The rain stopped just in time for us this evening as we met up to play our part in Bristol Waste's "Autumn Blitz" on litter.

Our assigned area tonight was pretty much on our doorstep, so we offered the option of a couple of runs before we got started. Most people signed up for a longer 5k version around the harbourside so Charlie and Alice led two different pace groups - thanks both of you! The remainder joined me on a shorter run 2.5k option around Spike Island with some bonus walking lunges and squats to keep us busy until the other two groups returned.

The runs completed, we again split into groups - this time so we could cover the areas we had been assigned for litter picking. Richard led his team around King Street and Queen Square, while Charlie and Jack took on Victoria Street. Emma took a third group up Prince Street towards Anchor Road. So much street name royalty in one place!

Employing their "Street Master" litter pickers (other brands may be available ... but probably not with such a cool name) with considerable skill the teams quickly bagged up large quantities of rubbish to be left at the allocated pick up points for Bristol Waste.

All that remained was to wish Jack congratulations on completing his 50th good deed tonight - and celebrate with the fine selection of cakes and party rings he had brought with him. Well done Jack!

Thirty lovely GG Bristolians assembled at Vivo for what is now our 4th card bed workshop - run as ever by our good friend, Elliot Lord. It seems like only yesterday that we did our first in that rather cosy workshop at the Island.

Clo got the warm up off to a great start, initiating a beautifully executed semi-promenade into the centre and back again - undoubtedly a move we'll repeat in the future - before we progressed to a few high knees and a Mexican shooting star. We then split into two groups - the unloading-the-car pace group and the not-unloading-the-car pace group and set off pretty sharpish so we could get to our venue at the United Reformed Church as soon as possible.

Time was of the essence tonight; we needed to be out on the dot of 7:30 to make way for a meeting that had been scheduled. Consequently, as soon as Elliot had give us a quick introduction to the basic concepts we divided into six tables and got to work on copying the templates to make bed sections from the available bike box card.

As always it was an impressive sight to see so many people become productive within seconds of their arrival. And great to see everyone working so well together - our new members and more seasoned runners as one seamless whole.

Big shout out once again to my clean-up team who constantly ferried the offcuts back to the car so we could be sure of leaving on time. And amazingly, we were completely cleared up and ready to go with 5 minutes to spare - enough time for Elliot to demonstrate constructing a bed and for Vicki to perform the traditional trial.

But wait, there's more! While all this was going on, a tatical paint team managed to complete a coat of sky blue around the side of the raised stage - thus helping out our lovely hosts at the same time. Top work painters!

The other benefit of leaving so promptly was we got back to base in good time. And at the special request of Lexi, our new recruit from Cardiff, we got cracking on a bit of fitness with a couple of stride sets along Queen Square - being sure to focus on good running form!

There wasn't time to pack up the completed card for distribution so I'm not sure how many beds we made tonight but I'll be sure to update the report once I've unloaded the car!

Thank you to Jack for leading the second group tonight - and to Alice and Charlie for backmarking!

Thanks also to Alice for the pun - two out of the last three, Alice!

Another fantastic turn out tonight as 30 of us set out on a fairly short run over to Dame Emily Park in Bedminster.

The park is cared for by the Dame Emily Park Project (DEPP), a small group of volunteers who work hard to keep the space tidy and the equipment maintained as well as hosting events for the local community.

On arrival at the park we were met by Ursula and Sarah who split us into groups and set about equipping us all with litter pickers and rubbish bags. We were then all assigned different zones of the park and tasked with clearing away all the litter we could find.

With October fast approaching the early evening light is starting to fade fairly quickly and the simple task of navigating around the park was made somewhat more challenging as a result. It was nice to see a few head torches appear and with a couple of our new lights in play we managed to carry on a little longer and finish our task.

Apparently the park had had unexpectedly been cleared early that morning so we were expecting that maybe there wouldn't be too much to do, but Goodgym runners have a real knack for finding litter so it was no surprise to finish up with over 10 full bags of rubbish by the end of our session. Amazing work everyone - DEPP really appreciated all our efforts. It was nice to have some of the skaters in the park helping out too.

Another short run and we found ourselves back at Queen Square with a lttle time to spare so we finished off with a trio of running trains heading around the perimeter. The bursts of speed required to move to the front are a good form of interval train-ing (get it?).

Finally we presented a set of red shoelaces to Kerry for brining along here sister Megan on Saturday and we promised a similar award to Abigail next time for bringing along Sophie tonight.

A very warm welcome to our new runners, Kate and Hollie. Hope you had fun!

What an absolutely fantastic evening! My first run as trainer and I couldn't have wished for a better group of people or tasks!

Our planned task for tonight was to help local project APE to give St Paul's Adventure Playground a bit of a makeover, but with such a wonderful turn out we were again able to send a small group off to help our good friend Raluca spread mulch at Malago Berry Maze. Much mulch was spread and to cap a dream night, our very own mattock man was immediately assigned the task of smashing up bricks. Massive thanks to Dave for leading the berry party.

After a shortish run through Riverside park the playground group arrived at the playground to find that Guy and Rachel had done an Ape'ic job of preparing tasks for us. We had sanding, metal rail painting, shutter painting, fence painting, leaf collecting, litter picking and .... wait for it ... Trampoline Building! As a result all 25 of us were instantly being productive and enjoying the massive variety of work.

After 35 mins of activity we had loads of multi-coloured fence panels, lovely red metal work, gorgeous yellow shutters, sanded posts ready for painting, a forecourt clear of leaves and a trampoline base assembled. In fact the most difficult part of the evening was getting everyone to leave!

Special mention to Richard who managed to paint his fence posts with one contact lens, Ed and Richard for some amazing sanding work, Ned and Liam for rail painting and newcomer Petra for her amazing leaf collection efforts. And of course to the whole fence panel and trampoline team!

We managed a group photo and dashed off - there was even just enough time for trampoline engineer Kerry to try the zip line. We'll be back!

On return to base I shamelessly got the lead group into plank position on the basis that I wanted to call this run Plank-it of the Ape but then Fi came up with the much better pun above - sorry folks (not really sorry, it's good for your core!).

Finally, Anna did an excellent job of setting up a posed APE (and made a very convincing exclamation mark).

We've been doing a few double tasks recently and it's fantastic that we can help even more projects. It's only possible though because you lovely people keep coming along! You're all legends!

Thanks Jack for leading the second group. Clo and Matt for back marking and lastly but definitely not leastly, thanks Emma for suggesting this task!

It was a warm and balmy night (or should that be barmy?) in Brizzle when 30 runners met to take on two tasks spanning the length of the city centre. After meeting and running through some warm ups we split into two teams. Dave's team headed to the Bedminster Patchwork Project to help tidy their South Street patch. My team we more inclined to go further and headed up to the Golden Hill Community Garden (or Golden Balls as I called it in the warm up) to promote their Harvest Fair on the 9th September.

Team Golden Balls

With my trusty back marker Nick team Golden Balls rolled through the streets and really shined when it came to tackling the hills. When we arrived at the community garden we were met by Clare. She gave us an introduction to the great work that the farm do offering people from all walks of life the opportunity to try their hand at gardening. To fundraise for their work they are having a Harvest Fair on Saturday 9th September. We will also be heading back their to help on the day too. We split into 5 groups, 4 flyering the nearby streets and 2 putting up posters to grab the attention of the passers by. Maps were handed out and instructions given before everyone took on the task. Due to long run their and back the time we had was short but that didn't seem tomato to these keen runner beans.

After 15 minutes most of the groups returned and were given a tour of the garden before we left. One group remained AWOL. Neil and Georgina were far too keen and wanted to put up all of the posters they could. Eventually we were all back together and ran back down the hill to Vivo for a stretch off.

The Patchwork Plummers

Dave's Patchwork Plummers fig-ured a shorter run would be a nice option. Taking a fine nine runners over to Bedminster we met up with the lovely Laura from the Patchwork Group, for the second week running, this time on South Street to help tidy up a small garden of land just on the approach to North Street.

Here we were greeted with a fig tree, plum tree, Fat Hen weeds and some bushes to trim plus some grass to cut. A pair of shears were in great demand with Petra tending to the grass, Guido tackling some weeds and Alice (combining shears and loppers, such a pro!) on bush duty.

Ed, Molly, Roanna (a combination of her mother and father's names apparently), Gulnara and Mel made a fine job of clearing the weeds and secateuring (?) the bushes, before we sampled the plums which in the main were a little sour for our liking but Petra seemed to enjoy them as she came back with a stash!

Our shorter run gave us more time on the task and so managed to leave the garden looking much nicer and neater than it had been when we arrived.

Massive well done to everyone who ran along tonight. It was warm, it was tough but you all delivered.