Immense! A new Saturday record of 40 Goodym'ers turned up for our bonus Christmas Eve Eve run today.

Extra special thanks to our Cardiff and Bath friends for coming all the way over to join us today - it was lovely to have so many members of our GG West family over for Christmas. We should definitely meet up more often next year!

The original plan was to help out at the Christmas shelter, but they had been so well served by volunteers during the week that they really only needed a handful of people today. So rather than put all those good deeds to waste we split into 6 groups and spread out around Bristol. (Some of the details and photos may be a little sketchy for now - the group leaders are welcome to add to their sections as they see fit!).

Time fliers pie as Charlie out reaches herself to all points central

Charlie led her group of runners around central Bristol, distributing fliers from the Christmas shelter to anyone sleeping rough on the streets. Each flier was accompanied with the offer of a mince pie, sadly without cream though.

Lisa and Graham pushing the envelope to reach All Hallows Church

Lisa and Graham kindly took on delivery of a bunch of shelter fliers to All Hallows Church in Lawrence Hill meaning that if you were to run the whole perimeter covered by our groups today you would have been taking on a 14 km run around Bristol (see photos)

Dave turns over a new leaflet at Southville

Dave's gang headed out to Southville to place GG mission leaflets at cafes and shops along North Street. The hope is that this will mean lots more elderly people will find out about Goodgym and we can brighten up their January and February by helping out with a bit gardening or simple jobs around the house.

On the way back they gave out a couple of fliers from the homeless shelter

Maria experiences St Peter's Hospice-tality as she helps out at the Broadmead branch

A last minute call to our friends at St Peters Hospice this week meant that we were able to set up yet another task for a group led  by MariatoMtoto help out at their Broadmead branch.

Matterhorn goes native-ity in epic 9K to St Albans church

Of course it had to be our very own ultra-running Matt (check out his new badge) leading the longest run today out to St Albans church in Westbury. This task to set up the Church for Christmas (including a nativity scene) proved very popular, especially when the possibility of some mulled wine was discussed.

Saving Private Room Paul to take a group to the shelter

And finally yours truly took a group out to the shelter itself where a couple of us helped out around the kitchen while the rest of us attempted to re-organise the dormitory and pass a very important message about a potential flood back from the Quakers meeting hall. Thanks to Alex once again for helping out during my more scatterbrain moments.

200 Good Deeds!

Thanks to all my group leaders and photographers. And last but not least, huge congratulations to Richard for hitting 200 good deeds today. He's too modest to make a big thing out of this, but I think everyone at GG Bristol values his kindness and loyalty - and of course enjoyed his fabulous Canal Run earlier this month!

Happy Christmas everyone - this is now genuinely the very last group run before Christmas, see you in the New Year!

A fantastic Saturday turnout saw the addition of a second task with half of us heading to Ashton Vale school to weed their rather overgrown allotment and the other half heading off to the Old Library in Eastville to help out their regular gardening club.

Fantastic to see three new runners today - two of whom had accepted the Caroline Shilling by agreeing to come along to Goodgym while under the influence of alcohol. Hopefully the morning was a little more fun than a life on the Ocean waves with the 19th century Royal Navy.

Old Library

After a rather wet start it had turned into a fantastic morning with some warming sunshine so an ideal opprotunity to take on two 4k runs (well I thought so). The Old Library group looked a little thin on the ground at first as I oversold Dave's Ashton Vale option as a steady/slow run but with a little encouragement we managed to split the group 50/50.

It's a nice route to the Old Library, up some unecessary park steps and through two parks (almost 3 as I also added an unecessary extension coming out of the underpass) and taking in the St Werburghs self build houses and Boiling Wells. By the time we got to the library we were properly warmed up.

This task had been a little last minute so I was a bit worried we'd arrive and find there wasn't much to do but I had no need to fear as our host Zoe had sorted out plenty of work for us. One group was to rake up all the leaves at the front of the library while the other was to clear an area of brambles and sycamore saplings (but NOT ash or hawthorn) so that a new forest-school style childrens play area can be established.

Clo and Sam did an excellent job of the raking making the building look a lot more inviting - and the street outside a bit safer for passers by!

Meanwhile the bramble team were clearing a nice passage making good use of loppers secateurs and a hand saw (well done for not sawing any hands off, Caroline!). Our new team ecologist Rich even found a little frog in amongst the undergrowth. All in all, some great progress made.

Ashton Vale Primary School

The school allotment had been in need of some weeding for a few months so it was brilliant that we could finally send some people along. I have it on good authority that the school group (a class act no doubt) worked hard and succeeded in clearing all the pesky weeds, however I have to say that the photos I have received tell a very different story of scarecrows, chicken swings and rides on tiny bicycles so I'm not so sure?

There is evidence of a pitchfork though; Chris tells me it handled perfectly ... and ... cue pun.