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

Hey everyone, remember when it was hot and sunny for every single task ever then tonight we ALL ALMOST DROWNED IN A MONSOON?

OK so maybe it wasn't that bad after all, but I didn't want to miss the chance to be dramatic

I've been excited for the task tonight for ages as The Bike Garden, nestled away at the back of Nunsmoor Park is such a hidden gem where I knew we could make a massive difference on the Group Run. The Bike Garden is a wheelchair-friendly space for groups to hire for activities, community projects and it also has the bonus of an outdoor pizza oven which we will hopefully get to experience if we pop back in a few weeks. It needed a bit of GoodGym magic in the shape of weeding and clearing the paths which were full of lumps and bumps. This required gloves, forks, hoes and much to Andrew delight, an ACTUAL WHEELBARROW.

Now everyone has a hidden talent, mine being writing run reports whilst unnecessarily obsessing over Love Island, and tonight we discovered Emily is the absolute Queen of Ragwort, a pesky little yellow weed that is awful to pull up, even when the ground has had a very recent (current) soaking. Emily has done this job twice in a week: here and in York last week and both times it has rained dramatically. Does she have weird special powers? I will ask our friends in London as she's heading down there in the next couple of weeks.

Our task owner Una brought out tea, coffee and very well-received biscuits at the end of the evening which were happily accepted by the fly-attacked GoodGymers who had worked their socks off. There was a quick squat and lunge group fitness session then back down to Hotel Indigo where naturally the sun had decided to come back out.

We will be going back to The Bike Garden in a few weeks to continue this task and it would be great if you could join us. I will let everyone know when I have the date confirmed!

Hope to see all of you at Newcastle parkrun to run, walk, jog or volunteer on Saturday, and at the next Group Run next week. Sign up here

Happy running! Anji x