21 rocking runners turned up at Vivo Gym last night for a great run to help Emmeaus, a charity helping homeless people find work and a new home.

We know a rolling stone gathers no moss, and a running pack of GoodGymers waste no time, so after our short run to Emmeaus they got stuck right in there, trimming bushes, picking up litter and smashing up some cobbles up with a mighty sledgehammer (note that the people doing the hammering were wearing safety goggles and steel toe capped boots, otherwise they may have got in to a spot of Barney Rubble, if you know your cockney rhyming slang!). One part of our mission was to trim some bushes to a height so that people couldn't sneak behind and have a crafty pee - I think that part of the mission was accomplished but I'm really glad no one went to test it out.

The rain threatened us a little, but it was only a light shower so I'm not going to slate it. The team cracked right on, getting loads done as always, being the real gems that they are, and they gave a rock-solid effort all evening, even when we split up to do either hills with Kevin or a longer run back with me - my team ended up being high fived by a chap in a park, told to run faster by a different chap in a different park, and then boozily heckled by a chap outside a pub. Oh, and I almost ran into a chap on a unicycle... #bristolproblems

A tiny spot of tricep dips, press ups and running around was designed to give us muscles of granite, and then Kevin's gang turned up with faces as hot as lava! We had a good stretch out and took a moment to celebrate Chris B's birthday by singing to him, to celebrate Matt Garnett (real name, fits with the stone related puns well, doesn't it!) getting to the mighty 100 runs, and I was given a box set of Cheers for cheering many many lots of people during June. To double celebrate birthdays and 100 runs, we headed back to Vivo for beer and pink wafers, the go-to party food of GoodGym Bristol.

Well done gang!!!!

Ah, what a lovely run! With the sun beaming down on us once again, loads of great people met up at Vivo Sports Club to run to the charity Emmeaus which is dedicated to helping homeless people finding employment and get themselves in to their own homes.

The run there was pleasantly uneventful, and we made it to our task in good time where we met with Jessica from Emmeaus who introduced us to the charity and also told us how to say the name! (Em-may-ous is the phonetic spelling). She handed up gloves and tools and the gang set to weeding all around the building.

She also kitted Darren and Chris L up in steel toe capped boots (that she just happened to have on hand....), gave them a sledgehammer and pointed them in the direction of some cobbles that needed smashing. DARREN SMASH! CHRIS SMASH! HULK SMASH...sorry, getting carried away.... Chips were flying everywhere, cobbles were obliterated, and then rest of the team dived in to clear the cobbles away as as fast as possible, in some cases using a random wok that they'd found.

They also planted some flowering shrubs; Jessica had planted a hydrangea a few weeks ago and no one had sat on it or squashed it, so she felt it was safe to plant a few more shrubs.

As they weeded, a lovely selection of rubbish was found. Today's highlights included:
A traffic cone.
Half a bottle of vodka
A full and unopened bottle of cider (rather nice cider, but no one wanted to drink it!).

We did a lot but there's still more to do, so we'll be back next week to continue smashing the cobbles (some of the ladies fancy a go!), trim bushes, weed and do random things with cooking implements.

Lastly HUGE congrats to Matthew, Emily and Kim who've done their 50th, 50th and 200th run respectively. Also a MAHOOOOSIVE Goodgym welcome to newbies Fran, Harriet, Debbie and Lisa. Thanks for coming to run with us and we hope you'll be back.

To check if you actually read this run report, next week the code word is 'pink wafers'. Say it to me at some point in the run. There's no prize, I just sometimes wonder who gets all the way to the end of my reports!

It was a cold night for 17 runners to be out and about! We met up at Vivo Sports Club and after a quick introduction, wasted no time in heading up to Clifton. There was a lot of up but that seemed to be absolutely no issue for Matt G who pelted up Jacobs Wells road like a spring bunny! The rest of us didn't exactly hang around, and at the top we split in to 3 groups to distribute loads of flyers about food waste recycling.

The group I was with, called Group C quickly distributed our leaflets, but not discovering several things about the Clifton area (for those of you who are not from Bristol, it's the very posh area of town!). 1) They have well oiled letter boxes. The more you flyer, the more you appreciate a smoothly opened flap! 2) They have tiny letterboxes. Why? No clue, but they're about half the size of a normal letter box. 3) Where the Lido is. And how to say Lido (was it 'lee-do' or lie-do'? 'Lie-dough' if you want to be really phonetic!). 4) Basement flats in the dark are a bit scary. We may have missed a few because we didn't want to come a cropper on gloomy steps!

Once our cargo was distributed, we met up with most of the others (some were doing a slightly longer run!) and galloped back down the hill to do some laps of Queens Square. At this point, dear reader, you may be wondering where the name of the run came from. Well wait no more! As the gang ran around the square, they noticed a woman practicing fire-breathing! Wow! Also she was either naked, or half naked, depending on who you spoke to. Double wow, given how cold the wind was.

What a great night and what a fab bunch of runners - we stretched, made a few announcements, and then retreated to the warmth of Vivo.

P.S Sorry about the lack of decent photos this time around - people were moving too fast!