A warm welcome awaited us tonight for a brand new smashing task!

It was a super task to welcome new runner Brooklyn tonight as it contained a trio of excellent GoodGym elements:

• Warm indoor task

• Team work to create a human chain

• Toys to play with

But as we celebrated Brooklyn joining the #GGNCL family, we had another big milestone to celebrate: EMILY'S 50th GOOD DEED and therefore the second outing for the Geordie cloak of Good Deeds. Emily has split her time between Newcastle and York GoodGym, spreading sunshine and smiles wherever she goes. Emily cited her favourite task as the regular mission to Nunsmoor Park where they have the best biscuits. We look forward to seeing Emily in the amazing black tshirt of Goodness soon! It was FREEZING for the warm up tonight which we blasted through while Charlotte led the walking group ahead to meet us at the task. A mixture of mobility exercises got us started then we were off and ready to go!

Our task at Nunsmoor Centre was a new Group Run, but it was somewhere we have visited for Community Missions in the past. Alyson at Nunsmoor Centre asked us for help tonight to sort out a few cupboards that needed emptying, cleaning and rearranging. The Nunsmoor Centre is a hub for activities in the Fenham area for families to access that relies massively on volunteers, and it was a wonderful space for us to complete both our task and fitness session.

We split into a few small teams to empty the main cupboard, pass items along a human chain, check them over while the cupboard was cleaned out, before passing them back along the chain to restock. The smaller team worked on two other cupboards to give them a good tidy and sort out as well as a deep-clean. These are the types of jobs that are easy for us to do in such a large group, but would take a long time for someone to complete alone. There were some weird and wonderful (mainly wonderful) toys for us to - ahem - check over including an array of musical instruments. If I had known that, the fitness session would have been putting a band together!

Speaking of fitness sessions, it was brilliant to have the hall to use for it tonight...

I've heard of this GoodGym! It's fabulous to see it in action!

There was a circuit of fun for the session: 2 minute stints at 4 stations: frog walks (yes they ARE a thing, ribbit) shuttle runs, rock, paper, scissors with squats as a forfeit, and the all-important planks. Twice round the circuit then a 4-set finisher. Faye said she was so warm it was nice to actually step back out into the winter air! Everyone worked super-hard on this and it was an amazing effort by everyone, although I do think there will be some sore quads in toon tomorrow.

Don't forget there are TWO chances to do good things this weekend with a community mission on both Saturday and Sunday so get involved if you can! We are back at Newcastle Uni for the Group Run next Monday where we are also being joined by ITV news so get along and grab your 5 minutes of fame!

Happy running!

Anji

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

You might not get all of it done tonight

We love pleasantly surprising our task owners and that's what we did tonight!

It was a night of firsts for our almost 6 month birthday (tomorrow!) as we had our first school task, first big painting job and the first time in ages we have all been in the same room for the whole task!

Tonight our group run took us to Gosforth as we visited Newcastle School for Boys for a Changing Rooms-style makeover on, well, the changing rooms! Newcastle School for Boys is a leading independent school in Newcastle including a junior and senior school educating boys from Nursery to Year 13. This was also the school where regular GoodGym runner Louise's son went (check out her Proud Mum photo in tonight's pics when she spotted his face in the corridor!) We were offered the task this evening as the boys are currently on Half Term break and Steve the caretaker needed a hand with a big painting job.

On arrival to the school, Katy and I went ahead to check out the space that we were giving a lick of paint to and Steve warned us that we may not get it done. Now we love a challenge like that and we knew we could prove him wrong in the best possible way. Steve had very kindly laid everything out for us: rollers, emulsion, brushes, dust sheets and the icon of all tasks: blue roll so as soon as everyone arrived we were immediately able to get started.

"I was nearly crying with laughter at the start because I paired up with Carol Anne and we realised we were the shortest pair and neither of us could actually reach very far! - Charlotte

Luckily our GoodGym group is like a (slightly dysfunctional) family with people of all ages, shapes and sizes meaning there was someone who could fit into, or reach up to, any nook or cranny in the Changing Rooms. I won't mention where poor Emily ended up having her head next to. Much giggling throughout tonight while we slapped the paint on both the walls and occasionally each other and tried our best to not leave bottom imprints in the new paint. We love to leave our mark but that may have been pushing it.

40 minutes passed and job done!

Another brillant example of team work and GoodGym magic, and fingers crossed we will be able to go back and work with some of the older students in the new year!

Have a great week everyone. Hopefully I will see some of you at the Community Mission for Apple Day and at another new task next week.

Happy running! Anji