Rake It Or Leaf It

19 stars braved the cold on Saturday to run 4 km to clear leaves at a primary school in Windmill Hill

Well these Saturdays are becoming a bit of a good thing, aren't they? On the morning of the run we had around a dozen people signed up and heading into town in sub-zero conditions, I was hopeful that we might get somewhere close to 10 people turning up - but by the time we were ready to set off we had grown to 16, with another 3 due to meet us at today's task!

With comments ranging from "it's a bit chilly" to "it's sooooo cold out there!", it really should have come as no surprise that Chris (who is quickly taking over Deb's mantle of GoodGym Bristol ambassador) still managed to come along in T-shirt and shorts, whereas the rest of us were all wrapped up in our warmest gear!

It was great to see Charlene and Will joining us for their first GoodGym run (hope you enjoyed it both) and that Maddy, Julia and Anthony had not been put off by last week's very muddy affair and had returned this week for more!

After a quick briefing accompanied by jogging on the spot, we headed to St Mary Redcliffe Primary School, on the edge of Victoria Park in Windmill Hill where we were met, not only by Gary, Nick and Fiona, but also by our wonderful host, Simone, who explained today's task to us. Each spring the school plant flower beds along the bank at the front of the school and with the bank being covered in leaves, our job was to clear these using an array of tools, including rakes, paddles and bags.

Given the cold conditions, everyone was very keen to keep moving and quickly set about clearing up the leaves and in no time at all the bags were full - the only problem being there were still lots more leaves to clear, so we had to find a suitable place to dump our collection so that we could refill more bags.

It was also evident that the bags weren't particularly strong, so any stray twigs tended to split them, or if they were thrown to the ground, rather than placed, they had a tendency to pop and burst open (Chris!!) - almost leading to a "Breaking Bag" pun!

Having cleared the leaves, some of the group set about weeding the bank, but without suitable tools to do so, we agreed that this was perhaps best left for another day and with several members trying to find the small sunny spots on the roadside in an effort to keep warm with the task completed we decided to warm back up with a run back to base, but not before Gary had handed out Red Laces to those bringing along friends to GoodGym - our first recipients of these prestigious awards were Julia, Nick and Alice!

Arriving back at Roll For The Soul, we had stretches and announcements - for Tuesday's run to Portland Square and next Saturday's run to the Northern Slopes - and then into the cafe for some well earned refreshment. The discovery by Alice that you can mix and match your wrap was indeed a revelation - we even renamed my wrap a Falafelloumi in celebration!

Thank you all for braving the cold today - it warms the heart, it really does, to run with such amazing, dedicated and lovely people. Thanks to Mel and Chris too for back marking and helping to get everyone there and back safely.

Until next time! Falafeleaf!

Dave