Somehow 32 amazing runners got together at Vivo gym (32? WOW!) and ran to help weed a park that badly needed it.

We got together at Vivo Gym, and after a quick round of introductions and warm ups, we got running. Running through central Bristol in the evening on a warm day can be an entertaining experience with lots of jolly people cheering us on - they're a friendly bunch in Bristol!

We made it to Portland Square in good time and met up with Simon who is part of a residents group who are keen to transform the square from a green spot in to a lovely green spot, so it needs a bit of TLC, and that's where GoodGym came in handy!

We set to weeding and also trimming some of the growths off the base of the lime trees in the square. We also met a Simon's dog as well as a massively huge dog too (he's in one of the pictures!). Luckily this week we didn't find any mice though.

After a good 35 minutes of hard graft, we downed (and cleaned!) tools and jogged off, leaving the square a little tidier (post litter pick too!) and less weedy - fingers crossed the residents can get some funds to plant some great bushes or similar and ask us to come back and help to plant them!!!

We got back to Vivo, had a good stretch and chat at the end - it was announcements but it kinda descended in to chat. Then there were drinks... then there was the suggestion of burgers, which some people did as well!

Smashing job ladies and gents, we did GOOD!

Skies were a little overcast as we gathered together at Vivo, but the light sprinkling of rain that followed proved short lived and was a refreshing change from the Shakespearean tempest that accompanied our last visit to the Patchwork project.

Welome Back, El

Following the usual round of introductions (great to see El back with us again!), newly trained run leader ('Godfather') Dave led us through some excellent warm-ups in Queen Square, ending with a skip across the grass (complete with Morecambe and Wise hand gestures) that surely made us the envy of the all the other occupants of the space.

Fig Wasp

After a fairly short run, the group were met by our good friends from the Patchwork project. This is a group that adopts unloved patches of land in Bedminster and Southville and clears them of rubbish and weeds before planting new trees, shrubs and flowers. This evening they had two such patches for us to work on - one an old favourite from previous runs and another new one a little further down the hill.

The group split into two and were soon hard at work. Equipped with trowels and gloves the team set to work weeding both sites and were soon generating more than the green bin could handle - even with Chris expertly compacting it all. A pair of shears served as a handy grass trimmer and soon the space was looking, well if not quite tamed, then at least on the road to domestication.

While we were working on the weeds we noticed a rather impressive fig tree against the wall. Emily informed us that each of the figs requires a fig wasp to pollinate it. Unfortunately the wasp’s wings and antennas are torn off as she moves through and consequently cannot leave and is digested by the fig. Poor fig wasp!

Hee-bee GGs The group on Clifton Street did a great job clearing weeds and managed to preserve the hebe

Bristol Half - coming soon!

The group photo taken, we all headed back to Queen Square, pausing only to lunge, step-up and tricep dip at some handy steps and walls along the way.

A final quick dash around the square revealed both that interest in the forthcoming Bristol half marathon is starting to build and also that running marathon-length cross country recce sessions at the weekend leaves you slightly less keen to sprint the last section (Matt!).

Mr Mavis

In other news, Chris's guinea pig Mr Mavis has a new love interest. Sadly the pair have been separated for now but then as A Midsummer Night's Dream shows us, the course of true love never did run smooth.

Thanks to Chris for leading the run, Dave for the warm up and Paul for the run report!

28 cool and crazy people met up at Vivo Gym for one of our shorter runs last night, including many new faces - welcome new guys!

We ran to a very busy area of central Bristol - Stokes Croft. There we met Sara from Incredible Edible and armed with gloves, trowels and bin bags proceeded to weed a large area of garden that covered the space in between 2 large lanes of traffic.

It was a warm night and the area was very dusty - it got in to our eyes and noses and there was a bit of sneezing going on. It seemed to have special clinging properties! Sara was just lamenting the lack of a broom as there were lots of dust on the ground and bits of plant, and then like magic new girl Natasha conjured up two of them! Amazing!

After a good 30 minutes of hard graft and shuttling a vast amount of weeds to a community compost area just up the road, our work here was done... but the hard work was just beginning. So was the rain...

Gary led about half the group on a very hilly run up to the University grounds. There were steps. Many many steps. Just remember that steps are your friend and will make you fitter when you run up them.

I (Pru) took the other half back to Queens Square where we did some fitness drills to improve our running technique... and you thought you were getting off lightly!

We were having a good stretch when Gary's gang got back so did a few announcements (remember that there's a run on Saturday!), and then Gary's group had a stretch too, and we were done!

23 up and at em runners met at Vivo on Tuesday to run and basically move a massive mound of manure. A big welcome to Kate and Debs who joined us for their first run, and a bit of a 'keep it up' to Paul for whom this was his 98th run!

The rain threatened us but held off as we headed up the lovely but busy Bristol to Bath Path, a cunning hill disguised as a bit of flat, and ended up at Easton Community Gardens where the pile of poo awaited us, as well as some weeding and some grass sheering too. The question that Christina, our contact that the Garden, had on her lips was... could we shift all that... er.. guano in time?

The gang set to the task knowing we'd be running off again very soon, and grabbed spades, forks, wheelbarrows and kneeling pads for the weeding.

The weeders and the shearers seemed to get a bit addicted to their tasks - just one more weed, just time to snip a few more blades of grass but all too soon the time to run back was upon us... Had the massive mound of muck been moved, had we dealt with the dung?

YES!!!!

A cracking job from the wheelbarrow team saw the squishy horse apples safely stowed in compost bins. HURRAH! Christina was thrilled!

We headed back down the path and regrouped in Queens Square for a lovely long stretch and chat about forthcoming runs - The Chew Valley 10k, the New Forest 10 (miles!) and the Bristol Half. I'll send out links for all of these runs in my weekly email so that people who were not on the run can also see what we're planning.

TOP WORK TEAM!

Well that was a wet one....

21 wonderful dry people set off from Vivo tonight to run a short distance to a road in Bedminster that needed a little TLC. Some of us were prepared for the weather, some of us were a bit more optimistic and hoped our 'it never rains for GoodGym' mantra would hold true for this run.

Sadly for the optimists, it absolutely deluged on us. We'd have been drier in the river. But because we're tough and b because it was not actually that cold, we stuck to the plan and got on with the run. It didn't take us long to get to the site in Bedminster where we met up with the Patchwork Project and were given gloves, trowels and bags and asked to weed several flower beds. It was important to weed first as we were then planting lots of little seedlings, which in their formative stage look like weeds!

30 minutes seemed to both fly by and go slowly as we got wetter and wetter and wetter, but we actually finished the task with about 5 minutes to spare so we went for a slightly longer run to get back to HQ - and of course it stopped running pretty much the second we stopped gardening. Thanks for nothing, weather gods!

Our run back was uneventful and actually rather lovely as we followed the river and crossed it no less than 4 times to get back to Vivo! At the end we had a few congratulations to dish out - to Ted for making this his 50th run and to Chris L for getting to his grand old 100th run! Top work chaps. Also congratulations to Robyn, Hannah and Emily for coming along for their first time despite the weather - if you can make it in that kind of rain you've got no excuses for the future.