GoodGym: Your mission if you choose to accept it is to create a team of volunteers for the inaugral York Community Woodland parkun without letting everyone know that there is such a thing as the York Community Woodland parkun and definitely not letting anyone know when it is!

By means of a diversionary task for the York Knavesmire parkrun (a deception so good that Lucy actually did volunteer for the Knavesmire) and a WhatsApp group that started out life as the Secret Seven before becoming the Furtive Fourteen we gathered a band of the Trusted.

Despite keeping everything hush hush until 8pm on Friday nearly 350 folk turned up and the car park was soon full.

Team GG course checked, marshalled, car parked, funnel managed and barcode scanned and made sure the event was a cracker - a beautiful way to start the last day of the January challenge!

Oopsies, someone forgot to confirm the task with CYC Rachael, so there was no chicken wire and no Rachael (my bad). So after a quick phone call we had permission to weed the wildlife area instead. The gallant 5 weeded by hand in the drizzle and cold for half an hour, before calling it a day. Well every little helps! (I'll be sure not to have egg on my face next time!) Thanks team!

Various groups of GoodGymmers gathered at the National Trust’s Clumber Park for our afternoon task. We split into two groups - Team Greenhouse and Team Old Garage.

10 DIY eager beavers volunteered to build Billy bookcases (for the new secondhand bookshop), splitting into pairs to tackle this demanding job. The pressure was on, having been instructed to ensure they were safe for both the hordes of donated books and the masses of potential book-buyers. Tensions (and temperatures) rose in the garage and a certain David Barrett was heard to suppose that a certain Ed Woollard “would never speak to him again” after an instruction-reading incident…(NB These two characters were later seen in conversation in a small micro-brewery so I think that particular incident was resolved, phew.)

Meanwhile, the other half of Team Old Garage were set hard to work, tidying the outside area of what will soon be the main visitor welcome area. Standards were set high and the team were soon hard at work with the tools available, brushing, raking, grabbing and barrowing leaves. Michael L heard of an opportunity to go on a roof so immediately volunteered. A ladder was sought and health and safety instructions were given. Soon, the roof and floor were both looking lovely, although Tristan expressed strong reservations of the durability of our progress, suggesting that a single gust of wind might blow all our piled-up leaves back on to cleared area…Hopefully not though!

While Team Old Garage were hard at work, messages were received that Team Greenhouse were having a tea and cake break! Much disgruntlement followed and soon, various members were dispatched to the walled garden to source and bring back cake to the hardworking remaining team.

This gave us a chance to see what Team Greenhouse had been up to, namely digging, and lots of it. They’d been tasked with clearing a big bed in front of what was soon to become the new cycle hire place (having been moved out of the old garage). The before, during and after photos show the hard work that went in to clear a bed, with many roots being dug up, many of a significant size.

Soon, it was time to down tools and view the incredible sight of Clumber Park’s very own tool-washing machine. Vicky in particular was very excited! At a similar time, we also got a sneak peek in the (very well-stocked) wheelbarrow store (don’t tell Becca who was definitively told there was only one wheelbarrow for Team Old Garage’s use and did what must have been a record-number of trips with said single wheelbarrow, transporting all the leaves).

Next up, it was team photo time before we split into various groups to make our way back to the hostel (many of us via a micro-brewery and some “different” routes back!)

Thanks everyone!

*Joint collaboration credit to James T for the pun!