Oh what a night. Mid January back in '17. 24 runners came out looking keen. And cleaned up Spring Hill, what a night!

Tonight's task was to meet with Incredible Edible Bristol and help them to tidy up one of there 'unofficial' plots. This plot had been looked after previously by a caring local, who sadly passed away. But it appears that in her honour a bunch of guerrilla gardeners have been doing a great job to keep her memory alive. Saying that the area still gets used as a dumping ground and the large trees around had covered the ground in a megaton of leaves. This all had to go before a memorial could be held to remember the lovely lady who made it what it is today.

It was a relatively short run from Vivo to the Bearpit where we met Hannah from Incredible Edible. She gave us a warm welcome and introduced us to our tools for the evening. Forks, spades, trowels and a wheelbarrow especially for Paul(like anyone else had a chance to use it!) We loaded up and walked up the hill to the area to be cleared (some of us running a bit too far up as we just could let a hill go half completed). As ever, everyone was keener than 2 year old Labrador covered in mustard waiting to go for a walk in the lake district to get started. There was raking, digging, litter picking and all sorts of topiary going on. The megaton of leaves became a mega pile, which we bagged up as much as possible with Emma utilising the limited amount of bags we had to great effect. A forward party even ran back down the hill with bags of leaves, dropped them in the mulch pile in the Bearpit and brought the reusable bags back up to take more leaves down. Goota love the iniciative to get the job done.
After we had cleared and cleaned as much as we could we dropped the tools back at the Bearpit, waved goodbye to Hannah and ran back to Queen Square for some tricep dips, press-ups and a warm down.

Big congratulations to Alex on her 50th deed today! You may have only joined us recently from Bath but we already feel like you've been part of the gang for ages.

This Saturday's run is to St Mary Redcliff Primary in Victoria Park to help the clean up more leaves! And next Tuesday we are going to Portland Square to prepare the beds for some spring planting.

Thanks to everyone who came tonight, and to Alice for the pun. You guys are the greatest.

See you soon,

Gary

On a cold and frosty evening 18 intrepid adventurers clad in red braved the cold and helped to clean up the litter left from the festive period along the Malago Greenway in South Bristol.

We met inside Vivo, discussing tales of Christmas and New Year. The warm glow of reunions with our fellow runners made it feel like spring outside, well almost, we still needed to warm up properly by shooing the new year in through the gate (it made sense if you were there...). Once we were warm we split into two groups, Wallace and Gromit. The aim was to tidy up as much litter discarded over the holidays along the Malago Greenway cycle path as possible. The Gromits ran 1.5 miles to Marksbury Road Open Space, while the Wallaces ran 1 mile to Bedminster Common. Each group cleared their way along the path meeting in the middle at St John's Burial Ground.

There was lots to tidy up, including a welly found by our guiding light Chloe (see photos), a knife sheaf found by new recruit Heather, and a soggy, unwanted card game called Cards Against Humanity. We certainly made a difference and were thanked by local people as they passed. Many bags were filled and children's play parks and public footpaths were made much more pleasant.

On our return to Queen Square we played a game of 'Grab the Gloves'. Teams competed in a sprint relay to take gloves from a rival group and place them in their own pile. The team with the most gloves at the end wins. Congratulations to the winners, Team 4, led by crazy ultra runner Matt.

We finished with some stretches and a few notifications. We have a run this Saturday, and another brilliant one next Tuesday that is not to be missed. There are also load of races in the events list on the website so check them out and sign up to something challenging.

Thanks to everyone for coming along, and thanks Matt for the great pun, you're ruddy great!

Gary

One of our coldest runs, this one! We reluctantly dragged ourselves out of the heated halls of Vivo gym and assembled in the little car park next door to the gym for a warm up. We had not 1 but 4 newbies - welcome to you all!

Our run was short and a little fast - no one wanted to hang about. We got to Emmaus in good time where we met up with Elle, the warehouse manager and our task master for the evening. Our job was to fix up some of the donated furniture so that the charity could sell it in one of their charity shops.

The gang set to the task with their usual enthusiasm, and after about 20 minutes had fixed most of the furniture, so Elle went hunting for more. From desks to wardrobes, shelves to...er... more desks, we fitted new handles, removed stickers, sanded and varnished, and all round made things a lot better. It was a great task given it was #GivingTuesday - a bit of an anti capitalism movement that encourages giving money or time.

We went in to overtime to ensure that we'd fixed up 13 pieces of furniture, and then once more braved the cold. The run back was again a little more zippy than usual, especially the now traditional sprint up Union Street hill.

We whizzed through the stretches and announcements, and then rushed back in to Vivo to warm up again!