This was our first ever leafleting task, which meant lots of extra logistics and guesstimating runners' speed and posting efficiency, but thankfully it all seemed to work out OK in the end.

Before setting off tonight, there was loads to celebrate. The January challenge was over and an incredible 70 Leeds GoodGymers combined to complete a whopping 194 good deeds, which is absolutely amazing. This placed us 13th overall in the GoodGym area league table, which is incredible considering we've only been going for just over 4 months.

Riobhne reached her 10th Good Deed (and was nonchalant as ever about it). Great work Riobhne! We also welcomed Rachel to a group run for the first time since she hit 50 Good Deeds, which meant the grand unveiling of GoodGym Leeds' very own Cape of Good Deeds. In a tradition started by GoodGym York, we like to celebrate our runners amazing achievements by making them look like the superheroes they are for one night only. Our very own cape comes complete with sparkles and superhero mask. You wore it well Rachel!

It was also great to welcome one brand new runner to the group tonight, everyone go and give Emily a cheer!

With all of the celebrating out of the way, it was time to get on with the tricky business of delivering leaflets! We had already split into four groups, with each crew aiming for a slightly different area. Rachel and Liz's group were staying close to Hyde Park, Adam was taking his crew to Headingley, Katie and Heather's team were heading for the bottom end of meanwood, while Aron's gang was pushing on to the centre of meanwood.

The leaflets were all about raising awareness of some of the fundraising events that St. Gemma's Hospice put on during the year. St. Gemma's is the argest Hospice in Yorkshire, and one of the largest in the country, and earlier in the week, Pete from St. Gemma's had explained why the events are so important.

"St Gemma's needs over £10m each year to cover our costs, and about £6m of that needs to come from fundraising." Pete, task owner, St. Gemma's Hospice.

With the leaflets distributed, and the warnings to look out for dogs ringing in everyone's ears, we were off! A few runners looked slightly strange carrying their trusty wooden spoons almost like relay batons, but they were clearly in the know, as this would hopefully help them to avoid any nasty scrapes or cuts in letterboxes. The routes had been planned so that 3 off the groups would actually set off in the same direction before splitting up later on. The run took us down the super-steep North Grange Mount, which is definitely on the cards for hill reps once we get to summer!

By now, we'd all separated out into our individual groups, and found our way to our first delivery points. The highlights of the evening included:

• George getting so excited about delivering leaflets that he gave himself a nosebleed.
• Riobhne getting so excited about delivering leaflets that she ran into a tree.
• Rob finding a stack of leaflets after we thought we'd finished, and then getting excited because it meant we could deliver more leaflets.

From the sounds of things each of the groups found their own rhythms and techniques, with some choosing the leapfrog method, while others chose to take opposite sides of the street for a more pure experience of solo delivery. Some runners were discovering the perils of the impossible to find letterboxes (obviously they receive their mail by carrier pigeon, or Harry Potter-style with owls dropping them at the breakfast table), while other runners were just appreciating the beautiful houses and gardens.

"I liken the lichen" new runner Emily getting into the swing of things with puns on the run.

As well as delivering leaflets for St. Gemma's we had a few posters to deliver for the Children's Heart Surgery Fund, advertising their Wear Red Day. On the way back from our various routes, we stopped in the various pubs, cafes and shops to ask them to display a poster, with Rachel's superhero cape proving a real crowd pleaser!

With well over 1,000 leaflets delivered, we all returned to base for a bit of a debrief. It sounds like everyone enjoyed it, although some came away with mixed feelings.

"It just felt like we were robbers the way we were running away from the houses in the dark!" Katie.

With that we finished off with a stretch before heading to the pub to swap stories and celebrate our many accomplishments.

The Strava Flyby of the route is really fun, you can see everyone heading off in completely different directions and speeding up and slowing down as we stopped at each house to post. You should definitely check it out!

It feels good to be back in the swing of things, with an amazing 23 runners braving the cold and windy conditions to join our run to help out Growing Better.

We welcomed Callum on his first ever group run, so he definitely deserves a massive cheer. Monika and George were completing their 10th Good Deeds so they deserve a big cheer too! We also celebrated reaching 150 members which is unbelievable in such a short space of time! That's a whole lot of people ready to get out there and do good in Leeds!

We warmed up with a quick round of 'Aron says' before heading out on the run. Liz took up backmarking duties, with Katie leading the way, and Aron and Adam looking after the middle of the group.

After enjoying our first ever dry run to Growing Better, we got straight on with the tasks at hand. They were:

• Sawing some pallets in half to create a barrier around the allotment
• Digging a trench and fixing pallets into position
• Planting saplings on the bank

Everyone grabbed their tools, and while the sawing crew got on with cutting up pallets, everyone else made their way across the soggy field, which luckily didn't claim any fallers this time! Aron was busy showing off the new lights which hopefully you all agree make a massive difference.

We had a super friendly little helper tonight by the name of Flavia who helped point the floodlight where it was needed, and handed out saplings.

" She really wanted to see you guys in action, she didn't believe it was true!" Dorota, task owner

Some of the group were having trouble working out exactly what we needed to do, and there was some discussion about how carefully the saplings needed to be planted:

"Do we put them in perpendicular to the bank or do they need to be upright?" " I think the trees just work it out for themselves..."

I guess we'll have to wait and see if the trees do indeed work it out for themselves, but it's really great to be planting a whole load of new trees, even if it felt like we barely made a dent in their stock of over a thousand! The trees should really help to take up some of the water from the area, which in time will make the field less boggy, and help the allotment too.

Over at the allotment, the gang were discovering that all that digging and fixing the pallets into place can be pretty hard work!

"This is like a proper core workout!" Julie, Leeds GoodGymer

We've had several attempts at fencing off the allotment, and each time we go back it's amazing to see that it's all still in place, and looking pretty secure! Even this awful weather we've been having hasn't made a dent in the fencing. Dorota is convinced this is going to be really important for helping to keep the weeds out of the allotment, and to stop brambles from encroaching on the space.

With a big pile of pallets cut in half and moved, some more fencing fixed in place, and a huge number of tree planted, our time was up, and we made our way back up the hill, and finished back at the Book Club with a quick stretch.

You'll all be happy to know that we're not heading down to Kirkstall next week, which means we don't have to run back up THAT big hill. Unfortunately this is Leeds, so heading the other way means we will have another big hill to contend with! It's all part of learning to love the hills!

Thanks again for another wonderful evening, you're all great. See you at parkrun for volunteering on Saturday, if not see you next week!

What a fabulous way to round off the year and indeed the decade! As this was our last GoodGym run before a two week Christmas break, it took on a distinctly festive feel, with fancy dress galore, and a Christmassy task to go with it. There were Christmas jumpers, hats, lights, full christmassy lycra, antlers, and even a (sort of) flashing red nose!

We welcomed Treasa to her first ever group run, and Caroline joined our growing list of task owners who've come down and got involved in the running side of things as well.

We also welcomed a lovely GG York contingent, with Egg and Lizzie making a long-awaited return, and Leanne making it two weeks in a row! This also marked Leanne's 499th Good deed, which is absolutely incredible. Get ready to give her a massive cheer when she logs a coach run on Friday!

We warmed up with a quick game of 'Who (or what) am I?' which basically involved running round and then finding out what Christmas item had been stuck to your back by asking questions - while doing star jumps of course! With everyone suitably warmed up, and talking about their favourite ever Christmas present, we were on our way.

Carol had already set off with the run/walk group, so with Rach looking after the backmarking, we set about trying to catch them up. It was a slightly soggy run down, but spirits were high and there seemed to be even more happy conversation than usual. Caroline was mightily impressed and we hadn't even done anything yet!

"It's just such a lovely group!" Caroline, Task owner, TCV Hollybush

We arrived to find everything perfectly laid out for us, and after a bit of history about the organisation and the building (they've been doing conservation projects here fro over 40 years!) we were given our tasks.

• Heading into the barn to hang some paper chains and other decorations
• Sorting gifts into hamper items and pass the parcel, and then wrapping the parcels
• Chopping vegetables for a stew

The group quickly split up, and before we could even say go, the choppers had their hands washed and were grabbing the bags of veg. As always it was a flurry of activity, but this time with added Christmas tunes courtesy of Riobhne.

Over at the pass the parcel end of the table, the gang were sorting through some questionable items, and working out what would be go best in the hamper and what should be wrapped up. There was a vicious rumour that pass the parcel had to be explained to one of our GoodGymers, but further investigation proved inconclusive.

Over in the freezing cold barn, the team were tackling what appeared to be the worlds longest paper chains, made exclusively from old editions of gardeners world. Apparently some of the volunteers were unwilling to cut through Monty Don's face when preparing the paper chains, which sparked a whole conversation about gardening celebs - (at least everyone seems to know Alan Titchmarsh even if they're not all aware of Monty Don!)

Rach was getting really into the decorating, first getting herself wrapped up in paperchains, before literally grabbing whatever she could find and trying to hang it around the room:

"I'm just going to stick it in there!" Rach aggressively decorating with any random Christmas items

With loads of paper chains hung and the decorations running out of hooks, Freya from TCV found some additional hooks and wire for us to hang the remaining items. Anne quickly found out that her family's name for wire twist ties was not widely used:

"We just call them wire wiggles in our house" Anne

With a whopping 5 tubs of vegetables chopped, 3 hampers lovingly prepared and two parcels wrapped (I think there could have been a song in there somewhere) we were almost ready to go. There was just time for us to all congregate in the barn for a photo, with the Christmas excitement leading to an outbreak of silliness, with everyone keen to make sure the GoodGym t-shirts were on show for the photos.

"Get your double G's out!", pretty much everyone finding that the Christmas excitement was too much to handle!

We started out for home, with Tom taking the lead for a faster group, Egged on by the GG York trainer. The lead group flew up the hill, and were soon well out of sight, but the rest of us were just happy to 'forget' to press the button at the road junctions for a bit of an extra rest.

We all had a quick stretch before heading into the Book Club for a well deserved mince pie!

Thanks everyone for an absolutely fantastic start to GoodGym in Leeds, and here's to making it even better in 2020!! Have a great Christmas and New Year, and I'll see you all in January.