Seven of us attended Zion on Tuesday evening - we had a full house which is great as the task is a bit further out, uphill and it was raining! We even had one extra because someone (ahem, not me...) forgot to sign herself up to the task.

We helped spruce up the outdoor areas by weeding and sweeping whilst three GoodGymmers were helping to clean inside. We ended with cake and everyone was happy.

Thanks Darren for taking the photos while my phone stayed dry.

Did anyone else sing the report title? If not, take yourself back to the year 2000.

The end :)

A little bit of rain, wind and (lemon) drizzle was not enough to keep 8 Goodgymmers away from Zion Community Art Space for this weeks task. Armed with various tools, including trowels, buckets and dustpans...and fueled up with biscuits and juice supplied by Jess at Zion, they set out to clear the paths of weeds, grass and debris to make them look lovely for passers by. After a successful job done, Russ, the newly crowned centurion revealed a very tasty home made vegan lemon drizzle cake from his backpack which had somehow stayed in one piece after the run up the very long hill to Zion. Congratulations to Russ on reaching 100 deeds! (You will not escape wearing the centurion outfit!). Thanks everyone for doing a great job!

On one of the busiest weeks of the year and following extremely heavy rain showers and gusty winds in the hour until we started, it was only the hardiest elite of GoodGym Bristol who made it out tonight. We didn't let the weather stop us and got warmed up with a game of Duck, Duck, Goose for which I mistakenly thought the rules were known universally for (I'm looking at you Richard...).

Once we had all turned into geese, ran the wrong way and forgotten to run away, we were ready to go. In our new miniature group size, we still had two tasks to get to, so Alice led half of the group on a shorter 3km run to the Kuumba Centre (thanks Alice!) while the rest of us headed to Zion Community Centre.

No-one's painting my Lord, Kuumba-yah

Alice and her team of willing painters were unfortunately not able to get stuck in with the task of painting the nursery, as the paint was late to being delivered. However, they promise they did loads of burpees while they waited, and then involved moving all of the equipment inside, ready for us to return to paint soon.

Snot a lot

Meanwhile, the rest of us headed on the long hill to Zion Community Centre, with Alice D doing some brilliant back-marking. Everyone ran the entire way up the mahooosive hill so massive well done, especially in the wind! Once there, we met Hannah, one of the Directors, who explained a bit about the amazing work the community hub do (read more here). Jess had left us a big list of tasks to get through, so the group got scrubbing toys, windows, tables and chairs, screwing in chairs, mopping the bar (amazingly a first for Richard G, but now he is a natural) and sprucing up the altar. We posed with our favourite nursery toy, treated ourself to some cake and enjoyed the downhill run back to Queen Square, almost missing the rain completely. Hooray for hardcore GoodGymers!

Pun credit to Richard, Alex and Alice

The forecast rain scared off our crowd tonight so we were left with a hardcore 29 to get tonight's tasks done. It was great to welcome Dean, Lill and Louise to GoodGym Bristol tonight and we hope to see you again soon!

It was a long-awaited evening as Russ got his 50th Good Deed after keeping us on tenterhooks for the past few weeks. Yesss Russ!

Berry Weedy

Maria led half of the group off to the Berry Maze for the peak weeding week of the year. Although we were skeptical that such a thing existed, the group arrived to weeds covering all of the maze's pathways. They set to work weeding away, with some breaks to taste the yellow raspberries which were popping up and made a good dent in the weeds. We are returning there for Saturday morning's Community Mission so sign up to get involved!

Cat-egorically a great match

Meanwhile, Alice was embarking on her new love quest with a Dusty Springfield the cat at Zion Community Centre. As Alice considered the potential of taking a new pet home, the rest of the group were split into teams of three to prepare the Community Centre for their first official wedding ceremony on Saturday. The group weeded all around the centre, dusted the toilets, cleaned the chairs, the windows and the pirate ship and generally got the place looking spick and span for the weekend. Once the evening's jobs were complete, we downed some custard creams, staged our very own wedding photo (what do you mean it looks nothing like a wedding?) and prepared for the big event of the night: our time trials for the GoodGym Olympics 1km Race

The Nationwide Race - Bristol leg

The competition was high, the hill was steep and biscuits were the fuel. The group set off from the Co-op (where all the classiest races start) and time-trialled their way down the hill while the rest of us acted as their cheer squad. Absolutely storming performances all round (special thanks to Pendulum for adding to Chris's performance). There is still time to take part! Read all the deets here. Following this excitement, we went at a much more leisurely pace back to Workout where we feasted on Russ' celebratory baklava and mulled over whether Alice and Dusty would ever meet again.

Welcome to Vale, James, Amber and Andrea who joined us for the first time tonight! It was great to have you along and we hope to see you again soon. It was a big one as we celebrated...

The Centurijon

as Jon hit his 100th Good Deed! He was sorely mistaken in thinking he would let it slip under the radar. See the photos to see an up-close action shot of him actually doing his deed and pulling a notably unsightful weed out. Great deeding Jon!

The group split into two so we could help our two tasks for the night. Alice led half the group to Bramble Hill Farm where they got to work doing various tasks around the farm. Darren was soon running around with a wheelbarrow in tow while the rest of the group were filling the barrows, sorting netting, gardening and pretending to be the animals... All in an evening's work.

The rest of us went to Zion in Bishopsworth (with a few impressive folk doing some hill sprints on the way) where we were met by the ever-organised Jess who had written all of our tasks on a list. The group then spent the next 30 minutes crossing off as many of those as possible: Kait had her first run-in with a mop in over a year, Darren, Vale and Mel got into some therapeutic blackboard painting and Shreena got herself into a rabbit hutch while the rest of the group weeded and groomed the outside and scrubbed and cleaned the inside and all of the toys.

Jon with the wind

We filled up with oranges and almonds before starting the downhill run back. The two groups were reunited in Queen's Square where we watched Jon put on his centurion outfit. This centurion then headed to Chilli Daddy where the staff looked on as the warrior battled with a spicy noodle soup.

It was great to have Ben and Maz join us for the first time tonight, and to see Robin and Will again after breaks!

Once we had warmed up, Patrick led a small super speedy group to Strawberry Lane Allotments to finish the job we started there a few weeks' ago. Tonight, this was the big task of shifting one hundred 25 kilogram bags of sand and gravel down the steps at the allotment. With just seven pairs of hands willing to take on the challenge and a tough uphill 5km run to get there, it was a huge job. However, the guys still did it in record time before doing some more record timings back down to get back just in time for 8pm. Impressive stuff!

The rest of us started on our own long run to Zion Bristol. This was a new task, so it was great to meet Jess there and get stuck in (even if we had to tackle a big hill of our own to get there!). Jess from Zion explained to us that they are a super busy community hub, with the cafe during the day and 200-300 events per year on there in the evenings. This means there are a lot of odd jobs and cleaning jobs which the small team do not have time for. She was incredibly organised and had a list of tasks and laid out equipment for us to get our hands on.

The outdoor team got to work weeding, brushing pavements, clearing gutters, litter-picking, cleaning outdoor furniture and Mair and Olivia showed their artistic skills while giving the outdoor toilet a repaint.

Meanwhile, the indoor team had a big cleaning job on their hands from all the tinies who had been there over the past weeks. The chair team screwed all the legs fully back on and gave them all a good clean. All the surfaces were scrubbed and Dave got to work cleaning the toilet. Russ led a team with a long felt contraption and three pairs of hands to clean the metal beams.

Before long, it was time to eat the pastries Jess had kindly provided for us and get jogging (thankfully downhill) back home.

Tonight's pun credits to Shreena (as does the Task Finisher award of the night - thanks Shreena!).