No Ox but quite a few cows to be seen, although we had all met at the the Spotted Ox before the run. Although we had planned 3 different routes there were only 3 takers for the middle distance of 7.5k so we split into 2 groups. Vicky set off with her crew and all enjoyed a good run with only a slight deviation to cater for Niel who had dropped down from the mid distance to ensure no-one felt short changed. The others set off on their run in the opposite direction at a nice pace that allowed for plenty of chatting and allowing us to quiz Tristan about how he proposed and which of the multiple laps at endure recently completed by James were the worst. We all met back at the pub for nice grub, a drink or two and typical GG chat. Roll on the next one and thankyou all for coming out on a school day ... :-). Another successful evening out...

And so to team tidy up at the Mela. New recruits joined Vicky and Jenna to pack it all away. There were no signs of flagging in the afternoon heat, with Vicky now the gazebo queen! The team dismantled gazebos, stacked away tables and chairs - and a random goose, carried gear to the car park and collected in the flags. Pete- our international man of mystery was breast of the situation! The Mela saw ten thousand visitors today. Bravo!

We met tonight for a social run to kick off the bank holiday weekend.

Everyone assembled in Poppleton and we welcomed new comer Louise who was visiting from London.

We set off at our different paces only to end up back together at the train crossing - quick photo opportunity- then back off again. All groups included the Knapton community woodland and the strava segment, with some records being broken.

We then trotted about the area in our three packs and met back at the White Horse pub for some delicious food and an evening of good company.

For Goodgym York, Sunday is never a day of rest (particularly in the midst of the January Challenge!) and the last day of our 8th birthday weekend away was no exception. Most of the weekend crew took a detour on the way home to help out the lovely folk at Langdale School in Chapel Stiles - which, despite rumours, had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they'd installed a pizza oven since we last visited in January 2024...

Our task owners had once again prepared an epic list of things for us to do and Storm Éowyn had put in some extra effort to make sure that we didn't run out of tasks in the two hours that we were there.

We quickly split off into different groups to complete:

• Sandpit tidying

• Leaf clearing

• Soil barrowing (with comedy sized barrows - both too small and too big. 'Just right' was nowhere to be seen)

• Forest school debris clearing

• Dead hedging

• Deck scrubbing

• Polytunnel tidying and maintenance

• Weeding

• Something that Mitch and Neil were proud of completing which involved a big water tank and some pipes

• General tidying up in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn

While we got stuck in, I lost count of the number of people who declared that they "would have loved to gone to a school like this!" There was certainly no shortage of folk trying out the various dens that were dotted around the forest school.

Our final, very important job was to test out the pizza oven. Gavin and the rest of the school team did a sterling job of pumping out slices of freshly-made pizza while the group huddled around the pizza oven to warm their cold hands.

33 full tummies later, we were ready to tackle the journey home to rest up, and get our GGs washed and ready for our last group run of the January Challenge on Monday.