Tonight, we welcomed lots of new faces to GoodGym Bristol (welcome Verity, Fergus, Victoria, Teona, Clem and Lizzie!), celebrated Danica's 300th Good Deed and cleared up Felix Road Adventure Playground (in their exciting new floodlights!) with all hands on deck for litter-picking, cutting back nettles, brambles and branches and clearing up leaves to create more space for the children to play. Despite the wind and rain, we had a great time and got a lot done.

This was followed by our monthly GoodGym Eats, organised by the wonderful Maria, which resulted in the one-line-each story about (read: loosely based on) our night. Thank you for a fab birthday everyone and enjoy the resultingly mind-boggling read below (please note new runners, we are normally slightly less weird than this...).

And so I present to you: Our GoodGym Tuesday, written in single sentences inputted by 16 nonsencial GoodGymers. (Apologies to those who faced the wrath of my edit).

And so it begins...

Once upon a time, in a land far, far South West, 39 people gathered to do good...

There was Flimpy, Flumpy, Tipsy, Wipsy, Carl, Igor and his children Garth, Mickey, Claire and the man Woth the Wobbly Nose.

When the rain means no painting , we're sure to find a small wheelbarrow to move a lot of leaves, quite slowly.

Shenanigans tasked us with removing ALL the leaves so we needed help from the giant wheelbarrow!

"I, giant wheelbarrow was the perfect accessory for moving leaves.. a new task for GoodGym leaflessing.'

I have never seen soo many leaves, moved many times, by soo few people!

The special den-making twigs were kept for the children of Felix Road to get building.

We faced the sea of rain like valiant captains and cleaned all the litter away.

On the way back we were sure to take in a few dark alleys, these are a great way to make new friends #paulspointers

The run was cool. Stuff happened and we did good things. Then there were giant unicorns and unicorns with cats and badgers inside of them and magic was had by all.

And then in a twisted and unexpected turn of events...

WE BEGAN THE PURGE ...of Peshwari naan. Every last crumb was devoured. Then we came for the roti.

Then Shona hoped to not go the way of those before her on her twenty-fifth birthday, with the golden trowel as her protection.

However, there was no trowel golden enough to protect the unicorn from Danica's sudden unexpected treachery. Thus evening ended how it began, with a sharp implement to the face in the dark.

(Please note, no unsafe dark alleyways, implements to the face or any other unsafe activity was experienced this evening. The only thing harmed in the making of this run report was Danica's unicorn cake and potentially Paul's dignity.)

You've got the tools but have you got the touch?

With some stiff legs and sore throats from Bristol Half Marathon running and cheering at the weekend, a big group of runners still stumbled together to show Shania Twain what her lyrics should really be. It was great to see lots of new faces tonight - welcome Hannah, Stefano and Nia!

With the dark nights drawing in, the group did me proud with a great array of hi-viz and head torches on show. I am looking forward to seeing much more of this over the coming months! In our red and fluoro-clad group, we hopped off to the south side of the river to help two different tasks.

Dave took a group to Cherry Tree Garden, where they were helping Julie give the garden a big cut-back and weed for the Autumn. With all hands on deck, the 15-strong group made a massive dent in it and left the area neat and ready to be enjoyed by all the Bedminster locals. The group even had time to do a Beatles reenactment on their way home...

What the fork

Meanwhile, the rest of the group went to help Urban Buzz at Gores Marsh Park. Hayley from Urban Buzz explained to us that after a summer with a drought, followed by the recent rainy weather, the meadows in the park have now been left with a thick layer of mulch on them. We needed to remove this and then reseed it. Thirty pairs of hands got a hold of whatever tools they could find, and here started a competition between mulching with a fork, spade, rake, shovel or hoe was the best method. Meanwhile, our expert Mulch Movers skirted back and forth, getting rid of the piles of mulch being dragged up. With a quick reseed under the darkening sky, the group waved goodbye to the meadow and headed home.

Well done to everyone who helped make Bedminster beautiful tonight!

Sticking together in heart times

In tonight's humidity, a crowd of Bristol GoodGymers gathered to sweat through it to get to the all important causes that need our help. It was great to have Sophie, Rose and Rosie join us for the first time tonight - we hope to see you again soon!

Keeping it Real

A small group headed for a longer run to raise some leafleting awareness for Real Economy, a food co-operative inspiring people to eat better and more locally. They also continued to leaflet for the Marmalade Trust, as this week is Loneliness Awareness Week. Both are brilliant causes and it is fantastic to see our willing runners make them more well-known in Bristol.

In the heart of the city

The rest of the group returned to the British Heart Foundation store to continue our work helping them get ready for store opening next week. There was some impressive stickering, pricing and re-pricing, as well as most of the group putting dibs on furniture items for them to pick up when the shop opens (sounds like there might be a bit of a GoodGym rammy on opening day. All for a good cause, of course.)

Hard-working highlights included: * Matt has made a full list of items to collect for his second bedroom - a good deed with Matt is never put to waste. * Darren managed to fit in some time watching the World Cup. * Jack succumbed and got in a box - endless hilarity by living out our puns.

Overall, the group were model citizens in moving mannequins, cleaning windows, pricing furniture and rolling rugs - GoodGym is rug n roll after all... The team at BHF were really pleased with our work, and the group's energy gave them a boost on their final push to store opening.

After a few Strava segments to cover on our way out and back, the two groups reconvened and showed a great effort in an exercise ladder followed by some impressive relay sprints and team-carrying techniques around Queen's Square. Brilliant work by everyone!

Big thank you to Tim, Shreena and Jack for their pun contributions for this report!

It was another big group attendance tonight as our Bristol runners spread out across Bedminster to fix up some green spaces. Welcome to the new faces that joined us tonight - it was great to see you Anna, Beth, Cristina, Aga and Abigail! Also good to see some new but returning faces - good luck for the big one this weekend Stu!

Thanks to Charlie, who led the first group to Cherry Tree Garden. There, they were met by Julia who explained to them the momentous task of weeding and clearing nettles ahead of the bulb-planting they are planning in the future. After a slight delay followed by being rescued by the henceforth-named Glove Superman, Darren, the group were ready to enthusiastically set to work. Apparently, Chris decided to get in a fight with a Sycamore (as you do on a Tuesday night with GoodGym), while the rest of the group picked on something their size... Or at least, a whole lot of nettles slightly closer to their own size.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group met Laura from Bedminster Patchwork. They manage 12 patches of land across Bedminster, which they work on to make beautiful spaces for the local community. GoodGym had previously worked on this particular patch a couple of times and it is coming on leaps and bounds. The group set to work weeding and planting across the ground. Despite hitting a spider nest and finding surely the entire population of Bristol's hairy caterpillars, the group did a stellar job of making the patch weedless and freshly planted ready for summer. What a great job all round. Thank you to your brilliant back-marking Maria, which got us past all the envy-inducing pint-holding locals sipping in the evening sun, until we could get back for our own well-deserved pints.

Overall, a Tuesday night well spent, and Bedminster looking all the better for our green-fingered GoodGymers!

It was an eventful night of sticky willys, black t-shirts and Panther birthdays at Bristol GoodGym. It was great to have Josie and Stephanie join us for the first time - you both put in an excellent effort and we hope to see you again soon.

A massive congratulations to Alex on hitting 50 good deeds tonight (and equal congratulations for your exceptional vegan carrot cake baking...)! We look forward to seeing you sporting your black t-shirt very soon.

A group of running bulb-planters went to help Hayley from Urban Buzz with planting bulbs outside of Bristol Cathedral as part of Urban Buzz's project to plant hundreds of bulbs around the city. Thank you to the birthday boy Paul for leading this group.

The rest of GoodGym Bristol ran to the Federation of City Farms, where Carmel explained to us the best way to tackle their overgrown garden in time for Bedminster's Secret Gardens Trail in a month's time. The group broke down brambles, shifted sticky willy, wavered weeds and rampantly raked the garden until it was looking a lot less hidden in time for its show-day. We then got a refreshing glass of juice to fuel us on our way back home (just in time for another refreshing beverage - running is thirsty work, don't you know).

PS. Thanks for keeping me away from sticky willy puns Dave.

A massive turnout tonight with lots of new faces which is fantastic - always lovely to welcome new runners to Goodgym Bristol.

Our task for the night was to help East Bristol food bank to weigh and sort the donated items from their most recent supermarket event. These events take place over a weekend at a local supermarket, with shoppers asked to donate items from a supplied list. Such events can result in a ton or two of donations which are then stored at a warehouse ready to be processed - and that is where we come in!

Half of our group worked to take the crates of mixed cans and packets and weigh them (for the charities commission) before sorting their contents across other empty crates so that they are ready for use in foodbanks. This is always quite hectic and it was good to have Jack in charge overseeing the operation and making sure everyone got back safely.

With there being so many people tonight we were then able to take the other half on an impromptu delivery session of Helpful Peeps fliers. Barton Hill is one of the few places we haven't covered so we were able to tick off another area on our list and continue spreading the word about this online pay-it-forward community!

Leaflets delivered and crates weighed we all found our way back to base in time for some stretching and a few light refreshments in Workout Bristol.

Three tasks tonight - and three explorers from Brent to join us in our endeavours; welcome to GG Bristol, GG Brent!

After a warm up we split into three groups and headed North with my group enjoying an extra lap and a half of Queen Square in order to put a bit more space between our 35 runners on the way through town.

Task One - The night Xanne says ni Shrubbery!

Our main task was to complete the removal of the shrubs outside our favourite charity warehouse at Emmaus. Thanks to Matt for supervising and leading this one while I dropped a group at Full Circle (see below!)

I'll be honest, I had completely underestimated how much was left on this task having missed the first session when we were here. The main shrub turned out to be a truly gargantuan specimen with some pretty savage thorns so it took a good while to chop it free and indeed at one stage it seemed to become sentient as it appeared to move of its own accord towards a nearby parked car - no doubt intending to take a spin around Bristol before branching off and making good its escape.

Special thanks to Tom for bringing along some extra tools and to the reinforcements from task two who pitched in at the end so we could hurriedly clear up after ourselves. The space looks quite a lot clearer now.

Task Two - Completing the Circle

Since we were in the vicinity with almost thirty pairs of hands, it seemed a shame not to drop a team at Full Circle to help Ann-Marie spruce up the outside courtyard. Charlie kindly led the effort, with the area looking completely transformed by the end - well done you guys!

Task Three - Helping Rita to organise the stock at North Bristol Community Project

Finally, Dave led a small group on the slightly longer run up to the NBCP to help locate some shelves and sort some of the items there. Sounds like there is still plenty to do so could be we'll have a few trips there over the next few months.

We ran out of time for Hill Reps again!

Just like last time, our last minute tidy up prevented us from getting in our hill reps up Spring Hill. I'm pleased to say that Matt did the notorious Strava segment on our behalf though - and as you can see from the photos, there is a change on the GG Bristol leaderboard!