An amazing crowd of 48 GG Yorkies descended upon the riverside cycle path!!

You just never know how many people are going to come to GoodGym, there's no rhyme or reason to it. Tonight, even with some of our most loyal regulars off on holidays, a huge team gathered for a massive task to cut back overgrowing vegetation on the cycle path between the Clifton Bridge and Rawcliffe.

We welcomed along a swathe of new runners, including Martyn who conscientiously turned up early only to find a small and hardy sub-team completing a hardcore HIIT workout.

Don't worry, this isn't normal!

There were several big achievements to announce tonight:

• Lindsay was running her 50th good deed and was presented with the Cape of Good Deeds
• John was running his 100th good deed and was presented with the Centurion Cape
• Laura was finally presented with the accolade of GG Yorkie of the Month for July (after Katie and Becky completed a secret craft mission last week to create a new frame after the last one went AWOL)

After a little warm up we all headed out en masse, over Scarborough Bridge and along the River Ouse. The shorter run group (distance 2.2km out) stopped at Clifton Bridge were we were met by Beki and her van of tools. Everyone debated whether to stop or whether to carry on along the cycle path to search for Jenny (estimated distance 3.5-3.8km).

The task tonight was to reclaim the cycle path by cutting back overhanging vegetation and getting the path back to it's full width, making life easier for everyone who uses it.

Tim led the longer group and was watching the distance closely as his team ran further and further into Clifton Ings, eagerly looking out for the mysterious Jenny and her wheelbarrow of tools. They mistook a fair few dog walkers and pedestrians for her, but finally after 4.5km of running (sorry for the understimation there!), she was spotted with her stash of loppers!

At first it seemed an insurmountable task at the Rawcliffe end but it turned out that Jenny had started the crew at the hardest bit. Laurence, Pete and Emily dutifully cleared the lopped branches from the path. whilst Ed did his best to fall down a hole whilst carrying a saw.

Add that one to the risk assessment!

Speaking of risk assessments, at my end Beki was asking if we could use powertools but why would anyone want to use a powertool when you could hack with your best muscles?!

The only tool we could allow was a leaf-blower, and everyone was extremely excited about it. Everyone except Caped John who has one at home. John was taking his 100th good deed very seriously indeed, firstly helping Beki get the van down safely onto the path, then taking charge of some complex sawing tasks for the thicker overhanging branches, but then he did end up leaf blowing (after a few others had taken their turn) and had definitely lied about being excited about it.

We all gathered back together along the river for some fitness action of partner exercises including:

• walk out plank high fives
• lean out squats
• sit-up high-tens

...and the finisher, a huge team plank and commando crawl race with the smallest and most agile members doing commando crawl duties. Mitch and Tom did win for their team but we're pretty sure (having reviewed the video footage) that their team had fewer members and therefore less distance to travel. Really everyone was a winner as nobody dropped their plank so there were no burpee forfeits to be had!

There was SO MUCH GOOD to report on this group run.. I know you all love a round number so check these ones out:

• Pete ran 50 miles on Saturday, just because
• Huw was awarded GG Yorkie of the Month for June because he did his 100th good deed AND ran 100 miles (in one go) and probably made 100 cakes too
• Paul Kelly ran his 100th good deed and got to wear the awesome Centurion Cape as well as pretending to be superman
• Legendary Leanne ran her 400th good deed and is officially the goodest person in the whole of the North

We welcomed along no less than 5 new runners and we split into two groups to tackle two tasks. It turns out there was a lot of animal-related activity at both tasks.

Leanne and Tim led a group to St Paul's allotment for a final massive weeding session. Poorly Paul turned up on his crutches and was in charge of photography. The team saw some frogs and found a truly enormous moth which attached itself to Mitch and has been (probably) identified as a Lady Moth.

The ladies do love Mitch

My team ran over to Hob Moor to extract more thistles from the cow field. On our way we saw two lovely puppies and once on the field, had several near misses - and one hit - with dog poo. Our goal was to fill two bags but since Aidan pulled up a thistle so large that it basically filled a whole bag, we finished on four bags.

The pun could be "Three Bags Full!" ..except, four

Paul Kelly in his cape led the run back across the Moor where some rogue dogs had frightened the cows so we slowed down to let the cows pass in front and avoid any trampling.

Use your cape! Be a matador!

Both teams completed a EMOTM workout (but we had a friendly dog who stopped Jeff from doing his star jumps) with several repeats of one minute on the clock to complete a series of exercises.

Then there was loads of cake, and everyone was super happy.

We kicked off Volunteer Week with a massive crew of 44 for an allotment transformation!

Joining us tonight were three brand new runners, so let's give some big Yorkie cheers to Becky, Nikki and Helen. We also celebrated Angela's Hull Half Marathon success and Ben's first 10k race at Mulgrave Castle (accompanied by Tim and myself).

GG Yorkie of the Month!

We also announced the May winner of GG Yorkie of the Month and the winner was.... Freya!! Freya has been coming regularly and completed her first mission in May as well as a community mission. She also boshed her 5k goal and ran her first ever 10 miles. All in all she had an epic month!

For the task we split into three groups, a walking team led by Ellie, the direct route running crew with me and Tim's extended run crew with a bonus hill rep of Windmill Rise. As we all know, Tim takes leading very seriously and tried to send Nick and Becky the wrong way because they dared to run ahead of him. Luckily they knew where the hill was anyway and his whole team made it safely to the allotment.

By the time they arrived, we'd already started a huge weeding party, clearing the very overgrown section at the end of the allotment as well as trying to clear the edges of the paths as quickly as possible ready for new bark to be spread.

Debs was organising the bark situation in the van. She'd carefully loaded the bags on yesterday's bark collection community mission and soon the bags of bark started to arrive on the trolley.

She's called Theresa the Tricky Trolley

Debs had become quite attached, apparently. Whilst the bark was shifted into wheelbarrows and wheeled around the raised beds, the quartet of Nick, Tristan, Michael and Craig were busy sorting out the compost bins and 'tidying' (read: re-laying) the paving slabs.

Down at the end of the allotment, three picnic benches had emerged from the undergrowth and we could now see a large area of actual ground. As the bags of bark were emptied, they were quickly refilled with green waste and suddenly the whole allotment looked amazing!

We sent Mitch, Debs and Charlotte off on a secret mission to return the trolley to its supermarket home and they made it back just in time to join our exciting cone-based fitness session.

It's not Cones of Joy, it's a lovely line of cones!

In teams of four, split into two pairs (less complex than it sounds) everyone took turns in completing shuttle runs through the allotment and a series of lower body strength exercises including squat variations, jumps, lunges, the wall sit and other absolute treats like the 'pretend ladder climb'.

I'm climbing slowly because I'm scared of heights - new Helen

With that, we all headed back to base and order was restored as Huw brought amazing homemade rhubarb scones which were very quickly scoffed.

There is LOADS coming up this week, so check out our full event listings and get involved.

Our lord admiral Egg has entrusted the mighty ship Gg York to Captain Tim. So after a controversial nautical warm-up. John doubted my seafaring knowledge and led a minor mutiny on the concept of starboard and port. One must confess i might have got that one wrong. But it speaks to Gg yorks shiptight crew that most followed my orders even in the face of mutiny!

Lieutenant (run leader) Paul led one crew to paint over the graffiti that had built up on a bridge over a cycle path. His crew included hardy newcomer Angela who had run a massive 3km to our meeting point already. Also the legendary first mate Emily has completed 50 good deeds with us now. So was sporting the magnificent cape of good deeds, a worthy reward for an epic achievement! Upon arrival they were told to paint over everything:

"What even the two headed llama?" - Emily 50 deeder extraordinaire!

First problem was to answer the question how many goodgymmers does it take to open a can of paint. The answer was many, plus Stef and his handy multiltool keyring!

Lietunant Nick and Captain Tim then led a group up to Greeenfields Nursery, where after negotiating complicated signal flags (traffic lights) where we made short work of a mound of wildflowers. Digging them out, carefully making sure we had as much of the roots as possible. Despite my doubts we had the trireme tricycle) full of wildflowers in double quick time.

"Look at Nick's perfect clump!" Leanne

Lieutenant Nick then stayed behind with a trusty crew to complete some very much needed tlc in the nursery. Digging up lots of dock leaf weeds that had spread. Once complete they ran on home, making a quick pitstop at haxby road park to complete some of Tim's silly circuits. Barb was less than impressed with bunny hop section afterwards apparently all the passer-bys were staring!

Captain Tim set off with a speedy crew following St.Nick' trireme (tricycle) down the cycle path. Luckily we timed it just right to free Maria from st nicks who was pedalling the trike from a few tight corners. Task owner Maria had definitely put the work in by the time we arrived. As had the speedy crew running 2.5km in under 14 minutes! As we set to work planting the wildflowers in their new home, we received reinforcements from lieutenant paul's crew. Who helped us finish with plenty of time for Tim's silly fitness game.

We split into two teams and played a quick game of rob the nest. Trying to collect as many balls as we could for our team. Even raiding the other team, Craig even opted to cheat by carrying more than one ball but still his team lost that round. Cheating doesn't pay when it comes to goodgym exercises! For the second round we did a burpie each time before picking up a ball, this time Craig's team won so he couldn't have been cheating (or perhaps he was just getting better at cheating!)

"It was the best game ever" Stef said at the end of the session. Definitely without sarcasm!

Then we all jogged home for a quick cool done. Well done everyone!!!

One final line for Jesse who has been an much-loved contributor on our groupruns for a year or so now. Unfortunately for us Jesse is starting his next big adventure in Canada next week, so this was his last session with us :( Make sure you all give him a big cheer as a thank you for his hardwork with us over the last year.

GG Yorkies split into four teams to complete different tasks around the city!

Well, I say GG Yorkies, we had one GG tourist join us tonight all the way from Hammersmith & Fulham so a big welcome to Catriona, and also a big welcome to new runner Amy, who joined us for her first ever GoodGym run this evening - make sure you go and give them both a cheer.

We also had some celebrating to do tonight because Splendid Stef was running his 50th good deed and got to wear the Cape of Good Deeds.

Happy to wear the uniform - Stef

Our original task had been cancelled so we'd found lots of smaller tasks to keep us busy.

• A 2km run/walk to Millthorpe School to clear their allotment plots (led by Leanne, backmarked by John)
• A 4km run to Get Cycling to clean their exhibition trailer (led by Mitch, backmarked by Ed)
• 2 x 10km(ish) mystery routes to scout walking route instructions for YUMI (led by Becky and Paul)

Paul led a brilliant team warm up whilst I led the walking group (Ellie B) to Millthorpe School. We also had Gareth from Streets Ahead magazine taking some photos for an article so it was all going on. Each group had a specific rendezvous point and our goal was to meet back at Scarcroft Green for a little team fitness sesh at the end.

At the allotment we had 40 minutes to clear 4 overgrown vegetable beds.

Only ten minutes per bed, easy!

The team purposely tried not to work too quickly for fear of extra fitness, but they were making quick work of de-weeding and digging over whilst Beth relentlessly used a giant shovel to 'rake' everything smooth.

Becky and Paul's tasks involved their team following a set of written instructions to check accuracy for a community walking trail project called Fishergate Footprints. They also need to mark on their maps the locations of any benches and sitting points. Running whilst reading isn't always the best option though and Becky (winner: Most Accident Prone GG Yorkie 2017) did manage to trip over a paving slab and cut her knee.

Sorry I bled on the map...

A quick plaster repair and they were back in. A bit less drama on Paul's team though apparently someone did get chased by a big dog.

It was like a scene from Hound of the Baskervilles

Over at Get Cycling, Mitch's team didn't waste any time. They were straight on it with soapy sponges, scrubbing the muck off the old exhibition trailer. Katie and Freya were very excited at the prospect of using a jet cleaner but since it had a big leak in the pipe it wasn't quite as exciting as anticipated.

The allotment team finished ahead of schedule so we headed to Scarcroft Green for a bonus extra bit of fitness with loads of lunges and the team tyre challenge. Everyone was very relieved to see the other three groups coming in bang on time to save them!

We completed a short but tough bit of exercise with teams doing exercises in zones:

• The squatting zone
• The tricep press zone
• The press-up zone
• The lunging zone
• The hang zone
• The bonus burpee zone

It's like GoodGym does Crystal Maze!

..and with that, we had just enough time to gather for a big group pic before heading back to base.