On a beautiful sunny evening, 36 runners ran to complete two tasks in York

FOUR new runners joined us; so let's give some big cheers to Herbie, Gareth, Nic and Marianne. The new runners turned up tonight to some crazy shenanigans as I'd forgotten the absolutely vital bluetooth speaker for our musical fitness session, but Mel and Ed created a makeshift speaker with two phones and a tupperware so there was a lot of AC/DC testing happening.

Whilst you're cheering, make sure you also give some massive cheers to Nikki, who ran her 100th good deed tonight and got to wear the Centurion Cape - an amazing achievement, welcome to the 100 club Nikki.

We were joined tonight by original GG Yorkie Amazing Aron, who is also the Trainer for GoodGym Leeds (due to start soon). Aron led out our subgroup on a mission to deliver postcards to specific addresses in the Walmgate area advertising the upcoming York Walls Festival.

The rest of us ran to Glen Gardens, where our main task was to move three cubic tonnes of bark across the park and into the play area. That took all of about nine minutes so Karen and Adi, two of the Friends of Glen Gardens, gave us a big list of other jobs.

One of the tasks was to attempt the clear the very overgrown and very spiky weeds which were growing between the park fence and the basketball court, the gap between the two fences was about 40cm so we ended up having a daisy chain of weed passing.

There was also moss and leaf mulch to scrape off the edges of the paths and whilst we had hoes, spades and shovels a-plenty, there was only one broom which was in extremely high demand.

Aron's team turned up and helped Karen get out a load more tools before a ten minute push to clear weeds from one of the flower beds and there was one final task to take all the full bags of weeds, moss and spiky fence plants right down the other end of the park.

Thunderstruck

The first part of our musical fitness session involved running about, high fives, squat jumps and burpees. The makeshift speaker didn't quite offer enough volume so unless people knew the song pretty well, they just had to rely on me shouting occasional words and trusting that I was making them do the right amount of squat jumps and burpees.

This is the Egg remix. There shouldn't be a burpee here!

The second part of our musical fitness session was a Pitch Perfect inspired press-up and sit-up session. Ed modestly proclaimed that him and Rich were "incredible" at both whilst Nick was a bit more realistic.

I basically just rolled around for a few minutes

After a stretch out, and once we were safely hydrated in the pub, Nikki brought out her celebratory 100th good deed 'cowpat cake', which although wasn't entirely visually pleasing, was unquestionably delicious.

9 GG Yorkies met at Wolfe Avenue woodland to hunt down some increasingly elusive balsam.

In true GG York/St Nick's tradition, the first task for half of the group was break into the far side of the Beck by climbing over a locked gate. Maria assured us that it was St Nick's land, so we were definitely allowed to be there.

Then all that remained was to battle against nettles to find what was left of the balsam. Though it was slim pickings, we made a dent in what was there and celebrated the fact that our relentless attack on the invasive stuff looks like it's starting to work. York really is experiencing an all time balsam low!

On a gloriously sunny Monday evening, 41 GG Yorkies ran to Hob Moor to pull up A LOT of thistle!

First of all though it was a huge double whammy for Katie who not only got to wear the Cape of Good Deeds for doing her 50th good deed last week, but also won GG Yorkie of the Month for April! Make sure you go and give her some well-deserved cheers for being so awesome.

We've run across Hob Moor for many a task but this was the first time we'd ever done a task on Hob Moor. Our task was to pull up all the thistle on the North Lane pasture to enable the wildflower there to flourish, with the pressure on to remove as much thistle as possible before the area gets cut for hay in late summer.

We learned that there are very careful cowculations that happen to ensure the right amount of cows are released onto the Moor per section of grass, luckily no cows were on the pasture though to mess up our thistle pulling epic.

The most important thing was for the Friends of Hob Moor to show us exactly what a thistle was to ensure we pulled up several hundred of the right weed.

I thought they'd be bushier! Ed

As well as really heavy duty gloves, there were some special thistle hacking tools.

I want one for my birthday! Lauren

After 40 minutes of solid thistle pulling, we used the tonne bags of thistles to create a course for our Ribbon Run Fitness Session to support Sean's Ribbon Run fundraiser.

We set up a 200m course in the shape of a ribbon with squat and lunge stations (and a bonus giant star jump), which was beautifully demonstrated by Becky and Debs before we went en masse.

We're running ribbons around those thistles!

The bags were all dragged over to the exit before we took a group piccie and headed back across the Moor in the sunshine.

On a very wet bank holiday Monday, 30 GG Yorkies turned out for a triple task night

I had promised a sunny run and massively failed to deliver, but nonetheless, four people still came along for their first ever group run so let's give Michael, Ceri, Dave and Nico a huge cheer!

Esther turned up completely prepared in full waterproofs and wasn't bothered about running in waterproof trousers whilst new Nico was braving it in a t-shirt.

Our three tasks tonight were:

• a 6km to Gale Farm Court to finish digging up the big, evil root and to weed the flowerbed - led by Leanne
• a 9km to New Earswick Bowls Club to finish laying the sports floor - led by Nick
• a 7.5km(ish) to Foxwood Park to edge the park path - led by me

It was the very first appearance of grumpy Ed, who doesn't like being cold and wet apparently.

It was the least fun I've had at GoodGym. Ever.

You can still see him feigning a smile though as the team eventually dug out the final root; the end of a long project at Gale Farm Court. Other big news from the 6km team was that Rich found a dead bird (think it was a quiet news night).

At the Bowls Club, Katie and Charlotte were absolute board jumping ninjas, bringing all their experience from last week to rule the task and show everyone how it was done. Despite running the furthest, the team also boshed out loads of rounds of mini circuits as they finished each row of planks. Katie misread some of my fitness instructions and created a brand new exercise called an 'artsey lunge' which is much better than a curtsey lunge anyway.

Over in Foxwood, we were on a 25 minute challenge to get the path through the park edged. Simon immediately gained a reputation as the neatest, as his section was beautifully straight and tidy. I called in some extra help for the worst bit down the far end where almost all the tarmac was covered in grass and debris, Anna came running.

You can't beat a good scrape!

Lindsay was a hero, gathering up everyone's scrapings with a giant, flimsy dustpan and a cut-off spade, as well as running the single wheelbarrow back and forth to the dumping spot.

Everybody arrived back at base very wet (except Esther, who was bone dry), and very satisfied with three jobs well done (except Ed, who was still grumpy).

Guest Report: Written by Al Smith (Previous GG Yorkie and now Islington Turncoat)

On a scorchingly hot Easter weekend 30 GG Yorkies came to GoodGym just to witness my return to York. Only kidding; they all turned up to do loads of good like normal! I had managed to turn up just on time to celebrate Paul's 100th good deed so let's all give him a huge cheer for that!

I, alongside 23 good people, including newbies Anna and Rose, ran to Rowntree Park to clear the Lodge Garden of all overgrown foliage. With mattocks, pitchforks, spades and elbow grease we cleared 5 (count em’, 5!) tonne bags full of rubbish so it can become a propagating garden for all future plants to go into the park.

In the meantime 7 speedy runners did a few extra K’s to move 3 tonnes of soil to create some beautiful raised beds at Knavesmire Primary School. In fact, they were so quick that they even managed to get to Rowntree Park to help us with the end of our task.

And with that, everyone went home with a sense of fulfillment and only slightly hurty legs. Or that’s what would have happened if the incorrigible Egg wasn’t the trainer… Instead we did a MetaFit fitness session! This was a matrix of 4 exercises, for (a long) time, with (little) rest, including:

• Get ups
• Agility Sprints
• Kneel Ups
• (and finally some very fun) Commando Crawls!

Since Egg told everyone I’d requested this, (which I did) as the session continued, I got more and more angry looks. Luckily Yorkies are all fantastic people and harboured no ill will (and they all knew it was Egg’s fault anyway).

Thanks for welcoming me back so warmly guys, it was great to see so many friendly faces. If you’re ever in London, let me know and I’ll put the kettle on!

45 GG Yorkies completed two huge multi-part tasks!

It was another night for celebration as Vicky ran her 50th good deed and got to run in the Cape of Good Deeds - go Vicky (make sure you give her a big cheer)!

We also welcomed along Chris for his first ever GoodGym run, extra exciting because Chris is one of the founding members of GoodGym in Harrogate and is working hard to bring another GG to North Yorkshire.

Our warm-up (and subsequent fitness session) was a test of coordination and concentration as we introduced new game, Slappy Slappy Point Point. Leanne and I demonstrated rather badly but some people picked up the concept straight away. See the video below!

I led a team out to St Paul's C of E School's allotment in Holgate, where we were met by Charlotte and three of the teachers from the school too, they were already busy digging up weeds. Our jobs list was hefty:

• Clear the whole bed on the right of the entrance
• Clear the weeds from the wood pile
• Sand and paint the yellow bench
• Sand the three picnic benches
• Completely weed and clear four large and four small raised beds
• Empty out the two plastic compost bins and put compost in (newly cleared) raised beds

Not only that but in the process we added two new tasks to the list:

• Relocate the waste from the compost piles into the emptied compost bins
• Get the bug hotel open for business

Esther, Maddy and Laura seemed to unearth a nest of frogs and so carefully went about popping them back into the beck, which Carl and Paul had now cleared the way for by weeding an area along the fence line.

Caped-Vicky and Nick were busy getting all the lovely compost out of the bins to top up the newly-weeded raised beds whilst Debs was on a mission to restore the bug hotel to it's former glory.

The three picnic benches were sanded down in no time at all and looked much better for it, whilst the yellow bench to a little more elbow grease. Zoe has a sure-fire way to check it was sanded effectively prior to painting.

If I rub it and it doesn't hurt me, it's fine.

We had one last dash to take many filled bags to the van just outside the allotment before we attempted some Slappy Slappy Point Point fitness variations with squats instead of slaps and lunges instead of points. Success was limited. Mel and Katie absolutely nailed the original version and were going so fast nobody could stop them, whilst Zoe and Helen created their own interpretive dance version.

After the run back, Vicky announced she'd made Creme Egg cookies and they were the best ever.

Tim's team ran to the lovely Hull Road Park. They trotted in on our lovely hand-crafted path which we'd constructed over winter and were quickly set to task in 4 separate areas by Rachael and Kristina. The areas were spread out all over the park so Tim covered a lot of extra mileage in his run leading duties.

In the first team was by newbie Chris from the wannabe-future-Harrogate-GoodGym folk and parkrun-tourist-extraordinaire Tom, they got stuck in. Their job was clearing the remaining waste from a composting area and dragging it all the way over to where it could be picked up by a skip later this week.

"Love a good Drag" - Tim's louder than intended response to the task

The second team met their match with some surprisingly deep rooted plants that needed clearing so they can install a new bench. The plants lured Tom D into a false sense of security sending him tumbling as it snapped earlier than he expected.

The third team were there to pop the last remaining bits of self-binding path gravel down on our path. They might have laid it on a bit thick as it ran out just short of completion but some frantic scraping of sand just about got the job done!

The fourth and final team were tasked with speed-staking wooden stakes into the ground to protect some newly planted flowers from the lawnmowers. Their mission was to speed through it so they could run to the aid of the other teams. Craig and Max both for a boost of enthusiasm when Tim told them how much destruction was happening elsewhere.

After collecting up all the tools, there was just enough time for a quick fitness themed slappy slappy pointy pointy game/coordinated falling over if you watch Pete and Max's video (standby for link).

With so many tasks happening they overran slightly so were all super out of breath on arrival back at the Priory Street Centre after a fast run; husband and wife dream team John and Lauren Forecast even raced for a sprint finish. Unfortunately Lauren went the wrong way handing John the lead. But don't worry Lauren next time you'll have him!

Only a few of Vicky's amazing cookies were left so we incorporated a stretch and walk-out-plank challenge for those who wanted one (read: everyone).

We shortlisted these entries for the Slappy Slappy Point Point competition, vite for your favourite by commenting below!