Hello Monday and hello summer nights!

It was so lovely to meet up on a warm and sunny evening albeit in a small group this evening, I’m guessing due to there being a very important football match taking place at the same time up the road! We had a catch up then headed to the Cycle Hub to meet up with Anthony who was running late. We talked about how good it was to have runners, walkers and cyclists along for the session for the first time in a while. Conversation then turned to swimming and whether or not swimming along from Ouseburn would be in any way good for your health.

We followed the GoodGym Litter Pick Bingo grid again tonight, splitting into two groups of running and walking and ticking off pretty much everything except nappies, Nestle chocolate wrappers and beer bottles - in Newcastle- I know, we were stunned too!

I set up a mini running workout circuit to finish off, switching between shuttle runs, step ups and ladder drills to get the legs burning! The backdrop of the Tyne on a clear evening made it the most scenic fitness session we’ve ever done.

It was a great start to the week and collecting five bags of rubbish shows we really made a difference.

We are back tomorrow with a rare Tuesday session as we help out Newcastle Eagles foundation with some gardening. Hope you can join us for that one too.

You can tell Paul was back tonight by the calibre of this pun!!

On a beautiful evening in Toon, an enthusiastic bunch of GoodGymers gathered feeling chilly but raring to go. It was great to see Oliver and Carrie back for their second sessions, while Libbie was back after an absence of over three years! Newbies and OGs alike assembled and after a quick warm up we were off, with Paul leading runners and myself and Louise walking.

Super task owner Vanessa met us at Recyke Y Bike, the brilliant charity in the brilliant workshop space near Byker. There were two tasks this evening: labelling bicycle tools in the two tool boxes, and sweeping the enormous workshop. Everyone set to work and I was impressed with how well everyone pretented to know what they were doing with the tool labels. A bit of googling and a bit of guesswork meant it was no problem to this brilliant team.

Half an hour flew over and the floors were sparkling, tool boxes organised and amazingly the cakes on offer refused (!!) and it was time for the fitness session. We did loads of ladder drills tonight and marvelled at how light Oliver is on his feet- who knew?!

Another good deed done to start the week off right! Hope you can join us soon, there are two great Urban Green gardening sessions this weekend with Tanya and Louise, then we are back for some leafleting next Monday.

We love a new task and we love painting!

It was all hands on deck (and on rollers) for tonight's Group Run as we headed off to the NSPCC in Sandyford to do a spot of painting. It was brilliant Cathy who hooked this up for us a few months ago, so big thanks for that. GoodGym works better when we work as a team and having this brilliant new task sourced for us was great. Go and give her a cheer! It was a chilly catch up on the weekend's action including a brilliant GGNCL takeover at North East Marathon Club's Town Moor Marathon and Half where we were once again guardians of the gate. We weren't able to list this as an official community mission, so I was blown away by the commitment from those who came along and enhanced the day for themselves and all the runners on the moor. You did a great job of spreading the word of GoodGym to a running community who wouldn't otherwise know we were there.

Epic

A very swift warm up of activation drills, arm swishing and avoiding bollards, we did our head count, gave new runner Lorna a big cheer and Louise and I led the way off to Jesmond to meet brilliant Task Owner Katy who was ready, waiting and organised for our arrival. The conversation topic tonight was around controversial opinions, and we heard everything from someone (ahem) who doesn't like Christmas, a few people who've never seen Game of Thrones, to someone who hates Harry Potter and my personal favourite "people have too many opinions about raisins" .. your secrets are safe with me.

This task has been a few months in the planning and it was a huge honour to finally get cracking with the amazing NSPCC in Sandyford. Their centre has a few rooms in need of a lick of paint, but that wasn't all we were there for.

Jobs tonight were:

• Painting two rooms

• Assembling donation boxes

• Putting sashes on teddy bears

• Putting up Christmas decorations

• Wrapping and labelling presents

• Eating a fine selection of sweet-related refreshments

Everyone seemed to love their allocated tasks and there was a brilliant industrious atmosphere as everyone cracked on with wrapping, rolling and occasional singing (I'm looking at you, Rachael) Task owner Katy was so pleased that we got everything done and she thanked us all with a gorgeous star pin badge which we will wear with pride knowing we made a difference to this fabulous organisation. We have promised a return visit so watch this space! As we'd run out of time to do a fitness session, it was a faster run back again expertly led by Louise who also gifted us with tonight's stunning pun. Thanks Louise!

We don't have any community missions this week ahead, but there are a bunch listed here from next Friday into the end of the year. Some of them are our usual gardening antics, with loads of Christmas/Wintery stuff thrown in for good measure. Get involved if you can.

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

Anji x

What a great night to test our funky new lights!

Thanks to our brilliant GoodGym Central team, we have a set of brilliant portable lights that we made use of tonight for our visit to Newcastle Eagles Community Garden. We lend a hand to Neil and the fantastic Eagles team once a month to keep the gardens ship shape with weeding and clearing, making the entrance to the arena even more welcoming.

Look at how great our photos are! Are we ready for our close up? YES WE ARE!

We started the night with announcements and celebrations including our very own Andrew smashing his first ever Marathon at the beautiful and brutal Kielder Marathon weekend where I am lucky enough to work on the event delivery team. We had runners in action in all of the distances, you didn't have to look far to see a glorious red GG tshirt. Well done everyone, including those who volunteered in pretty grim conditions yesterday. You are all so brilliant.

After a quick warm up with everyone's sweetie game, it was off to the Eagles with Charlotte leading the walkers and Paul and me taking the runners. We love this uncomplicated run that takes in some of the iconic Blaydon Race route- just not quite as far! There was a lot of chat tonight and some great catching up for a few members of the group who have been missing in action (work) for a little while.. welcome back Paul!

Neil is a great task organiser and he met us bang on time with tools and a high-vis for everyone while Nick got straight in with getting himself in charge of the wheelbarrow and looking very important. Our task tonight was simple and therapeutic, remove the weeds from two main sections of the car park garden to reveal the flowers buried somewhere beneath. We loved getting stuck in and making the area clearer in just 40 minutes before a super quick tidy-up afterwards. Neil reminded us of the difference we are making with this task in time spent as well as money saved for the Eagles that they can spend on other things.

With so many tired legs in the group tonight we had a mellow-ish fitness session the grounds of the Eagles Community Arena with some activation and movement drills to wake up and stretch tired calves, quads and hamstrings before our run back. Some brilliant and not so brilliant coordination was on show and I am sure you will all be practising them at home this week!

Do you have some time to spare for a daytime Community Mission this week? We'd love it if you were able to lend a hand at the Smartworks Sale on Thursday afternoon if you can. Just look for Maddy if you are arriving a little after the start time. There's also a mission this weekend for Newcastle Parks on Saturday and another on Sunday ... who's up for a treble?!

We are back at Elliott House next week for more gardening and good things, so hopefully we will see you then.

Happy running and walking!

Anji x