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!

A mammoth crew including four new runners came along for another two-task night at GoodGym York

We celebrated a massive weekend of racing with new parkrun PBs, new 10 mile PBs and completion of the English Cross Country National Championships - phew!

Mitch led out the 10km crew for a final hurrah at Rawcliffe whist I led the 4km crew to New Walk for a bench cleaning and path-widening challenge. Craig and Tim were our back-markers today, thanks chaps.

We arrived at the start of New Walk to be met by Win, with lots of buckets of soapy water and a few spades. Those who were logging their run wondered where the remaining kilometres were going to come from since it had only been 1km to the start.

It's the bench cleaning relay!

Working in pairs, runners took turn to either scrub the really mucky benches or scrape back the edges of the cycle path, whilst their partner walked, ran or sprinted to Blue Bridge and back. They swapped continuously for 15 minutes, before I switched the running bit to 20 squats, and then 10 lunges.

Lunges? How? It's my first time

Yes that's right. It was a momentous occasion for Jessie doing her first ever lunges and we made sure she had the technique nailed with perfectly angled knees and everything. Nick was going rogue with side lunges and Leanne was practising her balance by lunging down the white line in the middle of the cycle path. Lots of people stopped to ask what on earth we were up to and one man just spontaneously burst into lunges.

Mitch's team ran 5km along the Ouse and arrived at Rawcliffe to finish off the giant task of filling in the wetpour hole. They were tasked with filling the old hardcore site with 7 tonnes of soil; which will then be reseeded so there is full grass cover. In usual GG fashion, they dug out as much soil as possible until the bags were ‘draggable', then hauled them across to tip them out.

Ed apparently tried to start a rave with the music from the nearby fitness session (not ours) and started to dance but Emily was the only one who joined in with him, gutted. The task was finished quickly and the team boshed back along the river.

Last person to finish the run buys the round! - Craig, before realising he was the back marker

With the benches seriously cleaned up and hundreds of metres of cycle path widened, our work was done.

It's a trick, there's more fitness

Oh yes, we still had a few circuits to do in Tower Gardens:

• high steps
• skipping
• sprints
• elbow to knee walk/jog (Amy's choice)
• mountain climbers
• tricep dips
• press ups

..and with all that done, we headed back for a rest!

Even though it is now February and the January Challenge is over, a massive crew of GG Yorkies came to run and walk and do some good!

Oh yes, we finished the January Challenge on an absolutely amazing 704 good deeds - outstanding. The Golden Trowel will be making it's way up from Bristol so we can wave it around victoriously. We could have done with it tonight but I'll get to that shortly.

First of all we need to give a big warm welcome to our new runners, Charlotte and Patrick. Go and give them both a cheer!

Nick led a sub-team off for a quick 500 leaflet drop whilst the rest of us - led by Tim - made our way to Clarence Gardens. We arrived to a dreamy nine tonnes of soil and van load of tools. Some of the team cracked on with moving the soil to top up five flowerbeds full of roses, whilst the rest headed over to The Hut to lop up piles of branches into smaller pieces for bagging, and to finish digging the trench to aid with drainage around the building.

Team trench were uncovering all sorts of good stuff, including something they thought might be a pipe. Max said, "further (careful) excavation revealed it to be an empty tube labelled 'Scientific Grease'. I struggle to think that Max really did do careful excavation but the real question is: what is scientific grease?

It's just like normal grease, but.. for science

The soil team were on fire, it was a digging frenzy and bags were dragged away by pulling teams as soon as they'd been emptied by about two thirds.

Is anyone good at pulling?!

Just on time, Nick's leafleting team turned up to add some people power. There were plenty of tools for everyone but I still found Katie Kelly raking a flowerbed solo using a spade, she was happy so I left her to it.

We took some advice from Tom that roses don't really like being completely covered in soil so as more bags got emptied, any free hands were used to clear the soil around the base of the roses... and there were no trowels. So spades or hands it was.

Nikki didn't need a trowel. She was picking up soil with her bare hands and just throwing it at the flowerbeds, "quicker and more fun", apparently.

With all the soil moved, a trench dug, and all the brush cut into tiny pieces and bagged up, it was fitness time! We completed a short around the square of grass workout which involved:

• bench presses
• tricep dips
• sit squats
• bench burpees
• split squats
• sprint/jog/walk
• optional walking lunges

Then we squished in for a very well lit group photo before running or walking back to base.

GG Yorkie of the Month

After a stretch out we finally revealed the winner of our GG Yorkie of the Month for January.... it's the EXTRAORDINARILY good Ed Woollard!!

Ed did an enormous 30 good deeds in January, as well taking his taskforce responsibilities seriously and leading several community missions - massive well done Ed (give that man a cheer!)