What a great start to the weekend of volunteering. Powered by last nights chilli meal at the YHA and a relatively early night all were up and keen to get off to the first task of the weekend. A combination of plans saw various groups running or driving the 5k to Sherwood Pines where we were helping out with the local Park Run. The majority had voluntereed as pacers and complete with GG t shirts adorned with locally produced (thanks Michael) numbers on their backs indicating their 'anticipated' finish time they were to produce the encouragement to others that maybe had a time in mind. Hopefully, no-one was disappointed with their times although the forest cover provided a little uncertainty in finish times ! Cheered to the end and greatly appreciated by the organisers, GG showed themselves in their best light. Many thanks to those that sped back to start breakfast service while of course for some it was a run / walk back and 15k already covered before breakfast.... The weekend had only just started ....

‘Twas the last weekend of the Challenge of January when the outlaw Edwin Hood of Holgate assembled his Merrie Band of Women and Men at his hideout in the Youth Hostel of Sherwood.

The hideout had been carefully arranged by the beautiful and wondrous Maid Vicky of South Bank who was so admired and famed across the land that bounteous food was smuggled into the hideout under the cover of darkness by a bandit from Tesco.

Afore the adventures could commence the Merrie Band feasted on Chilli and Spuds and had first to Endure the Challenge of the Quiz of Sir Michael of Woodthorpe - a hideous ordeal that only the bravest and most nerdy could survive.

This was followed by much merriment and the drinking of flagons of Ale before it was revealed that the evil Sheriff of Nottingham had removed the alcohol from many of the bottles leaving our heroes with the foul brew of Beer Zero.

After a fitful night caused by the aforementioned false beer, chilli beans and too many baked goods, the heroes made their way via a 2 out of 10 sunrise to avenge themselves and do battle at the parkrun of the Pines of Sherwood.

Here they did disguise themselves as competent pacers and did deceive the runners there into believing that they were capable of telling the time.

Tall Peter of Poppleton did point his arrow sending many runners into the Forest, Claire the Metronome did arrive on time and Little Mitch of Acomb did abuse the runners in his funnel.

Having succeeded in their aim of causing confusion in the Forest the band retreated to the hideout to indulge in more feasting on the many sausages which had been roasted there.

But outlaws cannot rest and before long many were off running in the foolish attempt to achieve the Bingo Square of Run Thy Age - a challenge only attempted by the half witted and the heavily inebriated.

Outlaws they may be but on arriving at the Palace of the King of Clumber and meeting with the original outlaw Egg of Cheshire, they did much Good assembling the bookcases of Ikea, tidying the Kings yards and digging up many brambles that were overgrowing the Cottage of The Head Gardener.

There was no time to stop for cake (well actually quite a bit of time for that) and soon shovellers were called for to dig out the wash down for the bike hire of the King.

Sandy James did soon throw down his shovel and head off to find a younger and fitter outlaw and it wasn’t long before the Merrie band was off again running to the Brewery of Tuck where much Porter was consumed.

By now the Merrie band were flagging and only the truly foolhardy continued to run back to the hideout. Scrambling over fences is nothing for our hardy outlaws and Lady Leanne, Nicky of Harrogate, Jane of St Paul’s, Paul Kelly of the Poppleton Road, and Lucy the Knight made it back to the hideout.

It was too much for some and Edwin Hood himself, Sir Michael of Woodthorpe, James of the Tilburn, Tristan-a-Dale and Jen of the ‘Never Run this Far Before’ were so overcome that they were forced to stop at several hostelries on the route back before becoming so disorientated that some did run in circles in the car park.

Friar Griff and others had been sizzling chicken and various curries for the brave women and men before the traditional Dice Game of the Offloading of Random Rubbish Gifts, where the ancient Fables of Cheryl of Cole were much coveted and Stef the Durkin did happily seize the Tub of the Roses.

Here our tale takes a sad turn as after the baby Guinness, the Snowball, the Rum and Coke and many other beverages Amy of the Woollard despite being accompanied by her trusty hound Fergal Barky (and struggling to remember who was part of this group) did declare herself to be deeply disappointed most especially with Michael of Woodthorpe, Paul Kelly of Poppleton Road (although he did the best that he could) and even with Edwin Hood Himself. Lady Leanne (the most awake), Jane of St Paul’s, Babs The Great and the one man band James of the Tilburn were spared her wrath and the day drew to a close.

The morning dawned and the heroic band broke their fast on more sausage before attempting the great litter pick of the RSPB of the Forests of Sherwood and Budby South wherein Debs the Barely In Time did Brasso polish the important medallions and the Archer Katie the Fair celebrated her birthday by making a bow and arrow before the Merrie Women and Men did head for home singing the praises of the most marvellous Maid Vicky & Edwin Hood.

Cast List:

Edwin Hood of Holgate

Maid Vicky of The South Bank

Tristan-a-Dale

Jen of the 'Never Run this Far Before'

John and Jackie of Camden Town

Bec Sneak off early-a-Bed

Paul of the Early Rising

Sir Michael of Woodthorpe

Stef the Durkin

Nicky of Harrogate

Jenna of the Tall Tales

Helen of the Springs

Alex the Jaguar

Becca Maude Marian

Friar Griff (who knows his limits)

Little Mitch

Tall Peter of Poppleton

Babs the Great

Steve of the Rice

Kit Kat

Lady Leanne the Most Awake

Debs the 'Barely in Time'

Paul Kelly of the Poppleton Road

Lucy the Knight

Claire the Metronome Metcalfe

Laura Barrett of the Whisky

Sandy James

Katie the Fair

The Egg of Cheshire

Hannah of Woodthorpe

Jane of St Pauls

The Artist David Barrett

Catherine of Poppleton

Amy the Disappointed

Neil the Van, Maid Vicky's man

Louise of Old London Town

Abigail of the Little Sleep

Dylan of the Much Wailing

Digby the Small Horse

The Ferocious Hound and Loyal Companion Feargal Barky

The problem with the January challenge is that we do so many good deeds that our taskowners run out of things for us to do, as was the case late last night with the council's eco team and the scheduled task at Clarence Gardens. We'd already done all the work earlier in the month. Fortunately, with a flurry of WhatsApp messages and our wonderful run leader Laura we were able to come up with a couple of tasks to fill the void and keep everyone just about busy enough.

Tonight we gave a big GG Yorkie welcome (and one dissenting boo) to Jenni who was joining is from GoodGym Reading. Great to have you here, despite Pete's rivalry! We also welcomed back Carys and Rohail who had enjoyed themselves so much last week tjat they decided to return. There were a fair few tired legs tonight after some fantastic running at the Brass Monkey half, so a lot of people were grateful for the steadier run out to the allotment task with Vicky, whilst Ed led the larger group to the community gardens with Pete and Lucy bringing up the rear.

Dan very quickly realised we would be working on the gardens at the end of his road and was almost tempted to get his "goodgym-curious" partner out to join us. Another night perhaps. At the task Laura had prepared a list of jobs that needed doing and the GG York crew got to work weeding, pruning, digging and sweeping. As we worked away we managed to spend a bit of time getting to know our newer members a bit better. Turns out Rohail is yet to try a jacket potato (cheese and beans seemed to be the best choice for an entry-level jacket) and Carys just casually dropped that she done some pretty epic running events in the past, including the Berlin Marathon!

Meanwhile, over with Vicky...

A splinter group of ladies headed to Holgate Allotments and were tasked with covering all the community allotment paths with woodchip. We quickly got stuck in and soon had a conveyor of wheelbarrows going back and forth. Alongside this was team weed, who cleared some of the paths before the bark arrived.

We had almost finished when the other group arrived, but being the perfectionists that we are, we had one final push to make sure we got the job done! We were very proud of our work and the paths look ace, if we do say so ourselves!

Once both tasks were completed we regrouped for an epic game of musical cones, with a little bit of cheating and some heated debate over the rules, before we headed back to the pub where some joined in with the cool down but most got themselves a reasonably well earned pint

Lovely stuff

Back to Danesmead Wood to try and finish the path. It was a but wet but the five of us made good inroads into the pile of woodchip and ensure the path was refreshed. We then had a cuppa and a snack and headed off to get dry.