A big batch of Bristol runners broke out of their beginning-of-the-week babble to bumble along, break some brambles, bamboozle blackberries and bag up some bad litter. Some say barmy, we say brilliant.

The Jumping Jack off

The group started off with a merry jumping jacks warm up. Or so I thought... according to Darren's photo evidence from the night, Alice and I were merrily doing our jumping jacks while everyone else was doing their utmost to pretend they weren't with us...

Task 1: The Bramble-Removal

Alice ably led a group of runners out to the Harbourside to help the Friends of the Harbourside Reed Bed. After a summer of growing (and our help a few months ago) it was time for another trim to keep the area looking spic-and-span. Not ones to like an easy challenge, to do a good job, the group had to tackle brambles and a nest of wasps in the area. But they got it done in no-time and left the area looking ready for the Autumn months.

Task 2: The Litter-Pick

Our second group of wiling runners went to the other side of the harbour to Gaol Ferry Bridge to help the Friends of the Avon New Cut to do a big litter-pick in the area. Unfortunately, this part of the river has become rife with anti-social behaviour, leaving a lot of litter and more in the area. The group did an absolutely fantastic job of filling 16 bin bags with waste. Massive well done to everyone for getting your litter-pickers out and getting stuck in!

Task 3: The Fun One

Meanwhile, those who wanted to stretch their legs a bit further (or knew what was in store) were led on the 3km run to Bramble Hill Farm by Paul, where they met Chris for animal feeding and blackberry picking. Roll-on animal stroking, selfies and blackberry eating, just in time to roll back down the hill for finishing time.

To top all of this hard work off, the group then powered their way through a circuit session around Queen's Square (until a pug came along to distract everyone from their burpees).

Painting and a shortish run. The GG equivalent of a perfect storm. No surprise then to see 23 eager faces lined up for our pre-run warm-up.

Originally listed as a double bill, a last minute cancellation of our scheduled visit to Ashley Street park meant that team Cube was to be expanded from the planned six to our entire group. Massive thanks then to our host Pete for rustling up plenty more rollers and paint brushes in the last couple of days.

The Cube is a small independent cinema and music venue run entirely by volunteers. Over the summer the venue closes down for essential maintenance but with many of the volunteers on holiday our help was very much appreciated to help with some of the painting.

We were to paint the outside walls with a special fire retardant paint and the gents toilet floor with a non slip version.

Toilet Team

Special thanks go to the volunteers for the toilet team particularly on such a hot day and especially in the presence of an 'unidentified liquid' (presumably water as the toilets had been thoroughly bleached and disinfected before our arrival).

Wall Team

Everyone else got to work on the outside walls. Amazingly we got 17 people in action in a fairly small space and as a result we managed to finish the whole space in just over 25 minutes. I have to say it looked pretty smart by the end (as evidenced by the much happier 'after' group shot)

With the task finished in such a short time there was plenty of time for some tricep dips in the Bearpit and a quick round of Grandmothers triple extension footsteps and Squatopia on the way back.

Well done everyone - and thanks to Sarah for helping to set this one up!

The missing ingredient

Unfortunately, the weekend left things in a bit of a pickle at Baggator (water + electricity is not a good mix and they had to shut the Pickle Factory for a few days to make everything safe again). Therefore, we will be rearranging to go and help them on a new date.

Over the hill

Not to fear! GoodGym Bristol are never short of a Tuesday night way to do good. Penny Brohn are organising their annual Stomp fundraising walk from Bristol to Pill and they are spreading the word about the opportunity to take part in this beautiful walk while raising money for such a good cause on 13th October. Ian from Penny Brohn delivered me leaflets by the boxful for this and the GoodGymers of Bristol are more than happy to get their legs moving between the letterboxes to help.

They were less happy about the hills I introduced into the session to spice up the run between the letterboxes. After the continued hilarity of GoodGymers not managing to warm-up by rotating their arms in different directions simultaneously, we started off on a lovely traffic-free run along the harbourside to get to our first hill. Here began an hour's zig-zagging run of letterboxes, hills, leaflets and the additional good deed task of finding over-zealous leafleters who are so dedicated to Penny Brohn's cause (or confused by Bristol's twisting streets) that they become 'temporarily misplaced'.

Hobble-nob

Nevertheless, all of the members of the group had soon managed to hand out hundreds of leaflets around the area, and clocked up their miles and elevation while they did so. They also did an impressive hill sprint up Constitution Hill (with it's 1:6 gradient) with only the promise of it having deserved a chocolate-covered hob-nob.

What an impressive effort by everyone who joined us tonight, especially Freddie, Hannah and Fiona who joined us for the first time. I know Ian and his team at Penny Brohn will be delighted with all of your work!

It was trowelly spadetacular night at GoodGym Bristol. (Out-punning yourself even when you aren't here Jack)

Richard joined the elusive GoodGym Centurion club with tonight being his** 100th Good Deed**. Massive congratulations to you Richard! We couldn't let this momentous occasion pass without Richard getting the joy or embarrassment (depending on your attitude) through the opportunity to squeeze into the Centurion outfit on one of the hottest days of the year to sweat out the glory of all those years of hard work. And he made the most spectacular cakes to match his spectacular achievement, which we promptly demolished and placed orders for more, ASAP.

At last weekend's GoodGym Shindig, Bristol were awarded a very special prize for winning the January GoodGym Challenge. We are now the proud owners of a bronze engraved trowel, which will be displayed on mantelpieces around Bristol with pride. A big well done once again to all the GoodGymers that contributed to our Good Deeds in January and to Paul for aptly leading the group to victory.

Amid all this excitement, we welcomed five new runners and completed two tasks. It was great to have you Louise, Phil, Becky, Joanna and Flora and we hope to see you soon!

Eleven keen weeders succumbed to Gary's coos of an easy, 8 kilometre run and were soon engrossed in a hilly epic around the steep climbs of Bristol. They arrived at St Alban's Church in Westbury Park to get stuck in to a huge amount of weeding to get under control. Luckily, they were fueled with refreshments from Sue and Paul, and they had the *Golden Trowel * to help them with any tricky bits. The group did a great job and they were soon flying back along the hills to get stuck into as much cake as they could before the crowds got home.

The rest of the group finally, after 9 months of trying, managed to treat the fences at St Werburgh's Primary. The fences around their playground need a treatment to keep them strong in the rain. Unfortunately, the first three times we tried to do this, it ironically rained so we couldn't do this. If this heatwave has been good for anything then it is the fact that a big chunk of their fences are now treated and ready for action.

What an eventful night and an impressively Good bunch of GoodGymers.