Vicky Hearson

GoodGym York

YorkCommunity mission
Jenna Drury
Ed Woollard

Bedding down for winter

Wednesday 14th January

Written by York runner

Five Goodgymers met in Hull Road Park for a sunny lunchtime task. It was too frosty to weed the rockery as planned, but we barrowed some fresh woodchip to top up the raised beds and cleared away some of the old growth from last year. In the meantime, Rich scored a triple on the January bingo card by running round in all three of his Goodgym t-shirts to pick 100 pieces of litter, and recording the effort with a selfie.

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YorkCommunity mission
Michael Leadbetter
Paul Kelly
Nicola Gover
Nicola Staff

Getting twiggy with it

Tuesday 13th January

Written by York runner

A crack team of Goodgymers met in the park to help the Council Eco team with some maintenance - the removal of an assorted pile of branches, wood chip and rubbish, with a bonus pair of pants (!). We then raked out the remaining compost to reveal the bulbs coming through in the neighbouring flowerbed, leaving the park ready for spring.

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YorkGroup run
+27
Stefan Durkin
Ed Woollard
Aidan Kettle
Leanne

Tarp Life!

Monday 12th January

Written by Ed Woollard (He/Him)

Our second group run of 2026 saw a whopping 33 people turn up and do some good in their local community. Tonight we welcomed Carys and Rohail who were joining us for the first time. Give them both a big cheer 🎉.

There was plenty more to celebrate as we cheered all those that took part in the Round Sheffield Run, and the crazy folk that ticked off another square on the january bingo card by running/walking or cycling their age at the weekend. We were also able to award the December GGer of the month to Matt who has been pretty much an ever-present at group runs since joining us last year as well as putting in some ridiculous mileage and some very impressive running achievements recently. Well done Matt 💪

Finally we presented Michael with the cape of good deeds for completing his 200th task with GoodGym. What an absolute legend 🏆

It was then off to Millennium Fields with a quick pause for a round of tricep dips and press-ups before arriving at the task. We were greeted by Maeve who got a round of applause for her excellent demonstration of how to invert the soil, before letting us loose with spades. With tools somewhat limited due to the excellent numbers, the GGers doubled up on spades with Martin and Stef on tarp duties (which seemed like a very relaxed job 😎)

Meanwhile a smaller group of 6 headed over to the compost bays to turn them over. I'm fairly sure we've turned over the same compost many times before, but it kept them busy at least!

With the soil inversion in full flow, some GGers were keen to know the What3Words location of the area they were working on so that they could see the progress of the wildflowers later in the year. Nick's slap/epic/deeply being the most memorable location!

There were the usual burying Mitch shenanigans, and we also had some very impressive dance moves from Steve and Leanne to help trample down the wildflower seeds. Then it was time for a group photo before our fitness session

Tonight featured a variation of wink murder with exercises instead of dying! The person in the middle had the task of working out which person in the circle was in charge of the exercises that everyone else was copying. Turns out it was harder than it looked, with Paul Kelly taking several attempts to work out that Ruth was the culprit!

It was then back to the Ackhorne via a quick sprint along one of our strava segments. Fortunately there was the reward of some well deserved cake at the end!

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YorkCommunity mission
Sophie Abbott
Elle

Soup-er-b time had by all!

Monday 12th January

Written by Elle (She/her)

The Fulford Social Hall was all set up by GoodGym and ready to serve warm drinks and soup to local residents.

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YorkCommunity mission
+5
Laura Barrett
Michael Leadbetter
Pete
James Tilburn
Nicky Woodall

Tackling a jungle... leafing nothing behind!

Sunday 11th January

Written by Elle (She/her)

Twelve GoodGymmers arrived soaked from their task at the cemetery to tackle the overgrown buddleia behind Fulford Social Hall. Like locusts they managed the task with incredible enthusiasm and panache! In 20 minutes they had accomplished more than the Parish Councillors could have hoped for.

Next Saturday 17th at 1pm we'll be shredding it all, leaving a completely renewed patio for Fulford Hall.

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YorkCommunity mission
+8
Angela Graham
Emily Baker
Ed Woollard

There’s snow business like (ready steady) go business

Sunday 11th January

Written by Nicky Woodall (she/her)

13 dedicated GoodGymmers joined a host of (equally dedicated) regular junior parkrun volunteers for the first of 5 possible tasks today.

Conditions were “fresh” (aka freezing) and sadly worsened the closer we got to 9am with a pleasant snow-covered Knavesmire soon transformed into a windy sleety (and did I mention cold?) landscape. Ed swiftly added more layers as he realised that shorts maybe weren’t the best idea today…

Possible icy conditions necessitated the B course, which although looking longer than 2k, actually wasn’t (turns out the team know exactly what they’re doing, never in doubt!)

Talking of another team never to doubt, the incredible 70 children who turned up with their parents and completed parkrun in the aforementioned (not ideal) weather conditions!

GoodGymmers filled lots of volunteer positions today, including marshalls (particular kudos to Arthur W for being there in the freezing cold, and Amy W for giving up her scarf for Fergie), timekeepers (well done Griffs, especially for volunteering for a no-gloves job!), token support and tailwalkers.

Soon, the final child had passed the finish line and it was time to warm up (briefly for some who were soon heading to the next task).

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