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

Today we started by celebrating some amazing milestones- Leanne doing 1200 good deeds, Amy doing 300 and Neil 50! They all wore their capes with pride!

We also congratulated David on running an amazing 50km ultra on Saturday (and still able to run tonight), and the many runners who did the Helmsley 10k. We also marveled at Rich cycling back from the lakes!

After naming and numbering off, and saying what we'd do to help the planet in honour of earth day tomorrow, we set off to the cemetery.

We were met by Clive and set to task clearing an area of brambles to make way for tree planting later in the year. After 45 mins of graft we'd made good progress and also uncovered some hidden graves.

To finish the session, the new discs of delight came out which involved doing lots of our favourite exercises. If your disc said hunt your team got to go hunting for eggs. Winners got a creme egg then we headed back to base. We promised Clive we'd be back soon to finish off so watch out for that task.

Tonight we returned to the cemetery for more bramble clearing.

We named and numbered off stating some pointless things we get asked to do at work as a nod to health and safety day. These included cleaning pigeon poo and management appreciation days! We also welcomed back Ellie and celebrated some excellent weekend running with Rich and Michal completing the 3 Peaks and Deb's parkrun PB.

We then set off with Lucy and Abigail back marking to meet Clive at the cemetery. After the midge swarm last time, Michael wore enough insect repellent to keep the entire group safe (and anyone else within a mile radius!). We therefore had a clear run of pruning, lopping and digging. Barbara got so excited she snapped a fork!

To finish off we did some fitness relays whilst practising our hammering, then headed back to base. We stretched off then some headed to the pub.

This week we started by presenting our GoodGymer of the month award marvelous Max, who has been active behind the scenes on the whatsapp community as well as being a more active and engaged taskforcer. Well done Max 🍾

We also awarded the Cape of Good Deeds to our fab co-area Activator Vicky, who was completing her 400th(!) Good Deed. Amazing effort. Give Max and Vicky a big cheer.

We then set off to York Cemetery with a nice run along the river, with some obligatory wall squats along the wall. Upon arrival we were greeted by superstar Clive who was well prepared for us as always. We soon got to work with loppers, rakes, spades and shears clearing an area that was previously part of a sensory garden but was in need a bit of TLC.

It took a little while for some of the GG crew to get to grips with the difference between a rose and a bramble, but we soon found our rhythm and started making some excellent progress in what seemed like a pretty straightforward task.

However things quickly took a turn for the worse when the midges decided they didn't like being disturbed and soon started feasting on any exposed GoodGym flesh that they could get their teeth (do they have teeth?) into.

With morale dipping and the midges biting, Ed put an early end to the task and started the fitness sesh - our GG York version of Paper, Rock, Scissors featuring Squats, Pencil jumps and Star Jumps. Fortunately everyone knows that Squats blunt star jumps, pencil jumps wraps squats, and star jumps cut pencil jumps, of course!

Nine fabulous GG Yorkies met the lovely Clive at York Cemetery this afternoon, some of whom were on mission #2, 3 or even 4 of the day! 💪 Clive was ready with his trolley full of tools and tonne bags and walked us round to the patch of brambles in question.

We set to work removing brambles, weeds and leaves and trimmed some of the trees as well. We soon filled a few of the bags and dragged them over to the compost heaps. The large twigs were put onto the wood heap to be turned into chippings later. After clearing a second section our hour was up and after a last trip to the compost and wood heaps, we gathered for our group photo just as it was starting to rain.

Several tasty bakes were shared before we went our separate ways for a well-earned rest!

🌸 York Cemetery is taking part in York Residents Festival 🌸 on Sunday 28 January between 10am and 3pm. There will be guided walks, the catacombs will be open and free refreshments ☕️ in the Harriet Centre. For everyone researching their own links to the Cemetery, the genealogy team will be doing grave searches of their huge database. You'll find them in the Chapel. You'll also be able to pick up and enjoy one of the many self-guided trails. Please note, dogs are not allowed in the Cemetery grounds, apart from assistance dogs.

☀️ We had a whopping 30 people at our group run this evening, on a gloriously light (and still sunny!) Monday evening.

👋 We were thrilled to welcome Rose for her first good deed, and Louisa for her first group run. We also had Rachel Maskill (MP for York Inner) along, which was great.

👻 We were heading to York Cemetery so waved off our walking group (led by Debs) then warmed up for running/cycling. We named and numbered off by recalling our favourite dead celebrity (in honour of our cemetery excursion). We discovered a lot of Bowie fans, along with other great and good, including Nelson Mandela and Casper the friendly ghost (hands up who’s ever put those two people in the same sentence before!)

🏃‍♀️🚲🚶‍♂️Ed led the running group to the cemetery while the rest of us cycled. We were met by the lovely Clive who was slightly surprised at our large number and tried to get a few more tools together.

4️⃣ We were given four jobs to tackle:

1) Digging and moving snowdrops to increase their spread around the cemetery for next year 🌼

2) Digging up brambles that we’d successfully cut back in January. (This required hunting down said remaining brambles, which was the first task!) 🪴

3) Lopping bank brambles in a particularly overgrown area 🌱

4) Digging and loading up bags of woodchip before dragging and distributing said bags 🌳

💪 Everyone tackled their jobs with aplomb and got a lot done. It was soon time to down and gather tools, take vegetation to the pile and head to the open area for fitness. In honour of our task location, we did a musical fitness session to the tune of Ghostbusters (thanks to Stef’s speakers). Many lunges and copious burpees later, with the backdrop of a very pretty sunset, we were Ghostbustered out and ready to head back to base.

🥳 We stretched off and said goodbye, lots of us heading to the pub for a drink and catch up.

👍 Thanks everyone, it was great to see you all. We’ve got other sessions coming up this week so you can find out more and sign up here.

🐣 I hope you have a great Easter weekend and see you for more of the same next Monday evening.