What a super Saturday bonus run!

We welcomed no less than FOUR new runners to GoodGym today- that's the bonus of a lunchtime run: people who find evenings tricky due to work commitments get the chance to come along and see what we are all about! Hopefully we will see Maddie, Amy, Oli and Steph back again soon.

There were some fabulous partner balances shown off in the warm up- the final poses of everyone carrying each other or in piggybacks should have been caught on camera and I am disappointed in myself! We had a little audience outside of Hotel Indigo looking aghast which I take as a positive. One of my favourite bits of Newcastle - the high level bridge - featured in our route today and the small but perfectly formed group stayed together all the way to the task.

We were helping out at the Dementia Hub for Age UK Gateshead where we visited to do a bit of painting a few weeks ago. We love this task as Julie the task leader is always so organised and chilled! As always, Julie had everything ready for us and had even colour coordinated stuff so we didn't have to keep asking questions! How amazing is that?!

Tasks today were:

• Taking desks apart and moving them downstairs

• Moving new computer furniture upstairs

• Looking important with screwdrivers

• Showing amazing mental strength by not giving up and just playing swingball

• Tidying and reorganising two large cupboards containing gardening equipment, games and crafts

• Moving items of large furniture on to the stage area

• Hoovering - there's a prize for guessing who wanted to do this...

The cupboards were basically like a massive game of Tetris, fitting lots of bits together to make better use of the space, and it was quite amazing to see the difference made by the team on this job! Kudos.

This was a task with a LOT of heavy lifting and the boys really got stuck into it, with desks dismantled and carried up and down the stairs in no time. I have a feeling everyone will be aching tomorrow! Julie said this was a job that would have taken their team of volunteers days to sort out and we were done in just under an hour. Despite the freezing cold headwind it was a lovely run back to base and a familiar afterglow of using our run to do great things.

Well done everyone!

PS: It was Carol Anne who did the Hoovering, and your prize is yet another free group run this Monday at Eslington House for Changing Lives

Anji x

I'm going to be bold, and write in bold, and say right here and now that tonight was my favourite GoodGym group run so far There I said it.

Tonight we ran via a few photo opportunity detours to the fantastic new charity project Smart Works Newcastle who provide clothing and coaching to women to support getting them into work in our city. In just 8 weeks, Smart Works have helped to get an incredible 15 women back into secure employment. Everyone arrived feeling inspired after the visit from the local press during our warm up, and conversation topic of hidden talents on the way there! We can basically set up a pretty good rock band and a football team in the next week or so if we wanted. It was great to use this time to break the ice for our three new runners. Welcome to the family Sarah, Michael and Fiona!

Michelle from Smart Works wasted no time in getting us to work with the tasks of:

Sorting clothing into sizes, sorting out the underwear boxes, tidying up the coat hangers, building new clothing rails, steaming items to hang up, sorting donations out into sizes and piles, eating lollies, dressing a mannequin, occasional dressing up in donations and creating fancy jewellery displays.

Hidden talents were once again unveiled and notably we found out that Dan knows a lot about types of heels.

It was one of those tasks where every room I went into was filled with laughter.

I will never unsee David in his "summer look" of a dusty pink off-the-shoulder crop top, and will never forget Michael helping Paul into his fitted jacket.

I was super impressed at the speed at which Team Flat Pack got the clothing rails built, before swooping in and getting stuck into another task! I don't even think I own a screwdriver. The task I was most jealous of tonight was the steam crew, steaming clothing to hang up. I have once straightened a tshirt out using my hairdryer though, which is kind of the same.

We found a cool little spot behind the MEA House building for the fitness task tonight which was a numbers game of strength exercises where once again all I could hear was laughter. I don't know if it was the fact we were going for food and drinks afterwards that kept people going but the energy was amazing! I'm already excited for next week's group run! Sign up here

There's a Community Mission this Saturday, the details are here And don't forget if you're mission verified, there is the first chance to do a mission this weekend so check your dashboard.

Have a super week with loads of HAPPY RUNNING, Anji x

What a lift-off for GoodGym Newcastle!

After a big intro at our new base at Hotel Indigo from trainer Anji and not forgetting, of course, a massive group photo, 42 runners set off to do the first ever GoodGym good deed in Newcastle!

Back-marked by Ed, the group set off on what some described as a mountain up the famous summit known to others as Westgate Road, past the famous motorbike shops (did anyone teach our Southern visitors how to say mo-ta-bike in Geordie?) reaching the task venue for the night in just under 2K of completely uphill running- what a way to warm up!

We were met by the lovely Jill at Changing Lives who has really helped us to get GoodGym Newcastle off the ground. While some wanted to stay and enjoy the juice and biscuits being dished out, others were keen to get to work. There were four tasks in all: a huge garden clean up complete with jazzy gloves and tools and a kitchen clean then round in the main house, two groups got to grips with a communal area clean and a kitchen freshen up, complete with the dreaded OVEN CLEANING.

I wonder if they will pop over to my house later to have a go at my oven?

More juice, fruit and a few more photos and 40 minutes later we were off again, this time 2K downhill -yay

We stopped off to do a mini drill session led by Queen of the Drills Anji who really enjoyed seeing everyone looking super cool doing tip toe walks and trying not to trip over one another doing that cross-over-feet thing that footballers do.

We are back with Changing Lives next week (venue TBC) so join us for more uphill training, juice and jazzy gloves. We will be staying at Hotel Indigo for a bank holiday drink afterwards. Join us!