It was wet and windy today but we still had a fab group of hardy GoodGymers join us for tonight's run, including two hardy post-marathoners (well done Darren and Chris!), two post-half marathoners (well done Richard and Jade!) and five new people - welcome Kate, Stephanie, Mark, Noah and Claire!

Once we got warmed up, the walking group set off and the rest of us split into two groups. Patrick led one group to help Hotwells and Redcliffe Development Group close-by in Redcliffe. There, the group had two main tasks: clearing the front area of the nursery and delivering some leaflets locally. They donned their head-torches and got to work sweeping, weeding and shifting wheelbarrows to clear up the area, while the rest of the group got creative with working out how to distribute leaflets surrounded by private flats.

The rest of us headed to the Southville Centre where we met Hugh who was optimistic in setting us to work on outdoor painting despite the rain showers. His optimism was deserved as the team worked hard and got the pagoda and the a whole load of the rest of the outdoor wood painted ready for winter. Meanwhile, a mini indoor crew did touch-ups in the toilets which we painted a few months ago and increased the waterproofing behind the sinks.

We'd have loved to stay longer, but we pagoda go

With our paint pots empty, we did a high five chain out of The Southville Centre and ran back to Queen Square with a stop for sprint relays on the way. A quick stretch off and it was time to get warm and dry!

The morning's torrential rain cleared up for us to have our first non-rainy run in weeks. It was great to have James, Lee, Sam, Briony, Jim, Rachael join us for the first time tonight - we look forward to seeing you again soon!

The group split in half to cover two tasks tonight. Mel tackled her injury to lead a team of 16 to Hannah More Primary School. There, Caretaker Bob provided them with brand new pitchforks to turn all of the bark in the extensive playground. It was a large area but the team managed to cover it all and even had time to practice their monkey skills and unearth some ancient dinosaurs. All in an evening's work.

Crate expectations

Meanwhile, the rest of the group headed for a long-awaited return to East Bristol Foodbank. They had their most recent supermarket collection today with 1.7 tonnes of food. Andy from the food bank had set up the sorting room ready for us when we arrived.

A little less concencrate-ion, a little more action

Most of the group quickly got to sorting all of this food into different categories ready to be made into food parcels. With Chris's efficient technique of a sorting station and food-category runners, the pace of the group increased dramatically and they got through all of the crates set aside for us and more.

All creatures crate and small

Meanwhile, the Hardcore Group set to hoovering and sanitising all of the crates to prevent any unwanted furry visitors to the store. With their efficient work they got through all the crates just in time for our return run.

After a short detour for a Four Minute 🍑 Blast (which everyone will be feeling tomorrow) we got back to Queen's Square to celebrate Chris's completion of his 250th Good Deed - massive well done Chris! We celebrated with the now traditional Vienetta and the cake he brought, which was so unbelievably delicious that we will forgive him for not baking it himself and getting it through some dodgy black-market deals.

Title pun credit to Matt 🦕

It was great to have Ben and Maz join us for the first time tonight, and to see Robin and Will again after breaks!

Once we had warmed up, Patrick led a small super speedy group to Strawberry Lane Allotments to finish the job we started there a few weeks' ago. Tonight, this was the big task of shifting one hundred 25 kilogram bags of sand and gravel down the steps at the allotment. With just seven pairs of hands willing to take on the challenge and a tough uphill 5km run to get there, it was a huge job. However, the guys still did it in record time before doing some more record timings back down to get back just in time for 8pm. Impressive stuff!

The rest of us started on our own long run to Zion Bristol. This was a new task, so it was great to meet Jess there and get stuck in (even if we had to tackle a big hill of our own to get there!). Jess from Zion explained to us that they are a super busy community hub, with the cafe during the day and 200-300 events per year on there in the evenings. This means there are a lot of odd jobs and cleaning jobs which the small team do not have time for. She was incredibly organised and had a list of tasks and laid out equipment for us to get our hands on.

The outdoor team got to work weeding, brushing pavements, clearing gutters, litter-picking, cleaning outdoor furniture and Mair and Olivia showed their artistic skills while giving the outdoor toilet a repaint.

Meanwhile, the indoor team had a big cleaning job on their hands from all the tinies who had been there over the past weeks. The chair team screwed all the legs fully back on and gave them all a good clean. All the surfaces were scrubbed and Dave got to work cleaning the toilet. Russ led a team with a long felt contraption and three pairs of hands to clean the metal beams.

Before long, it was time to eat the pastries Jess had kindly provided for us and get jogging (thankfully downhill) back home.

Tonight's pun credits to Shreena (as does the Task Finisher award of the night - thanks Shreena!).