An impressive turnout of 19 GG Yorkies (and 1 GG Geordie) braved the less than impressive bank holiday weather to help St Nicks look after the green spaces on down by the river on New Walk. Before setting off we welcomed Issy along to her first GoodGym outing and Christine to her first task although she has been a regular at socials for some time. Give them both a massive cheer 🎉

We also had the honour of being joined by Aimee from GG Newcastle who came bearing the Golden Trowel, which is awarded to the most good GoodGym area during the January Challenge. So after a quick warm up featuring our favourite seasonings/sauces we posed for some photos with the trowel before heading on our way to the task 🏆

Tristan led a longer run, whilst Vicky led the more direct route with Ed and Rich making up the walking group. Upon arriving at New Walk were met by task owner Maeve who set the group to work armed with scythes, rakes and shovels in order to remove dock plants and cut back some of the nettles. GGer Martin also met us at the task and soon got to work digging up some of the bigger plants.

The team of GGers weren't the only ones foolish enough to be out in the rain by the river and we soon attracted the attention of lots of small bitey insects. Fortunately David was on hand with some bug spray to keep us all from getting too badly bitten.

Sheets of tarpaulin and sacks were soon getting full of weeds and getting shuttled back and forth to the dumping area which was a hood few hundred metres further down the path. Perfect for getting some more distance in those legs!

With time running out Maeve spotted a few larger docks which needed particular attention from our own Dock King, Martin who tackled them with ease before Michael and Hannah dragged the last tarp away. Whilst waiting for them to return we had plenty of time to celebrate Leanne's Birthday with some happy birthday squats, as is tradition. We may have also added an extra syllable to Leanne's name just to sneak a bonus squat in.

Happy birthday dear Le-a-anne

Then it was off to Vicky's fitness sesh which involved various exercises located at intervals on the slightly hilly Blue Bridge Lane. Poor Aimee had never come across a spotty dog before, and I'm still not entirely sure she knows what it is after being shown by GG's least rhythmic member, Tristan!

We then posed for a photo on Blue Bridge before all running back together, followed by walkers Ed and Rich

Four Goodgymers met on Thursday evening to set out another booksale to raise funds for Tang Hall Library - there were plenty of children's books this time ready for the half term holiday.

A fab bank holiday turnout of 21 GoodGym Yorkies, saw us tackle a variety of tasks at the Wild Things Forest School. With Ed being injured tonight's group run was a Tristan Takeover special and he got the crew warmed up with some running drills after we'd given a cheer for those who completed the Bluebell Trail 10 miler at the weekend.

After the short run out to the task we met Emma from Wild Things who gave us an overview of tonight's activities, including painting a shed, putting down some chicken wire around the pond, taking some old timber to the skip, cleaning a massive tent and cutting back some plants. We then split into our various groups and got to work

Martin had already got stuck into dismantling one of the outdoor kitchen areas before we arrived, so the rest of the group were playing catch up and the site was very quickly a hive of activity! There was action everywhere you looked, with scrubbing, painting, hammering and chopping all going on.

Over at the pond, Cara was doing an excellent job of supervising Paul and Steve's chicken wire laying. Whilst the shed painting crew found the conditions challenging with some inferior paint and, according to Jane, Bab's interesting techniques! Before too long the various tasks drew to a close and it was time for Tristan's fitness session.

The group was split into 4 teams and were then pitted against each other in a series of shuttles runs. It was a simple enough start with regular sprints, but soon got more challenging with high knees, skipping (Tristan's personal fave!) and eventually a conga line.

Big thanks to Tristan for leading a fab session. Don't forget next week's session will be a group ride rather than run (although we will still have a running group but it's a good 5km each way)