as the boss, let's make it a massive one!

After an action packed epic weekend at Endure 24 for some of us. We came together for another Egg-less Monday. Hard to stomach i know.

I was happy to report back on some excellent endure performances namely Becky and Nicky who came second in their event. And Huw who smashed out his 100 mile goal before deciding to do a victory lap and make 105 miles! Well done to everyone at Endure! More importantly though we were celebrating the amazing Ed, an important cog in Goodgym York who completed his 100th good deed last Thursday.

To celebrate we all did an endure themed warmup, so we could all experience the joys and spills of running endure 24! Pumped up and ready for action, we hit the road with the lovely Laura and John backmarking.

"We are running 2 of the 3 mountains of York tonight" John doing his best to frighten first timer Jack.

Arriving at the Viking Road play area, we found not only task owner Kristina. But also Trainers wife, Lizzie (no doubt reporting back to the boss!) And Lisa who was very happy to be able to help from the bounds of her wheelchair.

Kristina set us rolling on 3 main tasks to help clean up the playground. First we were scraping moss and dirt off of the tarmac of one section. Before using half moons to try and locate the edge of the tarmac area.

The 2nd task was to clear the overgrown fence of grass and weeds plus some hay that had formed around the base of the fence. With one particularly nettley patch near a bike rack. Mike and Emma worked tirelessly to trim one section, but were slightly embarrassed to find out they were supposed to the whole fence!

3rd task was taken to by some unruly run leaders and Taskforce members who had to fight (not successfully) their urge to play on the playground. Becky had to be reminded to put the shears down before you walk across the rope bridge! There was much discussion on the quality (and lack therefore) of some of the shears provided.

"I've got two tools, I'm feeling quite manly" Mike, clearly having the time of his life.

The 3rd task were successful at trimming all the weeds and grass down on the playground trail. Opening up a whole new section of the playground up for children to use!

Quick photo and we were off back home for a quick cool down stretch. Job well done everyone. Special thanks to returning Rachel and Emma, first timer Jack, and first timer at York Jackie!

A hardy group of 15 GG Yorkies met Jonathan at St Nicks on a damp and cold Tuesday evening.

We loaded up 2 wheelbarrows with plenty of spades and some rakes and transported them down the dark paths to where we would be dumping the bags of clay that we dug up on our previous night's group run - all 40 of them. Once we knew where to bring the clay to, a crack team set off to collect the very heavy bags of clay using the wheelbarrows. Tim and Craig just about managed to not slip down the muddy bank with the heavy wheelbarrows and within a short time all the clay had been dumped. With the help of Huw's large feet and thumping-it-with-the-back-of-a-spade technique the clay was all well stomped and flattened.

Jonathan explained that the clay will retain the moisture to help create a wetland area but to help with this he asked if we could dig a trench down from the path which was higher up. The path gets very wet and the idea is to divert the water from the path somehow (exact method to be decided) into our clay 'bowl'. We were very grateful to be digging which kept us warm and soon we had filled all the blue bags with sandy soil which was no good for retaining moisture. We wheelbarrowed some of the blue bags down more dark paths and dumped the sandy soil in what will become a wildflower area. We didn't have time to get them all moved but that will be a task for another day!

There was much talk about take-aways and which were our preferred establishments so some of us were feeling quite hungry and in need of hot food. After a couple of group photos we all headed off in our different directions - until the next mission!

Sunday morning when everyone is in bed tucked up with a nice cuppa / hangover / newspaper a bunch of fab folks are down on the Knavesmire for the wonderful spectacle that is Junior parkrun.

This Sunday no less than 21 dedicated Goodgymers ran, walked, cycled to make sure that the next generation of runners got a chance for a 2k blast. We took on roles of funnel manager, barcode scannist, token hander outer and most notably marshal at the many marshaling points along the course. The normal orange traffic cones to mark out the marshaling points had been forgotten.

I've got an orange coat - can I be a cone ? said Nikki

It's an absolute inspiration every week to see the 90 or so youngsters tear up the tarmac. There were 10 first timers this week including the inspirational Imogen and the combined crew of 17 marshals ensured that all the runners got hi 5's round the whole route - maybe this contributed to the haul of no less than 19 PB's this morning!!

As we left more GoodGymers rendezvoused for a little training run out along the river - those kids will be chasing you down before you know where you are guys.