It was another hot one in Paradise City (aka York), but that didn't deter us - a whopping 31 GGers ran, walked and biked to West Office Gardens, fuelled by our Appetite for (vegetative) Destruction. Jake and Ruth joined us for their second time - nice to see you both again - and it was Una's numero uno run out with us - welcome!

Having been given our brief on which plants should Live and which we should Let Die we got to it, clearing the area of overgrown vegetation to make space for a new planting scheme. We made quick work of the weeds, but the buddleia and other large shrubs gave us a run for our money: we Slashed them with saws, Duffed them up with spades, but it took heavy metal mattocks and Raw Power to really shift them. Martin twisted the roots, Jake heaved at them, and Kit tried pogoing on his spade, just for funsies. Vicky, Jamie, David and James showed great Patience cleaning up everyone else's mess, running around after us all with brooms and wheelbarrows. We were also tasked with trimming an oversized bush: Laura, Jenna, Scarlett and Jane tamed its frizzy locks, turning them from an out of control mullet to a tidy crewcut.

What had seemed at the outset an insurmountable task was actually completed very quickly - It's So Easy when there's a lot of you. Skip filled to the brim, we downed tools and laid out cones in preparation for fun and games. Ed led us in a round of competitive Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes - featuring an unseemly amount of squatting - culminating in a tiebreaker showdown between Jamie and George. The day went to Jamie, but he sportingly joined George in his second place burpees - Nice, Boys.

Tonight was our first balsam bashing of the season and there was plenty for everyone! 🌱

Before setting off all the way to Fulford Ings we celebrated May's goodgymer of the month Hannah Hannah has become a Monday night regular as well as giving up time on many a Friday. To top it off she's upped her running and is training for a marathon! What a legend!🤩

Matt also completed his 250th parkrun so we cheered him too!

Finally we welcomed Scarletto her first group run. Not sure how she heard about goodgym!

After all the kudos we headed off with Ed leading the run and Vicky with a cycling group.

At the ings we were net by Nicola who had been bashing all day but assured us there was plenty left! We avoided midges, nettles and thistles best we could and after 45 mins had accumulated piles to be proud of.

We then headed home with a pit stop on the bridge of pain for some mexican wave fun fitness and then finished off with birthday squats for Peteand Scarlet 🥳

Finally, we wished Ali a bon voyage as he heads back to France. Thanks for joining us and hope to see you again one day!🇫🇷

☀ 32 epic GoodGymmers arrived on a chilly but bright Monday evening for tonight's group run.

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Ali for his first GoodGym session (fresh from a recent, and incredibly epic 4000k cycle from France to Istanbul - huge kudos!). We also celebrated Becca's 50th good deed with the traditional black cape of joy (and look forward to seeing her in a black GG top soon!) We also welcomed the return of Vicky's active transport at GoodGym (a long-winded way of saying she was able to walk tonight, following her recent hip surgery 💪)

🌸 The task was a short 1k trot from our meeting point so we were there in no time. We were greeted by some very organised task owners with a healthy list of jobs for us to do. There was something for everyone, and plenty of time to get stuck in to some serious weeding (of lots of mare's tail), ivy-pulling, shovelling and pruning. Arguably too much time as those in the shady area started to get a tad chilly and had to resort to extra fitness to keep try and warm up!

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️We got lots done though, and had time to pose for a photo before heading to Scarcroft Park for some fitness. Ed had us doing the infamous squat game to keep us on our toes for the main event, which was Vicky's running drills - a variety of exercises designed to improve our running performance (followed by the Can-Can...). Despite some questions as to the validity of the source of these exercises (which Vicky has since quashed by providing said source), we hope to see some epic performances in everyone's upcoming runs (especially if they involve an element of skipping and/or side-stepping). So we can all thank Vicky for our next PB 👌

🚵 Soon, it was time to head back to base for some cool-down stretches led by Ed, accompanied by a run-down of the many opportunities to do good with GoodGym coming up this week. And after that, some of us went to the pub to catch up with Abi and raise a glass to Ali's epic cycle (to bring this report full-circle).

🙌 Thanks everyone, and hopefully see you all again soon!

Tonight was a very special session indeed!

We celebrated not one, not two, but three milestones! Bec did her 100th deed, Nick his 400th and Vicky her 600th. Top effort guys! 👏

The celebrations didn't stop there though- tonight we also reached our January good deed target.This has been an incredible achievement by everyone who has come along this month. You should all be so proud.

And as if this wasn't news enough, a real news reporter from ITN calendar news joined us to do some filming.📺

So, what did we get up to? It was our annual outing to give the willow at Park Grove it's haircut. We has a team lopping and sawing, another shuttle running the offcuts to team weave, who were adding to the willow dome. In the forest school Debs, Ed and Neil were making woodchip and Laura was busy collecting brash to chop up. 🪚

For the grand finale we did a fitness session based on the January bingo - 10 exercises on park equipment. This entertained the reporters as much as it did us!

We then headed back to base, waving cheerily at cameraman Mike on the way past and a few continued the celebrations in the pub. 🍻

Top work, but its not over yet. Still lots of kms needed, tasks to sign up to, bingo squares to complete and pledges to fulfill! Let push through the last few days and you can all have a day off on Sunday!

The problem with the January challenge is that we do so many good deeds that our taskowners run out of things for us to do, as was the case late last night with the council's eco team and the scheduled task at Clarence Gardens. We'd already done all the work earlier in the month. Fortunately, with a flurry of WhatsApp messages and our wonderful run leader Laura we were able to come up with a couple of tasks to fill the void and keep everyone just about busy enough.

Tonight we gave a big GG Yorkie welcome (and one dissenting boo) to Jenni who was joining is from GoodGym Reading. Great to have you here, despite Pete's rivalry! We also welcomed back Carys and Rohail who had enjoyed themselves so much last week tjat they decided to return. There were a fair few tired legs tonight after some fantastic running at the Brass Monkey half, so a lot of people were grateful for the steadier run out to the allotment task with Vicky, whilst Ed led the larger group to the community gardens with Pete and Lucy bringing up the rear.

Dan very quickly realised we would be working on the gardens at the end of his road and was almost tempted to get his "goodgym-curious" partner out to join us. Another night perhaps. At the task Laura had prepared a list of jobs that needed doing and the GG York crew got to work weeding, pruning, digging and sweeping. As we worked away we managed to spend a bit of time getting to know our newer members a bit better. Turns out Rohail is yet to try a jacket potato (cheese and beans seemed to be the best choice for an entry-level jacket) and Carys just casually dropped that she done some pretty epic running events in the past, including the Berlin Marathon!

Meanwhile, over with Vicky...

A splinter group of ladies headed to Holgate Allotments and were tasked with covering all the community allotment paths with woodchip. We quickly got stuck in and soon had a conveyor of wheelbarrows going back and forth. Alongside this was team weed, who cleared some of the paths before the bark arrived.

We had almost finished when the other group arrived, but being the perfectionists that we are, we had one final push to make sure we got the job done! We were very proud of our work and the paths look ace, if we do say so ourselves!

Once both tasks were completed we regrouped for an epic game of musical cones, with a little bit of cheating and some heated debate over the rules, before we headed back to the pub where some joined in with the cool down but most got themselves a reasonably well earned pint

Lovely stuff