It was a peach of a morning in more ways than one as the fourteen of us (every single one in a red GG shirt) gathered, warmed up and set off on our run.

After a last minute request we dropped off Irena, Hannah and Andrew in Victoria Park, to help Gav of the Victoria Park Action Group carry out some running repairs to the Willow Tunnel, which we had helped to build last year. Big thanks to Will for locating the tunnel for us!

The rest of us headed across the park and out onto the Malago Greenway down to the Novers Hill end where we were greeted by lovely Raluca and her band of volunteers who continue to develop the area with the aim of building a Berry Maze - an unique maze made out of berry plants, from the humble blackberry to the exciting jostaberry, designed by the children from the local school, built solely by volunteers, ready for the whole community to pick and use instead of an overgrown field of weeds. A natural hub for community events and an awesome play area. All in one!

Today's job was to pick litter where the brambles had been cleared, including the removal of slabs and rocks embedded in the ground, these being placed on a giant slab before being taken away in wheelbarrows. This is so that the area can be ploughed next week.

We hi-vizzed up, armed ourselves with litter pickers and off we went, scouring the area for anything that might clog up the plough.

Along the way we were assisted by a plump little dog who couldn't quite make up his mind if he wanted to lick us or eat us, but he was enthusiastic to say the least!

Needless to say, we cleared lots, filled loads of rubbish sacks and helped get the area ready for the next phase. We'll be back again soon to help with some mulch spreading (yay!) in a couple of weeks and may also come back again after that to place and fill some planters (double yay!).

We were fantastically looked after by Raluca who had provided bottles of water and an array of fruit, including some fabulous looking donut peaches, plums and bananas - yum!yum!

Then it was bye to Raluca and all the slabs, great and small, and we headed back to the park to pick up the "Willow Three" who had done a brilliant job on the tunnel, before trotting back for a warm down and lunch (although cake seemed to be a very popular choice this week).

It was great that we were able to help out Gav in Victoria Park, as well as being able to do justice to the main task, so thanks to all of you for coming along.

Big thanks to Charlene for backmarking today too.

See you soon!

15 runners ran 8k to tidy up the Avon Gorge

It's fair to say that my Saturday morning did not get off to the best of starts. As I walked towards our meeting point at Roll For The Soul for today's group run, I discovered that not only had I forgotten to pick up bin bags for today's task, I had also forgotten my wallet, meaning that not only was the task in jeopardy but also that I was going to have to go without lunch after the run!

I should have known that I could count on my fellow GoodGymmers to dig me out of this particular hole, with big thanks to David for trotting off to buy bin bags, whilst I sorted out the sign in and to Paul for buying me a lovely piece of flapjack on our return from the task - you guys are the business!

They say these come in threes and so it should be no surprise that having warmed up and welcomed Linlu to her first GoodGym run and setting off for the riverbank that I then realised that I had left the sign in sheet back at base. So, handing over the leading reins to Paul, I headed back to the cafe and then tried to chase down the group who had reached The Pumphouse by the time I caught up with them for the relatively short distance left to the task.

Here we met up with Mark from Surfers Against Sewage who, despite being somewhat under the weather, had turned up to show us the areas of the riverbank that were in most need of litter picking. The area is directly under the Clifton Suspension Bridge and so is what people tend to see as they look down over the bridge and it was our job to make this a rather nicer sight.

Mark also pointed out that the tide was high (leading to a later debate about Blondie and Sugababes versions of the song) and rising and so it was clear that we needed to be careful, although said that if we did fall in then the rising tide would help us to shore!

As it turned out, despite the odd slip, we stayed dry and managed to collect a very impressive haul of litter, whilst ogling a rather expensive-looking catamaran heading out of the harbour and waving in The Matthew on it's way back into town.

My morning was clearly not getting any better as I managed to trip over some railings, right after I had told those collecting litter by the roadside under the tunnel to keep safe - I felt a proper charlie!

Our work done, it was goodbye to Mark who was chuffed with our efforts and back to Roll For The Soul with a little detour through Queen Square as we had a bit of time on our hands.

Thanks to Alice for leading us through some stretches including a demonstration of some alternative versions - always good to know.

We congratulated David for hitting the hundred good deed mark in the week, whilst touring in Bath, with Paul presenting him with a replacement black "50" shirt after David had so kindly given his to Alicia who had got so close to the mark before her return home to Madrid - he really is a lovely chap and all round top bloke!

We also chatted about the upcoming group runs on Tuesday (flyering for Above and Beyond in Redland) and Saturday ( a new task with the Malago Valley Conservation Group - exciting!) and the new Missions Selector which I urge everyone who is mission verified to use - we are hoping that our mission referrals are going to increase and it is much easier for the missions team to arrange these when they know willing help is available.

Great fun today gang, thanks for all your support and for bearing with me on my off day!

See you all again soon!

10 runners used their Saturday morning to run a mile and help local project Growing Support to sort heir compost and start laying a new path to make their gardens more accessible.

We met at Roll for Soul where we were surprised to see the weather man had got it wrong, it was not raining. Take that Met Office, the power of GoodGym wins again. After welcoming our tourist from the big smoke Danica, a quick warm up and a chat about Richard becoming Bristol's answer to Arnie from Junior we set off through the stalls in Queen Square preparing for the Harbourside Festival. There was no time to have a go on the inflatable slides, we had to bounce and get to Somerset Square in Redcliffe.

When we arrived the ever smiling Markey met us with his gardener in residence Qi. He explained our task for the day and as Fi arrived he led us down to the shed to collect the tools. After a short time we were underway. A couple of splinter groups took on the task of removing the sticks from the bags of compost that needed to be removed from the mulchables. The others had a grate time working the compost through some homemade sifters built by the Growing Support team. They were really smart creations using an old table, a clothes dryer and fishing line.

The teams worked hard and showed their caring side by saving hundreds of snails by stacking them carefully in a safe area away from the action (see the photos, there was even a ladybird atop of one mini beast totem pole). Nick was our cavalry for the day and was soon sticking it to the compost with the rest of them. Halfway through Markey called us for some refreshments. He is an absolute legend and brought a kettle, tea, coffee, squash, swiss rolls and coconut rings. Leading by example I made myself a brew but the rest were sticklers for the task and took some coaxing away from their jobs for nourishment.

Food eaten the rest of the time was sugar fueled and the stickers soon finished their work and started digging a new path. Meanwhile the compostellas sifted faster than ever in a blur of hands comparable an overexcited crowd of people riding horses tying to gain the attention of someone with a ghost behind them by waving their gloves in the air. By the end we had smashed it. Markey and Qi were well chuffed (that one's for you Irena).

After the very short trip back to base we stretched and saluted all involved for their sterling work. Snails saved, compost sifted, sticks stuck and paths paved. It was one highly successful morning and we certainly deserved our lunch.

See y'all again soon,

Gary

18 runners ran 4k on a Saturday morning double to help out at Windmill Hill City Farm and Incredible Edible’s volunteer day at the Bear Pit

It was great to have two newcomers along today as Cicely and Claire joined us for their first run and it was great to have a treat in store for them.

With our Saturday morning numbers swelling and with Wimbledon approaching it’s climax, we thought we’d go for a game of doubles today, which is becoming a bit of a feature of Saturdays, and it’s great that we are able to do this and that everyone is willing to go along with this.

We ended up conveniently with a 7-Eleven split and Paul very kindly agreed to take a group over to the Bear Pit, to help out Incredible Edible at their volunteer day.

Team Paul

A magnificent of GG gardeners (and if that isn't the correct collective term for a team 7 of Goodgym gardeners then it should be) passed up the opportunity to visit the animals at Windmill Hill and headed instead for the more urban wildlife of Bristol bearpit.

Since the distance was extremely short, we took a bit or a roundabout route through Castle Park (as some squiggly strava routes will testify). We had some fun trying to keep up with Matts exploratory excursions as he attempted to find some sort of gradient to run up and managed a few stretches of sideways and backwards running to mix things up a bit. A somewhat ill-advised attempt at lunges around the bandstand had to be quickly aborted when it became apparent that it was playing host to a peaceful party of Tai Chi exponents.

Once we arrived at the bear pit we were met by Hannah of Incredible Edible. This was a bit of an impromptu visit and so it was a relief when she seemed pleased to see us and have our help in weeding one of the new planted areas before a visit by the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society don't you know!). She equipped us all with trowels and we did a very thorough job removing all the unwanted growth. (Sadly the tool store was locked up so for once the wheelbarrow remained stashed away but we now have a couple more Incredible Edible outings in the diary so no doubt we'll get some wheelbarrow action on a future visit!)

Thanks to all my bearpit crew for coming along and working so hard - hopefully the RHS will be very impressed!

Team Dave

I took the larger group off to Windmill Hill City Farm, which is a glorious place full of animals and plants where people of all ages come to learn and play. Here we met up with the wonderful Beth, who explained a bit more about what goes on at the farm and in particular the development of the community garden where they grow food to supply the cafe on the site.

We were tasked with removing some pesky bindweed that was taking over the perimeter of the farm site, quickly organising ourselves into 3 groups and setting about clearing out the bindweed into plastic buckets and then transferring this into special bindweed compost bins, where it will take up to two years to break down before then being added into the everyday compost containers.

Our work completed, we headed off to the volunteer centre to grab a drink and then wandered round to look at the animals on the farm, stopping for a group photo by the cows and then realised that there was one that we couldn’t find. Caroline the Puma had gone missing!

We eventually found her stealthily patrolling the farm, bid farewell to Beth and trotted back to Roll For The Soul for a cool down with stretches and looking longingly at the other group who were already inside the cafe awaiting their lunch.

Another wonderful Saturday run, gang - thank you for being the awesome people you are!

A magnificent seven GoodGymmers ran 5 k to St Werburghs Community Centre to finish the job of helping them to get ready for their Open Day.

Two great events heading off from the same area of Bristol this morning as we gathered a smaller troupe of people in red than the Pride march which was somewhat more colourful and happening about 400 yards away from where we convened.

Welcoming Kait along for her first run, we took a different route out to St Werburghs to avoid getting caught up in the huge amount of folk gathered on Castle Green. This took us through Broadmead so we had a game of Saturday shopper dodging before heading out along the Frome Valley walkway to St Werburghs, for the third time in the same number of weeks.

Meeting the lovely Amy at the community centre and with time being of the essence we donned our gloves and got straight into our task. Undeterred by the top of the play tunnel needing to be lined before we could fill this with soil, we moved the soil that we would need over to the required area, before then digging holes in the beds in the front of the centre and then planting some potted plants to give the front of the centre a lovely look, with Kait watering the beds once the plants were in.

Then as the lining of the top of the play tunnel was completed we added the soil and then planted some smaller plants to give this a fabulous look.

By this time, visitors had started to arrive for the Open Day lured in by the bar set up in the playground and the smell of the barbecue. It would have been easy to have been distracted but our magnificent seven cracked on and got the job done.

There was time for some photos in the play tunnel, before the kids quite rightly kicked us out so that they could enjoy it themselves.

Great work today gang and good running on another very warm day!

Big thanks to David for backmarking again today and to everyone for getting the community centre sorted - you sunny stars you!

A dazzling dozen runners smashed a 5k run to the St Werburghs Community Centre to help out at a volunteer day to continue to develop the outside area around the centre

Great to have Hannah along today for her first Bristol run, having been a regular with the Hackney group before moving to our fair city last year. Also good to see Declan with us again after a little break. Hope you both enjoyed being back with the GoodGym gang.

It was all going on today and there was pretty much something for everyone as we were welcomed at the community centre by the lovely Goska who had prepared a list of tasks for us to get stuck into.

One group got straight into shifting two planting boxes which involved moving a lot of the soil within the boxes until they were just about light enough to be dragged across the ground to new homes where they were refilled.

Another were moving picnic tables - we were hoping to build some but the bolts had done a runner (maybe they had bolted?) and so this was not possible.

Hannah and Charlene were moving unwanted rubbish into a skip and were then joined by the picnic table shifters to lift some really heavy garden bags into the skip, with a combined heave and roll action.

With the planting boxes in place, it was time to lug some timber blocks over to build a wooden wall around them, although we were tempted to have a game of giant jenga with these! Nick and Sarah also managed to put some of the larger timber into exercise use to perform some pretty impressive squats.

During this, Deb and Declan got on with watering the plants around the front of the centre, whilst Hannah and Charlene moved onto weeding the area and David tackled an overgrown bush on the roadside.

With a quick sweep up and group photos, we were back on our way to Roll For The Soul where we stretched lower and upper body, all of which had been put to good use today before half the group settled down to a very well earned lunch and some of the others headed of to do some more good on an afternoon mission, including Sarah and Charlene who were doing their first GG mission.

We should hopefully be back at the centre in a couple of weeks to help them prepare for an open day with food and festivities with an option, for those who want to, to stay and enjoy the event.

This was a great task today and really demonstrated GoodGym at it's brilliant best - nice one everyone!

30 amazing peeps came out to run 6 km to spread the word about Helpful Peeps

As the clouds cleared to leave us with a beautiful evening for running, lots of you came out to play and run in the sunshine - it truly was a gorgeous sight to behold the sea of red flowing out from the city centre over to Windmill Hill this evening.

Having tried to shoo in the chickens before opening the gate, which was just a little bit messy, as part of our warm up, we congratulated the achievements of Mel and Fi, both of whom had joined the 50 good deed club last week, both achieving the mark in style via a coach run - a lovely way to do it! We also celebrated Richard G, Matt and Chris L all now having hit the 150 good deed mark and the achievements of the Bristol gang for their running exploits in Riga.

We were joined tonight by newcomer, Andrea, and welcomed her to the GoodGym gang and we really hope that you enjoyed your first running experience with us. It was also great to see Mair back after 12 months - apparently seeing all the red shirts running at the Bristol 10k helped to inspire her return.

Also along for the ride, err run, were Simon and Helena, who are behind the wonderful project that we were supporting tonight, Helpfulpeeps - it was great to have you both running with us.

Splitting into two groups, led by Paul and myself, and brilliantly back marked by Mel and Richard G we made light work of the mile run across to Victoria Park where Simon explained some more about what Helpfulpeeps is all about.

Helpfulpeeps is a community where people share their time, skills and knowledge to help each other for free - which can be anything from teaching someone to play a musical instrument, to learning a new language, to decorating etc - a wonderful way of helping each other in our local communities as life is better when we help each other.

Our job was to deliver flyers to houses in the streets around Victoria Park and having not counted how many flyers we normally distribute on a GG task we wondered if we were going to be able to get through the 1000 that Simon had brought along for us.

Paul had done a great job of coordinating the streets to be targeted and splitting teams into groups of four, provided them with a map, highlighting the streets to flyer up to avoid any duplication and sent them on their way.

There was only one problem. You guys are just too quick! Within no time at all one group was back for more flyers and very soon the supply had run out, smashing the task in super-quick time! Brilliant work!

As groups were heading back to the meeting point one by one there were a variety of runs and drills awaiting them - we had groups running loops of the park, Matt was leading some through a series of lunges(great for leg strength) and I took an ever increasing group off to do some hill repeats (an excellent way to develop speed and strength). There were some moans and groans but the pictures tell you that everyone was secretly enjoying it - or maybe you just can't help smiling when you see a camera! In the meantime Matt moved his group onto planks, which seemed to turn into a one man plankathon.

And then it was back to Queen Square, with enough time to head there via the newly opened bridge on Prince Street (yay!) where we were able to wind down with some good stretches and further announcements, celebrating those who had attended missions over the weekend (Ian and Richard G had both managed two), including Matt's use of the word "bailiwick" in his mission report and wishing good luck to Lisa who is running the Edinburgh Half Marathon on Sunday.

And then it was time for a big cheer for Chloe who was celebrating her 50th good deed tonight - nice one Clo!

We look forward to see Mel, Fi and Clo donning the black t-shirts soon! Well done all - a great achievement!

As is customary, we celebrated with a variety of goodies, including flapjack, biscuits, chocolate cars and, naturally, pink wafers, sharing stories and laughter at Vivo - a lovely end to a fine evening!

Thanks to Paul and Matt for the extra pics too - some great action shots in there!

Top stuff everyone!