Tonight, we welcomed lots of new faces to GoodGym Bristol (welcome Verity, Fergus, Victoria, Teona, Clem and Lizzie!), celebrated Danica's 300th Good Deed and cleared up Felix Road Adventure Playground (in their exciting new floodlights!) with all hands on deck for litter-picking, cutting back nettles, brambles and branches and clearing up leaves to create more space for the children to play. Despite the wind and rain, we had a great time and got a lot done.

This was followed by our monthly GoodGym Eats, organised by the wonderful Maria, which resulted in the one-line-each story about (read: loosely based on) our night. Thank you for a fab birthday everyone and enjoy the resultingly mind-boggling read below (please note new runners, we are normally slightly less weird than this...).

And so I present to you: Our GoodGym Tuesday, written in single sentences inputted by 16 nonsencial GoodGymers. (Apologies to those who faced the wrath of my edit).

And so it begins...

Once upon a time, in a land far, far South West, 39 people gathered to do good...

There was Flimpy, Flumpy, Tipsy, Wipsy, Carl, Igor and his children Garth, Mickey, Claire and the man Woth the Wobbly Nose.

When the rain means no painting , we're sure to find a small wheelbarrow to move a lot of leaves, quite slowly.

Shenanigans tasked us with removing ALL the leaves so we needed help from the giant wheelbarrow!

"I, giant wheelbarrow was the perfect accessory for moving leaves.. a new task for GoodGym leaflessing.'

I have never seen soo many leaves, moved many times, by soo few people!

The special den-making twigs were kept for the children of Felix Road to get building.

We faced the sea of rain like valiant captains and cleaned all the litter away.

On the way back we were sure to take in a few dark alleys, these are a great way to make new friends #paulspointers

The run was cool. Stuff happened and we did good things. Then there were giant unicorns and unicorns with cats and badgers inside of them and magic was had by all.

And then in a twisted and unexpected turn of events...

WE BEGAN THE PURGE ...of Peshwari naan. Every last crumb was devoured. Then we came for the roti.

Then Shona hoped to not go the way of those before her on her twenty-fifth birthday, with the golden trowel as her protection.

However, there was no trowel golden enough to protect the unicorn from Danica's sudden unexpected treachery. Thus evening ended how it began, with a sharp implement to the face in the dark.

(Please note, no unsafe dark alleyways, implements to the face or any other unsafe activity was experienced this evening. The only thing harmed in the making of this run report was Danica's unicorn cake and potentially Paul's dignity.)

We stretched our Tuesday evening to the absolute limit tonight as we took on a hilly 8k round trip to Westbury to help sort donations that had been collected for the Samara's Aid charity to support refugees in Syria.

With run leaders a bit thin on the ground there was no option but to stay together in one large group for the long run up Park Street and Whiteladies Road - so I was super-impressed that everyone worked so hard to stay together over the whole journey. The evening had been billed as a #runandtalk event so I hope that everyone managed to have a bit of chat too - even if it was just at the odd traffic light along the way!

Once at the church we were greeted with a mountain of boxes of donated items and several heaps of garments that hadn't quite made the cut. Samara's Aid aim to aim to send only the best possible quality items to show the utmost care and respect for those who have lost everything.

With only 20 minutes or so it was great to see everyone picking a task and taking the initiative to work out what needed to be done and working so brilliantly as a team. I must admit I was a little concerned about how much we would be able to get done at the start of the evening but I needn't have worried - you are all donation sorting heros!

One group marked up completed boxes to indicate their contents while another formed a human chain to move the completed boxes out of the church to the porch for collection. And others helped pack up nappies and bedding or boxed up the remaining heaps of garments into boxes for men, women or children. We even managed to get a bit of pruning done outside the church!

The weather being so awful over the weekend we had been unable to deliver our leaflets for Above and Beyond so a small group of leafleters kindly volunteered to help out here as well.

With the room completely transformed, there was time for a group photo by the church organ pipes and even a little vocal performance - which I have to say really wasn't half bad - Bristol GoodGym choir anyone?

It was all downhill on the way back and after some stretching in Queen Square we congratulated Kait on hitting 100 good deeds tonight - well done Kait!!

Thanks to Charlie and Mel for the photos - and also to Mel for organising GoodGym Eats tonight

When you're leading a GoodGym run for the first time, it's really lovely (very scary) to have Ivo, the illustrious founder of GoodGym, along for the ride. We're sure Shona is enjoying her holiday whilst we keep up the good deeds in Bristol. My Shona impression went down very well, and we were very efficient at shooing the baby starfish.

Although the run was advertised as 9K, I reassured everyone it was more like 0.9K, and it was actually only 0.6K when we'd crossed all three zebra crossings to safely arrive at FaithSpace. The lovely organisers wanted some help with gardening, mainly turning over some huge compost heaps, and some leaflet distributing for their upcoming Autumn Extravaganza. WIth 37 GooodGymmers we soon made short shrift of the leafleting and were able to head off for some extra fitness training by running around the Harbour Loop with a few challenges thrown in by the run leaders - thanks Paul, Dave, Gary and everyone else who took off around the harbour, and to our gardening run leaders Alison, Jack, Patrick and Maria. We have left another organisation utterly impressed with what we can achieve. And had a surprising 5K extra run on a lovely evening in Bristol.

A big Bristol GG welcome to Robin and João who joined us for the first time, we hope to see you again very soon.

Celebration time back at Queens Square after cool down and stretches, Mair has reached the great milestone of 50 good deeds and introduced the alternative and VERY popular celebration treat of chocolate buttons. They were perfect with a pot of tea.

Thanks for being kind to me as I was being Fake Shona I. Fake Shona II takes over next week...

You've got the tools but have you got the touch?

With some stiff legs and sore throats from Bristol Half Marathon running and cheering at the weekend, a big group of runners still stumbled together to show Shania Twain what her lyrics should really be. It was great to see lots of new faces tonight - welcome Hannah, Stefano and Nia!

With the dark nights drawing in, the group did me proud with a great array of hi-viz and head torches on show. I am looking forward to seeing much more of this over the coming months! In our red and fluoro-clad group, we hopped off to the south side of the river to help two different tasks.

Dave took a group to Cherry Tree Garden, where they were helping Julie give the garden a big cut-back and weed for the Autumn. With all hands on deck, the 15-strong group made a massive dent in it and left the area neat and ready to be enjoyed by all the Bedminster locals. The group even had time to do a Beatles reenactment on their way home...

What the fork

Meanwhile, the rest of the group went to help Urban Buzz at Gores Marsh Park. Hayley from Urban Buzz explained to us that after a summer with a drought, followed by the recent rainy weather, the meadows in the park have now been left with a thick layer of mulch on them. We needed to remove this and then reseed it. Thirty pairs of hands got a hold of whatever tools they could find, and here started a competition between mulching with a fork, spade, rake, shovel or hoe was the best method. Meanwhile, our expert Mulch Movers skirted back and forth, getting rid of the piles of mulch being dragged up. With a quick reseed under the darkening sky, the group waved goodbye to the meadow and headed home.

Well done to everyone who helped make Bedminster beautiful tonight!

A bit of drizzle doesn't put Bristol GoodGym off! Despite the dreary weather and the umbrella obstacles, our group of runners helped two brilliant projects tonight. It was great to have so many new faces join us tonight - welcome John, Chris, Zoe, Tim and Matthew!

After we warmed up, the group split into two tasks: Westbury Park and the East Bristol Food Bank.

Westbury Park Wanderers

The Westbury Park group set off on their longer and hillier run. They made quick progress and were greeted by Sue and Paul from St Alban's Church who soon set them to work on the area. The group were sanding down the doorway to the church and weeding their way around the area (with regular trowels this time, not the famous golden trowel which made it's way there last time). After a biscuit-refueling, the group ran back and set such a quick pace that they had finished stretching before the Food Bank group were even in appearance!

Food Bank Fighters

The rest of us set off to our regular task, the East Bristol Food Bank. After our numerous occasions of helping them at their old storage unit, we had the exciting news that they had found their own space and they were moving. The group split into the packers and the unpackers, with the packers heading to say a final fond farewell to the our favourite lift in Bristol, while the unpackers went to investigate the new warehouse. While the packers cleared out the stocked up rooms and sent the final food donations on their way, the unpackers weighed and sorted the donations from the past week. There was a tie for the 'Weirdest Donation of the Week' between edible eyeballs and lemon cheese. Meanwhile, Clo and Caroline made a toilet roll tower which they were so proud of that I have attached a photo for the whole world to see.

With all of this help to sort their new space, the food bank will be able to receive more donations (and fit more GoodGymers inside to help!) - hooray!

We all had our first dark run back to our base. Remember your head torches and hi-vis from now on everyone!

A big batch of Bristol runners broke out of their beginning-of-the-week babble to bumble along, break some brambles, bamboozle blackberries and bag up some bad litter. Some say barmy, we say brilliant.

The Jumping Jack off

The group started off with a merry jumping jacks warm up. Or so I thought... according to Darren's photo evidence from the night, Alice and I were merrily doing our jumping jacks while everyone else was doing their utmost to pretend they weren't with us...

Task 1: The Bramble-Removal

Alice ably led a group of runners out to the Harbourside to help the Friends of the Harbourside Reed Bed. After a summer of growing (and our help a few months ago) it was time for another trim to keep the area looking spic-and-span. Not ones to like an easy challenge, to do a good job, the group had to tackle brambles and a nest of wasps in the area. But they got it done in no-time and left the area looking ready for the Autumn months.

Task 2: The Litter-Pick

Our second group of wiling runners went to the other side of the harbour to Gaol Ferry Bridge to help the Friends of the Avon New Cut to do a big litter-pick in the area. Unfortunately, this part of the river has become rife with anti-social behaviour, leaving a lot of litter and more in the area. The group did an absolutely fantastic job of filling 16 bin bags with waste. Massive well done to everyone for getting your litter-pickers out and getting stuck in!

Task 3: The Fun One

Meanwhile, those who wanted to stretch their legs a bit further (or knew what was in store) were led on the 3km run to Bramble Hill Farm by Paul, where they met Chris for animal feeding and blackberry picking. Roll-on animal stroking, selfies and blackberry eating, just in time to roll back down the hill for finishing time.

To top all of this hard work off, the group then powered their way through a circuit session around Queen's Square (until a pug came along to distract everyone from their burpees).