21 fabulous runners braved the cold to run 3 km to help The Friends Of Brandon Hill tidy up an area following a fallen tree

Firstly, for the run pun, work with Ritchie Valens's "La Bamba"!

Boy it was cold out there today! One of those days when you might be excused for staying in bed or opting for a bit of sofa time! So how come we recorded one of our best turnouts for a GoodGym Bristol Saturday run?

Maybe it was a sense of adventure at the sight of a sprinkling of snow outside? Perhaps it was the knowledge that today's run was a short one to one of the most beautiful areas in central Bristol? Or was it just another great opportunity to get out and do some good with like-minded people in the local community? For sure, the postponement of the planned cycle ride to Oxford saw some opt for a Plan B on the hill, but whatever the reason it was simply brilliant see so many of you getting fit by doing good this morning.

Today's task was arranged and superbly organised by fellow GoodGymmer, Fraser, who, on our arrival at Brandon Hill led us up the climb to the equipment shed area to outline today's task. Next to the shed was a large area covered by leaves, twigs, branches and sections of tree trunk and our job was to move this to a storage area around 30 yards away.

Given our large number and the potential hazard of crashing into each other with arms laden with bits of tree, thorns and another GoodGym favourite, brambles, Fraser had cunningly planned a course that involved carrying bits of the tree to the storage area, carefully filling from back to front and then running around the other side of the equipment shed back to the start.

Not only did this provide a good exercise session, it had the added benefit of keeping everyone warm during the task.

The pile that we had to move was huge, just as well we had a shorter run to allow sufficient time to get the job done! As the larger branches were transported, the lower, heavier layer of mulch beneath revealed itself, so out came the forks, rakes and garden sacks to continue the clearance. With Gary organising the pile in the storage area and getting absolutely filthy in the process, and some classy chain forking going on back at the tidy up area, we were moving like a finely tuned machine.

However, it was one of those tasks that just kept giving and there were doubts that we would get the job done in time, but with time running out, Fraser's announcement of "5 minutes of humphing left!" was met not only with a few raised eyebrows, smirks and titters (and in Deb's case, thoughts of Brad Pitt for the second time this week and in Paul's case "what are the other 4 minutes for?"), but with renewed vigour for the final, er....push!

By the time we had finished, the two areas were transformed - a tidy, clear area where the previously buried bushes could once again thrive and a tidy full storage area. Yes, we were a little cold, yes, we were very dirty, but man, we were happy!

A short descent back to base for stretches, warmth and food - great to see so many of you staying behind to eat and chat.

A big welcome to Mark who was joining us for the first time today - I think you were second filthiest today Mark, well done for getting stuck in and hope you enjoyed your first GoodGym experience.

Also, welcome back to Sally, Charlene and Cathy coming along for their second runs and also Richard G, back from a rather nasty shoulder injury.

And a big shout out to Charlene, who not only came up with her first pun for today's run (and for giving me the opportunity to work "Falafel" into it!) was also brave enough to sing it to us - well done Charlene and to everyone who came along today. I don't mind admitting that I was struggling this morning and you guys really lifted my mood today - but then you always do! Thank you for being awesome.

Till next time!

Dave

This Tuesday evening 24 mud larks ate up a 4 mile round trip to right beneath Clifton Suspension Bridge to litter pick the rather messy Portway, once again in time for a big Bristol race to pass by on Sunday.

Rolling deep

Rolling deep as a twenty-odd force to be reckoned with, we followed a brief warm up and introductions with the customary split into fast and sexy groups led by Gary and Dave respectively, for the 1.7m (2.7km) run out to meet our litter-guru from Surfers Against Sewage. Sadly, he was unable to join us at the last minute but we're not to be so easily thwarted so after a brief health and safety top-up (don’t fall in) we got stuck in to filling our sacks with what turned out to be an abundance of river detritus left behind in the wake of recent high-tides.

The difference was remarkable!

30 minutes later the difference was remarkable and we scrambled back roadside for a quick snapshot before splitting again into two groups for the fast 2.1m (3.4km) and the sexy 1.7m (2.7km) return journeys. Gary took the slightly faster group on a scenic route south of the river and through the boat yard, perfectly paced to meet the sexy group back at Queens Square within seconds of one another.

Many of the group, myself included, are running Bristol Half on Saturday so the group were spared a leg-blasting set of drills and instead let off early to enjoy cake back at Vivo, and what a spread there was! Half centurion, Alice dazzled us with her home made peanut butter cups while birthday boy, Dave upped the anti with his double whammy of chocolate thingies and flapjacks which were nowhere near as bad as he'd previously made out.

Well done everyone and special welcome to new comers Sabrina and Jen, (both with a GoodGym Hackney connection) and also to Joe - we hope to see you back again next week.

Good luck to everyone running on Sunday, see you there.

It was a golden delicious evening when 22 happy and smiley Goodgymers met at Vivo on the Welsh Back to run up to the Easton Community Allotment to help them out with various maintenance jobs. The allotment allows people who would not usually have access to a garden to come and help out, learn and enjoy the beautiful space that they have created.

The run was a bit longer than usual, 4.5k each way so 9k in total so after our usual introductions and all that jazz we split into two groups, Fast and Sexy. This was a suggestion from Kevin who had used the same system in London to great effect. The fast group would head off at a quicker pace and get started on the task earlier, and the Sexy Group, led by Dave (obviously!), went at a more casual pace causing everyone in Castle Park to swoon as they passed by.

When we arrived at Easton Community Allotment we were greeted by the wonderful Cristina. Our jobs for the evening included giving the apple trees a prune, collecting all of the fallen apples, trimming the grass by the ponds and transferring some compost/manure. Everyone set to work with great gusto and we smashed through all of the tasks in no time. Alice even found time to cuddle a nearby moggy, but as you can see by the picture Cristina is not too keen on that particular feline. After 30 minutes of graft the Sexy group set off with a 4 minute head start on the Fast group. There was talk that the gap was too large and that we would never catch the Sexy group, but that just spurred me on to pick up the pace for the return leg. I also knew a cheeky alternative route that missed out a time consuming crossing at some lights. So with some rocket powered legs and the aid of a zebra crossing the Fast caught the Sexy on the final straight and we all finished together.

After a good stretch out everyone was ready for a drink of water and a sit down. Thanks to everyone for coming along and ruddy well done for completing the 9k run and smashing the task, you guys kick ass and make it a really fun to lead these runs. It’s always brilliant to see new faces so welcome to Tim and glad you to see you again Frank.

Gary

21 lovely people met up at Vivo Gym for what they thought was going to be a longer run to do some gardening in south Bristol... due to a mix-up in scheduling, however, it was not to be. Luckily fate had it planned that we had another task up our sleeve; one that was indoors and local, which was lucky as it was looking a little wet outside!

We split in to two groups. Group 1 ran with Chris to Colston Tower to help with a big amount of shredding and folder sorting (we know how to get the exciting stuff here at GoodGym!). They were inside. They stayed dry...

Group 2 went with me to head to the Amphitheater until Fraser mentioned that it was full of tents. And then it started to rain. We managed to find a bit of dry space to run in that was right next door to a gym on the Harbourside - it was nice of us to give those people stuck inside on their treadmills something to look at, wasn't it!

Even though we were not going to be gardening, I'd brought my bag of gloves with me as I had a 'game' in mind which involved 2 teams, 2 piles of gloves and a lot of sprinting. I was hoping for more cheering, but it seemed that people were choosing to breathe instead!

After about 5 minutes of this the rain eased off and we ran back to Colston Tower to switch places. Group 1 warmed up a little, and I was going to change the game (aka drill) a little but it started to rain again, so we repeated the same drill that Group 2 did.

After a lot of running, glove snatching and sprinting, we met up back at Queens Square where we found Group 2 doing some jump squats and plyo lunges, courtesy of Kevin - clearly a man after my own heart! Group 1 joined in and then we had a good old stretch at the end.

Great team work gang!