25 bright and breezy runners came together to run 3 miles up hill and down dale to get to Golden Hill Allotments on Tuesday. We met as usual at Vivo Sports Club, and once we'd warmed up, we ran up Gloucester Road, one of the main arteries in to Bristol to get to our destination. As it's a busy road, it hopefully showed some of our fellow Bristolians the full glory of our red thunder - and we got a few cheers on the way!

At the allotments, our task was to hand out flyers for the bi-annual Community Fair that occurs there (unsurprisingly, twice a year!). The gang split up in to groups and targeted different streets, flyers flying out of hands in in to letter boxes (don't you hate those letterboxes that have the little draft excluding 'brushes', they make it really hard to get a flimsy A5 bit of paper through!).

Because it was a longer run, time was against us and so everyone worked really hard to get all the flyers distributed; it was a close thing and there were a few left over but it's fair to say that that area of Bristol was fairly saturated with information.

On the way back down to Vivo, a couple of chaps tried to lure us in to a pub with pizza. I have to admit that it was tempting, but running is better than pizza (most of the time) and we made it back to Vivo in time to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Ted as it was his birthday the next day.

So a long run, but a fun one too. It was great to see everyone, thanks for coming!

21 runners, movers and shakers ran from Vivo to Quakers Garden on Tuesday. The weather finally let us down; after over a year of dry running the heavens opened and rained. BUT! Not that much and we were mostly under some big trees! Hurrah!

The group ran from Vivo a rather indirect way - if we'd gone straight there, it would have taken 5 minutes. If we'd walked, stopped for a chat on the bridge, done a few squats and then walked a bit more. We still arrived there quickly, and met up with Sara, queen of Incredible Edible and mistress of all that is gardening.

She showed us a very overgrown flower bed that was just crying out for GoodGym's tender caress. We grabbed gloves and some tools, and set to it! Amy, one of our new runners, described our ability to strip the ground bare as being like a plague of 'friendly locusts' - and my word, did we live up to that description.

As always, we found a cornucopia of abandoned items including some tiny trowels left by another group, 2 pairs of sunglasses, a roll of sticky tape, and part of a bicycle. There were also lots of random rocks left about which were neatly piled at the back of the area.

Of particular use were the mattock, wielded that night by Gary, and the loppers, the weapon of choice for Ludwig, another new runner. In their hands, floratic obliteration was a certainty and the battle against ivy and brambles was a short but brutal one.

After a good 30 minutes of weed destruction, we headed just around the corner to a quiet car park for some running drills. Group one were tasked with 5 hill repeats. Group two did a progressive shuttle run, using the car park space lines as markers plus tricep dips and press ups. Needless to say the whole group put their collective might in to this and everyone worked supremely hard.

As a result of this intense work, and due to the very close proximity of our starting point, a gentle recovery stroll was allowed, followed by some stretches and announcements (don't forget our social on Thursday! 6.30pm at Vivo, everyone is welcome! Bring your mum!). And finally the weather gods were once again on our side - a lovely rainbow seemed to end in the garden we'd just been improving! Thanks runners, you quaked it, rocked it, battled it and then strolled it.

40* people (yes, 40!) ran from Vivo Health Club to one of our favourite spots, Windmill Hill City Farm to help them turn a car park in to a garden.

To say that this number was staggering is an understatement and by far it was our largest run. The fine weather helped, and perhaps that it was a short run too. Either way, I'm not complaining at all - thanks gang.

We headed off after a warm up and introductions, and quickly made it to the farm where we met up with Chris, garden guru and the project leader for the transformation. More than a few people eyed the digger and the little dumper truck with glee but sadly we didn't get to have a go. Instead we loaded ourselves up with forks and spades, rakes and wheelbarrows and proceeded to shift a very large amount of topsoil and compost from various places around the farm and dump it on to the newly cleared flower bed-to-be. It was classic GoodGym - a lot of people rushing around getting the job done. There was still time to have a little dance on the soil to help compact it, with a radio somewhere kicking out tuuunes!

One team were tasked to clear soil from one small flower bed to go in to the new big one. Their progress had been fast until they literally hit a snag when they struck some sort of rock/stone/concrete barrier. There was only one answer - a mighty pick ax, which was a great help.

Another group tried to extend a deep trench that was going in around the large flower bed. The ground was most resistant but they put their back in to it and got about 2 extra feet on to the trench. Doesn't sound much but there was dedication in those few feet.

Given the scale of the task, despite the veritable horde of runners that we brought along, we went in to overtime to try and get as much done as possible. This meant that we just had time to run back to Vivo and have a good stretch, so it was not a very long run, but we got a massive amount done for the farm and even had time to peer at the pigs and gawp at the goats.

'So where's the Time Team link?' I hear you ask. It turns out that one of our new runners is an archaeologist and she found a wide array of bits of pot, bottle, and other crockery shards, as well as a fantastic pipe stem from a Victorian clay pipe (please correct me if I'm wrong!). Goodgym: Inspirational, motivational, and now archaeological too.

40 people ran but we only had emails for 38, so our stats may show up a little differently! I tried to include Sion who met us at the end of the run to make it 41 but got accused of cheating. *hangs head in shame