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.

After a last minute change of location, 4 GoodGymers enjoyed a pleasant evening walk over to the Colchester in Bloom allotment, including a brief encounter with Frazer en route.

It was lovely to meet Rebecca who was visiting from York GoodGym who got stuck straight in (with Louise) watering everything to keep it going after some dry weather. Alexander got to work with the strimmer, an important job to keep the allotment looking smart (as required to keep hold of the allotment), while Ray delighted Pam with his work to rescue some fruit trees.

We promised we would be back again soon to sort out some barrier boxes which need cleaning out so they can be put to good use.

Take a bow team! We completed Act 2 of Theatre@41 - well nearly! There were some pallets that would be better reclaimed and rehoused. Everyone played their part well. Ed and Mitch set to, smashing up the pallets with hammers and a crow bar. It took some brute force and some deft wallops! New member Emma joined them with a blunt saw - thanks for trying Emma, some tools just don't cut it! Wood splinters flew, but they managed to avoid a tragedy! Andrea, Rebecca and I weeded and swept the front alley to theatre. It now looks fabulous. Now everyone make a fine entrance! Cara did a magnificent job of digging up all the roots in the border. Emma and I also gave the overhanging trees a haircut. Now the stars of the yard can take centre stage. I do like a happy ending. Thank you all. Great to have you in the crew Emma! That's all folks!

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