It was great to have Hannah, Katie, BiBi and Jim join us for their first GoodGym run tonight - we hope to see you again soon! We were also delighted to celebrate Phill's 50th Good Deed, which he did in true Phill-style by getting completely stuck in with the task and covered in paint. Congratulations Phill!

After running circles around the warm-up, we split into two groups to conquer as much good as we could tonight.

Alice D led a group of 17 over to Felix Road Adventure Playground where they battled through the crowds to get into the playground and met Zoe. She set the group to work on a mass weed clearance of the playground. With all-hands-on-deck, the group made a massive dent in the huge area, and got rid of several wheelbarrows of weeds in the process. Chris even had a chance to show everyone his wheelbarrow racing skills - check them out here.

Going South

The rest of the group headed to the Southville Centre where we met Hugh. This local community centre is extremely busy with lots of groups and activities using it during the week, so they were keen to put some extra hands to good use on a quieter evening. They had a whole load of painting to do, so we split as many of the paintbrushes as were available between the group, assigned a tall person per section and four teams set to work painting both of the toilets, the bin shed and protecting the outdoor wood.

The lucky remaining people were tasked with a circuit in the outdoor area, cheered on by the outdoor painters. After three teams had rotated through the circuit, this week's painting was almost complete. We feasted on celebratory chocolate (Hugh knows how to treat us) and headed back to town, but not without stopping to complete this week's Burpee Challenge on the way. More than 600 burpees between the group later, Will, Richard and Daniel were crowned Burpee Champions.

We dragged our slightly-more-tired-now legs back to Queen Square and feasted on Phill's incredible vegan brownies (which you can make again ANYTIME), and then headed for this month's GoodGym Eats at Franco Manca, deeeed-licious.

Between the rain storms of this afternoon, we gathered for another session of doing good. It was great to have Jamie and Jade join us for the first time tonight and get stuck in with the tasks. And a big shout out to Danica and Paul who jogged with ease despite being 2 days post-marathon!

After getting warmed up, we headed to Felix Road Adventure Playground. They are currently hosting 200-300 children every day for the summer holidays so the team and the playground needed an injection of GoodGym enthusiasm to give them a boost.

Under lock and key

Once we distributed the tools which the team had left for us, we soon we realised we needed more to tackle the mounds of brambles and bushes surrounding the Under-5s Play Area. We knew there was a pile of said tools in the shed, the only problem was finding the key... Queue Mel doing a grand detective job of trying key after key in the shed lock...

Hand weeding, the latest trend

The team were not deterred. After a quick shelter in the playhouse from a particularly heavy shower storm, the gardening teams got to work hand-weeding (we've decided it's a thing) and pulling out the overgrown areas. With the addition of 6 pairs of tools, the two gardening groups weeded all of the pathway and cut back a big section of the play area.

Meanwhile, Mel continued to try different keys...

The rest of the team split into three groups. We had our classic litter-pickers, who filled 3 bags of rubbish from around the playground due to the busy summer days. The staple-removers continued the all-important (and divisive) task of preparing the walls for painting. They continued to add to our now in-depth knowledge of just what equipment works for getting rid of those pesky bits of metal (staple-removers are the worst, so you know). Finally, we had a team on sweeping all of the patio and football pitch areas, topped off by a brush-removal of a football from the top of the net - impressive stuff.

Mel was still trying keys as we called time-up and, not one to be defeated, has promised that next time there will be a sub-group that is on key organising.

We ran back, found out that Richard B is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and sent a group of hungry runners to Three Brothers for this month's GoodGym Eats - thank you for organising Danica!

43 GoodGymers gathered for our monthly visit to help Felix Road Adventure Playground tonight. It was great to have Caroline and Phoebe join us for the first time, and also lovely to see that we hadn't scared GoodJim off as he joined us for his second time.

Are you a parking ticket? 'Cos you've got fine written all over you

(Thanks for your top chat-up lines Alice) We got warmed up with a game of 'Squat if you...' (technical term) while a Parking Attendant watched over us. We quickly headed off so as not to get booked and jaunted along the Bristol Bath Cycle Path to the task.

While I mastered our groups, everyone else took part in the Mexican Squat Wave (are your legs tired yet?). Then we split into teams to cover the list of tasks which they needed help with.

• The staple removers continued the slow but satisfying job while perfecting their knowledge of which tool worked on each individual staple and nail type so that the Adventure Playground can paint the inside of the centre
• The waterers scattered buckets and hoses all the way round the playground to help the dry grass and the strawberries after our recent hot days
• The litter-pickers got to work on the ever-requested job of the playground and spread themselves around the large area to clear up two bags of rubbish
• The heavies got to work playing pallet tetris to get the pallets in a safer and more condensed position and removed four buckets of rubble and nails from the area.

In between all of this, the group still had time to practice their hula-hooping, do some laps of the velo-swing and send an teddy bear on a BMXing adventure.

Half an hour later, we hopped it back to Queen Square where we took part in my SUPER FUN fitness session for the night of partner jump overs and crawl unders. I have now been informed that it is, in fact, just fun.

Centurifun

Behind the scenes and to my ignorance, the wonderful group had been working up lots of surprises for my 100th Good Deed. After donning the Centurion outfit we were presented with Richard's latest addition to the Centurion outfit Hornycorn (or latterly, Horny Shona). Alice had then crafted a congo which we did much to the bemusement of people gathered in Queen Square for an evening of peace.

After all of this, we headed to Turtle Bay for this month's Eats and Claire's delicious cake. Thank you to Clo for organising!

Now all that was left to be asked was...

Did anyone order a ginger beer?

It was great to have Samantha, Milly, Claudia and Anna join us for their first GoodGym Bristol Group Run tonight - we hope to see you again soon! They joined more than 40 other GoodGymers heading out for an evening in the sun at Felix Road Adventure Playground. On route there was chair holds, squats, press ups and tricep drips. Let's just say there were a few relieved faces to arrive at the task...

Don't Clo chasing waterfalls

The team had prepared various tasks for our masses to split up into:

• The Litter Pickers - as usual, they needed a bunch of clean-beans to tidy up the whole playground from the recent (and current due to half-term) children's visits. They aced it and left it looking spick and span with several bags of rubbish filled.

• The Choppers-and-Loppers - a section of the team were on clearing back the overgrown branches hanging into the football pitch to give the young people a safe place to play. The rest of the group were continuing to clear back the nature area and the ever-growing weeds along the paths. There was so many branches and weeds removed that we filled the bin to the brim and beyond.

• The Waterers and Waterees - Mel was busy working the hose by the time we got there and was joined by a team of watering-can holders to run back and forth around the area rehydrating the grass and plants all around the ground. Somehow, Matt and everyone else seemed to get more water on them than the grass... 👀

• The Impressionists got to work continuing to paint the wooden structure in bright colours to give the whole area a fresh look. We will be continuing this next time...

• The Stationary Stationeryers had the detail-oriented job of removing as many staples as possible from the walls all around the mezzanine of the indoor hall using an array of tools from scissors to screwdrivers to nails!

It was a busy half hour, but don't worry, Matt still found time to lie in the hammock and go on a boat trip with Chris. Phew.

Buzzing for cake

We whipped back to Queen's Square (with a Darren & Alex v. cyclist Strava segment on the way) for a stretch off then we shimmied inside to wish Clo a very happy birthday with birthday bumps and eating her delicious bee shaped cake! 🎈

It was great to have Sarah, Karen, Elizabeth, Janine, Beanie, Claire, Genoveva and Zhang join us on their first Group Run tonight, several of whom were joining us as part of the Bristol SU Mind Your Head campaign. Welcome all!

We got warmed up (and I had to warm up my Maths due to Clem's demands) then split into two groups for the night with Liam leading a shorter-run group and the rest of us heading on a 5km loop.

Tool-tal wipeout

Liam's group (with impressive 2-day post marathon backmarking from Matt) headed to Faithspace where we were helping Hotwells and Redcliffe Development Group. This was a task planned a couple of months ago which we got distracted from by helping them with an emergency that night instead. By now, our planned gardening was desperately needed! The group set to work with gardening in the small park next to Faithspace, making a big difference to brightening up the local community. Another group were given the task of leafleting about the community happenings to the local houses, which turned into more of a challenge due to the extreme lack of residential houses in the area! They ventured further afield and managed to complete the task in no time.

Don't skip a beat

The rest of us set off to our regular session at Felix Road Adventure Playground. Thank you to Richard B for wonderful backmarking on our journey along the cycle path with chair, squat and sprint fitness stops and a cheer team of a several groups of local children on wheels. We soon arrived and were met by the usual overjoyed welcome from the team. The group were split into two: a skip team and gardening team.

Team Skip got to work with with smashing and bashing (technical term) to fit all the items into the skip. I must say, I have never seen such a neatly packed skip in all my life, neither have I witnessed someone saw a wheely bin in half (nice work Russ) or get quite so into hammering things to pieces (slightly worrying, really...) Team Gardening had the massive task of tackling all the nettles, brambles and sticky willy (I promise it's an innocent thing) to clear the land for planting and make it safe for the children to play.

In half an hour the team smashed through the tasks and once again left a very pleased Felix Road team with 6 bags of garden waste bagged, 2 bags of litter picked and a full skip waiting to be collected.

Tool-y, skip-y, sticky missions complete!

It was wonderful to see so many people tonight for our event ahead of World Earth Hour on Saturday. Especially good to welcome Richard, Alice, Alexander and Andy to their first GoodGym Bristol run!

Tonight was a cause for many a celebration as it was Zdeni's 100th Good Deed, which she has completed her past 50 deed for in just 3 months! Massive well done Zdeni, you are great!

Hopscotch, Skip and Squat Jump

Our first group tonight went to our regular task, Felix Road Adventure Playground. While our tasks were set up, the group started the longest Squat Jump Macarena (in my opinion, anyway). The Felix Road team were glad to see so many pairs of hands for the big, heavy work they had planned for us. They had hired a skip and the group first had to clear the skip of metal objects, which they can sell to make money for the charity and then clear a large wood stack and a whole area of wood, rubbish and more ready for the summer. The group split into teams and got the work done in just 20 minutes, much to the Felix Road team's amazement!

Next, it was time for our regular clear-up of the playground. Half the group got to work tidying toys and picking up litter. Meanwhile, the other half of the group did a 10 minute sprint leafleting session to spread the word of Helpful Peeps locally.

Before we left, it was time for a game of Cone Up, Cone Down (but which way really is up?). It was a neck-in-neck competition and the cones up finally took it with just one cone and some questionable rule-following.

Picker-point

Mel led the second group to Dame Emily Park to help them with a big litter-pick of the area. The group filled 11 big bin bags from around the park and only had to stop when there were no more bags left. Included in their pickings were Darren's bear, which was then held at picker-point with Darren.

This was in competition with Alice's bear which, although she had threatened to wear her panda onesie, had turned out to be a panda carrot cake to continue our World Earth Hour theme. The litter-picking crew got in their quick, but reports have it that it was the tastiest panda around.

Once Zdeni's group had conjoled her into her Centurion outfit, she also produced an array of amazing baking to add the party. We do love it when someone reaches a milestone!

Our final (sadder) celebration of the night was to say bye to Alex who is off to Pembrokeshire for the summer. We will miss you (and who is going to make the puns?!) but have an amazing time!