3 guerilla gardeners ran to Locke Park to help out with one of their green spaces.

Anne from the Friends of Locke Park showed us to a patch of grass where the plan is to plant some beautiful wild flowers. Our task was to dig up the patch, pull out the weeds, and distribute the soil. The 3 of us grabbed our trusty spades and made light work, then pretty soon the patch was looking totally different.

We chatted about our plans for Halloween, future indoor tasks for the group, and upcoming races such as the Sheffield TenTenTen, as well as discussing plans for the park with Anne and the team.

It got dark quickly but our task was completed in good time, and we enjoyed a good run back to base and bade farewell for another week.

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Next Wednesday will be a great task for beginners - we will be plogging around Honeywell with our trusty litter pickers. Sign up here!

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Tonight at MudGym, three hardy, rain-fearing runners ran 4km to Locke Park, to help dig over a area ready for planting!

It certainly was a soggy one tonight, which was bound to put others off, but not Clair and James huzzah!! Give them an almighty cheer HERE and HERE.

The run there was pleasant enough, sticking together we chatted and finished with the huffin' n puffin' up the hill to Locke Park. Locke Park in the biggest park in Barnsley town centre and comes with a lot of history. It's a beautiful space that is free to the public, which is managed by volunteers who raise money to develop the park and keep it looking nice. The park are always looking for volunteers and are extremely grateful for any support we can provide.

Anne and her husband were waiting for us under their umbrellas, Anne thought we would have changed our mind about coming in this rain, but we proved her wrong and were raring to go and get stuck in (the mud!).

If they come in this rain then they're mad!

We collected the tools and got to work on a border between the path and the lawn that needs digging over, removing grass and weeds, so that it was ready for planting some shrubs. As it had been raining for days, the ground was super easy to dig - this also meant it was very muddy too though, so it was a messy one! We managed to finish 15 metres of border, that's 5 metres each and it was a good workout! Well done everyone!

The run back was nicely down hill (except for Fitzwilliam street!), we cooled down, stretched, chatted about next week and said our goodbyes! Another great effort from all!

Special mention to Clair who completed her 15th Good deed last night, showing commitment and dedication to her fitness and community, well done Clair! Cheer away here.

See you next week for: The Great Get Together: Community event in Kingstone.

Tonight 6 fantastic runners ran 3km to help out at Locke Park - 50% Sheffield GG tonight, thanks team!

Starting at our usual meet up spot at Shaw Lane, we joined by Suse a GG Sheffield runner, thanks for coming! Kim and Steve were raring to go as always! With Steve keen to warm up before leaving, Kim taking it steady after giving blood and Mairead celebrating a good result at SW!

After a few side steps, some ever so elegant leg swings and a quick plié from Steve, we headed off up the hill to Locke Park. Upon arrival we realised we were a little early, so some of the group passed the time with a jog around the bowling green, whilst he others waited for Debbie. Sharon met us there after a quick run around the park!

Debbie, one of the park's volunteers, was very happy to see us and quickly explained what they would like us to do. Since the last time we were there, the bed we were clearing had been overtaken by weeds. Debbie explained that instead of continuing with clearing the bed of all plant life, she would instead love it if we could clear all of the weeds and tidy it up.

Armed with gloves, secateurs and bin bags we set to work attacking the weeds. One particular weed was covered in sticky fuzzy balls, which seemed to stick everything! Suse and Steve enjoyed seeing who could cover the other in the most amount of these sticky balls and I have to say I think Suse won hands down!

Debbie's mother was on hand to provide advice on what was what and which weeds to remove, from the comfort of her wheelchair. She was clearly very green-fingered but wasn't able to do the physical work anymore, so I think she enjoyed being able to contribute by 'project-managing' the team!

After almost an hour we'd filled 10 black bags full of weeds and the bed looked totally different! Debbie was extremely grateful and couldn't believe how much better it looked. We said our goodbyes and headed back to base. We incorporated the removal of all the sticky balls into our stretches, with a great back of the leg stretch to sort out our shoes!

Until next time team!

*# 4 awesome runners ran 3km to help the Friends of Locke Park dig out bushes for their new colour garden. *

As Tom was living it large in France, Grace stepped in to lead the three musketeers up the hill to the park. We welcomed back Beckie to the Goodgym crew - let’s give her a cheer!

We started as with a quick warm up of bunny hops and ankle circles before heading off onwards and upwards. We were greeted by the lovely Anne who showed us the area she wanted us to dig up. Anne explained that the current shrubs were all very green, but what they had planned would provide the area with colour all year round. To make their dream a reality, they must first remove the old bushes to make space for the new ones, and that’s where we came in!

Anne handed out spades, forks, gloves and bin bags from the shed and we got stuck in. Mairead got happy snappy with the loppers hacking away at the bushes whilst Steve stuck a fork in it. We worked our way down the sloped area of bushes, removing old leaves and rubbish to find the roots of the bushes. Beckie and Steve got to work on the deep roots, making it look easy!

Mairead got spooked by a wasp part way through so became pro-bag filler in a safer area away from potential stingers! Anne was pro-sweeper, collecting stray leaves and twigs from the bottom of the slope. The whole group got a decent upper-body workout from all the digging, pulling, sweeping and chopping involved.

Within 20 minutes we’d filled 10 large bin liners which we then carried across to the other side of the park - upper-body and cardio workout in one! Everyone wanted to get as much as possible done so we spent more time on the task in hand! Once we’d returned the tools to the shed we said our goodbyes and headed back to Shaw Lane - a nice steady down hill jog.

With 3 minutes to spare at the end, Grace tried out her new fitness session on the group. Using a pack of playing cards, the group did a mini HIIT workout:

• SPADES - Squats
• CLUBS - Mountain Climbers
• DIAMONDS - Dips
• HEARTS - High Knees
• JOKER - Jog to the post and back

The number determined the amount of each exercise and there was a time limit set to do as many cards as we could in that time. Everyone dug deep to finish off the evening on a sweaty note!

Amazing effort everyone! It would have taken the 3 park volunteers the whole day to have achieved what we did in an hour and they were very grateful for our help. We’ll be back to finish the job next month!

With the miraculous return of MARVELOUS MAIREAD we headed off on our run from our home of Shaw Lane Sports Centre toward Locke Park to meet with AMAZING ANNE a dedicated Friends of Locke Park volunteer who greeted us with cheer along with other Friends of members and we headed straight to the broom cupboard to get tooled up, locked and stocked.

SENSATIONAL STEVE wasted no time in showing us his impressive balancing skills perfected during his time in the circus.

This weeks task involved us concentrating our efforts around a sand pit within the children's play area that had spilled out far and wide from the pit and was in need of a tidy up so we got straight to it brushing and using dustpan spades to send the sand back to its rightful place. GORGEOUS GRACE was truly commited getting every grain collected and back home.

After a finish photo, we had time for a quick inspection of the equipment on offer (had to be done) before having a quick gander at a future task with Anne where we will be helping to transform one of the beds in the park.

After gaping at the glorious and freshly cleaned statue of Joseph Locke - Railway Engineer we said our goodbyes and headed home for some circuit fitness at Shaw Lane where Mairead was so keen to get going with she sprinted up the final hill to get started.

This week we had 2 triple trouble circuits for the team that involved;

Round 1;

1. Hanging Knee/Leg Raises
2. Suicides
3. Log Box Jumps

Round 2;

1. Controlled Let Down's
2. Lunges
3. Log Squat Bum Bounce's!

Until next time, happy running!

A hardy crew of GoodGym folk braved the rain in Barnsley to help clear leaves off the path in Locke Park.

We did briefly discuss who was hardiest, definitely not me in my full waterproof jacket. We decided Dan was fairly hardy with bare arms and just a hat to guard from the South Yorkshire winter, but Josh probably was the hardiest in his shorts with nothing but his beard to keep him warm.

We ran up the hill to Locke Park but Debbie was nowhere to be seen at our usual meet point. She only arrived a few minutes later (just enough time for us to do a few lunges) and had been down at the bottom gate with the fire brigade who were putting out a fire started by some naughty hooligans.

With the fire under control, we could get on with clearing the paths of leaves for the final time this year. It didn't take us long to bosh through the area by the bottom gate and around the old loo block, so we had plenty of time to spare for a really mammoth fitness session!

Cones of Joy (with a twist)

11 exercises. A 250m sprint to complete between every one. It was a toughie. We completed this in pairs which meant I had to join in (...and show the young'uns how it's done).

I love the can-can kicks!

With everyone well and truly worked out, we had a good stretch out and headed home.

The festive tasks begin next week, come and join us at 6pm at Shaw Lane Sports Club.