The divisive Tuesday night question: England's match in the knock out stages of the World Cup, or bagging a Good Deed with GoodGym? While a few red tee's strayed to the bar (and kept us updated with regular commentary of the match, thanks Darren), the rest of us prepped our helpful legs of a night of dodging England fans while running to do good. It was great to meet Anna, Alexandra and Alice as they joined us for their first run with GoodGym - welcome!

After the group warmed up with a very simple (ahem) game of GoodGym's very own Ship Sea Shore (the catchy Park, Food Bank, School, of course...), we split into two groups.

Group 1: A sign of the times

Dave did a wonderful job as group leader and chief cameraman (and pun maker) of the GoodGymers who were going to help Up Our Street with a challenging task. They had a big chalkboard which was at the side of the Bristol-Bath cycle path, but they wanted to give it to another of our tasks, the Felix Road Playground. Little did we know when we arranged for the group to come and do this, that several weeks of hot, dry weather would make the task a whole lot harder as the ground was so solid. But the crew did not give up and they shovelled and shoogled until the sign was loose. The Pink Panther then acted as a great supervisor watching the group carefully get the sign to the right place. All in all, a job very well done!

Group 2: Lifting us up

Meanwhile, the rest of us went back to our favourite Bristol storage unit to help East Bristol Food Bank sort their food donations ready to be made into food parcels for local people in need. As our normal guide Andy was tied up being loyal to Engand, we met Sally from the Food Bank team who was showing us the way. All our practice has been paying off and we managed to get the crates sorted and back in storage in no time! We are yet to finalise whether our speed of sorting or the number of people we fit in the lift was record-breaking, but we believe they both were!

Mel did a much better job than me of leading her group home from the Food Bank while catching Gromits (getting ready for Sunday's Gromit Run) - even managing to sneak one in the Marriott!

All of this was topped off by our monthly GoodGym Eats, this month at Turtle Bay. Thanks to Liam for organising - we had a relaxing or nail-biting experience depending on whether you were tucking into the 2-4-1 cocktails or tuning into Darren's continued football commentary.

Two tasks complete, a lovely meal eaten and a night well-spent!

On this sunny eve in June, our sweaty brows showed that summer is properly here in Bristol. And what better way to make the most of it than to spend an evening working on your gardening tan while doing good? Welcome to William, Serena and Nicky who joined the group tonight - great to see you with us and getting stuck in! Huge well done to Maria, who hit 50 Good Deeds tonight and Sarah who got to 51 after her 50th Good Deed on Sunday.

The group set out to tackle the Northern Slopes of Bristol to get to our task. The Run Leaders promise they thought about a route which wouldn't be quite so hilly for at least 1 minute before we started... but the joys of Redcatch Road called. With some speedy sprinters leading the way, the whole group put in a brilliant graft to get to the top on such a hot night, and we had soon arrived at Springfield Allotments to help Urban Escape's Youth Moves group with a plethora of tasks. This great charity give children and adults from south Bristol the chance to connect with nature and the outdoors.

The willing GoodGymers were split up and partnered with two young people from the Tuesday night Youth Group. Each pair of young people had their own areas and tasks which they instructed the GoodGymers on. Of course, they then kept a watchful eye throughout to ensure it was done to the high standards required. Our runners did not disappoint, and soon pulled out weeds were piling up, wood for the stove was chopped, floors were wood-chipped and raised beds were ready for replanting.

Somehow, Darren got let loose with a wheelbarrow and Richard with a saw and some questionable wood-chopping techniques. But apart from that, our merry crew made light work of the large area, and we left Urban Escape tidier and with a promise to come back and see them soon.

But is doing good in one way enough for our GoodGymers? No way. A group set off on an impressive 15 minute leafleting mission in the area to spread the word about Bramble Farm's Summer Open Day.

Well done everyone! All that was left was to enjoy the view of Bristol from the top of the hill and the long downhill run to reward all our hard efforts - phew.

A double task tonight as Dave's group set off to Dame Emily park and mine headed out to Fareshare.

A clean sweep at Fareshare

We were accompanied on our run tonight by our Fareshare host Phoebe who is still trying to rack up as many miles as possible in preparation for her team's Bristol 10k challenge. What's even more impressive is that I learned tonight that Phoebe plans to run the distance dressed as an orange! Good luck to all the Fareshare runners!

Our task was once again to clean the Fareshare vans. This time though we chucked all 22 pairs of hands at them in one go which was an interesting experiment. It turns out that this does leave the vans pretty clean although some pretty thorough inspections were needed by the outgoing trainer to ensure this was the case. It was also noted that three runners spent an awful long time sitting in one of the cabs but it must be presumed that the interior windscreen on this vehicle was left paticularly sparkling as a result and it is certainly to be hoped that the snacks which were located inside were still there when we left.

Special mention to the dustpan wielders who managed to find some dust inside the vans which were actually pretty much clear when we started.

Our main task done and having prepared litter pickers for a sub task at Riverside park, I couldn't resist taking 10 minutes to do a quick litter pick. At least Liam seemed to enjoy the challenge of carrying 20 litter pickers while running and I know everyone else enjoyed their squats while we chucked them back in the car.

Turf Guys

Meanwhile at Dame Emily park, Dave's team were to remove a section of turf to make way for some wildflower seed planting. Apparently there was even a wheelbarrow. I love wheelbarrows so this makes me a bit sad, but I guess I should be happy for everyone else and for the fact that the team finished their task and also managed to squeeze in a bit of litter picking.

Don't forget an item for Dawn

Dawn has asked if we can bring items with personal significance associations from our runs/races to the group run next Tuesday for her to use in her project.

Thanks to Alice for the pun I nicked and to Richard for the pun I almost nicked.

38 Goodgymers, 9 Fareshare team members and 3 vans made for a great night earlier as our two organisations got together for a joint van cleaning and fitness session at the Fareshare South West warehouse in St Judes.

We paused briefly on our way out to congratulate Chris on his BOSS New Balance publicity shot and recent Men's Health article written as he targets his very first marathon in London. Now when Chris sets his mind to a task he is certainly a man to be reckoned with (as anyone who's seen him wield a mattock will testify) so we know he's totally got this - go Chris!

At the warehouse we were met by Phoebe who explained how Fareshare take surplus donated food and redistribute it to charities and community groups like children's clubs, homeless hostels and refuges. To do this they make use of three vans that were parked outside and one of our tasks for the night was to give them a thorough clean inside and out.

We were also introduced to the 9 members of the Fareshare South West who had joined us tonight to participate in a bit of fitness and help with preparations for the Bristol 10k in May. Fareshare is putting together a team to raise money for their organisation - and they invited anyone else who is running to join them too!

Now 47 pairs of hands is an awful lot to throw at 3 vans in one go so we split into three groups and rotated every 10 minutes between the van cleaning, a canny session of the popular warehouse fitness game Pulse Squats lottery and a Riverside park run and lunge fest brilliantly led three times in succession by Jack with only 5 minutes notice. By the end of the evening, the vans were vibrant and hopefully the quads were suitably quaking.

Thanks so much to all at Fareshare for making us so welcome and joining in with such enthusiasm - you all rock and deserve to take the 10K by storm!

Thanks also to Charlie for some fantastic photos of the tasks, to the chap at Fareshare who took such an amazing group shot (sorry I didn't get your name!) and to Dave for fab back marking. And thanks also to Emma for the pun :)

And of course massive congratulations to Jenny on her first group run since hitting 50 good deeds - sorry I didn't announce it tonight but we'll rectify that next time :)