On the final Monday of the January Challenge, our 3rd birthday group run and my last ever night leading GoodGym York, an amazing group of 75 pitched up to do a stonking amount of good!

In that enormous group we had:

• THREE brand new runners - big cheers for Charlee, Thomas and Francisco.
• TEN GoodGym tourists from Newcastle, Ealing, Leeds, Bath and Portsmouth!
• TWO people celebrating their 50th good deed and donning the Cape of Good Deeds Give some hearty Yorkie cheers to Emma (who has been running with us for almost the three whole years but just likes to spread out all her good!), Rich and also to Louise who couldn't make it tonight but also did her 50th last week.
• TWO people celebrating their 100th good deed and swishing the Centurion Cape! (massive cheers please for Debs and Al who got their wings over the last few days.

We split into three running groups and a walking group, on a collective mission to transform the Nunnery Lane residential area.. with this list of mini and not-so-mini tasks to tackle:

1. Digging up topsoil, laying a weed membrane and covering a large border with pea shingle
2. The lamppost task (we'll come back to this)
3. Digging up deep set rubble from a community garden (saving the one young tree), taking all the rubble to a skip and laying a new layer of three tonnes of topsoil
4. Locating all the broken and rusty road signs within the area which need replacing
5. Building three raised beds and filling with 5 tonnes of topsoil
6. Edging the path in Scarcroft Green
7. Digging and raking up weeds and ivy roots from the Scarcroft Green border
8. Litter picking every street and snicket
9. Locate and mark on a map the locations of all graffiti on the estate
10. Levelling the area where we dug up elders last year ready for a spring seed sowing session!

The walking group were split into three sub groups to tackle tasks 2, 4 and 9. It took a while to figure out who was going to go with who due to lack of reading glasses. The lamppost task was absolutely the most complicated as appropriate lampposts needed to be identified according to a strict set of criteria, and marked as to whether or not they'd be suitable to display a neighbourhood watch sign.

So we're looking for dark lampposts that are approximately 2.2m tall?? - Paul

Leanne's group arrived at the Task 1 location (actually Task 5: raised beds) and Max was delighted to be able to use the IMPACT DRIVER, imagine a nail gun but for giant bolts and you won't be far off.

Then Mitch's team arrived and were split up to litter picking, community garden rubble clearing and adding extra people power for the raised beds.

Jenny, one of the three task owners, did more running than most of the GoodGymers as she went back and forth between the zones retreiving various tools from the van.

I need a boltcutter! Jenny

Then pea shingle team finished and moved onto Scarcroft Green, they were shortly joined by the litter picking squad and eventually the community garden team (though a few of those went up to help the raised bed team too).

We had a crazy ten minutes of raking, edging, digging, standing around having a chat, and frantically attempting to put all the tools back into the van. Then we only had five minutes remaining for the biggest, fastest game of Cones of Joy, ever.

It's a two lane motorway of circular running!!! Katie

There was just enough time for a gigantic group photo before the short run back to base. That truly was an enormous amount we achieved in about an hour.

Massive thanks to everyone who showed up tonight, or has showed up any time over the last three years. It really has been eggcellent and I think you're all the best.

Don't forget to do your lunges.

On a drizzly autumnal evening, 35 GG Yorkies pitched up to complete a whole load of tasks at Westbank Park.

There were no big milestones this week so we gave a cheer to everyone who had completed the Great North Run at the weekend and we mostly celebrated being in possession of the Golden Trowel. For anyone who doesn't know, the Golden Trowel is a mystical item awarded to the winner of the January Challenge, and we only just recently retrieved it from the 2018 winners, GoodGym Bristol. There are many, many photos of us enjoying the trowel, take your time to peruse them all!

With (his full title is getting longer) Amazing GG Yorkie Original and GG Leeds Trainer Aron supporting tonight and Pete as our back marker, we headed over to Westbank Park where we had all of 50 minutes to complete the following:

• raking up all the arisings from the wildflower meadow
• piling said arisings onto giant tarps to drag to compost heap
• clearing overgrown nettles from in front of compost area
• taking all good compost out of four small compost bins into the one big one
• taking all woody and non-compostables out of four small into giant non-compostable pile
• removing dodgy graffiti from picnic bench area
• cutting back overgrown brambles/nettles from picnic area
• cutting back overgrown ivy from the paved tunnel

Phew! Luckily we had a LOT of tools and Debs even blagged using a battery powered strimmer (with mandatory eye protection).

The rakers made swift work of the arisings and were waiting for the nettle slashers to create a clear path for tarps full of piles of wet grass to be dragged through. Everyone took one giant step back for Debs to go large with the strimmer and clear a space for the first tarp.

It was an impressive sight, seeing a carpet of grass being hoisted onto a giant compost bin, and with most of the nettles slashed or strimmed it was now a hive of activity as the newly accessible compost bins could have all the compost shifted out into the one giant compost bin.

Ellie and Paul and had taken on the graffiti removal challenge. Unfortunately we couldn't take any photos of the graffti.

It was sweary, crude and had possible GDPR implications - Ellie

With five minutes to go, the compost crew had finished and were gathering tools, whilst all the other task teams were just finishing up. A huge amount had been achieved in 50 minutes and after a group piccie, we marked our achievement with a sprinty fitness session.

It's flying 30s, but uphill and longer!

The goal was to take a very easy downhill recovery, accelerate along the flat, sprint up the gentle hill, decelerate into the final corner and recover again.... as many times as possible in five minutes. Ellie and Paul were an excellent cheer squad and kept everyone very motivated for this short but tough fitness sesh.

Next week, Aron is in charge of fitness and it's going to be brilliant, so don't miss it!

Another enormous group of GG Yorkies ran to finish off the Hull Road Park footpath!

It was only our second group run of the year and once again, we welcomed along a fabulous batch of brand new runners. Not only that but we had some massive celebrations as run leader Paul had run a huge PB at the Brass Monkey Half Marathon, 'Bad Jim' Max was running his 50th good deed and Aidan was running his 100th good deed! Max and Aidan donned their respective capes with pride as we headed out on our run - go and give 'em all a cheer for being so awesome.

Everyone was in for a treat as we had four tasks to complete:

• Digging and barrowing four tonnes of limestone onto our newly dug out path
• Widening one last section of path with spades
• Digging and barrowing three tonnes of sand (see note)
• Cutting a hedge about a foot shorter, so it was even with the one opposite

*Note; it wasn't sand. It was 'self-binding path gravel'.

Last week we definitely used sand.

When we said the sand couldn't possibly do anything, we were right! Max and Craig

Ellie B had come prepared. She had string. Her plan was to tie the string at the right height along the hedge to ensure everyone snipped a perfectly straight line, genius! After about 15 minutes of chopping and lopping, I noticed the string was hooked around a sticky out branch and definitely was not making a straight line. Team hack were doing an excellent job though, probably the straightest hedge I've ever seen without an electric hedge-trimmer in sight.

Leanne, Paul Kelly and Tom were on path-widening. This was quite a skilled task, actually anything requiring a straight line of any sort of quite a skilled task, especially in the dark. They were extremely meticulous and by the time they'd finished, the whole path was a perfect 1.2m wide, with the new edges quickly filled with limestone.

Team limestone were working hard. There were two great big piles to clear, just enough to finish the last of the footpath. Several big rocks were in amongst the piles and had to be extracted and transported to the edge of the beck.

The self-binding path gravel team originally did not believe they could clear their many bags. As the piles were dropped on top of all the limestone, a squad of rakers, tampers and stompers ensured the path was all compressed with a perfect camber. The gravel was cleared it with a massive 10 minutes to spare, giving the team extra time for stomping to really bed it all in.

With all the limestone and gravel cleared, we took all the tools back to the store and finished off with a STOMP-TASTIC exit along our new footpath. We gave a whole new meaning to "functional fitness" as we used a few different exercises to stomp down the gravel as much as possible.

It's like a GoodGym army! - Issy

We stomped, bounced, lunged, bunny-hopped and high-knee'd our way out of the park, all on our lovely new footpath.

Next Monday - join us for a run to Heworth Holme where you can enjoy the footpath we built last year, yay!

28 GG Yorkies gathered to tackle one enormous bush.

Big shout out to all the Yorkies who ran the very hot York 10k yesterday, great to see so many PBs being achieved despite the temperature. New runner Lindsay ran yesterday and rocked up without knowing what to expect and a special shout out goes to Debs who has been on a fitness journey with us at GoodGym, she ran a big PB and boshed through the 8km tonight like a champ, go and give her a cheer.

The Centurion Cape!

Here's someone else who needs a big cheer, run leader and all round good'un Nick ran his 100th good deed tonight and managed to coincide it with his actual birthday too, what a legend. Not only that but he made the most delicious carrot cake which he didn't even get to eat because he's so selfless he gave it to everyone else!

Anyway, back to the task in hand. The task was to take a massive, massive bush down to ground, in 30 minutes.

Straight away there were some fascinating techniques happening. With only so many tools, you do have to be creative if you get a spade to cut down a hedge. Emily ended up with a tiny hand hook and made a strong effort with hearty slashing, whilst Max got a rake and was surprisingly effective at raking the bush down - so effective that everyone gave him a really wide berth.

Beware of spiky surprises - Katie F did an excellent job of reiterating the safety advice

There were indeed a lot of brambles, but that meant there were also a lot of blackberries! Mark C was looting them and filling up a shovel for everyone to feast on, and every time a big branch got cut off, a few people descended on it to strip it of all the sweet, blackberry goodness.

Not bend and snap, it's the snap and peel

Debs and Katie had come up with their own special technique and were also trying to educate Ed on Legally Blonde, but soon gave up and went back to hacking.

With five minutes on the clock, the transformation was immense. We'd revealed a beautiful holly tree which the task owners decided to keep, nobody even knew it was there. Finally it was just a case of clearing as much as possible and tidying the pathways, a difficult job with only one teeny tiny broom but Ellie G was going for it.

With our task complete, we ran back via the awesome Derwenthorpe Mini Trim Trail for a bit of fitness fun.

Baggsy climbing frame!!! - Massive kid, Ed

There were step ups and clambering, push ups, tricep dips and some epic core exercises going on. Paul Kelly, Leanne and Carl got themselves into some very bizarre scenario with Carl holding PK's feet and Leanne doing sit-ups with Carl's bum as the target - very hard to describe but check out the pics!

My two favourite things, playgrounds and vandalism!

Pretty sure it isn't vandalism if someone asks you to do it, but it made Mitch happy. All that was left was a run back along the Foss Islands cycleway and of course, birthday squats for Nick. And cake, lots of lovely cake.

On the first warm and sunny evening of 2018, a crazy large group of 51 GG Yorkies ran to a fabulous new project in York

We gave a big round of applause to our new runners and screamed wildly for Tim, who ran outstandingly well at Brighton Marathon yesterday. Not only did he run a marathon but it was also his 50th good deed so make sure you go and give him a massive cheer. Now, I was Bad Egg this week and had completely forgotten the Cape of Good Deeds (Leanne said it must be to do with being a new mum, having 'puppy brain') so I sent an emergency message to have the cape delivered to the pub for afterwards - more on that later.

We had three groups running to Spark: York this evening. A long run group lead by Paul and back-marked by Leanne, a short group run led by me and back-marked by Tim, and a power walking group led by Ellie and back-marked by Christine.

The Spark: York project is a fabulous enterprise using containers to enable small business, charities and community groups to have a space they can use (and afford). One of these brilliant projects is York Nurturing Community, whose café will provide allergy-aware, hot meals prepared with intercepted surplus and donated food on a Pay-As-You-Feel basis. Emily from YNC was the person who asked us along to help out and she had a big old job list for us!

It's my first GoodGym run and I'm the first at the task! - Rosie

The short run and walk group arrived almost together, and once we were hi-vised up we set about the following:

• Clearing a ditch of rubble into a skip
• Painting the ceiling of the YNC container
• Wire brushing pipes ready for painting
• Clearing wood from one container to another
• Sanding down some upcycled furniture
• Clearing out all the rubbish from another container
• Varnishing a mosaic which had been lovingly made by children with disabilities

Phew. Whilst everyone was getting on with those jobs, the second run group turned up and were tasked with cleaning every window and glass door, as well as sweeping everywhere. We also had to move lots of various items to different locations. If you took a moment and just watched the action from above, it was quite a sight. Hi-vis scurrying all over the place like little ants.

Leanne and Tim managed to baggsy the job of fireproofing one of the containers. It involved wearing one rubber glove each, donning a mask and hand-spraying clear liquid all over the wooden surface. Unfortunately, Tim's mask broke so he had to keep going to the door, taking a deep breath and running back in.

It's basically like diving - Tim

The final massive job was to shift two tonne sacks of sand across the site where it would form the foundations of another area. With only one wheelbarrow, people were grabbing buckets, cardboard boxes, pots and pretty much any recepticle they could find to fill with sand and take across. Once the bags were half empty, big teams of super strong GoodGymers were dragging them over and tipping them in. It was a spectacle.

We finished up with a thank you from the team, and I was delighted that they joined in with our workout - a GoodGym version of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.. which - you guessed it - included squats and lunges.

Mel, Ellie and Rob did an amazing job of repacking the hi-vis vests into size order and the heroic Ellie carried them back to base with the walkers.

I'm like hi-vis Santa! - Ellie B

After a team stretch out, some of us headed to the pub and Tim finally got to wear his cape with pride. There was some excellent posing with a pint and he shall run victoriously next week, with the cape blowing in the breeze. Don't miss out on that.. you can sign up here.

I leave you with a terrifying (but real) quote from our own GG Danger Man, Tim.

So, I think I'm probably fireproof too now, after all the spraying. Who's got a lighter?