Do you like the 5 times table? Well, here is a run report for you...

Lex give it up for 50!

50 runners came out tonight - one to celebrate each of Lexi's Good Deeds. Massive congratulations on hitting 50, Lexi! This included 5 new runners joining our crazy crew. Welcome to Francesca, Anna, Lauren, Cerys and Johan - it was great to have you.

For our celebration, the group split into three tasks.

Most of us started off by heading towards Emmaus, stopping for a quick game of Chicken Otter Badger led by Gary and leaving the group looking knackered before we were halfway to the task. Nevertheless, they powered through.

Those who thought they could face more Grit from Gary, went to do hill-running and leafleting for Penny Brohn's upcoming Stomp Sponsored Walk. Under Gary's watchful eye, they zoomed up the hills, around the houses and were back at base in no time. Impressive!

Meanwhile, the second group arrived at Emmaus, where Xanne talked to us about the brilliant work they do then set us to work sorting out the clothes stockroom and the bric-a-brac. The team meticulously sorted the items into piles to sell in store, online and recycle. Darren and Matt got very into pricing silverware, so now we all know where to go if we need some Bargain Hunt advice. Many crazy hats and lampshades later, we had sorted many rails, filled many bags and cleaned up a bunch of bric-a-brac ready to sell. The silverware remains to be confirmed whether it was valuable or not...

Dave led the third group to Bedminster, to plant some lavender bulbs with Urban Buzz. It is the perfect time for planting these, and it will really brighten up the area where we were planting in a few months' time. While Dave, being the good Run Leader he is, was keeping to time and getting the group to finish up ready for a leisurely, direct jog back, the group had other ideas. With Dave having reached his 500th Good Deed at the weekend, Operation Distract Dave was fully underway. Dave was thrown off being a Run Leader, and the group were soon directed on an extensive diversion scattered with as many squats, lunges and tricep dips as required to get 50 runners in the same place and ready for the ceremony of dreams.

King Dave of 500, Prince of Puns and Godfather of Good Deeds

With everything in place (almost), Dave and his group returned to a red carpet of GoodGym tshirts, arched by the friendly Bristol GG faces, leading to a red throne. To the crowds cheering, Dave was donned with a red cloak. Paul stepped to the helm and did a skillful job of anointing Dave as the official King Dave of 500, Prince of Puns and Godfather of Good Deeds (King of GoodGym for short).

Dave made a beautiful speech, but the ceremony was not over yet. Alex and Clo produced the most wonderful Ukulele Duet I have ever seen, to Dave-specials of '500 Good Deeds' (to the tune of 500 Miles) and 'I Want to Be Like Dave' (to the tune of the Jungle Book). Musical and lyrical genius, accompanied by the less musically-talented but incredibly enthusiastic rousing voices of GoodGym Bristol. All of this was followed by Claire's spectacular 500 cake and lots of pints. Well done again Dave and thanks for everything.

And with that, we will give one more Mexican Dave and say thank you very much for a lovely game of fives.

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!