In life, sometimes you have to accept things don't always go to plan. Last night we were due to meet up and run up some big hills to help a school with a flower bed... this didn't come to pass so the GoodGym task force quickly came up with an alternative plan - a bit of litter picking and a spot of flyering.

We met up as usual at Vivo and strolled over to Queen Square to do a little warm up. We were accompanied by some students from the University of the West of England who are looking at GoodGym as part of a transport project - hopefully some of them will join us next week!

We were lucky with the weather, it was cool and dry so perfect running weather, and about 26 of us ran off to a near by park which (I hoped) needed a tidy up. Once there, Kevin and Kim led about half the group to grab some flyers about a community farm and distribute them, and I dished out gloves and bin bags for the remainder of the gang so we could pick up all the litter that was in the park.

BUT....

It was the cleanest park we'd ever been in! A few people struck litter gold (sadly near a primary school) but most of us were scouting about madly looking for something to pick up. Still, it was a lovely evening for a walk around the park and as this was a #runandtalk session, we all had a chance to have a nice chat to someone too.

At 7.30pm we all met back up and ran back to Queen Square, and as there was a few minutes to spare we did a kick and lunge sequence to strengthen our legs, then a 1 minute plank to improve our core and backs.

Remember gang, we've got a run on Tuesday afternoon as well as Tuesday evening next week, so if you've got a few hours spare come along - the BBC will be there!

On Tuesday evening 20 dedicated runners, many in varying states of fatigue following the Bristol Half Marathon on Sunday, undertook the neither northern, nor slopey journey south to the Northern Slopes. Following a brief warm up of heel kicks and high knees we set off in two teams: team speedy led by accomplished navigator Gary ‘this is my hood’ Jordan and team sexy following only a few minutes behind with Dave ‘bringing sexy back’ Guest.

Originally set up to protect the areas from housing development, the Northern Slopes Initiative - a group of volunteers seeking to maintain, conserve and enhance the Northern Slopes - has since 2001 encouraged others to join with them to look after and enhance the areas for the benefit of the people that use the Slopes, the wildlife found there - while maintaining its unique character.

With blades flying

‘Guardian of the Slopes', Julia, has hosted us before and so we found her well equipped with more than enough tools for everyone, including loppers, snippers, pickers, rakes, scythes and even the 'Slasher', expertly wielded by Frank, everything we needed to cut back a huge amount of prickly, tangled summer growth from the paths. With blades flying we enjoyed panoramic sunset views of Bristol until our time was sadly up but not without our dedicated litter picking contingent forgoing the proffered tea, coffee, coke and biscuits, (THAT’S RIGHT, BISCUITS!) in favour of working through a trove of some estimated 500 beer cans in a bush.

Two teams set off for base with Gary taking the speedies on a slightly longer (about .4m) scenic (and no-doubt, hilly) route via Victoria Park in time to meet sexies only seconds apart in Queen’s Square. Star Planker went to Debs who takes home a Maoam Stripe as her well earned reward. Finally, some light stretching, announcements and drinks back at Vivo brought this Tuesday session to a close.

Welcome to newcomer Raoul, we’ll look forward to seeing you again soon.

This Tuesday evening 24 mud larks ate up a 4 mile round trip to right beneath Clifton Suspension Bridge to litter pick the rather messy Portway, once again in time for a big Bristol race to pass by on Sunday.

Rolling deep

Rolling deep as a twenty-odd force to be reckoned with, we followed a brief warm up and introductions with the customary split into fast and sexy groups led by Gary and Dave respectively, for the 1.7m (2.7km) run out to meet our litter-guru from Surfers Against Sewage. Sadly, he was unable to join us at the last minute but we're not to be so easily thwarted so after a brief health and safety top-up (don’t fall in) we got stuck in to filling our sacks with what turned out to be an abundance of river detritus left behind in the wake of recent high-tides.

The difference was remarkable!

30 minutes later the difference was remarkable and we scrambled back roadside for a quick snapshot before splitting again into two groups for the fast 2.1m (3.4km) and the sexy 1.7m (2.7km) return journeys. Gary took the slightly faster group on a scenic route south of the river and through the boat yard, perfectly paced to meet the sexy group back at Queens Square within seconds of one another.

Many of the group, myself included, are running Bristol Half on Saturday so the group were spared a leg-blasting set of drills and instead let off early to enjoy cake back at Vivo, and what a spread there was! Half centurion, Alice dazzled us with her home made peanut butter cups while birthday boy, Dave upped the anti with his double whammy of chocolate thingies and flapjacks which were nowhere near as bad as he'd previously made out.

Well done everyone and special welcome to new comers Sabrina and Jen, (both with a GoodGym Hackney connection) and also to Joe - we hope to see you back again next week.

Good luck to everyone running on Sunday, see you there.

For such a long run we had a great turn out last night - 30 amazing people, including a whole raft of newbies all braved the unseasonally humid conditions to run to Golden Hill Community Garden.

Because the run was long, and we're a mixed group with different paces, we decided to set off in two groups. Kevin kindly led the faster group, with Gary as back marker (thanks, gents!) and I led the sexy group (we're not slow, we're just appreciating the run and taking our time!) with uncle Dave at the back (thanks Dave!).

When you run in Bristol, you're never far from a bit of 'up' and we found a lot of up on the way to the garden - it's not got 'Hill' in the title for nowt, you know! I was really pleased to see the gang regroup at the top, and even if some people had to walk at the end of the toughest hill, it's still a great workout and a good achievement.

We met up with Lucy at the top, she gave us leaflets and maps, and we split again in to groups - Alice and Daniel taking on the mantle of leadership and bossiness. It seemed that in no time at all we'd spread the word about the Harvest Fair that's coming up soon, and Gary took a squad of runners to put up some laminated signs around the area too, so people passing through would know about the festival of home made chutney, organic onions and super squashes.

A quick meet up at the end to have a group photo involving a massive marrow (aka Captain Jack Marrow) and then we ran back, distributing the last few leaflets as we went and convening in Queen Square for a stretch, a chat, and a cool down.

15 or so of us then nipped down the road to Three Brothers Burgers and had a chat about where GoodGym is going in Bristol, ways to increase our number of coach runners (have you pondered it?) and lots of other stuff, as well as enjoying some of the best burgers I've had in the UK!

Awesome effort ladies and chaps, HUGE welcome to the new guys and thanks for getting sweaty in the name of a harvest festival!