Despite the slightly lower numbers for tonight's group run we had lots to celebrate. First we welcomed Emily to her first Goodgym session, despite her only arriving in York a week ago. We celebrated Abigail and Claire both achieving 200 good deeds. We celebrated Rebecca being crowned August's Goodgymer of the month, having completed lots of Goodgym tasks in her first few months since joining, including some Goodgym tourism. We also congratulated Emma on completing the Vale of York half marathon and Liv and Mia on completing the Great North Run. (We also thought there may also have been a few other York Goodgymers doing a race at the weekend and having a few drinks along the way.) Finally we celebrated World Ampersand Day by going round and naming our favourite food and drink pairings worthy of the & symbol. After all the congratulations we headed to the task at Holgate Community Garden. We did two main jobs, cutting a circle of grass and weeds away around the trees and tidying the beds nearest the road. Abigail, Leanne and Jenna joined in once they had finished staging a teddy birth for Abigail. As her due date is in three days we were hoping that we didn't have a real birth to contend with. Claire and Laura Bennett went down to the Holgate Allotments and brought back two barrows of bark chip for putting on top of the soil circles around the trees. Imran and Jenna did a great job clearing all the brambles on the beds. We managed to complete both tasks before doing some training related fitness, including squats while we were stopped for leaves on the line, lunges for shovelling coal, creating tunnel arches for the other team's train to go through and then finishing with all aboard the train for a photo and some delicious chocolate and courgette cake from Claire before running back to base.

It had been building for some time, but rumour had it tonight was going to be the night that we finally beat our post covid record turnout of 33 people. Messages were being exchanged between Ed and Vicky every time someone signed up or dropped out and there was still some uncertainty as we got to 6.15 with 32 people meeting us at CVS and a few others saying they would meet us at the task. The tension (probably only amongst Vicky and Ed) was palpable! But first we got cracking with the task at hand and welcomed Joanne for her first GoodGym session just 2 weeks(!) after moving to York. Give her a big cheer 🎉

We also give a big round of applause too Pete who had completed the UKs ultimate swimrun challange, the Frog Graham Round. As well as running just over 40 miles and ascending and descending 15,750 feet over the North Western Lake District fells, Pete swam across Bassenthwaite Lake, Crummock Water, Buttermere and Derwentwater before finishing at Keswick’s Moot Hall. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Well done Pete 💪

A slightly injured Vicky led the walking group, whilst Ed led out the runner with Nick bringing up the rear. We then split off at the top of Blue Bridge Lane with Laura leading a smaller group to the Fishergate Trianlge and Ed taking the larger group to the Cemetery.

A group of walkers plus some of the main running group travelled a bit further to the Fishergate Triangle. It’s coming on really well with wild flowers and plants but in danger of getting overgrown with grass and thistles. Our small team got straight to work digging and tugging and by the time we left the majority of the offending plants were out the ground and ready to be taken away to compost. We then headed back to join the main group for fun and fitness!

Meanwhile at the Cemetery we were joined by Elle, confirming our record post-covid attendance of 35 GG Yorkies! 🥳

Taskowner Clive who told us that we'd be carrying on clearing the brambles that we had been working on during our last session. Mitch was attempting his best Sideshow Bob impression by leaving his rake lying around on the floor, whilst Emma wrestled with the brambles and lost, leaving her requiring a very dainty plaster on her nose. Some of the group discussed the pros and cons of burial vs cremation with Martyn introducing the concept of liquidation which is apparently a much more environmentally friendly way to go out from the world! Joanna received a lesson in digging up bramble roots directly on top of a grave, whilst being conscious of not digging down too far, and the rest of the group cleared the biggest clump of brambles with just enough time left over to run the last few bags across to the compost.

It was then over to Tower Gardens (not Castle Gardens) for tonight's fitness session. First up we picked four captains - Babs, Matt, Emma and David, then assigned the rest of the group to each captain. People then took it turns to come and grab a card from Ed or Vicky with each suit representing a different exercise and the numbers relating to the amount of reps or seconds, The joker in the pack was burpees with David's team being unlucky enough to pick out both jokers! After all 52 cards and 2 jokers were dealt out, the two winning teams were tied on 14 cards each, so it was then time for sudden death between the two captains, Babs and Emma. Emma drew 7 lunges whilst Babs needed to complete 8 press-ups and despite some very speedy press-ups it was Emma who came out on top.

It was then back to CVS to celebrate our record turnout with some of Nick and Bab's plums! What a way to end the night

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Pool Bridge?! Yes we did! We met at the car park. Some of us arrived by bike. We decided to split into a walking group and a slow run group. The weather had cooled to make it easier to run in, but there was a hazy atmosphere - apparently due to the fires on the North York Moors. We had a slow trot up the Bridleway, and round for 5km. Vicky and Issy had decided to meet us at the picnic. Using a high tech piece of kit (pointing at a map) we chose our spot and found each other. Although the site was busy, everyone spreads out. Jenna showed new folk around, then it was a wriggle under towels for well earned dip in the Q lake. Sooo good for aching muscles and a hard working week. Well done Claire for getting back in the water after a few years! We were treated to the Griffs' matching robes, as we tucked into our picnic. Ducks joined us, well rehearsed in how to pick up tit bits. Cara, Tristan and Issy enjoyed more than one dip in the other ponds. And just as we packed up to leave, the reluctant sun came out! Apart from that, it all went swimmingly!

Tonight we welcomed new comers Liv and Mia to goodgym! Hope you had fun!

We then celebrated our goodgymer of the month for July which was awarded to the fabulous Nick. Nick is always one if the first to volunteer to go that extra mile. He took on the run leader duties when Ed and I were away and has been a great ambassador for goodgym from tje very beginning. He's basically a true goodgym hero!

We then congratulated the 10k runners and triathletes and in honour of international cat day this week named our first pets.

We were then off to Scarcroft allotments to help clear a plot. The main task was yo cut down and remove willow. Within minutes Nick was wedged in a tree wielding a saw and others were lopping, sawing and stripping willow. A team made several journeys taking the cuttings to the chippings pile (not chickens Jenna!).

Before we knew it time was up and the only injury was leanne's 'saw' hand. Everyone grabbed a pile of willow and we headed down the hill to drop off before fun fitness.

Following the cat theme we played a game of cat and mouse, which brought out the competitive side folk!

Back to base for a quick stretch and round up. See you next week!

So this week the big bosses Vicky and Ed were away on holiday but GoodGym York keep on running and not only did we have 23 returning GG folk but we welcomed Andrea & Nicola who both joined our group run for the first time.

We saluted David's weekend parkrun PB and celebrated Stefan who had hit a fab milestone of 300 good deeds completed.

Then in honour of the Lionesses victory in the European Cup yesterday we named and numbered with whichever animal we would like to be - mostly cats it turns out although we had a Crane, a Wolf and a Honey Badger!

Captain Pete led off the walking group and the rest of the crew ran a mammoth 900m to meet Charlotte from the York River Art Market at Dame Judy Dench Walk to do a bit of light weeding and litter picking to tidy up the riverside ahead of the next 3 weekends events.

We met Jan at the task and not only had she had arrived armed with her own trowel but she conjured up a wheely bin from somewhere for the rubbish.

Not content with weeding around the trees Becca instigated some weeding of the very steep bank - no one fell in so all good and we even managed to enlist a kindly random passing tourist who joined despite not seeming to know what we were up to or being able to speak much English!

We were soon all done and away for a double dose of fitness at Memorial Gardens - first we had 'serious' fitness followed by a couple of rounds of Amoeba Tag in which those tagged joined hands to capture the other players splitting into pairs once they got to a chain of 4. I think Charlotte & Mitch were the last players not caught by an Amoeba.

The runners took the 'long' way round managing to make it a full 1.5km back to base before we rounded off at the pub

Normal service will be restored next week!