The cold never bothered us anyway

(Thankfully, we were indoors tonight)

While the North East of England was hanging on to Ciara, we were layering up and heading back to Newcastle University students union where we were paying a visit to the brilliant team at NEST. Most importantly, it was finally time to celebrate Abi's 50th Good Deed and see her swishing about in the freshly ironed Cloak of Good Deeds. Abi's top Good Deed was the trip we made to Recyke Y Bike on the night of the amazing sunset.

We welcomed new runners Suzi and Michael along for their first Group Run and they did a brilliant job of getting stuck in. Nice work you two, you can come again!

If ever there was a night we needed a warm warm-up it was tonight, so we got moving with the numbers game, jogging between rounds of numbered exercises, ranging from standard lunges to not so standard flying around like aeroplanes with appropriate noises.

Onwards to Newcastle University, a short walk or run for us tonight through town , chatting along the way about what we had been up to at the weekend. Katy also managed to find a football which was donated to NEST on arrival to the task!

We were met by the brilliant NEST team who gave us some background and detail on tonight's task. They explained to us that refugees in our city have to live on less than £40 a week, so many of them never have spare cash for clothes and so they rely on donations from very kind people in the community. Our job tonight was to organise all of the clothing donations into labelled bags to make it easier for people accessing the service to find what they need.

This is a job we have been putting off for ages. It just takes us so long, and you have come in here and blitzed it. Thank you!

We were able to sort every bag of donations, far beating the expectations of the NEST team, and even labelled every bag thanks to Debbie and Charlotte being somewhat of a secretarial team.. although the photo actually looks like they are signing for a football team.

It was a laid back warm affair for Fitness Session tonight, as Louise suggested we stayed indoors for a bit of core and stretching, and everyone agreed it was a good move. I have to thank Louise for tonight's glorious pun too. Ideal for #NationalPunWeek.

Winning

To share some love this weekend, we have a special Community Mission this Friday where we are helping to sort some food donations for Fareshare. Come along if you can, it will be a great way to give some heart this Valentine's Day. There's another mid-weeker next Thursday February 20th, if you fancy. We will be Prepping and Pricing for the CNE nearly new sale. If you can't make it along, don't worry. We are back doing good things at Newcastle Eagles Community Arena so wrap up warm for that one!

Have a great week filled with good things,

Anji x

It doesn't matter what your Monday's been like, GoodGym always has a way of making it brighter

Well, we made it! Our last Group Run of 2019 is IN THE BAG. What an incredible turnout for the final one!

We were paying our last visit of the year to our brilliant partner Changing Lives, the charity that supports vulnerable people to get back on their feet. They have given us so many amazing tasks this year and from the start at GoodGym Newcastle, including this year the chance to get involved in monthly visits to transform the massive back garden at Elliott House. Tonight was special as it was a different sort of task, but also due to renovations due to start at Elliott House in the New Year, it was set to be our last visit for a while.

Don't worry folks, I will find us another task up a massive hill for 2020

We started the night with a big golden celebration as it was Katy Queen of Squats 100th GoodGym Good Deed! Imagine being so brilliant, and so lovely, 100 times?! I - ahem - treated Katy to taking the intro and warm up for her 100th as I led the walking group off on a head start. Katy had colour coordinated her jacket and hair accessories with the golden wings of goodness but sadly she'd left her halo at home. Katy has done some amazing things during her time at GoodGym, going from new runner to Run Leader and Half Marathon runner, and I think you'll all agree she has the best games!

Happy 100th, Katy!

Excellent task owner Alice met us at Elliott House and led us straight up to a room where a stash of hidden gifts and nags awaited us. It was like a real Santa's grotto without plinky-plonky music. Our task was to get a production line going and in 20 minutes, to fill 50 Christmas Gift bags (again colour coordinated with Katy's wings) with presents for the Elliott House residents to open on Christmas Day. Each bag had to contain:

• A selection box

• A warm hat

• A mug

• Bar of soap

• Toothbrush

• Lynx bath set (it isn't Christmas without Lynx)

• Sweets

• Socks

Within minutes, a production line was going with bags being stuffed, passed and checked and the task was done by a record 7:04pm! It's nice to end the year with a PB! We hope the residents love their secret Santa bags as much as we loved putting them together. Quick photo session and back to Elliott House we went, where Rachel and Ross (no Friends comments please) were ready to meet us for after-run drinks.

We were so pleased to have the chance for a massive get-together at our base Hotel Indigo who are always so welcoming and accommodating to us every week. Massive thank you to all the staff there especially Adam who make us feel so welcome every week. With drinks in hand I announced the nominations for GoodGym's GoodGymer of 2019 which had been sent to me by you the runners over the course of last week.

The nominations were:

Andrew for the way he embraces everything GoodGym and the dedication he has to every good deed. Aimee for the progress she has made with her running, and the way she has embraced every area of GoodGym. Charlotte for the work she does on Instagram, and for being so passionate about GoodGym. Evan for his inspiring ultra-distance running, and arranging everything social for GGNCL. Katy for her brilliant games and for being a fantastic Run Leader whenever I'm not around.

It was really close in voting until the last few hours yesterday, then a sudden surge in voting gave Awesome Andrew a landslide victory, and he was awarded the coveted golden GoodGym dustpan and brush. You can tell by the photo how delighted he was.

I'm going to do the same face for this photo, that I've done for every photo this year

Andrew is leading a Community Mission this Saturday at St Lawrence Park which looks like the perfect chance to keep warm do good things and smash an extra good deed to stay on Santa's good list. The last Community Mission of the year takes place with Aimee on Sunday at City Stadium too, if you fancy doing a Double to end the year!

Thanks everyone for an incredible year of GoodGym Newcastle, in particular the Task Force for supporting and developing everything we get done. Every single one of you who come along whether it's once a month, every Monday, weekly visits to your coach or to every Community Mission help to make GoodGym what it is.

Our city is healthier, better and we are happier because of you

I'll leave you with Katy's brilliant poem that featured in my massive Christmas/Thank You card (thanks to everyone for their lovely messages!) and no apology that this Run Report has been epic- you get two weeks off from my rambling as a thank you.

Here it is:

GoodGym Newcastle is now 20 months old, And as 2019 comes to a close, It is time to reflect on the Good Deeds we've done, So we'll start from the top I suppose...

It all started with a painted Hoover, As we sorted through tools and toys, Paimted desks, clicking heels, cupboard and leaves, At JPR cheering the girls and boys.

Beeswax crafts, sewing and building shelves, Are all things we love to do! Litter-picks, weeding and marshallind in fog, Of those we've done quite a few!

There was painting and goat-walking, And then chopping down of trees. We made paper chains, sorted books, And were really good posties!

Scrubbed the decks, then painted them black, Can you believe I'm not even in May? Cleared a tunnel and found some rate, And remember digging in that rain?!

WERS got our help and we played in the park, Laughed and joked, everything shone. Yet more painting, we showed our pride, Delivered leaflets until there were none!

2000 good deeds was 'relay' great! Eagles and Recyke got our aid. First Centurion got his wings, then 3 more. Elliott Jouse- what a difference we've made!

But truth be told, it couldn't be done, Without someone taking a lead. Yes, you've got helpers to give you a hand, But you're who we really need.

Thank you Anji, our Queen of Drills, For your planning, playfulness and puns. 2019 has been a truly amazing year, All because of our Monday Group Runs!

• Katy

Happy Christmas one and all, See you in 2020!

Anji x

Stand back everyone, make room for a GoodGym Icon!

We felt so honoured to be joined by Alex at the Group Run tonight. Alex is not only a passionate GoodGymer with 237 (!!!) good deeds to his name, but a key member of the central GoodGym team in London. Alex was paying the Frozen North a visit for a few meetings and unfortunately the timing of his return to London meant he couldn't stay for the run tonight, so we really appreciate that he came along to meet everyone.

Alex wasn't the only visitor as we also welcomed Antje who is a journalism student from Belgium. Antje is writing a report about the great work of GoodGym and how it might work overseas, so it was ace to have her along and chat to everyone about running with GoodGym in Newcastle. Hopefully she got a great flavour of what goes on at #GGNCL !

We finally got to celebrate Aimee's 100th good deed and admired her in the golden wings. Check out Aimee's amazing cakes she brought along after making a cake graph of her GoodGym good deeds. The cakes represent 36 group runs, 36 coach runs, 27 community missions and 1 mission to help an older person.

HERO!

We gave Evan a cheer on his mind-blowing achievement at the Cheviot Goat Ultra (check out his profile for the superb 50 mile badge!) and had a quick catch up on the two Christmassy Community Missions that happened last week. Hannah and Graeme joined us for the first time tonight too, kudos to them for coming out and getting stuck in on a cold night and a longer run.

One of our favourite routes tonight led us along the beautiful quayside and up to Byker where we were met by brilliant task owner Sara. It was our second visit to Recyke Y Bike, the brilliant charity that collects donated or abandoned bikes, cleans them up with the help of volunteer engineers including some in prisons, before sending them on to people in need. Their base in Byker (how perfect is that?!) is an enormous treasure trove of every type of bike you could imagine.

Not only did Sara have a list ready for us tonight, but she had typed it too! Stacks of super jobs awaited us including:

• Sweeping the huge workshop

• Kitchen clean up including massive dish wash

• Clear out of the (not scary) staircase

• Wall papering with magazine pictures

• Marking out tools with Sharpie

• Mopping suspect areas of the floor that have been painted by visiting pigeons

• Organising tyres into sizes and occasional hula hooping.

You are just the best at getting done all the jobs we keep putting off!

35 intense and brilliant minutes, then we were off again with two options for the run back: steady pace with me or speedy intervals with Paul. It was almost an even split and Paul's group very kindly gave us a generous head start meaning we arrived back at almost exactly the same time. Nice one!

Hopefully you will be able to join us for our final group run of the year next week for Changing Lives after which we will be staying for drinks at Hotel Indigo and presenting the coveted GoodGymer of the year award! If you'd like to nominate someone for the award, just drop me an email anji@goodgym.org or send me a Facebook message with your vote.

See you then!

Anji x

WE HAVE A NEW CENTURION!

Huge applause and praise please for the brilliant Charlotte on her 100th Good Deed. Charlotte has come a long way from someone who felt too shy and anxious to come along to her first ever GoodGym Group Run to now being a face at GoodGym Newcastle that everyone knows. She has never let anything stand in her way and is a key part of our Task Force, helping to organise tasks and manage huge parts of our social media to help to spread the word. Charlotte often volunteers herself as back marker and walk leader, and you can find out why that's so important to her in this story and this one too !

As you will have spotted already we had a massive turn out tonight thanks to a team visit from Newcastle Northern Angels, the Newcastle University Cheerleading team! The team were absolutely full of energy and enthusiasm and it was great to have them along on such a chilly night in toon. We had a catch up from the weekend and a long head count before sending Rachael and Katie off on the walk. To get everyone moving we played rock-paper-scissors-run-squat to warm up before we set off.

We were back at Newcastle Eagles Community Arena tonight where we have been helping to transform the gardens with monthly visits to clear and weed the area around the main car park. This visit saves the Eagles charity close to £1000 as well as the time of many other volunteers who lend a hand and it's always a great physical task that we love to get stuck into. Neil our super-organised task owner was ready for action as always with tools and hi-vis for everyone.

Now as we were such a huge group tonight we had to split in half with a group weeding while the others did the fitness session before a swap over. There were games, drills and burpees to keep as warm as we could at all times. We haven't split a task like this before and it seemed to work really well with the time absolutely flying over and everyone managing to work at top speeds while having fun. Neil was really pleased with what we got done and there was time for him to say a big group thank you to everyone before we ran back out into the night!

No community missions this weekend but there were two completely brilliant Newcastle Parks Community missions over the weekend with some fab autumnal photos. If you haven't seen the reports yet you can find them here: Saturday's is here and Sunday's is here Well done to all who led and got involved. We continue our community missions into the end of the year so if you haven't done one yet, check out the listings and get signed up.

Have a great week knowing you started it the best way doing good things.

Anji x