A balmy night (given that it is December) and 24 good Goodgymers met at our usual meeting point in good spirits, with as usual, lots to be positive about. Firstly a big shout out to our very own Vicky who is always very busy at the beginning of Dec and yet again organised a very successful Chase the Pud over the weekend. Over £4000 was raised for the British Heart Foundation and having 250 Santas chasing a xmas pudding or mince pie round the racecourse now seems like a normal thing to watch in early December. She was of course helped by several GGers but the credit for such a successful event must absolutely go to our amazing Vicky.

As well as several GGers volunteering at the fun run, it is another big shout out to Rebecca and Sam who both ran the fun run. Sam came second and nearly caught the pud while it was an incredible effort from our very own Rebecca who completed her first ever 10k run :-). Finally before warming up it was a pleasure to welcome Ruth who joined us for the first time and who in getting muddy and wet later fully got fully involved with the delights of a GG task. while numbering off every 5th person had to come up with a different warm up while Pete led the walk group to the task. Ed led the rest with Vicky backmarking to Rowntree park - our destination for the night, while Michael hot footed it direct from work.

As usual Stu had plenty for us to do. Babs and Leanne were quick to volunteer for shovelling bark chip and pushing the load up the hill to the garden in a vehicle more akin to a tip than a wheelbarrow - strong (!); another group headed up to the gardens for various tasks while the remainder of the group started attacking the debris that had collected in the pond. Using a variety of rakes, spades and other long handled devices the amount of debris collected and deposited in the undergrowth was both impressive and smelly. Teams at both ends of the park worked hard, although when Micheal and Alex went to help out with Amy's group later in the evening with seemingly clean lower legs, Amy was heard to say that she thought that her team had got the slimey end of the stick that night - at least I think that is the phrase she used ? Meanwhile the garden team had worked hard - with Helen and Jane quickly finishing their sawing task - Stu remarked that he had forgotton how hard the GG team always work.

Finishing with the team photo, Ed split us into 4 teams with tonights fitness involving a team member running while the remainder did exercises but in sync with each other. Surprisingly they were done quite well and whilst perhaps not ready to form a syncronised swimming team everyone acquitted themselves well. It was then just time for sharing round some home made xmas themed ginger biscuits before returning to base....