Another bumper turnout tonight to help rake grass at Millennium fields.

We started by naming and numbering off, welcoming new members back again, and saying a big warm welcome to Lionel who has returned after a break.

Mitch led the group out with Abigail, James and Abi leading a walking group.

When we arrived we were given several jobs - rake up the grass, pile it into bags or onto tarps, drag to the compost and make some sort of compost/grass lasagne. A select few also had a go at sything!

We managed to clear all the grass in the time and finished off with a quick game of whistleblower.

It was then back to base when a group then headed off for some well earned liquid refreshment!

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!

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...

Thankyou to the GGers who turned up to represent GG at the popular annual fair at West Bank Park. It was nice to see so many people enjoying the fair and be able to show off GoodGym and tell passers by who and what we do.

The gazebo was ready and Leanne arrived armed with a bag of rubbish. This was a clever idea to woo in the public with a prize (thankyou for the donated cinema tickets) of the 4 fastest litter pickers to pick up a collection of litter with a trusted litter picker.

All ages took part from small kids, adults and even the MP for York. Congrats to all those who won a prize but just nice to add to the whole community feel that other volunteers such as the Friends of West Bank go so much to trying to spread around the good people of York

An enjoyable day out and proud to tell others what we do