A great turn out today, with some new Saturday faces and plenty of our participants having run across from the inaugural Eastville park run - where it sounds like things went really well and Liam completed his first ever park run - well done Liam!

A second visit to the new Bristol YMCA in the space of a week meant that we could continue to help prepare the dormitories for their future guests in this innovative project that mixes paying guests and young homeless people to create a non-judgemental and non-stigmatising environment that is hopefully conducive to a future life off of the streets.

This project has a hd a lot going for it but it certainly can't be described as a challenging run from our start point, so after a warm-up we took the long way round taking in Castle Park for a bit of a running train - meticulously planned so everyone could have a go at driving!

On arrival at the hostel, Ben explained that having moved the bed frames from the ground floor, it was now time to distribute them around the dormitories and ... if there was time ... put some together! It was at this point that we discovered there were in fact 2 extra floors to the hostel beyond the ones we had visited on Tuesday - but we soon had the various frames, ladders and side sections in place and just as Ben had promised we were let loose on their construction.

With all the weeding and bramble clearing that goes on at Goodgym, its not that often that we have the chance to create as opposed to destroy so everyone seemed to enjoy this rare opporunity and a great many beds had been constructed by the time we had to leave - expecially with Sarah and Flo having joined us to help out as well.

Thanks for coming everyone, it was great to help Ben out again - and a very warm welcome to Emma for her first GG Bristol run today!

Bed up? Well, let me tell you a story ...

One damp night in November, a massive number of Goodgymmers assembled for a brilliant task at the brand new Bristol YMCA (thanks Emma for sending me this one!)

After a highly unconventional follow-my-leader warm-up around Queen Square the group headed off on a short run to the old Police station where the hostel was to be situated. The hostel is to combine both conventional accommodation and a number of beds for young people who have become homeless with one providing financial support for the other.

The builders were due to finish in a week or so all that remained was to move a trifling 99 flat packed bunk beds from the ground floor into the various dormitories ready to be assembled. After a quick intro from our host Ben, mattresses and bed frames quickly starting disappearing from their respective piles as an eager army of red GG worker ants busily ferried them up two floors and distributed them amongst the rooms.

This was fairly physical work as the frames were pretty heavy so it was all the more impressive to have completely cleared the ground floor area after 40 minutes on the task.

Of course, now all that remains is the the trifling matter of assembling 99 beds -so do join us on Saturday for part two if you can!

Goodgym York - challenge accepted

Having bumped into GG York trainer Egg over the weekend and been filmed taking part in the November press-up challenge I was keen for the rest of GG Bristol to show GG York what they were made of. And even after carting all those beds around, I am proud to say that everyone still had some energy to complete the 14 press ups that were due today! Top work everyone!!

Mel - GG Bristol Centurion

And finally, congratulations to Mel for reaching 100 good deeds today. This was celebrated in some style with a GG Bristol arch through which she duly ran - along with Clo who was celebrating 3rd placed female in the 10k last weekend ... and a few other random people who happened to be walking through Queen Square

Mel then duly donned the GG Centurion outfit and happily had brought plenty of cake to celebrate!

An amazing 33 people assembled tonight for our Halloween run to Hannah More primary school. After a zombie themed warm-up we quickly covered the short distance to the school and got to work on a trilogy of tasks

Jack's after Ghoul Club

Our main task for the evening was to brighten up the after school club with a new coat of white paint. Having delegated the leadership of this group to Jack, it was encouraging to return and find him sporting a builders helmet and confidently directing all matters paint-related. In fact everyone did a fantastic job here - rollers were rolled, brushes were brushed and extraneous staples were removed with a handy fork. As often happens with painting though there were one or two very naughty "just this last bit" culprits who were slow to leave at the end and will therefore be given detention at next weeks Goodgym.

The Eave'll Shed

Yet more paint brushes were being employed outside as the Schools playpod shed (supplied by our friends at the Children's Scrapstore) was given a new coat of blue paint. The team worked hard and managed to complete the entire surface (with Tom's height an advantage for the eaves) using only headtorches and a single portable light.

Pumpkinbed Too

Finally, a third team set to digging over the school's vegetable beds so they could be re-planted by the pupils next year. It seemed appropriate that this first required moving a stray pumpkin out of the way. In fact the shape of these beds, coupled with the eerie light given off by head torches made proceedings look somewhat like a Halloween grave-diggers convention but the results were certainly impressive with all the beds weeded and dug over by the end.

With the After Ghoul Club having a little more clearing up to do there was time for Mel to lead everyone else in some lunges and squats (thanks Mel!) before we assembled for a group photo and headed back to base. Thanks to Matt for leading a step-heavy loop back and to the traffic lights for making sure everyone had time for a few wall push-ups and squats.

Special shout out today to Tom for backmarking, Nick for visiting all the way from York and to Mair, Matt, Vicki and Clo for sporting a little fancy dress