On a warm but windy summer's evening, an impressive 29 GG Yorkies turned out for an epic weeding session at Acomb Primary School. We started off by welcoming 2 newcomers Ruth and Kit who were both completing their first ever good deeds with us tonight. Give them a big cheer 🥳

We also crowned the GoodGym Yorkie of the month for June, with the award going to a slightly surprised Jane who completed a fantastic 8 good deeds last month and has also now done well over 25 since joining us in January. Well done Jane!

There was also a cape of good deeds to dish out, with Nikki completing her 400th good deed last week. Fantastic stuff Nikki!! What an absolute legend of GG York

Before we set off to the task we warmed up with a quick game of stuck in the mud. Max, Matt and Mitch being the chasers and everyone else running around like loons to try and avoid them. Abigail led a walking group and so managed to avoid the mayhem back at base, before being followed by the main group with Ed leading the way and Rich and Lucy backmarking.

At the task we were joined by Tristan, Martin and also Jan who was joining us for the first time this evening (Welcome Jan! 👋). The task was a classic clearing task with a bit of destruction thrown in for good measure. No need for too many instructions tonight, just pull up some weeds and cut back some trees.

A small side group were task with shifting a small pile of bricks whilst everyone else got to work on the weeds. Rich seemed particularly delighted when he found out he had the honour of removing and entire bush/tree that had grown as tall as the building. He promptly got the bulk of the bush nicely trimmed before setting to work on the trunk. Meanwhile Steve and Babs tackled a couple of hedges that were obscuring the windows (Babs giving hers a particularly close shave!)

Everyone else found there own space in the courtyard and pulled up a variety of overgrown weeds and even a few herbs, which made for a very nice minty smell lingering around the task. Mitch and Lyndsey focused their efforts on the things growing out of the drains whilst Kit and Lucy made excellent progress on a sycamore that had started to obscure the plant beds. Whilst all the while, Rich was still beavering away at the tree and had now been joined by Nikki in what had truly become a Gover-ish sized task!

With time running out we stopped for a group photo before handing over to Abigail who was leading tonight's fitness sesh. Rich and Nikki remained in the courtyard to continue their tree removal task!

Tonight's fitness had a name which I've completely forgotten but involved people choosing an exercise for everyone to complete before naming something that they have or have done (e.g. wearing a black shirt) and then attempting to swap spaces in the circle with someone else who had also done that thing. It was great fun although probably less so for Babs and Max who both ended up in the middle of the circle on mote than one occasion. Rich and Nikki also finally managed to remove the tree stump and joined the fitness sesh just in time to get the gist of what was going on

It was then time to venture back to base, with a few people continuing on to the pub

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 !

We had a bumper turnout for group run - not sure if it was due to the sunshine, the painting task or talk of pineapple! We celebrated David's parkrun PB, Barbara's season's best and Carl's good for age time, then warmed up and discussed chocolate bars we didn't like. I wasn't there but am firmly in the anti snickers camp!

Once we arrived at Park Grove, we swiftly got into groups and started work. A small team continued the willow weaving, another small group worked on the blackboards and another clearing up the mud kitchen. This still left a good crew to paint the fence.

There was lots to do but because of our big numbers we raced through and left the area nicely spruced up!

We then had time to test out the new fitness dice. Carl put the group to shame by being the last one going when burpees to failure was rolled!

It was then back yo back until next time!

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.

It was a tale of two tasks tonight, but also a tale of 2 races as we celebrated the weekends activities, with some runners taking on the High Cup Nick Fell Race and another group tackling the brutal winds at the Snake Lane 10miler. Well done to everyone who took part, especially Amy who scored a new PB 🥳

We numbered off by naming our alternative career choices and it's pretty safe to say we're all eagerly anticipating the release of Rich's debut pop album with Paul Kelly on guitar and Leanne as a backing dancer the live shows! 🎤

We then split off into two groups with Vicky's heading to Holgate Community Garden and Ed's going to the King's Path.

At Holgate Community Garden the majority of the team got stuck into some weeding of the flower beds whilst a few others were tackling compost bins.

After a successful session the group got into pairs for a fitness session which involved one person running up a hill whilst the other completed some exercise, swapping over each time.

Over at the King's Path the group was tasked with digging up some unwanted trees from round the corner and then transported then over to the King's Path area to be replanted Cue an awful lot of innuendo involving holes and wood!

The task was satisfyingly completed on time, and we're all eager to see how the trees get on in their new homes.

The group then headed back to CVS in an indian-file skipping line (who knew how knackering it would be to skip for that long!) before then switching it up to sprints, with Matt in particular exhibiting his speediness to give us all some extra motivation

The two groups then met back up at CVS for some stretches and some lovely lemon cake courtesy of Pete's mummy! 🍰

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.