On a very cold, and quite damp evening 11 super keen Yorkies turned out to brighten up the area around the Acorn rugby club, which often gets quite littery.

We split into two groups to head clockwise and anti-clockwise round the block. Time flies when you're picking up endless plastic bottles and sweetie wrappers, and it was soon time to head back to base, with a bag each filled up. It certainly wasn't hard to complete our "pick up 100 pieces of litter" January bingo square! Best find goes to Michael for the numberplate.

A quick photo and it was time to head home/go for a freezing cold run, according to preference.

As the snow engulfed them, Soph and Elle arrived to set-up the warm hub with tables, chairs and an area to make sure no one would have to go far for a warm drink. As a reward they were given a cuppa and enjoyed a catch-up before braving the snow once again.

Yorkies you are all legends for turning up tonight for our first group run of 2026, in sub zero temperatures! 🥶

It wasn't easy leaving the warmth of our new meeting place in the Ackhorne, but we zipped up and made our way out. We had a pre warm up warm up to keep warm, then welcomed newcomer Daniel (to York anyway), and celebrated Excellent Ed's 500th good deed and adorned him with the cape of good deeds. 👑

We named and numbered off by saying our goal for the year. Many involved not getting injured or getting a PB. We also had racing for the first time, being less late and cooking from a recipe book!

Without further ado we set off for Glen Allotments. The ground was too hard for the original digging task, but the ladies there did a great job in finding us alternatives. We had woodchip spreading, 🪏 , weeding 🌱 , prepping for a dead hedge 🪵 , and litter picking.

Our work was rewarded with some delicious flapjack before an energetic tabata workout to get warm.

We then headed back to base and a few stayed behind for a liquid refreshment at the pub 🍺

Well done gang! you're all superstars and have added to our January target!

On a chilly but gorgeous winter's morning, something strange was stirring in the new York Community Woodland. A group of runners, marshals, timekeepers and walkers had made their way to help support a dress rehearsal for a new community based running event that will soon be coming regularly to this spot

The event had a very familiar feel to it and everyone seemed to know exactly what was required of them but surely that was just a coincidence

Goodgymers took up spots at various marshalling points as the community based running event got underway. In classic Goodgym fashion Tristan forgot to start his watch, Mitch arrived late and Fergie got passed around between various walkers, marshals and runners

All in all, the event was a huge success. So much so that I can definitely see this kind of thing catching on at other places!

Now we all know that community based running events aren't a race, but the top spots on this occasion were taken by both of the Woollards who can, for a few weeks at least, be crowned the power couple of the York community woodland community running event!

What a fab morning to be part of the York running community ❤️

We were met by Candy and colleague from Books for Everyone York at the stable in Bishopthorpe which is now home to a large collection of donated books. Our job was to sort through and remove any ones that were too tatty, missing bits or innapropriate and put them into boxes in categories - fiction, non-fiction, biographies etc. These were then neatly piled up back into the stable on one side so that it will be obvious to other volunteers who can continue what we've started. Once sorted the books will be handed out to homeless people on the streets of York.

This was the last of the tasks in the busy first four days of January. It was great to meet Dan and Jaime who had recently moved to York and had previously been involved in Goodgym in London. Dan and David started by replacing the nets on the basketball hoops before joining everyone else to cut back the ivy on the top if the wall. We also cleared and tidied some of the beds around it. By the end we had cleared a lot of the ivy back from the top of the wall to prevent it damaging the wall.