It's card to believe but 30 runners joined us to complete two challenges this evening, the first to help Card Beds make beds for the homeless from waste bicycle boxes and the second to clear out a pile of junk from a room into a skip.

This run was huge, not only in numbers of runners but also in the amount of work we completed. It started as usual with a warm up outside Vivo, but this time with a big welcome to not only our new faces but also Ruth from GoodGym Central who particulary enjoyed the chicken herding.

The run was very short and we were soon at our destination for the evening, The Island. An old Police Station that has now been turned into a creative space used by artists and for loads of random events. Our main task for the evening was to help Elliot from Card Beds to turn a pile of old bike boxes into beds that could be given to people living on the streets to use to keep them off of the cold ground. Elliot met us and explained what he does and how the beds are made. The team got to work quickly drawing out templates, cutting pieces and even assembling a demo bed in the hallway.

Whilst this was going on Paul led a crack team to the cells below the building to clear out load of junk from a room so it could be used to it's full extent again. They work tirelessly and even though the skip was a fair old jaunt away they had soon had that room cleaner than a banjo polished by break-dancing alpaca covered in fairy liquid.

When time was up we loaded the bed parts into Paul's car so he could deliver them to the church where they will be distributed from, grabbed a quick group photo and then fled into the night. Sadly there was not much time for drills so we squeezed in some squats and lunges before stretching and wrapping up.

A big congratulations to Nick for hitting 50 deeds today. Only took 3 years, great commitment fella! And a big shout to Chris for the pun.

Thanks to everyone who came down I had a brilliant night and I hope you did too.

See you soon amigos,

Gary

18 hardy souls ran 7 km to tidy up the Northern Slopes

What better way to start the weekend! Another really good Saturday morning turnout with many choosing to incorporate a GoodGym session into their weekend long run, whereas for others it was just a great excuse to get out and do some more good with some friendly faces.

Hot footing it from our base at Roll For The Soul with the sun on our faces we enjoyed a steady run along the Malago Greenway to the Northern Slopes on Novers Hill, ending with a dash up the Novers Hill steps like a scene from Rocky (even humming the tune as we went) like true champions!

With much punching of the air, we were greeted by our wonderful host, Julia, who explained today's task whilst arming us with a treasure trove of equipment from loppers, shears, saws, slashers, scythes, pitchforks to litter pickers.

Splitting into two groups, one group set about clearing a huge amount of litter of all shapes and sizes - beer cans were the standard fare, with the odd wheel, exhaust pipe and general detritus thrown (quite litter-ally) in for bad measure.

The other group armed themselves with bush and bramble clearing equipment and got stuck in to cutting back some of the more destructive foliage which has threatened to over-run the hillside. Getting "stuck in" particularly were Alice, who became rather attached to a piece of bramble and Rich who decided to go three rounds with a brute of a bramble and lost by a bloody nose!

After a hard hour's graft and a ten minute cold rain shower, we were rewarded with well earned hot drinks, cakes and biscuits before lugging our haul of bags of litter and equipment down the hill and set off on our way back to base.

Big thanks to Chris for backmarking today and to Matt for leading the warm down and stretches, whilst I headed off to the afternoon mission.

You guys totally smashed it today! Big love to you all!

Dave