Behold! the most epic before and after pics there ever was!

Today was one of the most satisfying group runs ever. We ran, walked and cycled our way to a Saturday lunchtime task to help the amazing Sustrans- the group who look after our brilliant cycle network.

Louise, Katie and Eleanor walked, Tom, Aimee and Paul ran and I cycled- showing GoodGym is for everyone as we headed off on a blustery Saturday group session by the Tyne. We had been asked to prep and paint one of the route marker mileposts on the 72- the Hadrians Cycleway that connects the quayside with the coast in one direction and the Hadrians wall route. Task owner Danny met us there and was super well organised allowing us to get started straight away.

We have done painting tasks like this with Sustrans before and it was a great feeling to be back and helping them again. The task was to sand the metal work down to prime it, requiring lots of upper body muscle power and lots of squats and stretching. Goggles and gloves on and painting was underway, this bit very satisfying. The time flew over and pretty quickly the job was done, with Danny super impressed with our work and hopefully planning in his head to have us back to do this again at another milepost soon!

We are back with another good deed tomorrow at Kenton Park. Join us if you can.

This was worth waiting for!

Our rescheduled Group Run with Sustrans was SO worth the wait!

We welcomed new GoodGym Newcastle runner Tim who had been signed up by his wife! Go and give him a cheer to welcome him to the group! Tim did a fantastic job tonight and we hope to welcome him back to many a GoodGym run. Paul described him as a "machine". We also welcomed Kate and Emma back from their holidays looking tanned and chilled and not making any of us at all jealous. We had a catch up on the weekend's action: Great North 10K running and cheering, Evan running up and down a lot of hills, Rachel making a long-awaited return to parkrun, and of course two great Communiy Missions for Newcastle Parks on Saturday and Sunday Well done to those that got involved!

So, another Monday, another Group Run but this was one with a twist. We were adopting a scatter approach with three small groups taking on three tasks on the cycle network in Newcastle. Our run was to support the great work of Sustrans , the charity that make it easier for people to walk and cycle. Three of the Mile Posts that mark the way on the cycle network needed some TLC and general GoodGym magic, and we were excited to get involved. In all, there are a thousand of these Millenium Mileposts and it was great to temporarily adopt them tonight.

I walk past this all the time and never realised it was here!

The three locations and groups were:

• Newcastle Business Park led by Paul

• Cycle Hub corner led by Katy

• Swing Bridge/Riverside led by Charlotte.

Each of them was supported by fab volunteers from Sustrans who met us at each one armed with paints and litter pickers for those unable to fit in the painting area! This was so well organised and I managed to run between two of the points to see everyone. Each group had the same task: sand the mile post down, re paint it while litter picking went on around to show the mile post off in all its glory when completed! We learned a bit of history about the Millenium Mileposts, including that each of them has its own emblem that you can take a brass rubbing from. Only ONE person has ever completed all of them. Anyone fancy being second?

I ran ahead and set up a 5 minute finisher fitness session to meet all the groups on their return, Paul's group sneakily arriving just as it was over. As they'd run the furthest, and fastest, we let them off this time.

If you'd like to do more good things this week, there are TWO community missions on Thursday. One during the day at Elswick Park and the other in the evening at Ray Gray Community Centre so get signed up and come along if you can.

Have a great week running, walking and doing good things.

Anji x

Living just off the route of the Great North Run, it's easy to see the GNRE (Great North Run Effect) in full swing at the moment, with a lot of what I like to call panic-running going on, and I'm not sure if that's also what happened tonight too as our group number flew up! 23 of us trotted out on our longest run to date to help clear a section of the Hadrians Cycleway with Sustrans and some of their ace volunteers. The route was a new one for us and for huge fans of running alongside dual carriageways it really had it all. 4K of the iconic Blaydon Race route to be exact!

We said a big hello to new runner Sarah who is a new resident of our beautiful city and I managed to give her a guided tour of all the sights on the way. It's true that GoodGym gives people the chance to explore places they never knew existed as well as getting fit and doing good. I just may have to work on my tour guide banter which isn't great. "Tell me something great about the Newcastle arena!" ... "Um, bands play there".

Running out to the task in two groups, the speedies led by Paul and the speakies with me tonight, we were met by the fantastic Sarah from Sustrans with a bag of tools and tricks every task owner would envy. The task tonight was to clear back bushes and paths, collecting litter and tidying up as we went to make this an appealing, safe and open space for the hundreds of cyclists and walkers who use the NCN72 path every day. Louise celebrated her tenth good deed tonight by finding a haul of 20 Newcastle Brown Ale bottles (sadly empty) which delighted me with the immediate offering of a pun for the report.

Go Louise!

This particular section of the Hadrian's Cycleway is called Paradise Ramp which we all loved too. We need to start keeping a log of all of the quirky facts our task owners share with us!

The run back incorporated the fitness session tonight as we threw in speed play intervals, charging between lamp posts and in timed efforts. Katie absolutely smashed this and it was amazing to arrive back to a round of applause from the faster group. These are the moments that I always remember after a great group run!

We have a community mission this weekend if you fancy starting your Saturday with a good deed. Sign up here after you have completed your community missions training module. If not, I will see you next week for Bank Holiday GoodGym fun at Francis House followed by Bank Holiday drinks.

Happy running!

Anji x

It takes a lot of commitment to come to GoodGym on a Monday, after work, in the Summer.

It takes a bigger commitment to come when there's an England match on the telly!

Massive kudos to everyone who came along to the Group Run tonight where it was fab to welcome new runner Suzannah to the family. Our task was a simple one, run to the Quayside, clear up a section of the Cycle path for Sustrans , complete a fitness session and run back. Run, do good, get fit and look for weird things during the litter pick.

Charlotte led #TeamInjured on a short route and everyone else took the old tried and tested route by the Arena and down to the beautiful - but windy- Quayside, crossing over to Gateshead for the first time in Newcastle GoodGym history! We were met by Sarah from Sustrans and set to work for 30 minutes of speedy volunteering

Tanya managed to find a can of Hell, Liz bagged (literally) a steak knife but Weird Item of the Night accolade went to Paul, who found ...............

A POTATO

Sprints were the order of the day for the fitness session as we charged the Quayside path learning how best to use our upper body to pump the arms for maximum speed. Paul has some awesome photos of this session which we will pop on to the Facebook page later. Everyone channeled their inner Mo Farah for the session which Kate said was one of those times you don't think you want to do something, then it feels awesome, and you just want to keep going! Maddie's sprints were legendary tonight too!

So that's it for another week of Group Runs. Sign up to next week's run here and our FIRST Community Mission on Friday for the Jo Cox Foundation Here

Happy running! Anji x

The sun was out again for our Bank Holiday group run with Sustrans

It was another gorgeous Newcastle night for our first group run to the Quayside, heading out of the city centre after celebrating Debbie's parkrun PB and Michael for running his second-best ever Half Marathon in Edinburgh.

Top commitment for coming to the session on Half Marathon Monday legs!

Through the city centre and down to the quayside (with much excitement for running back up the bank by the Metro Radio Arena) we went, meeting Sarah from Sustrans on the way. Everyone got stuck straight into the big litter-pick without a second thought, with Emma and Kate confessing they had come straight from a camping trip to GoodGym without time for a shower, therefore completely unphased by any rubbish they were to encounter on the task!

Within 30 minutes the stretch of Quayside path was clear and Katy proudly took my special award for finding the weirdest piece of litter of the night:

an incomplete set of false nails

We did our first ever hill session on the way back as part of a Paarlauf- themed fitness task, doing hill reps with short flat recoveries to get the heart rate up and learn the best form for uphill running. This will no doubt come in handy on the way up Westgate Road to Elliott House next week! Carol-Anne coped with the disappointment of not having a Hoover to use this week by winning my sweetie reward for excellent hill running.

In a GoodGym first, we were serenaded by a passing jazz band during our stretch-off, ending the Bank Holiday fun in an all together random way before staying at Hotel Indigo for drinks to say well done to us.

We are back at Elliott House with Changing Lives next week. Sign up, come along and do good things. I can't promise a jazz band, but I'm sure it will still be awesome. Sign up here