The Goodgym elves divided and conquered the roads of Redland and the surrounding area to get St Alban's Christmas post delivered.

We battled dark paths, cross dogs and snappy letterboxes to successful deliver hundreds of leaflets and made a good dent in their outgoing mail!

Huge welcome to Penny and Abi who came along for their first Goodgym task this evening :-)

6 runners helped St Albans Church put up their 12 foot Christmas Tree.

For the second year in a row GoodGym Bristol turned up to help turn on the lights. We (smugly) recalled all the mistakes we made last year (i.e. putting the tree up with no decorations and then realising we couldn't reach to put the star on or light up the top half) and formulated a cunning plan.

While it was supine; we put decorations on (most of them fell off), we wrapped a string of lights around the top half (most still ended up on the bottom), and we put the star on the top (it fell off when we hoisted the tree up). Undaunted, we lifted the tree into place, and using ladders, what looked like a shepherd's crook from the nativity play, and throwing arms, we got lights, decorations, and star in place for December 1st.

What a task - or should I say tasks? Two big groups of Saturday runners took a hilly route up to St. Alban's Church, led by Alice and backmarked by Gary and Dave. Before we set out, we gave a big welcome to Ruth and David who were completing their first run with GoodGym and Zdeni who was completing her 50th. Upon arrival, we got stuck in to not just 1 but 4-5 tasks - depending on how you count.

One group headed out with fliers and seemed to really be working up a sweat heading to all the surrounding streets. A second group set about raking and gathering leaves to tidy up the church grounds. A third, very crafty, group made christmas tree ornaments out of old christmas cards. Clo and Ruth hung the shooting star. Finally a fifth group helped to put up the Christmas tree, decorate it and trim the leftover branches for wreath-making. Needless to say, watching the tree go up and be slid across the floor was a bit nerve- wracking!

Technically a sixth tasks seemed to be enjoying the nice hot Ribena and biscuits provided by the church. They way back was thankfully mostly downhill and we ended with a run through a human tunnel of GoodGymers.

Thank you to all the runners for their efforts. All in all, it was a very festive start to December!

Five GoodGymers felt like Christmas had come early when we ran to Westbury Park Church (with a slight detour to another regular task location, St Alban's Church - all in the name of fitness) to help them set up for their Christmas Fair this weekend.

Sue and Mary soon had us set to work, Tetris-ing many more chairs than you would think could fit into a small cupboard space. While Paul and Lisa made beautiful tidy piles, Laura went for the random piling tactic - with the combination of the two, we overcame all logical space expectations and fit almost all of them in with a clear walkway for the emergency exit.

Meanwhile, Lisa was selected as the tallest and therefore most eligible member for putting up the fairy lights round the hall. There was only one problem, the lights were very tangled from being put away, so Lisa began untangling.

The rest of us went about moving furniture to clear space for Santa's Grotto and the Santa Photo Booth - very important jobs. Sadly, we found out that Sue had forgotten her elf suit and was flying to America the next day! Santa will have to get another suit ready for the weekend.

While we set up tables, took away tables and set up some more tables, Lisa continued untangling.

Paul showed us his impressive cutting skills to cover the tables and Darren and Laura put me to shame in their perfect hospital corner-style table-cover folding.

Meanwhile, Lisa was slowly progressing with her lights-untangling.

With all of the tables covered, chairs moved and some of the stalls beginning to be set up for the weekend, it was time for us to leave. However, Lisa was still untangling, and now had a mass team of untanglers on the biggest knot-job Westbury Park has every seen. While the rest of us watched in awe, the final knot came out and the lights were laid out ready to light up Saturday's fair.

Top work all round and good very-premature Christmas cheer! Watch out for the next Community Mission to Westbury Park church where I am hoping I am not the only person putting up a huge tree in time for advent.

We stretched our Tuesday evening to the absolute limit tonight as we took on a hilly 8k round trip to Westbury to help sort donations that had been collected for the Samara's Aid charity to support refugees in Syria.

With run leaders a bit thin on the ground there was no option but to stay together in one large group for the long run up Park Street and Whiteladies Road - so I was super-impressed that everyone worked so hard to stay together over the whole journey. The evening had been billed as a #runandtalk event so I hope that everyone managed to have a bit of chat too - even if it was just at the odd traffic light along the way!

Once at the church we were greeted with a mountain of boxes of donated items and several heaps of garments that hadn't quite made the cut. Samara's Aid aim to aim to send only the best possible quality items to show the utmost care and respect for those who have lost everything.

With only 20 minutes or so it was great to see everyone picking a task and taking the initiative to work out what needed to be done and working so brilliantly as a team. I must admit I was a little concerned about how much we would be able to get done at the start of the evening but I needn't have worried - you are all donation sorting heros!

One group marked up completed boxes to indicate their contents while another formed a human chain to move the completed boxes out of the church to the porch for collection. And others helped pack up nappies and bedding or boxed up the remaining heaps of garments into boxes for men, women or children. We even managed to get a bit of pruning done outside the church!

The weather being so awful over the weekend we had been unable to deliver our leaflets for Above and Beyond so a small group of leafleters kindly volunteered to help out here as well.

With the room completely transformed, there was time for a group photo by the church organ pipes and even a little vocal performance - which I have to say really wasn't half bad - Bristol GoodGym choir anyone?

It was all downhill on the way back and after some stretching in Queen Square we congratulated Kait on hitting 100 good deeds tonight - well done Kait!!

Thanks to Charlie and Mel for the photos - and also to Mel for organising GoodGym Eats tonight

A bit of drizzle doesn't put Bristol GoodGym off! Despite the dreary weather and the umbrella obstacles, our group of runners helped two brilliant projects tonight. It was great to have so many new faces join us tonight - welcome John, Chris, Zoe, Tim and Matthew!

After we warmed up, the group split into two tasks: Westbury Park and the East Bristol Food Bank.

Westbury Park Wanderers

The Westbury Park group set off on their longer and hillier run. They made quick progress and were greeted by Sue and Paul from St Alban's Church who soon set them to work on the area. The group were sanding down the doorway to the church and weeding their way around the area (with regular trowels this time, not the famous golden trowel which made it's way there last time). After a biscuit-refueling, the group ran back and set such a quick pace that they had finished stretching before the Food Bank group were even in appearance!

Food Bank Fighters

The rest of us set off to our regular task, the East Bristol Food Bank. After our numerous occasions of helping them at their old storage unit, we had the exciting news that they had found their own space and they were moving. The group split into the packers and the unpackers, with the packers heading to say a final fond farewell to the our favourite lift in Bristol, while the unpackers went to investigate the new warehouse. While the packers cleared out the stocked up rooms and sent the final food donations on their way, the unpackers weighed and sorted the donations from the past week. There was a tie for the 'Weirdest Donation of the Week' between edible eyeballs and lemon cheese. Meanwhile, Clo and Caroline made a toilet roll tower which they were so proud of that I have attached a photo for the whole world to see.

With all of this help to sort their new space, the food bank will be able to receive more donations (and fit more GoodGymers inside to help!) - hooray!

We all had our first dark run back to our base. Remember your head torches and hi-vis from now on everyone!