32 GG Yorkies ran 6km to help tidy up Fishponds Wood.

Before the festivities commenced, there was a lot to celebrate including:

• Barbara completing her 100th parkrun
• Laurence coming first at York Parkrun and getting a parkrun PB
• Nick, Stef, Lindsay and others running 10ks in Tholthorpe and Wetherby

Lindsay was announced as GG Yorkie of the Month for August. Lindsay had set herself a goal to complete her 50th good deed by the end of the month and absolutely smashed it with loads of community and older people missions. She also ventured out of York on some GoodGym tourism, and completed a top secret mission to collect the January Challenge golden trowel from Bristol in the process. Give her a cheer!

We welcomed no less than three new runners:

• Elyse (who was a big help with setting up. I think that counts as her induction into Team Tall!)
• Jean-Michel
• Lin Lee

In sadder news, we acknowledged Tom's last run with GoodGym York. We'll look forward to checking out his antics with GoodGym Swindon in the near future.

At Fishponds Wood, Kristina greeted us with a van full of tools. Each runner selected their weapon of choice before venturing into the woods to complete our tasks for the day which were:

• Edging the paths
• Raking up arisings
• Cutting back nettles

The group split into three teams and got to work. Martyn wasn't too satisfied with his tool and announced

I'm going to find one of those diggy things

Meanwhile, Max was having fun with the leaf blowers, trying to create himself some sort of Iron Man suit.

Paul Kelly told me that I should boss people around more - and then immediately followed up with 'not me - I should get special treatment.' It turned out that the group were working well together and needed hardly any bossing about. Within half an hour, everything was looking a whole lot tidier.

Burpees for Sean

On the way back to base, we stopped off for a very special fitness session.

Following the sad news that local hero and GoodGym Yorkie, Sean Coxhead lost his battle to cancer yesterday, it seemed fitting to exercise in his memory. A few weeks ago, Sean had messaged a few of us to let us know that he only had a few weeks left to live. Egg asked him 'What can we do to make your weeks as good as possible?'

Make em do burpees for me :) buahaha (Sean)

So in memory of the wonderful (if slightly evil) Sean, we did a lot of burpees, with added planks, plank jacks, rotating planks and plank walkouts.

An amazing crowd of 48 GG Yorkies descended upon the riverside cycle path!!

You just never know how many people are going to come to GoodGym, there's no rhyme or reason to it. Tonight, even with some of our most loyal regulars off on holidays, a huge team gathered for a massive task to cut back overgrowing vegetation on the cycle path between the Clifton Bridge and Rawcliffe.

We welcomed along a swathe of new runners, including Martyn who conscientiously turned up early only to find a small and hardy sub-team completing a hardcore HIIT workout.

Don't worry, this isn't normal!

There were several big achievements to announce tonight:

• Lindsay was running her 50th good deed and was presented with the Cape of Good Deeds
• John was running his 100th good deed and was presented with the Centurion Cape
• Laura was finally presented with the accolade of GG Yorkie of the Month for July (after Katie and Becky completed a secret craft mission last week to create a new frame after the last one went AWOL)

After a little warm up we all headed out en masse, over Scarborough Bridge and along the River Ouse. The shorter run group (distance 2.2km out) stopped at Clifton Bridge were we were met by Beki and her van of tools. Everyone debated whether to stop or whether to carry on along the cycle path to search for Jenny (estimated distance 3.5-3.8km).

The task tonight was to reclaim the cycle path by cutting back overhanging vegetation and getting the path back to it's full width, making life easier for everyone who uses it.

Tim led the longer group and was watching the distance closely as his team ran further and further into Clifton Ings, eagerly looking out for the mysterious Jenny and her wheelbarrow of tools. They mistook a fair few dog walkers and pedestrians for her, but finally after 4.5km of running (sorry for the understimation there!), she was spotted with her stash of loppers!

At first it seemed an insurmountable task at the Rawcliffe end but it turned out that Jenny had started the crew at the hardest bit. Laurence, Pete and Emily dutifully cleared the lopped branches from the path. whilst Ed did his best to fall down a hole whilst carrying a saw.

Add that one to the risk assessment!

Speaking of risk assessments, at my end Beki was asking if we could use powertools but why would anyone want to use a powertool when you could hack with your best muscles?!

The only tool we could allow was a leaf-blower, and everyone was extremely excited about it. Everyone except Caped John who has one at home. John was taking his 100th good deed very seriously indeed, firstly helping Beki get the van down safely onto the path, then taking charge of some complex sawing tasks for the thicker overhanging branches, but then he did end up leaf blowing (after a few others had taken their turn) and had definitely lied about being excited about it.

We all gathered back together along the river for some fitness action of partner exercises including:

• walk out plank high fives
• lean out squats
• sit-up high-tens

...and the finisher, a huge team plank and commando crawl race with the smallest and most agile members doing commando crawl duties. Mitch and Tom did win for their team but we're pretty sure (having reviewed the video footage) that their team had fewer members and therefore less distance to travel. Really everyone was a winner as nobody dropped their plank so there were no burpee forfeits to be had!