Tonight was all about the amazing exploits of all our runners at the Yorkshire Marathon and 10 Miler on Sunday. Well done to everyone who took part either by running or supporting at the water station. An extra shout out to Carys, Sanjay and Lucy who had all run the 10 miler and made it along to tonight's session, and very special mention for Michael and David who had both completed the marathon and still felt like they couldn't possibly miss an epic GG session!

We were back off to Heworth Holme, a site of an awful lot of previous GoodGym group runs, however tonight was nothing to do with laying the path through the middle and instead was all about raking up an awful lot of cuttings from a grassy area. We met Maria from St Nicks at the task who gave a brief overview to the team who soon got to work. There was a mix of rakers, pirchforkers and draggers as the GG crew got stuck in and shifted an awful lot of the grass cuttings in no time at all and with remarkably few complaints from those who may have been carrying tired legs from the weekend!

After a good 45mins of some serious raking we stopped for a team photo around our marathon heroes before a quick fitness session which put them in the middle of our group and relied on them to guess who was leading the choreographing of the exercises. David picked out Paul Kelly in absolutely no time at all, whereas Michael probably could still be guessing now and would have no idea that Nikki was in charge of the exercises when he was in the middle! To be fair Michael took his punishment of a single star jump remarkably well.

It was then back to base with Ed leading the run and Neil backmarking, and with the slightly longer distance than usual we were very grateful for some of Jenna's delicious apple and cinnamon cake when we returned!

We returned to Middlethorpe Hall for another fence painting session. the rumours of how well we get looked after must be out as it was a bumper turn out!

We quickly got started with a team at each end containing wire brushers and painters. We speedily advanced towards each other - apparently team Vicky did two thirds to team Ed's one third - sounds about right!

Once our section was finished we were rewarded with scones, sandwiches and hot drinks.

The best was yet to come however - we got to go behind the scenes and pose on the roof for our group photo!

All in all a very enjoyable afternoon, in many ways!

Tonight we started by celebrating Becca's 100th good deed! Amazing work, well done

After a quick warm up Ed headed off to York in Recovery's allotment with an elite group of 8... heres what they had to say

The Hob Moor allotment crew headed out to carry on the work we did last week with the guys from York in Recovery. We picked up Tristan on our way down and met up with taksowner Tracey at the allotments.

The tall chaps, Neil and Michael carried on with trimming the hedge that had been getting out of hand. Nick, Mitch and Tristan got stuck into turning over a raised bed. Carys and Sanjay helped to clear out a compost bay ready for everyone else's off cuts. And George and Ed helped to rat proof (hopefully!) the bottom of the shed by nailing some planks of wood across the bottom.

We made great progress on the various tasks and left enough time for a quick "hill" rep session on hob moor before jogging back to base

Meanwhile Leanne led out the rest of the pack to the bowling club where we did some weeding in preparation for tree planting. We were finished in plenty of time for some running drills and a slice of Lyn's delicious Victoria sponge or lemon cake! They do spoil us!

It was then back to base and a few went off to the pub for a refreshment.

👋 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!

Lots to celebrate tonight. Parkrun pbs for Neil and Claire, Claire hitting 300 and Nick completing a triathlon. We also welcomed Beth to her first group run and Katie who was visiting from Edinburgh.

We named and numbered off saying our favourite beverage in honour of national beer drinking day. There was a surprising amount of tea and coffee!

We then off to Holgate allotments. A select few were tasked with clearing the communuty orchard - Kit and Jane looked to be having a lot of fun the lawnmower. The remainder of the group collected tools and set to work on digging over an overgrown plot. Due to the high concentration of goodgymers we made rapid progress, leaving the plot ready for new tenants. And if that wasn't enough Nick, Claire and Michael went hunting for balsam in the beck!

We finished off with a game of catch squat, with Ed's team getting very excited over their victory!

Thanks team, another bumper week.