So this week the big bosses Vicky and Ed were away on holiday but GoodGym York keep on running and not only did we have 23 returning GG folk but we welcomed Andrea & Nicola who both joined our group run for the first time.

We saluted David's weekend parkrun PB and celebrated Stefan who had hit a fab milestone of 300 good deeds completed.

Then in honour of the Lionesses victory in the European Cup yesterday we named and numbered with whichever animal we would like to be - mostly cats it turns out although we had a Crane, a Wolf and a Honey Badger!

Captain Pete led off the walking group and the rest of the crew ran a mammoth 900m to meet Charlotte from the York River Art Market at Dame Judy Dench Walk to do a bit of light weeding and litter picking to tidy up the riverside ahead of the next 3 weekends events.

We met Jan at the task and not only had she had arrived armed with her own trowel but she conjured up a wheely bin from somewhere for the rubbish.

Not content with weeding around the trees Becca instigated some weeding of the very steep bank - no one fell in so all good and we even managed to enlist a kindly random passing tourist who joined despite not seeming to know what we were up to or being able to speak much English!

We were soon all done and away for a double dose of fitness at Memorial Gardens - first we had 'serious' fitness followed by a couple of rounds of Amoeba Tag in which those tagged joined hands to capture the other players splitting into pairs once they got to a chain of 4. I think Charlotte & Mitch were the last players not caught by an Amoeba.

The runners took the 'long' way round managing to make it a full 1.5km back to base before we rounded off at the pub

Normal service will be restored next week!

We started the session tonight by celebrating some fantastic running achievements over the weekend, which were even more remarkable given the heatwave. Paul Kelly completed Lakeland trail 55km, with Max also doing 35 of it! Steve raced to the stones - completing a 100km ultra, and Becky, Nikki, Ed, Tristan and Nikki's brother attempted the Snowden challenge. This got canceled so they ran up and down twice each anyway!

We then welcomed Kit for his second task, warmed up then headed over to Scarcroft Allotments with Ed leading the way, Pete backmarking and Nikki and Abi with the walking group.

When we arrived, the plot we were asked to clear was so overgrown we barely all get in but armed with a wide selection of tools we soon started clearing space. Jan joined us there for her second task too, welcome back! Eventually we got to ground level then a team took to having a go at mattocking out some large roots. One mattock and seven observers seemed to be the mist effective method!

Before we knew it it was time for the team photo and to head to the grassy patch for fun fitness. This got quite competitive and folk worked hard. Good job it was only a km back to base!

Another good job and another plot ready for new tenants!

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 got started in tidying the front garden. With a large assortment of tools we did some weeding, path scraping and litter picking.

A good start, but there is definitely more for GG to do!

No Ox but quite a few cows to be seen, although we had all met at the the Spotted Ox before the run. Although we had planned 3 different routes there were only 3 takers for the middle distance of 7.5k so we split into 2 groups. Vicky set off with her crew and all enjoyed a good run with only a slight deviation to cater for Niel who had dropped down from the mid distance to ensure no-one felt short changed. The others set off on their run in the opposite direction at a nice pace that allowed for plenty of chatting and allowing us to quiz Tristan about how he proposed and which of the multiple laps at endure recently completed by James were the worst. We all met back at the pub for nice grub, a drink or two and typical GG chat. Roll on the next one and thankyou all for coming out on a school day ... :-). Another successful evening out...