We started the session tonight by celebrating some fantastic running achievements over the weekend, which were even more remarkable given the heatwave. Paul Kelly completed Lakeland trail 55km, with Max also doing 35 of it! Steve raced to the stones - completing a 100km ultra, and Becky, Nikki, Ed, Tristan and Nikki's brother attempted the Snowden challenge. This got canceled so they ran up and down twice each anyway!

We then welcomed Kit for his second task, warmed up then headed over to Scarcroft Allotments with Ed leading the way, Pete backmarking and Nikki and Abi with the walking group.

When we arrived, the plot we were asked to clear was so overgrown we barely all get in but armed with a wide selection of tools we soon started clearing space. Jan joined us there for her second task too, welcome back! Eventually we got to ground level then a team took to having a go at mattocking out some large roots. One mattock and seven observers seemed to be the mist effective method!

Before we knew it it was time for the team photo and to head to the grassy patch for fun fitness. This got quite competitive and folk worked hard. Good job it was only a km back to base!

Another good job and another plot ready for new tenants!

If there's one thing we know about York GoodGym its that we love a demolition job - last year we had the pleasure of pulling down a shed at Scarcroft Allotments and tonight we went back to deal with the aftermath.

29 large railway sleepers which had formed the old shed base and were now in varying states of decay needed moving a short way so the area could be made ready for woodchip.

6 GG heroes arrived in force - 2 runners, 3 bikers and Vicky with her wheelbarrow combining the task with woodchip collection

Only snag was we were too damn quick and the sleepers were moved and stacked in less than 15 minutes!

...and this despite some big spiders which could have put off the arachnophobes amongst us.

This did mean we had bonus time to peg out the weed membrane with some very bendy pegs

Paul proved that a gentle push worked better than Ed's brute force method of whacking with a rock

Next we were on to digging, barrowing and spreading woodchip onto the cleared space - standard GG fare which we managed in short order with Jane, Paul , Ed, Nick and Vicky taking turns at shovelling and barrowing - with a combo of Vicky's shovel, a broken bucket and the weirdest bent flat spade.

meanwhile Barbara was raking the chips and nattering with the allotment team.

40 mins after arriving, sleepers moved, chips spread and we were away running, biking and barrowing our way home... boom! job done!

4 goodgymers shook off their weary heads after Mitch and Amy's party and faced the heat to shift sleepers and barkchip for Scarcroft allotments. Impressive strength was shown lifting the sleepers in 2s and we proved we aren't as thick as two planks by using a door and broom to move the woodchip when rakes were in short supply! it was hot work but we quickly made a big difference - well done everyone!

Six GoodGymers applied themselves admirably to the task of stripping all the cladding from a large hut so it could be safely demolished. The allotment association reckoned we'd need two hours; we were done in forty minutes.

GoodGym 1 : Hut 0

We began tonight's session by numbering off and naming an inspirational woman,in honour of international woman's day last Friday.

We then warmed up and headed out on the short run to Scarcroft Allotments which were just under 1km away.

We were met by Graheme and Claire and armed with heavy duty gloves. We then split into 3 teams and each had piles of brash to move to a location where it will be chipped later in the week. We had some good poses for the potential goodgym calendar of folk carrying logs.

The time quickly passed and a lot of distance covered. We met back at the shed for a group photo then headed round the corner for fitness. This week we got into pairs to do some hill reps on Scarcroft Hill.

Once everyone's heart rate was suitably raised we headed back to base.

Special thank you to the early birds who came along to clear a very littered alleyway before group run.

☔21 gracious GoodGymmers braved a rain shower for a very productive task this evening 🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️

🐣We named and numbered alongside our favourite non-chocolate things about Easter. Food still featured (including chocolate hot cross buns), alongside bank holidays, Easter cake and chicks 🍰

🚶‍♀️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️We then had three groups heading to tonight's task - the walkers, the direct runners and the scenic runners. Our different routes, converged on the allotments where were instructed on our task - shifting branches of varying degrees of spiky-ness from one end of the allotment to the other, where it will be transformed into woodchip 🌿

💪We quickly got to work and the two smaller piles were shifted swiftly, leaving the whole group to tackle "the big pile". Not daunted by the scale of the task, we swiftly attacked it with gusto and made short work of it (sometimes literally, sorry Mitch).

🌹Speaking of Mitch, he quite literally got a thorn in his side (of his shorts), leaving a hole that may require a good few stitches to rectify (or could be left, to spark a new trend for holey shorts, who knows).

🧶Martin showed off his knotting skills, lashing various sticks together with rope to assist the carrying of them.

🙌Overall, everyone did a sterling job to ensure we got the task finished, which made Graham very happy. We also saw two very nice dogs at the end who tried to join our group photo, which made the rest of us very happy. And we probably all walked/ran as far at the task as we did there/back 👍

💃🕺Not content with all the strength exercising we'd achieved, we did some Cones of Glory when we got back to base. The dance cone yielded some impressive moves and the last group went to town, recruiting members for their rendition of New York, New York 🏙️

🎶And on that tuneful note (alongside the choir in the background), we stretched off and parted ways, some to the pub and some home 🍻

🐥I hope you have a really lovely Easter weekend and don't forget, we've got a group run next Monday evening so if you're around and looking for a way to round off the indulgence of the weekend, why not join us as we head to Greenfields Garden to continue the many jobs they've got for us there 👌

Thank you 😁