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

What an absolutely fantastic evening! My first run as trainer and I couldn't have wished for a better group of people or tasks!

Our planned task for tonight was to help local project APE to give St Paul's Adventure Playground a bit of a makeover, but with such a wonderful turn out we were again able to send a small group off to help our good friend Raluca spread mulch at Malago Berry Maze. Much mulch was spread and to cap a dream night, our very own mattock man was immediately assigned the task of smashing up bricks. Massive thanks to Dave for leading the berry party.

After a shortish run through Riverside park the playground group arrived at the playground to find that Guy and Rachel had done an Ape'ic job of preparing tasks for us. We had sanding, metal rail painting, shutter painting, fence painting, leaf collecting, litter picking and .... wait for it ... Trampoline Building! As a result all 25 of us were instantly being productive and enjoying the massive variety of work.

After 35 mins of activity we had loads of multi-coloured fence panels, lovely red metal work, gorgeous yellow shutters, sanded posts ready for painting, a forecourt clear of leaves and a trampoline base assembled. In fact the most difficult part of the evening was getting everyone to leave!

Special mention to Richard who managed to paint his fence posts with one contact lens, Ed and Richard for some amazing sanding work, Ned and Liam for rail painting and newcomer Petra for her amazing leaf collection efforts. And of course to the whole fence panel and trampoline team!

We managed a group photo and dashed off - there was even just enough time for trampoline engineer Kerry to try the zip line. We'll be back!

On return to base I shamelessly got the lead group into plank position on the basis that I wanted to call this run Plank-it of the Ape but then Fi came up with the much better pun above - sorry folks (not really sorry, it's good for your core!).

Finally, Anna did an excellent job of setting up a posed APE (and made a very convincing exclamation mark).

We've been doing a few double tasks recently and it's fantastic that we can help even more projects. It's only possible though because you lovely people keep coming along! You're all legends!

Thanks Jack for leading the second group. Clo and Matt for back marking and lastly but definitely not leastly, thanks Emma for suggesting this task!

It was a Tuesday the like of which the streets of Bristol had never seen before. Due to this being my final group run leading the troops a call was put out to the runners in red to dress in a fancy fashion with random being the theme. A disappoint they did not. There were penguins, unicorns, caped-crusaders, police dogs and so many more eye-catching outfits. It was more random than hitting the infinite improbability drive while sitting atop a dice being rolled through the National Lottery machine Guinevere into a black hole.

The task faced by our motley crew of running do-gooders this evening was to help weigh and sort food donated by supermarkets to the East Bristol Foodbank. Once all our lively characters were suited and booted and more warmed up than a freshly baked potato wearing a new jumper knitted by her nan in front of log fire, we took to the streets. The first group was led by me and back marked by the ever assistant Pink Panther. The rubbish rear group, so named due to it's leader the Godfather's bin bag attire, was back marked by Matterhorn.

The rain came but drowned not one once of joy as we paced through the 1.5 miles to meet Andy at the storage yard to get to work. On arrival I was surprised that Super Bearded Irish Clo and Box Donkey Rich had setup at little photo gallery of some of my best photos from group runs. You guys are the best! Andy explained our task and we set to work. A long line was established to collect a crate, weigh it, and then separate its contents into types of foodstuff. It was slow to start but once everyone started getting the hang of where the donations went we really got the can do attitude.

After 30 minutes of lifting, shifting, weighing, and sorting we had gone through most of the contents of room to be sorted. Alas we did not have enough time to finsih the lot but we did make a really big dent in it. Like imagine if there was a shipping container that got punched by a yeti wearing a solid gold boxing glove and was catapulted into it using a medieval trebuchet, yeah that kind of big dent.

After we finished we were thanked by Andy and we headed off into the rain. We sailed through the 1.5mile run back and stretched in Queen Square before I said my final goodbye and handed over to Paul who will be leading the group going forward. Thank you all so much for your non-stop enthusiasm and helpfulness, you are an absolute inspiration. Thanks for my the personalised buff, unicorn cake and lovely card. Keep up the greatness while I'm away, I will be back to check on you...

BYE!!!!

A Message from Us to you Gary:

125/365 Gary, #GGBristol run leader extrordinaire and master of puns is leaving us to go on an epic adventure. So we sent him on his way in the only way we know how, fancy dress and cake. Have a bloody amazing time @gazebo1984! 🌎👋 🚵😎 #GoodGym #365project

A post shared by Alice Whale (@alicethewhale) on Sep 12, 2017 at 12:50pm PDT

A double whammy tonight as both our task and run leader had to be substituted at the very last minute.

Our trainer Gary was unwell so he was unable to join us for his penultimate Bristol run. (There were some rumours that he just needed the extra time to put the finishing touches to his fancy dress costume for his farewell session next week).

Not only that, but our original task had been canceled! Fortunately, the emergency red GG Bristol phone had rung just hours earlier with an urgent request for help down at the Malago Greenway Berry Maze. The project (which we visited just last weekend) had run into difficulties after ploughing had revealed a veritable mine field of rubble that was sure to take out the rotivator when it arrived later in the week and put paid to the Mock A Maze day planned this Saturday.

Naturally we jumped at the chance to help out - our members love nothing more than to help a project in need - so we headed out along the Malago Greenway and got stuck in moving as many rocks as possible out of the soil and into a pile. Meanwhile Tom, Ian, Alex, Andrew and Richard were on wheelbarrow and refuse sack duty moving the pile into a location for collection by a skip.

Everyone worked hard collecting up rubble and rubbish. As is often the case we made some interesting discoveries - a shoe, an old orangina bottle and indeed it appeared that on this occasion that we had discovered an ancient car burial site as first Liam uncovered a tyre and then Rachel located a steering wheel in amongst all the dirt.

By the time we were due to leave we had uncovered most of the rocks so Mock a Maze should be able to go ahead!

Thanks everyone for adapting so willingly to the changed plan. Raluca was really grateful for our help and this was one of those occasions when it's difficult to see who else could have done all that manual labour at such short notice. You all rock!

Our work finished, we returned to base and then headed off to our monthly eats. A really great turnout at the meal tonight (as you can see on the selfie!) - lovely to have you all along both at the task and at the restaurant afterwards!

Thanks to Dave for leading the second group and to my back markers Alex and Clo. Thanks also to Caroline, Richard and Jack for the glove run!

Welcome also to new runners Emma and Richard

Don't forget it's (optional) fancy dress next week for Gary's last run. No theme, the more random the better!

It was a warm and balmy night (or should that be barmy?) in Brizzle when 30 runners met to take on two tasks spanning the length of the city centre. After meeting and running through some warm ups we split into two teams. Dave's team headed to the Bedminster Patchwork Project to help tidy their South Street patch. My team we more inclined to go further and headed up to the Golden Hill Community Garden (or Golden Balls as I called it in the warm up) to promote their Harvest Fair on the 9th September.

Team Golden Balls

With my trusty back marker Nick team Golden Balls rolled through the streets and really shined when it came to tackling the hills. When we arrived at the community garden we were met by Clare. She gave us an introduction to the great work that the farm do offering people from all walks of life the opportunity to try their hand at gardening. To fundraise for their work they are having a Harvest Fair on Saturday 9th September. We will also be heading back their to help on the day too. We split into 5 groups, 4 flyering the nearby streets and 2 putting up posters to grab the attention of the passers by. Maps were handed out and instructions given before everyone took on the task. Due to long run their and back the time we had was short but that didn't seem tomato to these keen runner beans.

After 15 minutes most of the groups returned and were given a tour of the garden before we left. One group remained AWOL. Neil and Georgina were far too keen and wanted to put up all of the posters they could. Eventually we were all back together and ran back down the hill to Vivo for a stretch off.

The Patchwork Plummers

Dave's Patchwork Plummers fig-ured a shorter run would be a nice option. Taking a fine nine runners over to Bedminster we met up with the lovely Laura from the Patchwork Group, for the second week running, this time on South Street to help tidy up a small garden of land just on the approach to North Street.

Here we were greeted with a fig tree, plum tree, Fat Hen weeds and some bushes to trim plus some grass to cut. A pair of shears were in great demand with Petra tending to the grass, Guido tackling some weeds and Alice (combining shears and loppers, such a pro!) on bush duty.

Ed, Molly, Roanna (a combination of her mother and father's names apparently), Gulnara and Mel made a fine job of clearing the weeds and secateuring (?) the bushes, before we sampled the plums which in the main were a little sour for our liking but Petra seemed to enjoy them as she came back with a stash!

Our shorter run gave us more time on the task and so managed to leave the garden looking much nicer and neater than it had been when we arrived.

Massive well done to everyone who ran along tonight. It was warm, it was tough but you all delivered.

On a splendid summer evening over 30 smiling runners met to run to Bedminster to help the Patchwork Project to fix up some street gardens that were in weed of some attention.

The patchwork project are led by the ever welcoming Laura and Liz who met us after our 1 mile run from Vivo. They have several areas of ground in the area that they tend to planting bulbs and plants to make the street beautiful. Recently the beds on Stackpool Lane had been damaged really badly by what appeared to be a drunk gorilla wielding a strimmer while pretending it was a mic stand and performing a tribute to Freddy Mercury in full flow of rendition of I want to break free. So the task was simple. Stop, snip, chop, weed, and tidy the beds.

Runners new and regular set to work quickly choosing a patch of land to give their attention to and set to work. Alex and Neil took down some pretty big flora scalps while a couple of new runners set about planting bulbs in a patch that had been decimated by some recent waterworks. Not the crying kind hopefully, more the pipes and taps kind of palaver.

Soon it became apparent that due to our fantastic turn out we would have the job done well within time. This gave me the opportunity to take some energetic souls out for a trip around the harbour while the rest stayed on to finish the final few jobs. My gallant bunch performed sprint after sprint focusing on their form by staring at scaffolding. Hats off to you all for accepting the challenge every time I yelled "See that lampost? Sprint to it!". You were brilliant.

We all met back in Queen Square for a cool down and a stretch to round off what was a really fun evening. Shouts out to David for gaining his 50th deed on Saturday and therefore his coveted black GoodGym t-shirt, and to Alice (the) Whale for becoming our 15th centurion by completing her 100th good deed on her birthday no less! Well done Whale, we're so lucky to have you and your massive hair in our group, you fricking rock!

That left nothing more to do then to go and get some pizza and cider to celebrate so we all lived apply ever after...

Until next time,

Gary

As Yazz once said "the only way is up" and that was certainly the case tonight. 22 spring legged runners met to tackle the hills of Redland to deliver leaflets for Above and Beyond promoting their Christmas parties and Bristol to Paris Bike ride.

We met at Vivo and warmed up with some leg spinning and introductions before breaking into two groups with Dave and Alice leading the front and myself and Clo the rear. Jacob Wells Road provided the main challenge with it's slow curving gradient rising like a genetically manipulated cobra uncoiling upwards to protect itself from the immanent danger of a oncoming gigantic mongoose wading through across the river towards it.

We reached the Godfather's car that was parked nearby and picked up the leaflets we were to deliver. These were distributed between the runners and then we took our two teams of 12 to separate parts of the area, Team Godfather to the West and Team Gazebo to the East. As if the hills were not enough most of the house in the area had steep steps too so the climbing just kept on coming. But this did not deter our hardy runners in red and they stepped up to the challenge and they certainly delivered a fantastic performance as every single leaflet was posted with time to spare.

They way back to Vivo was a breeze as it was all downhill. We met up in Queen Square where Dave's group arrived a little earlier so performed 3 types of lunge before my group came to meet them and stretch out.

Thanks for coming along everyone, I think that must have been a record for the number of leaflets delivered in on GoodGym but not having counted them we have no idea, but as we said let's just say it was one more than our last record hey.

See y'all again soon.