An Emmaus-ing 38 runners turned out to run 2 miles to help a local charity sort through their donations.

This evening's task was to help our good friends at Emmaus sort out a room full of donations that they have recently received. These donations will then be sold in their stores or recycled. Every item funding the team to keep on doing the great work they do.

There is something about summer evenings that makes people keener to come out for a run, which we love because it means we can really let loose on a task. Our largest group of the year amassed this evening, 38 runners in total, which gave us volunteering superpowers. After introducing ourselves, splitting into two groups and running less than a mile to the task we were ready to go. Xanne from Emmaus was awestruck with our numbers and enthusiasm but knew exactly how she could harness the might of GoodGym Bristol.

She showed us a room that had been stuffed like a pinata of donations ready to be bashed by the GoodGym stick of organisation. She also realised that with our powers combined we could tackle weeds and litter accumulating outside the building. After a short discussion teams were built and chains were linked to get the jobs done.

Inside the pinata were a crack team of sorters and lifters led by stalwarts Alice and Charlie who directed the donations out and along the chain to such destinations as bric-a-brac bungalow, electronic island, the book shelf and the clothes cave. It was a joy to behold the organisation of such a energetic team getting the job done.

Meanwhile outside our weeding and litter team were making the place look more presentable than Jon Snow wearing his smartest hand-painted tie as part of an immaculate outfit while visiting his in-laws for dinner and displaying the finest table manners seen since the Victorian era. Weeds were dug from paving, cigarette butts were swept from gutters and floors were swept. It was a thing of beauty.

After 30 minutes the room had been cleared, the grounds had been tidied and the donations had been mostly sorted (nobody could sort all of those clothes in that time, except maybe quicksilver from x-men). An amazing effort by everyone involved. We all amassed outside for a group shot before running back to Queen Square.

On arrival I treated the group to a new game, called get your COB on. COB standing for (chicken, otter and badger). I'm not going to go into details about how it works but everyone got a great workout and enjoyed themselves. If you need to know more then get yourself along to a Bristol GoodGym and we can teach you. Pinata Charlie won the game in a sprint finish.

Thanks to everyone who came along today, newbies and old guard. You and you're wonderful spirit enable us to really achieve something worthwhile every run and I know Xanne was blown away by what we achieved tonight.

See you next time,

Gary