An almighty 32 people gathered at Vivo for a run to a local food bank. What a great turnout, including several newbies - welcome to the GoodGym gang!

We set off at a sprightly pace to head to the food bank, which is based at a big yellow storage warehouse, however when we got there, our contact Alan was nowhere to be seen. We called him but got a voice mail message.

Oh no! Back up plan A (litter picking) was not applicable as I didn't have any bin bags or gloves, so we all grabbed a little bit of litter as we ran to make back up plan B happen (circuits around the city). We headed to a large open space at Temple Quay where two teams started to do a bit of shuttle running and lunges... but then Alan called back! And so we ran back to the bank where we met up with him. The fault was mine - I'd underestimated the pace that we were going to run at so we were early. I'm so sorry for all that extra running.

At the food bank we were tasked with sorting donated goods in to various types (canned goods, dried goods, toiletries, etc). Because this was one of those days, the task was completed in double quick time, so it seemed that no sooner had we arrived that we were leaving again, to re-tread some now very familiar routes back to Queens Square where we stretched out and finished our run.

A couple of massive congrats:
Ciara for getting to the food bank
Sion for her 50th run
Paul for his 100th run All the newbies for sticking with us
Everyone else who keeps coming back to GoodGym.

You all rock big time. Come back next week and rock some more!!!

We had the most magnificent run yesterday. No less than 43 people and 1 Radio 1 reporter met up at Vivo Gym to run over to Windmill Hill City Farm. Last week we had 40 people. Last night, 43. What next? How many more people can we get running?

It was a beautiful evening for a run, warm and dry, and we headed off in good time despite the mass of runners - having 2 sign in sheets really helped, plus Kim was on sign up wrangling duty so we set off on time to get to the farm. One hill and a bit of flat later, and we were there, with Jim from Radio 1 Newsbeat in tow - I was mightily impressed by his ability to run and interview people at the same time, serious fitness/journalism skills!

Once at the farm, it took a few moments to get the task in motion, so we all enjoyed some lunges and squats (isometric squats, if you fancy a long word to describe your squats!). I'm sure everyone was gutted when the tools turned up and everyone dived in to grab the sharpest loppers. Our task was to trim trees and hedges at the edge of the farm, as well as doing a massive litter pick - Kim grabbed some of the runners to pop over to a near by community patchwork garden to give it a little spring clean, given there were runners all over the place and we could spare a few.

As we chopped, lopped, barrowed and litter picked, Jim went around the gang, speaking to people about GoodGym - thank you so much to everyone who spoke with him (and no worries if you hid from him, we had loads of people who could chat!). Also we have been thanked by the members of the church group who meet opposite the hedge - a lady from the church came and asked me who we were, what we were doing and why, and she was ever so pleased to see the area cleaned up, plus a chap driving by asked if we needed anymore volunteers, and I could very honestly say 'thanks but no thanks!'.

With 43 people, I felt it was safe to let some of the gang have a quick look at the spring lambs that were the current attraction on the farm, but it was still a job to round everyone up for the group photo at the end.

Chris B led a faster group of runners off to do a couple of laps of Queens Square, whereas I led the regular group to do just the one (and provide cheering for the sprint at the end), then we finished in our usual corner of the square with a good stretch and an endless series of announcements, plus a strong rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for Chris L. Good luck wishes were given to all those heading off to Budapest at the weekend to join in with the massive GoodGym running team over there - although it seems that in Bristol we're a big running team anyway.

If you're a regular runner with GoodGym, then you may be sick of reading me write this: THANK YOU! If you're new, WELCOME and THANK YOU - I really am at a loss for words to describe how amazing I think you all are for coming along. Whilst I'm so proud we've had 43 runners, it's not about quantity of people, it's about quality, and you are all made of pure diamond.

This wasn't just any run, this was a scrapstore run! The scrapstore turn unwanted goods from businesses into toys for children - it's amazing!

After meeting at Vivo as usual, a bumper crew through Cabot Circus (I love running through shopping malls!) and St Pauls to the Scrapstore.

They had loads planned for us, and we broke into small groups to get all of the tasks done. The first group were sorting tins of paint (I don't want to gloss over it, it did get get emulsional but it didn't matt-er in the end), another group were cutting lengths of roap, some more were sorting keyboards, another cutting lengths of netting into hammocks, a couple of people sorting prams and finally a group getting stuck into phones. We love those phones!

We could have stayed forever but we had to head back, through the bearpit and back to welshback. What a great run! We're heading back to the scrapstore on the 15th March, spread the word!