What I would like to do in this run report is put 200 variations of puns on Clo's name in to represent each of her 200th Good Deed which she achieved tonight. But then I remembered that my one title pun is questionable enough and that I couldn't subject you all to that. Instead, Clongratulations Clo, you are amazing!

It was great to welcome Johanna on her first GoodGym run tonight - thanks for joining us Johanna! The group split up to help three good causes tonight.

Group 1: The Tea Fairies

Maria led a group of runners to the centre of town to distribute tea, coffee and biscuits to homeless people. As the temperature was getting close to freezing tonight, it was very much appreciated by the recipients. So much so that the team had to go and refresh their stocks of milk and biscuits after just 10 minutes of distributing the hot drinks. Brilliant work team, you will have cheered up many a pair of cold hands tonight.

Group 2: The Puzzling Concrete Smashers

Meanwhile, at Emmaus, Xanne and Robin welcomed us and talked us through the great work of the charity. They then split the group into two. Those who were feeling intellectually charged headed to the warehouse to sort puzzles out, while those who were in need of some anger management or just plain old smashing-things-up* worked on removing the concrete from the front of Emmaus. This is part of our ongoing work to redo the front area of the building to make it a nice place for the community to spend time.

*technical term

Group 3: But what even is a plog?

The final lucky group got what some would describe as the short straw (Darren), while others would say it was the best task of them all (Shona). The group set off on a tour of four local litter spots, where they alternated between a fitness session (did someone say hills?) or litter-picking session. Clo found a new pair of glasses for Darren (photographed), Richard was temporarily misplaced on his hunt for the lost chip-tray and Paul just could not stop running up and down hills. However, we still managed to gather enough litter to stuff full one huge bag of rubbish and one huge bag of recycling for Bristol Waste to collect.

Well done again Clo on your 200 deeds!

We are more than a number, but as GoodGym #1 to #9 turned up to the Bedminster Lantern Parade HQ, we were assigned our tasks by the aforementioned numbers and went about our role.

Most of us had the challenging role of traffic control, and found out that lots of people really want to go to Aldi at 6pm on a Saturday. Additionally there was the added excitement of Bristol Rugby finishing a match 117:19 what a result! With bemused spectators who hadn't seen the signs which had been up for two weeks...

The parade itself is a lovely community event showcasing the best of Brizzle spirit, with some amazing lantern creations and designs by adult and children.

This was Sian and Erika's first community missions so I hope you enjoyed it , as much as the rest of us.

Till next time,

Matt

Another huge group of runners gathered for our Tuesday night run tonight. Welcome to Sophie, Eleanor and Lisa who joined us for the first time tonight - we hope to see you again soon!

After a game of warm-up Statues (which the group are much better at than Simon Says...), we split into two groups and headed into two teams towards our task for the night: the Malcolm X Centre in St Paul's. This local community centre runs a whole host of classes, socialising and support groups for local people across their two buildings. Jagn met us and explained the tasks for the night.

Firstly, one group was set to moving a pile of rubble and brick from one side of the centre grounds to another. The group set to it enthusiastically and got the task done in no time! A host of GoodGymers went about litter-picking around the centre grounds and local area in pairs, filling several bags of litter in just 20 minutes. The indoor groups split into cleaning teams and moving teams. The cleaning team set to work on the windows, doors and floors of the centre, giving it a good scrub down and clean up with all hands on deck. One part of the moving team moved the office from one room (downstairs) to another room (upstairs). With surprisingly minimal 'to-me, to-youing' , the group did the job quickly, despite the turn in the stairs. Meanwhile, the other part of the moving group had to move a fridge! They did this hefty task so quickly that the fridge movers then got the special treat of a short but hard fitness session to get their heart-rates pumping.

Before long, the group had completed all of the tasks (much to the amazement of Jagn and his team at our 'army'), and we headed back to base. Before people set off home for the night there was one final task: a Leap Frog Relay. It was closely contended, with a wide variation of leap frog techniques, but Darren's team took the glory at the end of it - bet that was a skill you didn't know you had.

Until next time!

Today 9 GoodGymmers headed to Pomphrey hill (some on foot and some on wheels) to marshal a VI Runners' guides' 10K race which saw them take on 6 gruelling laps of the park. The race was organised by Tracy one of the VI runners who wanted to give something back to their amazing guides 🙂

We were briefed by Tim and Mel and given our marshalling positions and before long the first runner came speeding through. The start times were staggered meaning all of the runners were doing their 6th lap together and GoodGym made sure they were all well encouraged along the way..

After the race finished, the winner was awarded a huge trophy and our Mel got a bottle of wine for her excellent finish time recording. We were all given some delicious pastries and Quality Street as a thanks before we headed on our merry way.

Big thanks to Sal for organising this. We had a fantastic time!