36 GG Yorkies came to improve the wildflower meadow at Millennium Fields.

Tonight we all gave massive high fives to Laura, our very own taskforce legend who only joined GoodGym in April and has already completed an amazing 50 good deeds. If you haven't cheered her yet, make sure you do!

Laura also back-marked for us, swishing her cape as we ran along the river to Millennium Fields. Jonathan was in the far corner of the meadow sending morse code signals with his torch.

The task had three parts, all to do with connecting one end of the meadow to the other, and making the edge of the woodland a wildflower haven.

1. Digging an inch of turf up in a large patch, ready to plant seeds
2. Scarifying another large patch ready for seeding
3. Planting wildflowers along the border of the woodland

Digging is popular in winter so the 9 spades got snapped up super fast, followed by the rakes. Everybody else grabbed a trowel and started planting the wildflowers.

Is this definitely a plant?

I think I've just planted some mud

Some of the wildflowers did look a bit like Jonathan had filled a small plant pot with soil and some leaves, but he assured us there were teeny tiny roots in there with perennial plants that would flower next year.

People were planting one plant and then switching with a digger or a raker but the plants were planted so quickly that Jonathan had to come up with a new task which was basically digging a whole new patch, read for seeding... but using the trowels.

Just pretend your trowel is a spade - Jonathan

Then there was another bonus task which was digging up some tansy plants from down by the river bank to plant in our newly dug out area.

Whilst all this was happening, a few people were tool-less so we did a short pilot of the fitness session, and once all the tansy was planted, the whole group gathered for an extremely complex game of stuck in the mud (with plenty of real life mud).

This version involved rescuers who can only hop, baddies who can only lunge and people who are stuck having to squat continuously until they're rescued.

I can't squat anymore, someone save me!

After everyone eventually became stuck in the mud, we made our way back along the other side of the river, with an optional 1km time trial. Kudos to everyone who boshed it, and especially to Debs who managed to run a new mile PB!

Laura made a lot of really delicious apple cake to celebrate her 50th good deed, thanks Laura!

Til next week.

Another wet Monday night didn't stop 34 GG Yorkies from coming to do good!!

We gave some big cheers for everyone who raced at Kielder at the weekend and for Amy who boshed the Royal Parks Half.

Pete was awarded the Cape of Good Deeds as he completed his 50th good deed at Hartrigg Oaks last week. If you haven't gone and given him a massive cheer yet, make sure you do!

Brand new runner, Emily had never run in the rain before (a regular occurrence from our friends across the Atlantic) and wasn't sure of the protocol.

Do I wear a jacket?

We split into two teams with just over half going with Leanne for more tasks at The Malthouse and just under half coming on a longer run with me to the mystery location that is Heworth Without.

We go to Heworth Without twice a year to help maintain their wildflower meadow, and most people can never remember where it is or how to get there, hence 'mystery'.

As usual, it was extremely wet and there was even an unavoidable bonus puddle on the way in.

I'd only just dried out these shoes from last weekend - fell running squad Lucy

Task owner, Roger, was very well prepared with a rake for everyone and a load of tarps laid out for us. Our task was to rake all the cut grass off the wildflower meadow, load it onto tarps and drag it across to the woodland on the other side of the field.

Lizzie was trialling an innovative approach to winter tasks by strapping a portable floodlight to her chest whilst Emily was just doing her best to rake near anyone with a headtorch.

We finished dragging the last tarp across the field and folded up the rest neatly, except Carl who obviously does not fold the bedsheets at home.

Leanne's Malthouse Report

19 of our finest good doers walked, ran and sprinted to the Souk just 500m away from our meeting point.

On arrival, task owner Emily and a puppy greeted us with a variety of tasks. Two teams set to work on separate painting tasks, while others challenged their spacial awareness by manoeuvring large pieces of furniture up the stairs, around corners into the upstairs room.

Four brave souls volunteered to go out into the rain to move some empty barrels and generally tidy around. That left Ian, who was in charge of ripping up old bed sheets to make rag bunting. He was soon joined by a team who added the torn up pieces to the existing bunting (and to their heads).

After 40 minutes, we ran out of tasks, so it was time to gather for a game of 'I went to GoodGym' -a workout for both our bodies and our minds (based on the shopping list game). I started the game off by saying

I went to GoodGym and everyone did one squat

The next person added an extra exercise and an extra rep "I went to GoodGym and everyone did one squat and two burpees" (thanks Paul A)

The final list of exercises were:

1 squat 2 burpees 3 star jumps 🌟 4 walls painted 5 second lunge on right leg 6 seconds of your very best dance moves 7 second lunge on left leg 8 bum shuffles 9 high knees 10 jumps 11 spotty dogs 12 high kicks 13 heel flicks 14 heel taps 15 second superhero pose 16 high fives

Fitness done, we went back out into the rain for the short run back and cool down.

36 GG Yorkies ran to two big tasks where everyone had to dig and shovel a LOT.

This is probably the last time we can claim Amazing Aron as an official GG Yorkie, before he goes off to launch the biggest GoodGym EVER in Leeds. He'll always be an original though and a GG Yorkie at heart, I'm sure!

Aron was the boss tonight and kicked us off with a warm up before we split into two groups. Tremendous Tim led out the long run crew to Foxwood whilst Aron headed up the Rowntree Park team.

At Rowntree Park, our task was to top up the many play areas with fresh bark. The bark had been dumped in the car park in one enormous pile that covered four parking spaces.

As well as shoveling and wheelbarrowing bark, others were on hardcore forking duty, breaking up the compacted surface under the play equipment.

Top up everywhere where a child is likely to fall

I mean, those kids are pretty rogue, so we went with a very wide perimeter around each bit of play equipment.

The wheelbarrows were being filled in double quick time with everyone was switching between forking, raking, shoveling and wheelbarrowing to keep their muscles fresh.

Aron gave us a 5 minute countdown and it was impossible to clear all the bark so we were set the challenge of having only one parking space-worth of bark remaining. Easy!

With our task finished, we ran down to complete Aron's fitness challenge which was a team planking relay race with added burpees (man after my own heart).

Over in Foxwood, Tim led a surprisingly large group for the '7km' (definitely 8km - Tim) round trip to the community centre, where the task was to dig up some patches for planting wildflowers.

Tim's Report

After a long slog over the formidable Hob Moor, we found task owner Neil ready and raring to go. He led us to the far corner to a wonderfully pre-marked area for us to turn over the soil and make it ready for seed sowing.

We surprised him with our speedy and dutiful work and quickly had Herbie, Georgie and Amy pigeon/penguin footing the seeds into the freshly turned over soil.

The rest of the group furiously wrestled over the last tiny patch of soil, desperate to get involved.

%#€$ €#%*, it's raining

Max didn't take well to the light drizzle that hit mid-task.

They say %#€$ in the first Harry Potter book so it must be fine for the run report! - Also Max

As the space ran out, Amy took to regaling Ed with her penguin song which we very much look forward to at a future warm-up!!!

On the way back we executed an amazingly ordered Indian File. Expertly dodging cyclists, cows and renegade run leaders who step out into the sprinting lane! (Sorry Nicky!)

Til next week, be a good'un (and good luck for Leeds, Aron!)

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!

On a beautiful sunny evening, 36 runners ran to complete two tasks in York

FOUR new runners joined us; so let's give some big cheers to Herbie, Gareth, Nic and Marianne. The new runners turned up tonight to some crazy shenanigans as I'd forgotten the absolutely vital bluetooth speaker for our musical fitness session, but Mel and Ed created a makeshift speaker with two phones and a tupperware so there was a lot of AC/DC testing happening.

Whilst you're cheering, make sure you also give some massive cheers to Nikki, who ran her 100th good deed tonight and got to wear the Centurion Cape - an amazing achievement, welcome to the 100 club Nikki.

We were joined tonight by original GG Yorkie Amazing Aron, who is also the Trainer for GoodGym Leeds (due to start soon). Aron led out our subgroup on a mission to deliver postcards to specific addresses in the Walmgate area advertising the upcoming York Walls Festival.

The rest of us ran to Glen Gardens, where our main task was to move three cubic tonnes of bark across the park and into the play area. That took all of about nine minutes so Karen and Adi, two of the Friends of Glen Gardens, gave us a big list of other jobs.

One of the tasks was to attempt the clear the very overgrown and very spiky weeds which were growing between the park fence and the basketball court, the gap between the two fences was about 40cm so we ended up having a daisy chain of weed passing.

There was also moss and leaf mulch to scrape off the edges of the paths and whilst we had hoes, spades and shovels a-plenty, there was only one broom which was in extremely high demand.

Aron's team turned up and helped Karen get out a load more tools before a ten minute push to clear weeds from one of the flower beds and there was one final task to take all the full bags of weeds, moss and spiky fence plants right down the other end of the park.

Thunderstruck

The first part of our musical fitness session involved running about, high fives, squat jumps and burpees. The makeshift speaker didn't quite offer enough volume so unless people knew the song pretty well, they just had to rely on me shouting occasional words and trusting that I was making them do the right amount of squat jumps and burpees.

This is the Egg remix. There shouldn't be a burpee here!

The second part of our musical fitness session was a Pitch Perfect inspired press-up and sit-up session. Ed modestly proclaimed that him and Rich were "incredible" at both whilst Nick was a bit more realistic.

I basically just rolled around for a few minutes

After a stretch out, and once we were safely hydrated in the pub, Nikki brought out her celebratory 100th good deed 'cowpat cake', which although wasn't entirely visually pleasing, was unquestionably delicious.