As many of you will know, Newcastle and Gateshead are gripped by (half) marathon fever in August as the Great North Run approaches next month! And I think it's fair to say that it's been a marathon effort delivering 3000 leaflets for Love Dunston to spread the word about their fair next weekend.

I was joined this afternoon by Max who hadn't been to a task for a while - I was certainly glad of the company to deliver another 300 leaflets. As it turned out, we delivered them all in only 45 minutes. Long terraced streets with short paths to their front doors are always a welcome sight when there are leaflets to be delivered!

We now hand over the baton to Richard and Scott to bring it over the line later this afternoon. They're both completing a marathon of their own today, with one of our regular allotment sessions, before they cross the Tyne to hopefully deliver the last of the leaflets. With a bit of luck they will have paced it just right, keeping enough energy back to finish the task!

It was a gorgeous day for our second visit to Magret’s plot and our link up with Newcastle Parks and Allotments. We made a start on clearing the plot a couple of weeks ago. Sadly there were already some weeds flourishing in the area we had cleared so we spent some time clearing that area, before moving on to the next section.

It seems like our memo about axes from a different task this week has filtered through and Aimee in particular was delighted to see the presence of an axe today! Max put it to good use, breaking up the ground, which seemed harder this time than last time, probably due to the warm sunshine we’ve had lately! Tanya, on the other hand, was less successful with the tools, choosing a spade with the diggy bit (that’s a technical term!) coming off the handle as soon as she tried digging!

There was a spell during the task when we felt like we weren’t getting anywhere, but then it all came together. You can definitely see that we made progress today! And it was lovely to be joined by some local wildlife, although we’re not sure how healthy the bee was! The cat, however, seemed very content basking in the sunshine!

There’s still a way to go though. Fortunately, we’re back again next Saturday. There’s rain forecast for this week so the ground should be a bit softer. We’d love to see you there!

The sun was shining again on our second trip to Harbottle Park with Urban Green Newcastle. in December we cleared the weeds and dished out the mulch, this time we took on the task of clearing the dead grass from around the fence.

4 GoodGymmers made their way to the session. Props to Aimee and Damu for hitting a parkrun beforehand!

We got stuck in and made great progress, all the while chatting about the joys and perils of owning cats. Me and Aimee being the resident cat ladies! However, it wasn't long before our cat chat turned into a mousehunt as we realised we had ruffled the nest of some little doormice - we left the little guys to it, habitat intact!

Great company, including the visit from Pippa and Poppy - two very cute dogs, juat to round out the cat, mouse, dog triumvirate!

Thanks as always to our hosts, Urban Green Newcastle and the work they do to look after Newcastle's green spaces.

We have 3 'more UGN sessions listed, come and join us for graft, chat, tea and biscuits!

Welcome Anjali to your first goodgym mission.

Anjali and I got to work on sorting the riding boots, Anna sorted the riding hats and Scott, Aimee and Max sorted the riding lanes.

We all came together at the end to sweep the stable paths.

During tonights photography shoot, a hat was temporarily stolen. The hat was soon retrieved directly from the culprit.

Photo credits go to Aimee and Anna.

Have a good week everyone!

Tonight's task was a special one! Back to Stepney Bank Stables and our fabulous host had some great tasks for us including cleaning the bridles, grooming and massaging the horses, preparing snacks for their supper and giving their home an early spring clean. Pampered ponies - you wouldn't get a better, more relaxing, spa experience at a Champneys!

We had 3 new people tonight - Weronika, Iline and Elena joined us for their first ever mission and Tom made the switch from Greenwich to Newcastle, joining us for his first Toon-based task! It was great to welcome so many new people.

Special shout out to Tom, Jack and David who got themselves ready for their close up with ITV news who were filming us tonight - fingers crossed our fellas get their 15 minutes!