A hearty bunch of 27 runners came out tonight to help East Bristol Food Bank to complete their annual stock take.

The weather was warm, just like our hearts (I'll stop the valentines puns there before it gets mushier than a tin of peas). One of our largest groups of the year assembled at Vivo ready to run 1.5 miles each way to St Philips, including a few new faces. Welcome Harriet, Sarah and Tom.

We were met by Andy at the storage depot where the East Bristol Food Bank keep there stock. The Food Bank help to provide those in need with the basics we all take for for granted. Supermarkets donate to them and they then distribute the food out as best they can. As part of this operation they are required to provide an annual stock take of there current supplies. Andy explained that our plan for the evening was to weigh every last grain of rice that they had. This was to be no mean feat. There were two large rooms stacked to the ceiling with crates of food and one of those rooms was at the other end of the building.

In the ever smiling and industrious spirit of GoodGym we jumped right in and were soon an organised machine of crate weighing and sorting. One group took control of the distant cupboard, another crating up stock from shelves and the rest were lifting and shifting. It was a thing of beauty. You might say it was all down to our can do attitude.

There was no denying that this task was a tough one, there was a mountain of food so high that Hannibal would have struggled to conquer it on a mammoth let alone an elephant., and even then the mammoth would've eaten all the food so it would have been a bit of a waste of time, but I digress...

With time ticking away it seemed we might not get finished. One group of runners left early with Chris as the rest of us finished up. With only seconds left on the clock everything was in its right place having been weighed and arranged. Andy was happy and we all jumped back in the lift and hit the road. We danced through the streets happier than a pig that has just earnt his pilot license wearing his favourite trilby hat on his way to visit his best girl for an evening of rolling around in poop. We completed various drills as we went including carioca skips, high knees, press ups and squats, before reaching Queen Square and stretching out.

Thanks to Emma for the valentines treats and the pun tonight, hope you don't mind my slight adjustment. Big love to everyone who came along it was an epic task and you have all bean cereal-ously crate! It pasta be one of the jammiest finishes but we got it in the can!

Gary

Oh what a night. Mid January back in '17. 24 runners came out looking keen. And cleaned up Spring Hill, what a night!

Tonight's task was to meet with Incredible Edible Bristol and help them to tidy up one of there 'unofficial' plots. This plot had been looked after previously by a caring local, who sadly passed away. But it appears that in her honour a bunch of guerrilla gardeners have been doing a great job to keep her memory alive. Saying that the area still gets used as a dumping ground and the large trees around had covered the ground in a megaton of leaves. This all had to go before a memorial could be held to remember the lovely lady who made it what it is today.

It was a relatively short run from Vivo to the Bearpit where we met Hannah from Incredible Edible. She gave us a warm welcome and introduced us to our tools for the evening. Forks, spades, trowels and a wheelbarrow especially for Paul(like anyone else had a chance to use it!) We loaded up and walked up the hill to the area to be cleared (some of us running a bit too far up as we just could let a hill go half completed). As ever, everyone was keener than 2 year old Labrador covered in mustard waiting to go for a walk in the lake district to get started. There was raking, digging, litter picking and all sorts of topiary going on. The megaton of leaves became a mega pile, which we bagged up as much as possible with Emma utilising the limited amount of bags we had to great effect. A forward party even ran back down the hill with bags of leaves, dropped them in the mulch pile in the Bearpit and brought the reusable bags back up to take more leaves down. Goota love the iniciative to get the job done.
After we had cleared and cleaned as much as we could we dropped the tools back at the Bearpit, waved goodbye to Hannah and ran back to Queen Square for some tricep dips, press-ups and a warm down.

Big congratulations to Alex on her 50th deed today! You may have only joined us recently from Bath but we already feel like you've been part of the gang for ages.

This Saturday's run is to St Mary Redcliff Primary in Victoria Park to help the clean up more leaves! And next Tuesday we are going to Portland Square to prepare the beds for some spring planting.

Thanks to everyone who came tonight, and to Alice for the pun. You guys are the greatest.

See you soon,

Gary