It was another delightfully dry January night that greeted 15 GoodGymmers who set off on time to St Agnes Park, next to our beloved St Paul's Adventure Playground - we cant help them at the moment as the have support from Community PayBack on Tuesdays during the day :-(

The park was pretty tidy but there was bindweed to pull out and the surrounding streets and hedges to litter pick with our fresh supply of Bristol Waste bags.

Having identified the lamppost Melanie may just have side-swiped in her truck in her early days with Bristol Parks, we spread out far and wide. Headtorches were bobbing all over the place!

We soon had things much more ship-shape (like the playground) and were able to tie off the bags for collection and run back in the same Richard sandwich as the run over - Richard B run leading and Richard G back-marking in expert style.

Stretching and chatting back at Queens Square and post-run drinks enjoyed at Workout for those not allergic to latex!

21 GoodGymmers standing on a wall. Or bouncing on wobbleboards/trampolines/seesaws whilst out first excursion of 2022 took us to a new-for-GoodGym area of Bristol, St Jude's.

After much fitness bouncing/swinging/roundabouting, we managed some litterpicking through the trampolines, under some hedges, in some long grass and pulling out oodles of noodles of bindweed root and scraping moss.

A short run back to Queen Square followed for the amazing poem* to celebrate Richard's awesome 500 good deeds and Caroline defecting from Wandsworth to glorious Bristol. Or just moving house. Definitely one of the two.

• Twas brillig, and Giddings the running tove, Did deed and gimber in Brizzle hove, 500 is friggly number now, Samploistics just shout out wow!

Hail Sir Giddings of GoodGym, p0p Knight of the litterpicker, Who halted the woppy jumblericker

Richy G sorted the tins, Filled up the bins, Made cardboard beds And shifted... the shifty things...

Hail Sir Giddings of GoodGym, Knight of the running art, Who made the roads look like, zagg-rart.

Mr G entertains us all, With run reports full of stories tall, Quirkiness to make us smile, A cracker costume or a blompydile

Hail Sir Giddings of GoodGym, Knight of the gromits run, Who made us pose like chuttermun

He avoided the dogs that guard the door, With teeth so veep you can't ignore, He dighted the worms so they didn't die, He chopped the weeds so they didn't thrive...

Hail Sir Giddings of GoodGym Champion of 500 good deeds

Our task for the evening yesterday was back at Doddington community roof garden, a space which has been transformed by volunteers from a multistory carpark into a thriving garden for local people. It's a regular one for us, but it is always fun to see the surprise on people's faces when they visit for the first time - hidden away in a Battersea estate, it's up an easily-missable flight of stairs which opens out into a huge maze of flower beds, herb gardens and composting areas.

It was a short run of just over a mile down to the garden, so we started off the night with a warm up and a quick poll on the little and large things we're doing to help protect the environment. There were some top tips, including riding your bike as much as possible to get places, reducing meat and cutting out single-use plastic, but also some very bright ideas like deleting spam and unsubscribing from email lists which both carry a carbon footprint. You're a clever bunch!

We were excited to welcome Jenni for her first GoodGym session, and to talk about her show, Endurance which sees her perform a feat of endurance, live and in real time at the BAC. She gave us a little talk on how she was inspired by female ultra runners and also about her project 'When we run, we become', where she will be running with other people. Running safely in public spaces is something that we've talked about a lot at GoodGym - if you would like to continue this important discussion, do reach out to Jenni. And don't forget, we have a lovely community at GG, if you ever want to go out for a run and don't feel comfortable by yourself, drop a message on our whatsapp group or send me an email and we'll find a way to run with you!

After a good steady pace down to Doddington we arrived to find Malissa, lead volunteer, waiting for us. She led us through the garden, pointing out interesting plants as we went (while I was trying not to think about how many expensive 'proper' plants I've pulled up over the years of GG tasks, thinking they were weeds...). She distributed shovels, brooms and trugs, and we soon got cracking on various jobs round the garden.

After 40 minutes of hard work, we were almost done for the evening. Apologies for the quality of the photos - I was told a couple of weeks ago that they look like I'm taking them out of a moving car, at night, in the middle of a storm.

All that was left was that tough little leg finisher. We gathered out in the lovely Doddingon square and started smashing through some lower body exercises designed not exclusively to inflict pain, but also strengthen all those important leg muscles and create quads of iron. Some excellent form there everyone!

After that mean old hill and a few stretches to finish off, it was time for a bite to eat and drinks round the corner. Look out for the GG Wandsworth Christmas social coming soon! Next week I'll be away so our group run will be replaced with a Monday night community mission, check out the details here. A final word to wish Caroline, long-term GG Wandsworth member, farewell and good luck for her move to Bristol - have a brilliant time there!

Run happy, run safe, GoodGym.

It was a glorious evening in Wandsworth and we had a great bunch determined to make the most of it!

We were handed some plants to brighten up the outside space at The Venue. Getting those holes dug was certainly a good workout - at times it felt like we needed a pneumatic drill but Goodgymers don't give up that easily and a good workman never blames their tools...

Not stopping there, we attacked the rather ripe compost bin treating the plants to some much needed nutrients. The 'aroma' certainly made some of us appreciate the face masks we had in tow. We smashed through it though and even set up a shiny new bin ready to start all over again.

Great work Goodgym Wandsworth for attacking the start of the week one compost shovel at a time...