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.

It was back to West Bank Park tonight to carry on with last week's task of emptying the compost bins into wheelbarrows and running them over to the skip in the car park.

Before setting off we gave a round of applause to Vicky and Helen who had completed the Wensleydale Wander at the weekend and also welcomed Becca along for the first time. Give her some cheers 🎉

After a quick titanic themed warm up, it was the off to the task with Ed leading the run out and Nick leading a walk/run group which, by all accounts, was mire run than walk!

At the task we were greeted by Kristina from the council's eco team who got us to focus on one area rather than the 2 we were spread across last week. Mitch and Vicky were our designated skip people to help with coordinating the inbound wheelbarrows.

I want to join the Red Barrows - Leanne

The tactic of sticking to one area seemed to work and the crew got into a good rhythm with their shovelling and barrowing. So much so that they started to get creative whilst running with the wheelbarrows, with Nick being very keen to show off the first ever outing of the GG 'Red Barrows'.

As the task drew to a close there was just enough time for Michael to completely empty his compost bin. He was so proud of this achievement that he demanded we got a photo of it. Well done Michael 👏

For fitness, the group split into two teams and picked cones with either a set of exercises or an "egg" underneath them. The team with the most eggs would be declared the winner. Although thanks to a lot of luck and a little bit of cheating from Lyndsey, it really wasn't much of a contest at all!

This week's group run marked the start of GoodGym's new Workout for Nature campaign in association with the WWF. Surprisingly, the campaign does not involve wearing lyrca underwear and pretending fight so we had to give that a miss this week. Instead it aims to get people to take part in physical activity to benefit local green spaces. With that in mind we made the short journey to West Bank Park to help turn their compost bins back into a usable resource.

When we arrived, a fleet of wheelbarrows was waiting, along with a selection of tools. We all initially paired off (not like that) and then split into two groups to attack the different compost bins around the park. A pleasing selection of tools was available enabling us to free-form various methods to break up the compost and get it into the barrows.

The waste compost was barrowed to a giant skip where Pete adopted the role of site foreman and marshaled tipping the waste so it would fill the skip safelt and evenly. Initial skip runs were literally runs but the weight of the compost was such that these soon slowed down to a more sensible pace. Team one kept things interesting and local chiropractors in business by pulling their loaded barrows up some steps. Team two played with a dog. Badly.

The task seemed to fly by, especially for me as for once I was leading and not doing it. We made a good dint in both the compost bins but there is plenty left to go at for next week.

After the task, we did an animal themed group exercise in the park which was honestly much simpler than everyone made it look. Wildlife box ticked we headed back to Priory Street to enjoy the novelty of a cool down in daylight.