Last night had all the elements for a perfect group run: A seemingly impossible task, a huge turnout, loads of new faces, bags of teamwork, a proper physical workout, a bit of therapeutic stress relief, some silly quotes, great photos, a new tool to add to our collection and a pun inspired by High School Musical. What more could you possibly ask for?!

The night started with some big news. Joe was reaching his 10th good deed with us, and Rach had just smashed her 50th good deed over the weekend. Way to go guys! Nationally, we'd also just broken through our 8,000 good deed target, and Leeds was approaching 200! Incredible. It's amazing to see us sat in 11th place nationally for good deeds, especially as we're one of the newest areas. Give yourselves a big pat on the back, you deserve it!

We had seven new runners which is absolutely incredible! Give a big warm welcome (via cheers of course) to Ella, Dan, Cecilia, Daniel, Kate, Peter and Andreas.

We also welcomed Jenny to taskforce, taking us up to a massive 9 taskforcers already, and to celebrate she was backmarking our run down to Meanwood Farm along with Helen. Aron took the lead, and as Liz had already set off for the walk down, we were aiming to pick her up on the way down.

For a lot of the group, this wasn't their first trip to Meanwood Farm, so they knew the drill. We arrived at the Farm to find Ben, the task owner, ready and waiting for us with around 10 wheelbarrows. As a group we headed over to inspect our trench that we'd dug last week, and after a week away it made last week's achievement look even more epic.

Ben likes to give us a challenge though, and so he had an even bigger task for us this week. We had to:

• Fill the trench with rubble.
• Break up the larger bits of rubble so they would all pack down neatly.
• Fill in the gaps between the rubble with wood chip.
• Stamp it all down, and mix it around so there were no air pockets.
• Build a wall out of sandbags and gravel bags.
• Fill in the gap behind the wall with all of the soil we'd moved last week.

At this stage Trainer Aron was starting to look a little confused, because we definitely weren't planning to come back next week. Maybe we'd finally bitten off more than we could chew, but if this group is anything, it's ambitious, so the only thing for it was for us to crack on on with it!

We split into groups with half of the wheelbarrows heading for the woodchip pile and half heading for the rubble. Everyone got to grips with the challenges (including the perils of trying to direct your spouse as a GoodGym Trainer) and in no time at all everything started to move along smoothly. Barrows were filled, with rubble being tipped into place in the hole, where the Sledgehammer crew were goggled-up, ready and waiting. This was an exciting moment as it was our first taste of sledgehammer action. Immediately, Julie took on the role of resident expert, and promptly directed Katie on how to ensure maximum smash for your swing:

"I think you're hitting it in the wrong place!" You need to aim for that bit." Julie, giving a technical analysis of Katie's sledgehammering.

The sledgehammer really seemed to be a way for people to work out the stresses of their day, with some putting a bit more into it than others! After realising that the concrete blocks wouldn't be broken down any further, these were removed but the bricks and other rubble were bashed and smashed until they all sat together in a nice, relatively smooth layer. Julie later admitted the secret to her hammering technique:

"I was just imagining myself as Thor" Julie

Over at the woodchip pile, the barrows were also being filled and then transported across to the trench. The woodchip pile was a little further away which apparently just gave the group more time to get a bit giddy before they started working. It was only her second week, but it already feels like Naomi's run report worthy innuendo has been a part of the group forever. She didn't disappoint tonight:

"Fill me up George!" Naomi, requesting the filling of her wheelbarrow

We started to get some bottlenecks at this point as the woodchip was arriving faster than we could break up the rubble, but with a bit of shifting around of the group we soon got it under control again. Once we had enough rubble, and the woodchip had been thrown on the top, everyone needed to pitch in and shuffle the bricks around, stamp the woodchip down, and just generally wiggle and dance their way across the foundations to ensure there were no air gaps. We were now desperate for more woodchip wheelbarrows, and so loads of people were redistributed, and a steady stream of bobbing headtorches made their way to and from the woodchip pile.

With the woodchip and rubble mix now level with the original path, it was finally time to Build the Wall. We formed one massive chain of GoodGymers, passing bags along the line to put them in place. The bags were up to 30kgs so most people passed in pairs, but some were feeling super strong and passed the bags along by themselves. The bag shifting took super teamwork and reminded one particular runner of something:

"Have you ever seen the film 'Antz'? It feels like that" Carol (I think), although to be honest it could have been any one of the colony!

In no time the wall started to take shape, and Ben explained that we would lay the bags in brick fashion, with the second layer offset from the first, as this is what would give the wall it's strength. In just a few minutes, we'd built the wall four bags high, and around 10 metres long! While everyone collected the tools, a few people speedily shifted the soil back into the gap behind our wall and the job was complete! Absolutely outstanding work everyone.

With the satisfaction of another task well done, we returned all of the tools, took a quick snap and made our way back to base for a stretch.

I would normally conclude by letting you all know how amazing you are, what a great thing we achieved, and how I can't wait to do it all again next week, but in honour of our report title, I thought I should I should let the immortal genius of Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and co do it for me. Enjoy!

GoodGym Leeds is back! After a short break that felt like absolutely ages (I missed you guys!) we're back to doing good and having a great time while we're at it.

It was a great crowd tonight for our first run of 2020, with 32 runners! We also welcomed a HUGE 7 newbies which was amazing. Sam, David, Rob, Romina, Shannen, Victoria and Karl all got stuck in and did a great job, so they definitely deserve a massive cheer!

There was loads of news to share tonight, with Jenny and Liz reaching their tenth good deeds! Well done guys! We also welcomed Helen to taskforce after she joined over the Christmas break. Taskforce is now a super strong group of six and they can help out with all sorts to make GoodGym in Leeds even better. As always, if you have any ideas for how we could be doing things better, feel free to drop me an email.

Tonight's task was to head back to the fabulous Unit 11 for Kirkstall Valley Development Trust. We had a quick warm up before heading down the hill. Heather and Katie were marshalling the back to make sure nobody was left behind.

On the run down it was lovely to be back amongst happy smiling faces, and it was even better to see all the new runners getting involved and chatting. One new runner was a little concerned about our route:

"I live in Kirkstall so the run down is fine, but I know that it means we're going to have to come back up again on the way back!" New runner Romina

After a bit of looping around to keep the group together, and some terrible traffic light decisions, we eventually reached Unit 11, where Adele was waiting for us with our task. We had to fill some small holes in the walls where they weren't too big, then one wall was being painted white (leaving the fabulous painted map well alone), while another wall was to be painted a lovely green. There were also some baubles left up from the Christmas decorations which needed to be brought down.

We quickly realised there weren't quite enough rollers and paintbrushes to keep everyone busy, so we split the group into two, and decided that one group would do a fitness session while the others painted, before swapping over halfway through. While the painters got on with their tasks I took the group through a tough but simple routine to work on their strength, balance and flexibility.

• Calf raises
• Single leg hops
• Knee raises
• Single leg touch, hop, reverse lunge, hop
• Jumping Squats
• Meet and retreat run

While the meet and retreat might need a little work (or a better explanation from me!) everyone got stuck in and there were a few complaints of tired legs on the way back so you were definitely working hard!

By the time both groups had done their fitness session, the work inside was done! The walls had been painted, , the edges tidied up, and the baubles all gone. The watching crowd were suitably impressed:

"We've just been sat here watching how amazing you all are!" Adele, task owner.

Our painting and fitness session also attracted the attention of a new recruit who signed up on the spot, so hopefully we'll see her next week!

We set out on the run back with a slight burn in our legs for some of us, but that didn't stop the speedy group, led by Tom, from powering up the hill. Everyone else went at their own pace, with Carol sweeping up the rear, before we all reconvened for a stretch back at base.

Thanks for making our return in 2020 so fabulous, you've all been great! I'd also like to say a special thanks to our Taskforce who are really stepping up to help with the running of the group, it makes my job so much easier!

See you all next week!