🥳 23 excellent GoodGymmers gathered for our first group run of 2022. After giving ourselves a pat on the back for an excellent start to the year with our multiple tasks this weekend, we got down to serious business. This week, our naming and numbering off was accompanied by tales of unusual gifts (inflatable cutlery or composting worms anyone?!) 🍴 🐛

🚶‍♀️🏃‍♂️We walked/ran the short hop to Rowntree Park where we were unaccompanied for our task tonight. We gathered our tools and set off on a bit of a trek across the park (in the dark 🔦) towards the wildlife area 🐸

🌳 Once there, we split into two teams - team barkchip and team loppers.

🥾 Team barkchip divided (and conquered) further into shovellers, wheelbarrowers and path-layers. Some impressive teamwork meant that two whole footpaths were covered in barkchip and we made a significant dent into the huge barkchip mound that had greeted us on our arrival at the park. Debs and Michael even did an extra job, distributing some of the barkchip around the base of stone newly planted trees 🌴

🦌 Meanwhile, team loppers were cutting back the wooded bit within the wildlife area. Apparently, a deer moved in there last year and made its home there so they're wanting to discourage future deer from mistaking it for a genuine woodland habitat. After some excellent lopping, said lopped foliage needed transporting a fair distance (basically, to the other side of the park) so extra pairs of hands (and legs) were recruited for that.

📸 After a lovely group photo on the (much-diminished) barkchip mound, we said farewell to our walking party and did the (poorly-named, by me) 12 squats of Christmas (there were only 3 squats, x10) 💪 Everyone did a great job amidst much hilarity (Mitch) before heading back to base.

Thank you for this evening everyone, we've made really great progress 👏

👍 And if you'd like to come back to Rowntree Park for more of the same (well, slightly different actually, because the jobs will be different), you can join us on Saturday morning at 10:15. We've got a starter session there and you can even walk/run there with us from the Knavesmire if you fancy doing York parkrun beforehand. It's also the perfect chance to introduce a friend to GoodGym so have a think and let anyone know who might be interested in trying a session with us 😁