Tonight, more than 40 runners turned up to find out what the mystery challenge would be in store for them... Welcome to Maddie, Katherine, Nik, David, Taj and George, who joined us for the first time.

Firstly, Sally took a small group of runners to the city centre of Bristol. There, they split into four small groups to distribute tea and coffee to homeless people around the city centre. Despite one flask mishap, the team managed to distribute four packets of biscuits alongside over twenty hot drinks on this cold winter's night. Brilliant work, team!

Meanwhile, the rest of us ran to Bedminster to start the Christmas Cheer Challenge. After each team's items were distributed, they had half an hour to get all of their good deed tasks complete. Each team had a particular area to flyer, a team photo to take, a packet of mince pies to donate to passers-by and as much litter-picking as possible along the way. Between them, they got through a whole load of flyers to help Above and Beyond advertise for this Thursday's Christmas Star Concert, gave out 24 mince pies (even if it was to pub-attendees, as one group did!), took some impressively creative team photos (evidenced above) and picked up 7 bags of litter. This included the strangest bit of the litter of the night by Richard, of a new Noah and the Whale single - only in Bristol.

Despite tough competition, Kim's team won the challenge based on the amount of litter picked (accusations were hinted at with her incredibly good local knowledge of litter hotspots) - although, in true GoodGym fashion, everyone was a winner tonight.

At least, that was the case until we returned to do the even more contested challenge of a relay contest with a carry-your-team round. Previous litter allies were eyed-up on their strength and lightness. Soon, smallest members of each group were being flung around with little care while concentration was on finishing that lap. Gary's team solidifed their win (some would say they turned a litter victory into a big victory) with their impressive piggyback technique. As everyone headed off into the night discussing the tactics of the Queen's Lift v. the Stretchered Person (ahem, Danica's team), we know it can only be a matter of time until the rematch...

Can you do the can-can?

Tonight we headed back to practice our can-sorting, weighing and lifting skills while helping East Bristol Food Bank to sort their 200 crates of supermarket donations ahead of the Christmas period. This is always a busy time, both for the donations coming in and the amount of food being processed through the food bank, so it was all hands on deck to get as much sorted as possible.

While Matt conquered his Winter Wonderland walking badge with the accompaniment of Debbie, the rest of split into two groups. Sally led a steadier group while the rest of us went on ahead. When we arrived at East Bristol Food Bank's new premises, Andy explained the sorting process to us and set the first group to work.

We can

Between the group, they manned the scales and weighed each crate to calculate how much had been donated, then split them into grouped items to make them easy to distribute.

Meanwhile, Sally's group arrived and they got the short straw of having to go straight into their fitness session from their run. On the tiny platform of dry ground outside the food bank, the group squeezed together to create a human-Tetris of plank holds, press ups, chair sits and more. After 10 minutes of work, hopefully their thighs, core and arms had enough burn to make them feel virtuous as they switched places with the other group in a food-sorting-and-fitness relay.

(but it would be better with some tin-sel...)

In no time, the group had sorted a large amount of the crates ready for distribution and had exercised GoodGym restraint not cracking into any of the biscuits. We waved Andy goodbye and set off home in the short dry-spell we had. On return, we got treated by Zdeni, who has flown through her good deeds and hit her 50th Good Deed at the weekend. She made the most amazing pernik which I promptly ate most of. Thanks Zdeni!

Welcome to Amanda, Kevin and Jessica who joined us for their first GoodGym Bristol run tonight - it was great to have you! And thanks to Alice for this week's pun!

GoodGym Bristol don't just stop at one task on a stormy Tuesday evening. We don't even stop at two. We managed to squeeze doing three good deeds into one session (and avoided many a mammoth puddle from the earlier downpours as we did so). Welcome to Shannon, Gareth, Eloise and Nikki who joined us tonight for the first time - it was great to have you!

Our first good deed was helping Children's Hospice South West advertise for their Santas On The Run event on 9th December. To do this, 12 willing GoodGymers donned Santa Suits with signs about the run pinned to their backs to spread the word. With almost 50 runners gathering despite the stormy day, some would say it got a little Claustrophobic...

We soon overcame this by getting out, warmed up and set off to our tasks, with Dave being a brilliant backmarker to our mass of red t-shirts and Santa suits. We arrived at Hannah More Primary, where half of the group were going to helping. Ruth from Hannah More Primary introduced the group to the different jobs which they needed help with. The group split into two, with one group doing a litter-pick around the school grounds and the other clearing out the After School Club room. The key to this was not to get Santa-mental and the Santas and GoodGym elves managed this and got stuck in with equal vigour.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group who wanted to stretch their legs further, ran a mile further away where they grouped into small teams to successfully deliver leaflets advertising Santas On The Run and some more of the good causes who we have been working with recently. A couple of Santa sprints later and the group were satisfied with having spread the word in the south of Bristol and were ready to head back.

Our night was topped off by celebrating the very first Santurian... Well done to Alison who did her 100th Good Deed tonight! All with the impressive added extra of doing it in a Santa suit and wearing the famous Centurion outfit with the addition of a white beard. Spectacular.