There’s something satisfying about returning to the scene of a GoodGym a week later to finish a task off! We headed back to the heart of Shieldfield tonight to complete a leaflet drop that told residents about the Oceans of Kindness exhibition at Shieldfield Art Works. And the lineup tonight was also almost completely identical. The weather was definitely better, and unlike last week I wasn’t completely stressed about the route given we’d done the lions share of the work last week.

A rare weekend of no GoodGym had passed so there wasn’t a great deal to catch up on so we quickly said hello to new GoodGymer Max, caught up on another brilliant weekend of racing for Louise, and got cracking. It’s a colourful walk up Stepney Bank and on such a glorious evening the pubs and bars were overflowing too. I loved hearing about Damu’s volunteering day at the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon yesterday which had left him with no voice and a sore hand from cowbell ringing.

With just 100 leaflets to distribute tonight we headed straight to the streets on the list we hadn’t covered last week and in just 15 minutes the drop was done. Very cool! As there had been zero running so far, we headed back to the square that featured in a lot of last week’s history/golf chat ready for a running challenge with a twist for this week’s fitness session. Think Race across the World but with free travel, no motion sickness, stuff to find and instead of a hotel guest book at the end there’s just me.

Two teams were set off on an out and back challenge of 5 parts to find and photograph the following:

Something green

Two things that begin with L

Two different post boxes

A street that contains a letter from your name

Two different types of wildlife

Team Aimee/Louise was victorious, winning the glory of this unique challenge and feeling smug to start the week. Look at their winners photo! (On reflection the street names bit was ridiculously hard and I’m still feeling guilty about that, so I’ll do better next time.)

Louise is leading a Stepney Bank Stables session next Monday while I am working away. There are always lovely things to do to guarantee a great start to the week.

We were back tonight helping Shieldfield Art Works to spread the word about their upcoming Oceans of Kindness free exhibition. This was the perfect Bank Holiday task as we could crack on at leisure without needing to have someone let us in (or out!) of anywhere.

Fresh from a brilliant performance at yesterday’s Gateshead Half Marathon, Louise was resting her running legs along with Michael and I who had chosen to walk, so in the end Aimee and Damu also chose to stroll rather than run! On that note, let’s start with a huge cheer for Damu, clocking up his third good deed in three days. Well done!!

We were planning to get approx 120 leaflets out tonight in the Shieldfield area, ready to return next week to finish the job with another hundred.

It’s well documented that I have zero skills in the way of navigation or map reading so I explained a rough route before we even set off tonight, but the plan to stay together definitely helped. We set off up the hill towards Shieldfield and got cracking.

I had a vague memory tonight that there was something historically interesting about Shieldfield and used Google to unlock the memory- incidentally Damu has a different method to remember stuff that you must make a note to ask him about- and it started what became a list of facts about the area, including that King Charles the 1st once played golf on the green here. Louise then shared some facts about Queen Victoria and we discussed the origin of the term "Alderman". The time flew by, my historical knowledge increased, the leaflets were posted, and amazingly nobody got lost.

Finishing off with a circuit style fitness session that did not involve golf, and we were all wrapped up with a big chunk of the evening still ahead (plus enchiladas in Michael’s case) to enjoy. Our walk back had lots of chat about Aimee’s recent West Highland Way adventures and a cool group photo taken by a friendly member of public passing by. We will be back with more dodgy map plans and the rest of the leaflets to get out next week. See you then!

Back to Shieldfield for part 2 of the big Who's in Shieldfield magazine drop!

When I arrived at Stepney Bank this evening ... IT WAS STILL LIGHT! Yes Spring is in the air at last. Eight of us gathered ready to get the week off to a flying start. It was an all-female task or should that be feMAIL??

The warm up included our favourite pancake toppings and the food theme continued later. Meeting Aimee on the way we soon got cracking, covering the areas of Shieldfield we didn't manage to get around last time. This brilliant publication will be a treat to residents and we were really chuffed to manage to deliver over 350 over the two weeks!

We stayed in Shieldfield for the fitness session which included running, jogging, step ups and shouting the names of chocolate bars at each other in the street. And why not!

There are THREE community missions taking place before we are back for our group session next week. Check out the sessions calendar and get involved if you can, we would love to see you.

This was a task with a lot of build up as it took two people to collect and prepare the leaflets for tonight’s session! Many thanks Liz and Louise for the prep that got this session going.

Meeting at Stepney Bank stables our base, we moved into a new room, met new GoodGymer Carrie and got cracking ready for a massive leaflet drop. Louise took us through a brilliant activation warm up that got heart rates up, cheeks flushed and smiles on faces.

//perfect!

With a slight detour, Richard led the runners to me, ready and waiting at Shieldfield Art Works armed with “Who’s in Shieldfield” booklets to drop to the residents of Shieldfield, showing them what’s on offer in this vibrant area of town. Two groups, 210 leaflets, seven pairs of very cold hands and a timer set for 25 minutes. No pressure!

The time flew and the groups reappeared bang on time and ready to run back down the hill to Stepney Bank Stables. Mission accomplished!

A single file running fitness session with Louise was waiting, and the energy remained high as everyone got involved. A brilliant session, a big help to a community project and rosy cheeks all round.

Hope to see you next Monday as we help out at the fantastic Recyke Y Bike. You can run, walk or cycle and a warm welcome is guaranteed.

Part 2 of the leaflet dropping for SAW was perhaps uneventful compared to last night - no paper cuts or history lessons - just 5 Good Gymers going about their business, some would say in a “SAW and order” fashion”.

In record time we delivered the remaining 250 leaflets, including handing out 2 sets to inquisitive children who (a) wanted to know what we were doing and (b) were then treated to a please & thank you lesson from Michael 😊.

Probably, the biggest challenge of the evening was finding our way out of the Milton Estate – we assumed that we’d be looking for a Byron Street, or a Coleridge Close, or something like that but that’s SAW’s Law isn’t it, you never can find a poet when you need one!

Kudos to Dan and Michael who did both parts 1 & 2 of the SAW task and also to Dan for acting as map coordinator / route planner on tonight’s task – much appreciated!

Paper cuts and local history lessons were the order of the night as we got stuck into part one of a two part task to help Shieldfield Art Works.

We had been asked by SAW to spread the word in the area about to big things taking place: Shieldfield Art Works community activities and their Bee Lines promo- exploring the importance of bees to nature's eco system. The set of events starts at SAW and runs in collaboration with Baltic. Very cool stuff from a proper hidden community gem!

I managed to slice a small piece out of my finger before we even set off tonight, but with little sympathy I soon forgot about it and got cracking. Neil was on hand with some fascinating local history tonight, pointing out where a King once sat (during a game of golf?!) and where episodes of The Likely Lads and Ant and Dec were filmed. Having runners and walkers helped the speed of which we got the task done tonight, and over 250 leaflets were posted in just over half an hour.

With a newly marked up map and a plan for tomorrow, Dan took on an unofficial Task Force role as he prepares to brief the troops attending Part 2 tomorrow.