It was awesome to welcome along a team in sky blue from the fabulous Claremont Road Runners tonight as they popped along to GoodGym Newcastle in place of their usual Monday night club run to see what we are all about. It was so great to see how quickly you all "got it" and got involved and we'd love to have you back any time! Thanks Nina for organising this mini mash-up. Click on the link to find out more about this fab local running club.

While we were famously getting our mugs on telly after ITV filmed us last week, GoodGym life went on and we did what we do every Monday, meeting up at Hotel Indigo, with a quick catch up, warming up with a silly game and heading off into the night to do good deeds. It was an extra-special night as everyone's favourite Route Master and all-round top husband of mine Paul was celebrating his birthday. For those who didn't come tonight, you missed CAKE. And there was loads of it.

For my 50th Good Deed tonight we had a brilliant new task at Byker Community Association organised by ace task forcer Dan. We had one big job to do: sort out THE ROOM OF DOOM by helping to clear out a cupboard, forming a human chain to transport piles of random stuff to a waiting skip. The human chain is always a firm favourite of ours as we passed down everything from a spirit level, a mannequin, loads of out of date drinks and in Paul's words, "something rank, I don't even know how to describe the smell". Task owner Rowena was delighted with our help, as the cupboard was cleared in under 20 minutes.

YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!

Rowena gave us a fabulous background history of the centre and told us all about the brilliant activities that bring the community together in Byker in the famous wall. The clear out that is currently taking place will allow the team there to create a reading room where they will host beam-back bedtime story readings for children in refugee camps. How life-changing is that? It was great that we were able to make such an impact and I know we will be back.

I changed my original plan for the fitness session tonight when I saw the tables and chairs set up in the main hall that were begging for some fit competitive people to play a game of musical chairs on them (with a fitness twist, obviously). All manner of competitive game play ensued with moments including Emma grabbing a chair from under Sarah (literally), Nick jumping into chairs in absolute ninja fashion, and an edge to Charlotte storming into winning seats we have never seen before! The fitness forfeits were also creative and fun, my favourite being Dave's step ups on the chair while he waited his turn to come back in.

In the end, it was Emma who was victorious, declaring "I HAVE NEVER WON AT MUSICAL CHAIRS IN MY LIFE!" leaving me a little sad I didn't have a lolly or something for her.

Three top elements achieved: heart rate up, out of breath and laughing our heads off.

I've shared a great live video on our Facebook page that was posted on Byker Community Association's FB of everyone during the task that I hope you all enjoy.

It's another new task next week as we trot off to help out with a huge kitchen clear-up at Newcastle Cricket Club. Get involved and you might even get to play childrens' party games by way of exercising. Sign up Here

Have a great week,

Anji x

WE DID IT! We reached over 1000 good deeds for GoodGym Newcastle

What a brilliant evening and I am sure you'll agree, a brilliant pun too (thanks Paul, this is now always your job) with a fantastic task, a great turn out and a visit from ITV Tyne Tees to show off the great work (and excellent banter) at GoodGym Newcastle.

Since our April 30th launch last year, we have racked up an amazing 1009 good deeds, which equates to over 750 hours or 31 days of deeds. In hard cash, this is the same as £6157 worth of tasks in minimum wage terms. That's what we have saved all the organisations we have helped and I think that's something for us to shout about! Thanks go to our favourite numbers man, my fellow book nerd, Andrew for the stats.

I don't know if it was the camera crew, the Raising and Giving week at Newcastle Uni, this wonderful milestone, the fact there was the option of after-run drinks or a combination of all, but we had our highest turn out in ages tonight to smash through the 1000 mark in our monthly visit to help at Newcastle University Students Union .

Our warm up was taken by Katy and Evan as I did my TV interview (check me out!) and Jon got acquainted with a Go Pro which he was tasked with wearing for the run to capture footage for the ITV news piece. Energy was high with loads of laughter that I am sure will (hopefully) mask the fact I was shivering as I was interviewed! Charlotte led the walking group off through the icy cold night then off we went on the short run up Northumberland Street. On arrival we were met by the team at the Students Union with three brilliant tasks for us to do- something for everyone. The tasks were:

• Sewing Wiggly Bags for Chemo patients in the childrens' cancer ward at the RVI

• Making candles using bees wax, and learning about bees with the bee society

• Assembling flat pack shelves for the NEST group who work with refugees

(Can you see now why the pun this week is SEW brilliant?!)

The ITV Tyne Tees crew were fantastic at grabbing interviews and footage of the tasks as well as the Superhero themed fitness session afterwards, and I can't wait to see your moments of fame. Keep an eye on ITV Tyne Tees news this week as it could be on any day. I am sure they caught the brilliant mix of the relaxing and educational task with the bee society, the chilled sewing task with an exceptional sweetie collection and the real physical challenge of the night, assembling the shelves.

Kudos everyone!

It was great to have so many new runners along, especially those from Newcastle University involved for Raising and Giving week, and we hope to have you along again sometime soon.

Well done everyone. See you next Monday for our first visit to Byker Community Centre. You can check out the details for that and sign up here

Happy running!

Anji x

I just wanted to do something good with my free time!

... and new member Daniel did just that tonight. Kudos for joining us on not only our longest run to date but possibly our coldest too!

It was typically brisk tonight for our last run of November so I kept the intro short (not like me, I know) before leading us off on a run so epic we had three possible routes there and none of them particularly scenic. Surely running down the Felling Bypass is best kept for the Great North Run only?! I have to give a special shout out to Liz who was a little worried she wouldn't keep up tonight, yet Queen Backmarker Charlotte and her were never more than two steps behind! The rain held off but that didn't stop us needing to dodge a million puddles.

On arrival at the Age UK Gateshead dementia hub, we were met by Carol Anne at her first post-op Good Deed, and the brilliant Julie from Age UK. She was every GoodGym trainer's dream: totally organised, materials laid out and tasks written on a clear plan so we wasted no time. Everyone was on painting duty for this one: Charlotte painting a Stage door, Dave painting a church door, and micro teams brushing up walls with bright blues and orange to match the Age UK logo. A few teams were squished into tiny doorways and corridors and suddenly the cold outside was forgotten. I especially liked the team that had their own personal baby gate to keep them hemmed into place!

It was so great having the Dynamic Duo Charlotte and Carol Anne back together, especially so that Charlotte could relay the story of our super-cute mission to Mr S's house yesterday.

The Dementia Hub is just a few weeks away from their big opening day and it was so brilliant to have a big team like this on task and having fun. We were able to complete all of the jobs in the time set...

And we only managed to break one roller!

We are planning to return to the Dementia Hub for a series of community missions in January, and group runs to look after a patch of their HUGE garden in the spring and I already can't wait. A brilliant task where we were able to see the impact we can make straight away while we start our week the best way possible.

See you all next week for our return to Smart Works Newcastle Remember, next week is walkable so try to bring along a beginner and show off our wonderful community at one of our favourite tasks.

Happy running and walking Anji x

We learned two very important things tonight at our GoodGym Group Run to Newcastle University Students Union:

What Charlotte lacks in patience she makes up for in resilience Rachel did the New York City Marathon! We had no idea! She kept that to herself. (the second one is a lie)

We had a University-themed warm up where we found out the Group has a massive range of skills from ex-paper boy (Peter), Computer Games Designer (Paul) Pilot - possibly- (Dan), two teachers (Katy and me) and two brain boxes from Cambridge and Oxford (Kate and Emma) with everything else in between. Brains and beauty! We said a big hello to Lou on her first ever Group Run and hoped she would have a great evening.

It was our second visit to the Newcastle University Students Union tonight where we completed tasks in the union workshop, helped out with a literary task for the NEST project and everyone's favourite, (except Charlotte) wrapping selection boxes of beer for the students union bar! We love helping out at the University as it's a super-easy run which is perfect for those of us suffering Tin Legs following yesterday's Town Moor Marathon and Half, it's indoors and we are always really looked-after. On the Tin Legs: big shout out to the GoodGym Party gate who kept Ross, Paul, Evan and I entertained on our multi-lap trek around the Moor yesterday. You were amazing!

We split off into three groups for the tasks tonight and as always got straight to work.

Group One: The Shifters Moving items from one end of the university workshop to the other. Nick obviously felt this task was a little too easy and added to the challenge by accidentally dropping a million screws on the floor. This was superb group work for everyone lifting and shifting.

Group Two: The wrappers This group were wrapping a selection of books for the NEST project which works with refugees. The idea was fab, the books are wrapped and quotes about the book written on before being given to the refugees to show you should never judge a book by its cover- something sadly they often face. This laid- back chilled task was ideal for Rachel who is weighed down by her NYC Marathon medal (did she mention she ran that?) and ideal for Katy to showcase her Teacher Writing.

Group Three: The boozers As much as GoodGym is thirsty work, this group weren't there to sample the delicious Stu Brew beer. Their task was to construct then pack little cardboard carriers with four ales for sale for Christmas time. It was this that pushed Charlotte over the edge as it was basically like a cardboard jigsaw where none of the pieces fit. This earned her the name Stroppy Knickers (thanks for this Dan) and made me think this would be a brilliant GoodGym badge. Typical to Charlotte's never-give-up attitude, and Dan and Peter's guidance and encouragement, she cracked on with the job in hand and got several boxes completed!

Jobs done and fitness session ON! Three stations were waiting for the team tonight: stair reps, shuttle runs and ladder drills, all finished off with a wall squat won by King Peter and Queens Ellen and Christina. Another brilliant evening, great encouragement and loads of laughter.

If you fancy helping at Nunsmoor Park it's our monthly mission this Saturday which will be looked after by Katy. You can sign up for that here It will be our last visit there for this year, so get involved if you can. Make your own way there and stay as long as you like.

Our group run next week is a little further so please don't be late! Sign up to help Age UK here

Happy running!