Ah, what a lovely run! With the sun beaming down on us once again, loads of great people met up at Vivo Sports Club to run to the charity Emmeaus which is dedicated to helping homeless people finding employment and get themselves in to their own homes.

The run there was pleasantly uneventful, and we made it to our task in good time where we met with Jessica from Emmeaus who introduced us to the charity and also told us how to say the name! (Em-may-ous is the phonetic spelling). She handed up gloves and tools and the gang set to weeding all around the building.

She also kitted Darren and Chris L up in steel toe capped boots (that she just happened to have on hand....), gave them a sledgehammer and pointed them in the direction of some cobbles that needed smashing. DARREN SMASH! CHRIS SMASH! HULK SMASH...sorry, getting carried away.... Chips were flying everywhere, cobbles were obliterated, and then rest of the team dived in to clear the cobbles away as as fast as possible, in some cases using a random wok that they'd found.

They also planted some flowering shrubs; Jessica had planted a hydrangea a few weeks ago and no one had sat on it or squashed it, so she felt it was safe to plant a few more shrubs.

As they weeded, a lovely selection of rubbish was found. Today's highlights included:
A traffic cone.
Half a bottle of vodka
A full and unopened bottle of cider (rather nice cider, but no one wanted to drink it!).

We did a lot but there's still more to do, so we'll be back next week to continue smashing the cobbles (some of the ladies fancy a go!), trim bushes, weed and do random things with cooking implements.

Lastly HUGE congrats to Matthew, Emily and Kim who've done their 50th, 50th and 200th run respectively. Also a MAHOOOOSIVE Goodgym welcome to newbies Fran, Harriet, Debbie and Lisa. Thanks for coming to run with us and we hope you'll be back.

To check if you actually read this run report, next week the code word is 'pink wafers'. Say it to me at some point in the run. There's no prize, I just sometimes wonder who gets all the way to the end of my reports!

28 cool and crazy people met up at Vivo Gym for one of our shorter runs last night, including many new faces - welcome new guys!

We ran to a very busy area of central Bristol - Stokes Croft. There we met Sara from Incredible Edible and armed with gloves, trowels and bin bags proceeded to weed a large area of garden that covered the space in between 2 large lanes of traffic.

It was a warm night and the area was very dusty - it got in to our eyes and noses and there was a bit of sneezing going on. It seemed to have special clinging properties! Sara was just lamenting the lack of a broom as there were lots of dust on the ground and bits of plant, and then like magic new girl Natasha conjured up two of them! Amazing!

After a good 30 minutes of hard graft and shuttling a vast amount of weeds to a community compost area just up the road, our work here was done... but the hard work was just beginning. So was the rain...

Gary led about half the group on a very hilly run up to the University grounds. There were steps. Many many steps. Just remember that steps are your friend and will make you fitter when you run up them.

I (Pru) took the other half back to Queens Square where we did some fitness drills to improve our running technique... and you thought you were getting off lightly!

We were having a good stretch when Gary's gang got back so did a few announcements (remember that there's a run on Saturday!), and then Gary's group had a stretch too, and we were done!

With the sun came the run, and so 25 fabulous people met up at Vivo Gym for a run back to St Pauls Community Allotments.

We had a little jog on the spot to warm up, did our introductions, and off we went! With the sun comes more people out and about on the streets of Bristol, and so we encountered a few noisy people who wanted to cheer us on our way.

We swiftly made it to the allotments where we met up with Pete who is the 'Empowerment Officer' - in other words, he's the guy who makes stuff happen! We helped him with this by grabbing loads of tools and clearing up a path all the way through the allotment area, including a vast amount of weeding, a great deal of bramble and bush chopping, and the removal of a large amount of junk that has accumulated over the years.

A handy skip just outside of the allotments was the destination for this junk; at some point one of the GoodGym gang must have come across the worst smell in the world and put it in to the skip. I can still smell it now. I'll still be able to smell it next week. But it's gone from the allotments, which is a GOOD thing indeed.

It was hard to tear ourselves away from the allotments as there was so much to do so we spent an extra 10 minutes or so there. Hopefully people who live in the houses that back on to the allotments will start to use them to grow their own fruit and veg, and our help has gone a long way to making that a possibility.

We ran back and didn't do the little 10 minute circuit that I'd lined up! What I shame, I hear you all say. Oh well, we can do it next week.

Well done gang, fabulous work!!!

We had the most magnificent run yesterday. No less than 43 people and 1 Radio 1 reporter met up at Vivo Gym to run over to Windmill Hill City Farm. Last week we had 40 people. Last night, 43. What next? How many more people can we get running?

It was a beautiful evening for a run, warm and dry, and we headed off in good time despite the mass of runners - having 2 sign in sheets really helped, plus Kim was on sign up wrangling duty so we set off on time to get to the farm. One hill and a bit of flat later, and we were there, with Jim from Radio 1 Newsbeat in tow - I was mightily impressed by his ability to run and interview people at the same time, serious fitness/journalism skills!

Once at the farm, it took a few moments to get the task in motion, so we all enjoyed some lunges and squats (isometric squats, if you fancy a long word to describe your squats!). I'm sure everyone was gutted when the tools turned up and everyone dived in to grab the sharpest loppers. Our task was to trim trees and hedges at the edge of the farm, as well as doing a massive litter pick - Kim grabbed some of the runners to pop over to a near by community patchwork garden to give it a little spring clean, given there were runners all over the place and we could spare a few.

As we chopped, lopped, barrowed and litter picked, Jim went around the gang, speaking to people about GoodGym - thank you so much to everyone who spoke with him (and no worries if you hid from him, we had loads of people who could chat!). Also we have been thanked by the members of the church group who meet opposite the hedge - a lady from the church came and asked me who we were, what we were doing and why, and she was ever so pleased to see the area cleaned up, plus a chap driving by asked if we needed anymore volunteers, and I could very honestly say 'thanks but no thanks!'.

With 43 people, I felt it was safe to let some of the gang have a quick look at the spring lambs that were the current attraction on the farm, but it was still a job to round everyone up for the group photo at the end.

Chris B led a faster group of runners off to do a couple of laps of Queens Square, whereas I led the regular group to do just the one (and provide cheering for the sprint at the end), then we finished in our usual corner of the square with a good stretch and an endless series of announcements, plus a strong rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for Chris L. Good luck wishes were given to all those heading off to Budapest at the weekend to join in with the massive GoodGym running team over there - although it seems that in Bristol we're a big running team anyway.

If you're a regular runner with GoodGym, then you may be sick of reading me write this: THANK YOU! If you're new, WELCOME and THANK YOU - I really am at a loss for words to describe how amazing I think you all are for coming along. Whilst I'm so proud we've had 43 runners, it's not about quantity of people, it's about quality, and you are all made of pure diamond.

24 fit and fabulous runners headed off to the Children's Scrapstore yesterday evening.

A chill wind was a little off putting but once moving, we got lovely and warm. We made good time to the Scrapstore and got divvied up in to several teams.

Team 1: Notice board sorters. Their mission was to remove all out of date notices.

Team 2: Stirers. Their misson was to open old tins of paint and give them a good stir. It was amazing how the paint changed colour!

Team 3: Fluff makers. They were given some Stanley knives and cut the ends of reels of thread from spindles, creating a large amount of fluff in the process!

Team 4: Net cutters. At first just 2 people but then their numbers were bolstered by newbies Leanne and Pramimder (welcome to the gang ladies!).

Team 5: Fabric slicers. A huge amount of Fireman Sam print fabric needed chopping, then a rather fetching scarlet cloth.

Last but not least, Team 6 were once again on phone sorting duty. Every single time we have been to the Scrapstore, there are phones to unbox andsplit in to components. One day we will reach the end... One day.

Then we headed back really fast, and had a great stretch back at Vivo. Top work team!

Carrying on from our record breaking January, we had an epic turn out of 34 amazing Britolians to this week’s GoodGym. We met at Vivo Gym, and after a briefing from Chris headed out through Castle Park, along the other railway path, and to the Foodbank at the Big Yellow Storage, where we met Andy. This week’s task was to sort all of the donated food from one of the storage rooms into separate categories, and then store them in another container so that they can be distributed to the foodbank’s and then on to the people who need the food. Everyone got stuck in, and there was a flurry of activity, moving crates of food across the corridors and sorting them all out. We managed to get everything done just in time, finishing off the last crate just in time. We got masses done – Andy said that this task would normally have taken them 5 weeks! It was an incredibly satisfying task.

With the task complete, and a selfie in the lift done, we headed back through St Philips and to end back at Vivo. Nice work all round everyone!

24 wonderful people met up at Roll for The Soul this Saturday. We had some newbies (welcome!) and a lot of oldies (metaphorically, of course), including Fraser from the Friends of Brandon Hill, who was the kind gent who provided us with our task today.

We had a little warm up, punctuated by the odd noisy bus going past, and soon started running the short distance to Brandon Hill. Although short in distance, the climb up to the top was considerable and more than one person had to have a little walk!

Once we mounted the summit, Fraser explained our various tasks; mulching, weeding and forking (well, making holes with a fork).

A swift bunch grabbed wheel barrows and a couple of people clambered in to a large trailer full of mulch, and in no time a procession of barrow pushers and rake wielders were making their way even further up the hill to a patch of garden that needed the special GoodGym touch. Quickly a bit of competition arose between the barrow pushers to see who could deliver the most mulch!

The weeders had a variety of sharp prongy things which they used to grub up all sorts of unwanted plant life, and when the mulch was delivered, they spread it over the flower bed to both nourish it and prevent further weeds from sprouting in the spring. It was one of those jobs that wasn't big and flashy but was really really important.

The forkers were down on the bowling green, aerating the rather waterlogged soil. They tried their utmost to be organised and do it in set lines, but some people (not naming any names...) kept going off piste a bit. Nonetheless, a great job was done there by only a small group of people.

Sadly the rain gods seem to have looked upon us today with a bit of disfavor and it was rather damp, however none of us got drenched, and if you kept moving, the rain was actually quite refreshing. Plus I'm sure we all got a little warm glow when Fraser told us of the passers by on Brandon Hill who thanked us for our hard work - what we did today was to make a beautiful and valuable site for all of central Bristol a little lovelier, WELL DONE!

With all our tasks done, we headed back to Roll for the Soul where coffee, veggie curry and halloumi wraps were the order of the day.

Friends, runners, goodgymmers! Lend me your eyes and read this tale of 26 people who, meeting at Vivo gym, ran to a theater (darling) to perform a great feat of goodness:

Twas an unseasonably warm night,we met by lamp light, Chris led the way on our run that day.

Across a bridge, then another, in to Bedminster (my luvver!).

We got given maps, handed postcards, and then headed out to cover yards and yards.

A postbox here, a letterbox there, word of the theater we did share!

And when our posting time was done, back to the theater we did run.

Once returned, we assembled like herded cats, but not before we found a great choice of hats!

Photo ready, we stood up tall, in a wonderful performance hall.

To end our quest, to Queens Square we rushed, where choices were made to to ensure we were bushed.

Some stretched, some sprinted, but all were done, and by the end I can truly say 'what a great run!'

(No dictionaries or thesaurus' were injured in the creation of this run report).

Also massive apologies for the wrong orientation of the photos - I've tried many times to get them the correct way around!