It was trowelly spadetacular night at GoodGym Bristol. (Out-punning yourself even when you aren't here Jack)

Richard joined the elusive GoodGym Centurion club with tonight being his** 100th Good Deed**. Massive congratulations to you Richard! We couldn't let this momentous occasion pass without Richard getting the joy or embarrassment (depending on your attitude) through the opportunity to squeeze into the Centurion outfit on one of the hottest days of the year to sweat out the glory of all those years of hard work. And he made the most spectacular cakes to match his spectacular achievement, which we promptly demolished and placed orders for more, ASAP.

At last weekend's GoodGym Shindig, Bristol were awarded a very special prize for winning the January GoodGym Challenge. We are now the proud owners of a bronze engraved trowel, which will be displayed on mantelpieces around Bristol with pride. A big well done once again to all the GoodGymers that contributed to our Good Deeds in January and to Paul for aptly leading the group to victory.

Amid all this excitement, we welcomed five new runners and completed two tasks. It was great to have you Louise, Phil, Becky, Joanna and Flora and we hope to see you soon!

Eleven keen weeders succumbed to Gary's coos of an easy, 8 kilometre run and were soon engrossed in a hilly epic around the steep climbs of Bristol. They arrived at St Alban's Church in Westbury Park to get stuck in to a huge amount of weeding to get under control. Luckily, they were fueled with refreshments from Sue and Paul, and they had the *Golden Trowel * to help them with any tricky bits. The group did a great job and they were soon flying back along the hills to get stuck into as much cake as they could before the crowds got home.

The rest of the group finally, after 9 months of trying, managed to treat the fences at St Werburgh's Primary. The fences around their playground need a treatment to keep them strong in the rain. Unfortunately, the first three times we tried to do this, it ironically rained so we couldn't do this. If this heatwave has been good for anything then it is the fact that a big chunk of their fences are now treated and ready for action.

What an eventful night and an impressively Good bunch of GoodGymers.

It was a tale of two teacups today (well one was strictly a mug) as 23 Goodgym legendary heroes braved the early stages of storm Eleanor to take on a double task of a litter pick and a tea and coffee outreach in conditions that were frankly appalling.

The rain started pretty much as soon as we gathered for the warm up and didn't let up until we got back. Kait claimed that these conditions didn't suit her as she is a fair weather runner, but we know that's not true as her very first run was the infamous HelpfulPeeps leaflet drowning of 2017 and she came back after that one (an anecdote I related to my kids last week as we finally sorted out the last of the water damaged cards from that night - yes the Christmas evenings really fly by in the Becker household).

But I digress.

Litter Pick and Free (Cold) Shower

Our original task tonight was treating the fence at St Werburghs primary school. Clearly that was a non-starter so having noticed that the road opposite the school was littered with beer cans and rubbish I suggested we clear that for them and they gave me an enthusiastic 'yes'. Of course I hadn't reckoned with the driving rain so we did what we could to clear the more accessible items and still managed to accrue 4 or 5 bags before it was time to go - with tonights collected items including a shoe (of course - it wouldn't be a litter pick without one), a mug and two computer motherboards. We then had fun fording some rather deep puddles to return safely back to base.

Well done all of you - and good work keeping yourselves warm with a few start jumps and squats at the bus stop while we retrieved the litter pickers and bags from the car. So proud.

Team Tea Trolley

A number of groups have been doing outreach to the city's homeless over the Christmas period but with the main Christmas shelter having closed last weekend and with many of those groups now pretty frazzled, it seemed like it might be a nice time for us to jump in and do our bit to offer a little extra comfort to folks sleeping rough in the rain tonight.

We packed up a couple of bags with some tea, coffee and biscuits and two three person teams headed off around Bristol to offer a hot drink to anyone who looked like they might appreciate it. By all accounts this went really well and was greatly appreciated with 16 people enjoying a hot drink and a chat from our lovely outreach teams. Well done to all involved!

Well done everyone, you all deserve medals - or at the very least a nice bath and a hot chocolate for braving the weather and coming along tonight. Special mention to Sally on her first run with GG Bristol - hopefully like Kait she'll return many times now because frankly if you can rock up on a night like tonight then there is nothing you can't do.

A last minute cancellation due to the damp weather meant that we were no longer treating the fences and shed at St Werburghs primary school. In search of a replacement I scrabbled frantically under my desk. This might not generally be considered the most constructive approach to the problem but in this case my scrabbling led me to a box containing the very last few HelpfulPeeps cards from our last leaflet drop - and thus was a new task born.

Our original plan would have taken us through riverside park and I had planned on an indian-file style running sleigh to take us part of the way, but with a (groundless) concern about icy surfaces I opted instead for the much nearer destination of Southville. This new location did have the added advantage that it was in fairly close proximity to the outreach being run by Help the Homeless at College Green. This seemed like something we might be able to help with as one of the tasks involved running around Bristol transporting hot drinks and donated clothing to any homeless people who might appreciate the warmth - and running is our thing.

So after meeting Comet (yay!!) at Gaol Ferry Steps we split into three, a Stackpool Road group, a North Street group and an outreach group (who were also supplied with a few leaflets in case they weren't able to help out after all!).

In the end leaflets were successfully delivered and clothes and drinks were transported so things worked out ok. Sadly, the primary school will have to wait for the new year.

Great to see some festive apparel for our last Tuesday tonight, alongside Comet we had Dasher return to the fold, some very festive glasses from Will, Mair with a Santa hat and plenty of festive tinsel. Thanks everyone - and if I don't see you before then have a great festive break! Oh - and a special thank you to newcomer Kate who even supplied some top photos on her very first session with us!

It remained only for us to congratulate Charlie on reaching 100 good deeds tonight. I didn't really express this very well earlier but Charlie is one of the very few runners still with us who have been with GG Bristol from the very start in 2013. In those days they didn't always remember to credit the deeds or she would have reached her century much quicker! She has also been a hugely supportive run leader for me in the last couple of months. So I'd just like to say thank you, Charlie on behalf of both myself and GG Bristol as a whole for all you've done for this club over the last 4 years - and congratulations on your well deserved century!