👋 An incredible 35 people arrived for our group run tonight. There was a lot to celebrate, including two people attending their first task - both called Nick! Welcome to both of you. We also had Pete winning our prestigious GoodGymmer of the month for some excellent good-deeding and helpfulness in September. Well done Pete! We also had a duathlon, 15k PB and marathon PB to celebrate - well done everyone.

🏃‍♀️ 🚴 We warmed up all together then split into two groups for our tasks, with running and cycling groups. 10 people headed to Rowntree Park to help set up the Make Space for Girls art installation. Here's what Lucy had to say about it:

🛏️ Following a preliminary trip to prepare the ground in August, we returned to Rowntree Park to support an art installation as part of the Make Space for Girls project. Based on the concept of creating a safe space - the bedroom - outdoors, it involved carefully positioning (and half-burying) a table, bedside cabinet and headboard in the ground. The earth was still fairly hard after the recent dry spell, but the team set to work with a will, using all the tools available (spade, fork, hoe, sharpened stake...) to "bed" everything in as securely as possible. The artwork looks fantastic and it was great to be able to support this great initiative for girls.

🪏 Meanwhile, the rest of us headed to Park Grove School to help maintain the forest school area. There was plenty to dig up and cut back so we all got stuck in, with a huge range of tool sizes, from the small children's hand forks to the full-sized versions.

🐝 Unfortunately, a wasp/bee nest was found and a couple of people got stung. Not very fair karma for the good they were doing. But Vicky acted quickly and we avoided that area for the rest of the task.

🙌 Luckily, there was plenty of space to be able to avoid that area and we managed to make good progress clearing the space.

💪 After that, it was time for a group photo and then a proper fitness session! Still fun though, especially attempting to traverse a child-sized climbing wall!

🍰 Soon, it was time to head back to base/the pub to enjoy some delicious lemon drizzle cake, courtesy of Babs. Thank you! We also enjoyed some fairly in-depth chat about campanology (although apparently bell ringers prefer the term bell ringer...) 🔔

👍 Thanks everyone, and see you soon!

Age UK ran their first 'Race the Boat' event in York. This was an over 50's race organised by our very own Carl Wain which entailed a race down the river to beat a York Boat. GG were invited to help with running this first event, hopefully in view of future races!

Mitch led a warm up before the boat gave three bellows of the horn. Time for the race to start! Our marshall's Charlotte, Dom and James were already in position, as well as our trusty timekeepers Rebecca, David and James, and finally Laura was prepped for time conversion and certificate writing.

After 20 minutes or so, and a smooth operation, the race was finished, with lots of happy runners excited to do it again next year.

Well done Carl, it was an amazing event.

Two Goodgymers twirled around Southlands community Church tidying chairs, tables and sweeping the floor after the mighty space that is Planet Food brought joy and full bellies to the people of York, all through surplus food, stellar volunteers and community spirit. What a pleasure!

After the setting up task, me and Leanne headed to parkrun to celebrate Bab's 250th parkrun (and get a slice of the chocolate brownie she had baked). Pete was also at parkrun and blitzed it before cycling to the task.

A bumper turnout of six awesome goodgymers made for an unusually relaxing clothes swap. Lots of fun was had and Leonie got her second task in 😁

An early start after this task moved from Friday nights to Saturday mornings but the same military precision from the crack GG crew.

Great to see Issy who managed to squeeze this one in before her hockey match.

I arrived just about on time (!) to find that our expert team of book sorters had already made a great start with setting up the Tang Hall Library book sale. Cecile took advantage of a secret past in the book trade to bring order to the table - great to have you at Goodgym for the first time! It was also the first book sorting task for Becky, so with Rebecca the four of us had everything set up in no time at all, ready for the library to raise more valuable funds.