** The cold, wet weather and the upgrading of Covid-19 to Pandemic status seem to have combined to reduce our numbers, but we still had a small but perfectly formed group of 16 tonight.**

For the first time in a long time we had no newbies, so it's probably a good time to remind you to tell your friends about us and bring them along! We've had loads of new people get involved this way, and it's great to see our ranks growing. It was also fab to see some returning faces tonight, with a few back for their second runs, after a break of several months in one case, which is awesome! Great to have you all back!

We started off tonight with a bit of a round up of the weekends events as there was loads to share! Liz had organised a fab parkrun at Potternewton for International Womens Day which was very well attended (and even got our picture in the local paper!) Then on Sunday, Alex had organised an awesome-looking hike with loads of people joining in for a walk up to the cow and calf and the twelve apostles before taking in a pub stop on the way home. Hopefully if people enjoyed it and are up for it again there will be more opportunities for fun stuff like this in the future!

Tonight's task was a return visit to Growing Better, where this time they'd promised us that we would definitely get to make the compost bins. It was about the fourth attempt to do this, so we weren't too optimistic, but there's always hope!

We had a quick warm up and then set off towards Kirkstall at a steady pace. A smaller group seemed to mean an even chattier run which made for a lovely atmosphere!

We arrived at West Leeds Activity Centre to find Dorota prepared for us along with our little friend Flavia. As well as the compost bins, we had lots of bulbs to plant, which would hopefully bring a bit of colour to the allotment come late spring. Dorota suggested that we might want to arrange the flowers in the GG symbol, so I'm expecting big things when they eventually bloom!

The ground was much softer this week, a combination of the weather and the area of the plot we were digging in. We were digging holes 10cm deep, dropping in our Crocus bulbs (with a bit of help from Flavia) and covering up with soil and patting it all down. This led to one GoodGymer to come up with a surprising comparison:

"It's just like baking a cake!" Carol, who I trust is an excellent baker

Over on the other side of the allotments, we had a crack team of four ready to finally build the compost bins. Armed with strong twine and a pile of wooden pallets, they summoned their best engineering skills to tie the pallets together in a way that they wouldn't just blow over in the stormy weather. Evidently this was taking a lot of concentration.

"It's unusually quiet over here" Dorota, task owner, enjoying a rare bit of peace and quiet in amongst the GoodGymers.

Unfortunately the planning hadn't gone quite as well as hoped and we ran out of rope after completing two compost bins, with a third left unfinished. We'll be back!

Back at the bulb planting, the team had made excellent progress and had almost run out of bulbs. With the last few going in, everybody seemed pretty pleased with themselves.

"Another day of productivity, just not on my dissertation!" Ella, taking a 'well-earned' break from her studies!

We love that GoodGym is a welcome distraction from whatever else you've got going on in your life at the moment, but we take no responsibility for your grades!

We'd got wind that it was our little helper Flavia's birthday, so we squeezed in a quick round of 'Happy Birthday', before we cleared away the tools and began to make our way back. The fitness session and the run back were a little different tonight, with them both combined into a race! As this is a route we all know well, we decided we would attempt to 'Beat the Clock'.

The general idea is that in order to officially finish the race, you need to be in the car park at HPBC before the time runs out (in this case we had an extended deadline of 8:15). You can set off whenever you like to ensure you're finished on time, but your finishing position in the race is decided by the order you set off. The last person to set off will be in first place, but only if they finish in time. It's sounds confusing but it's actually great fun!

As it was a little dark and it's all uphill, most people set off in pairs or small groups, but it was fun to see everyone looking around and working out how much time they needed! The idea should be that everyone arrives back at (or very close to) the same time, so hopefully with a few more attempts this can be a fun GoodGym Leeds staple.

The last two runners came in with just under a minute to spare, meaning everyone gave themselves loads of time! I expect a bit more tension for our next attempt! Adam was our first ever winner having been the last to set off, and this was celebrated with a beer or two in the pub!