With the sun came the run, and so 25 fabulous people met up at Vivo Gym for a run back to St Pauls Community Allotments.

We had a little jog on the spot to warm up, did our introductions, and off we went! With the sun comes more people out and about on the streets of Bristol, and so we encountered a few noisy people who wanted to cheer us on our way.

We swiftly made it to the allotments where we met up with Pete who is the 'Empowerment Officer' - in other words, he's the guy who makes stuff happen! We helped him with this by grabbing loads of tools and clearing up a path all the way through the allotment area, including a vast amount of weeding, a great deal of bramble and bush chopping, and the removal of a large amount of junk that has accumulated over the years.

A handy skip just outside of the allotments was the destination for this junk; at some point one of the GoodGym gang must have come across the worst smell in the world and put it in to the skip. I can still smell it now. I'll still be able to smell it next week. But it's gone from the allotments, which is a GOOD thing indeed.

It was hard to tear ourselves away from the allotments as there was so much to do so we spent an extra 10 minutes or so there. Hopefully people who live in the houses that back on to the allotments will start to use them to grow their own fruit and veg, and our help has gone a long way to making that a possibility.

We ran back and didn't do the little 10 minute circuit that I'd lined up! What I shame, I hear you all say. Oh well, we can do it next week.

Well done gang, fabulous work!!!

We had the most magnificent run yesterday. No less than 43 people and 1 Radio 1 reporter met up at Vivo Gym to run over to Windmill Hill City Farm. Last week we had 40 people. Last night, 43. What next? How many more people can we get running?

It was a beautiful evening for a run, warm and dry, and we headed off in good time despite the mass of runners - having 2 sign in sheets really helped, plus Kim was on sign up wrangling duty so we set off on time to get to the farm. One hill and a bit of flat later, and we were there, with Jim from Radio 1 Newsbeat in tow - I was mightily impressed by his ability to run and interview people at the same time, serious fitness/journalism skills!

Once at the farm, it took a few moments to get the task in motion, so we all enjoyed some lunges and squats (isometric squats, if you fancy a long word to describe your squats!). I'm sure everyone was gutted when the tools turned up and everyone dived in to grab the sharpest loppers. Our task was to trim trees and hedges at the edge of the farm, as well as doing a massive litter pick - Kim grabbed some of the runners to pop over to a near by community patchwork garden to give it a little spring clean, given there were runners all over the place and we could spare a few.

As we chopped, lopped, barrowed and litter picked, Jim went around the gang, speaking to people about GoodGym - thank you so much to everyone who spoke with him (and no worries if you hid from him, we had loads of people who could chat!). Also we have been thanked by the members of the church group who meet opposite the hedge - a lady from the church came and asked me who we were, what we were doing and why, and she was ever so pleased to see the area cleaned up, plus a chap driving by asked if we needed anymore volunteers, and I could very honestly say 'thanks but no thanks!'.

With 43 people, I felt it was safe to let some of the gang have a quick look at the spring lambs that were the current attraction on the farm, but it was still a job to round everyone up for the group photo at the end.

Chris B led a faster group of runners off to do a couple of laps of Queens Square, whereas I led the regular group to do just the one (and provide cheering for the sprint at the end), then we finished in our usual corner of the square with a good stretch and an endless series of announcements, plus a strong rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for Chris L. Good luck wishes were given to all those heading off to Budapest at the weekend to join in with the massive GoodGym running team over there - although it seems that in Bristol we're a big running team anyway.

If you're a regular runner with GoodGym, then you may be sick of reading me write this: THANK YOU! If you're new, WELCOME and THANK YOU - I really am at a loss for words to describe how amazing I think you all are for coming along. Whilst I'm so proud we've had 43 runners, it's not about quantity of people, it's about quality, and you are all made of pure diamond.

First - massive props to Charlie for coming up with the name of the run tonight.

Second - massive apologies because it's wrong!!!

Here's what went down:

40 (not 39) amazing souls met up at Vivo gym to go for a lovely run to help clear some space at a garden which will become allotments for the community. I counted 39 but then someone else must have slipped in, or I just cannot count any higher than 39 because I've not needed to apart from once before.

Why so many people? Well we had absolutely perfect weather for running - a slight chill in the air to keep you from overheating, a beautiful clear sky with no hint of rain at all, the clocks have changed so we had daylight all the way through the run. All of these elements combined to make the ideal run, but for one slight fly in the ointment; our contact was not at the run location! EEK!

We were lucky that there was a gardener there, a chap called Ian but who I called Tim for over half an hour (sorry Ian). He sorted us out with tasks and tools, and we stuck in.

There was a lot to do so it was handy that we had so many people to chip in. There was a massive amount of ground to clear with only a few tools to do it with, so most people were on their hands and knees weeding away. We also had people taming blackberries, picking up the large amount of litter that was in the garden, and others were tidying up after the weeders. All in all, we got a heck of a lot done in a very short time.

After 30 minutes of intensive gardening, we ran away and headed to the Bear Pit where the massive running horde split in to two mini-hordes, or hordlets, if you will. One bunch did one legged lunges off the low wall, and the other ran up and around the Bear Pit (which is effectively the middle of a roundabout made presentable with the beginnings of a garden and various benches and stuff. There were no bears though). Then they switched, and repeated the drill, then all posed beautifully for a group photo, and we were almost done.

All that remained was to head back to Vivo and stretch, and of course give ourselves a hearty pat on the back for a job well done.

Will we get 40 people again? I really hope so, but perhaps later in the year when the weather is EVEN better, we could get a few more? YOU can make it happen!