It was another mega edition of new runners at GoodGym Bristol tonight - it was great to have Vicki, Maria, Tom, Rosie, Sophie and David join us for the first time, as well as some of the Team GB GoodGym event runners come and join us for a regular session.

To match this huge number we also had three tasks to complete tonight. We got warmed up with a game of the playground-classic, Toilet Tig, then split into three groups, with Maria and Mel run and walk leading - thank you both!

Toilet humour

The warm-up was fitting to get Mel's group ready for their task, as they were heading on a walk/run group back to the Southville Centre. After we had given their toilets a first lick of paint last week, our crafty walkers and runners got to work putting all hands on deck to give it a second coat. Even though some people were said to be loos-ing the plot (thanks Mel), the bathrooms were soon looking glossier in their sleek gray (the latest colour trend, of course).

Loos-ing the Plot

Meanwhile, Maria led a group of 10 on a longer 9km run to help the Matthew Tree Project at their gardening allotment plot. The group took the hill up there in their stride and arrived ready to tackle the work to be done. Rosa set the team to their tasks of composting, weeding and picking tomatoes. Not only did they get to use wheelbarrows, they also got a great view of Bristol as dusk fell!

Crate burpees

The rest of the group headed off to Easton to help East Bristol Foodbank. They have just had their recent delivery of supermarket collection donations and we were doing our regular task of sorting them into different categories so they can be easily distributed to people in need. Andy from the food bank said that our half an hour session with them had saved their regular volunteers 3-4 hours of work! Wow.

As we were such a big group, we split into two groups, with half working and half doing The Centurion Burpee Challenge at any one time. This was created specially for this evening's centurion, Alice, but she had managed to sneak off into the toilet crew so everyone had to do her burpees for her. The two groups smashed it, with the winning teams making it to the top of Victorious Hill in 5 minutes and 4 minutes respectively.

After all of this, we headed back to Queen Square to reunite the groups and to crown Alice with her celebratory Centurion outfit and the latest addition of the UniHorn, which centurions now have to ride around the circle, while galloping, holding their shield and high-fiving all the rest of the GoodGymers. Some say it is harder than doing all of the 100 deeds put together. Massive well done Alice - you are amazing!

To prove her amazingness to us all even more, Alice had baked DELICIOUS celebratory scones which she militantly guarded until people proved that they were eating them the Cornish way. Stay true to your routes, girl.

Pun credit to Matt and Mel, who are way funnier than me

The sun was shining for our special event in Bristol today as we partnered with I Am Team GB for the Nations Biggest Sports day!

Welcome and congratulations to the many of you who braved the heat and the long run for their very first GoodGym session. Give a huge cheer to Caroline, Katherine, Cathryn, Hannah, Matthew, Anna, Sam, Nadia, Louise, Nora, Abby, Caroline and Emma ! It was also so great to see some lovely GoodGym tourism, with runners from Cardiff, Bath, Hounslow and even as far as York visiting for the day!

At GoodGym there are three main ways we do good – group runs, which happen in Bristol every Tuesday at 6:30 from the gym we met at today, coach runs, where an individual runner visits an elderly or isolated person every week, and missions, where two or more runners will go on a one-off visit to do a job at an elderly person’s house. It all started almost 10 years ago with one man, our founder Ivo, running to deliver a paper to an older gentleman, and now we’re in over 50 locations across the UK..it’s the best way to get fit and do good going!

The idea behind today’s special I am Team GB event is to get people more active and take part in local sporting and community activities and we had the honour of being joined at the run by GB superstar and skeleton pro Jack Thomas. What a treat! Dreams were later made real when we had the once in a lifetime chance (for most of us!) to be presented a medal by a member of our Olympic team. Oooh!

After lots of photos we did a warm up which got our heart rates up, and had a quick poll to determine which was our favourite biscuit. Well, the results are in, and the survey says: custard creams by a landslide! But the discussion continued into our run as we debated whether jaffa cakes were indeed a biscuit or a cake – the eternal conundrum.

Nice and hot Nissen Hut

Our task today was to support the Friends of Eastville Park, and after a very hot and sweaty 5km, we arrived at the park and faced the big old hill at the end of the run. Luckily there was cordial and ice cubes waiting for us and we cooled off in the beautiful WW2 Nissen Hut while organiser Andrew told us about the various jobs we had to do.

While the first group headed off to the gorgeous old (and unfortunately empty) Victorian swimming pool to help spruce it up, pulling up weeds and clearing rubbish, the second group tackled the graffiti at the loos, while the third lot worked on the pesky dock leaves outside the hut. It was hot work, but nothing could stop the 36 of of you who worked hard for 30 minutes. Luckily there was a tasty reward in the shape of some vanilla ice cream, so after a sweet cool down, we headed down to the shady bottom part of the park for a sort fitness session.

In honour of the Nation’s Biggest Sports Day, we went back to our youth and did a themed session which started off with a quick warm up (with forfeits!) and included a relay featuring skipping, sack race jumps, a three legged race and even wheelbarrows. Perhaps it was no surprise that the team with the GB athlete ran away with the win, but it was close!

We took the second half of the run at a steady pace, and regrouped near the end to finish all together – all with the backdrop of some very good smelling BBQs and tunes from the local jazz festival to see us in!

We finished off the session with some stretches and a medal ceremony with Jack handing out the well-earned prizes. Even our doggo mascot for the day got one! There was also the ceremonial handing over of the Golden Trowel from Bristol to York, the current winners who take the crown for doing the most good deeds in January. As you can see from the photos Bristol wasn’t totally ready to give up their trophy!

Fantastic work today everybody. We got loads done for a community organisation that relies on volunteers to keep a much loved public space open and welcoming, and we even smashed a good 10km run in the process. Happy National Sports Day gang!