Last night was a satisfying Group Run as we visited NEST to bring some disMANtle power 

Some GoodGym OGs may remember that a few years ago we did an epic shelf-building task for NEST, the charity that supports refugees in our city, based at Newcastle University. Our midweek group run was to return and dismantle the shelves that have started to sag under the weight of use.

It was great to welcome Sophie back for her second-ever GG NCL task and she got stuck into shelf dismantling in the main storage room with Liz and Louise, while Paul, Tanya and Deb brought their units out to the corridor to have a SMASHING time. It was a really satisfying task to smash, bash and stack the shelves but nearby students attempting to study didn't seem to agree (sorrrryyyyyy!)

Louise and Liz managed to get very small (but very dramatic in Louise's case!) cuts and carried on regardless, meaning the job was done within 25 minutes. All that remained was transporting the shelf parts to the nearby skip space- this and a trolley proving to be the noisiest part of the night!.

A multi station circuit and strides rounded off the night nicely and we headed back full of satisfaction and aching arms.

Next week's group run is a slightly more sedate leaflet drop.. hope you can join us.

A huge GG Geordie welcome to our THREE new runners tonight: Abi, Sophie and Lucy. We hope you enjoyed tonight as much as the regulars did! We also welcomed Richard along who is something of a GoodGym tourist and despite being living in the North East, paid his first visit to GoodGym Newcastle tonight. Bravo!

In a twist on usual routine, I did the welcome and briefing indoors tonight partly because we had a smaller group than usual (hello, Blaydon Race online entries!) and also because it was FREEZING and I am a wimp. I caught everyone up on some great Community Missions that happened over the weekend and we marvelled at Evan managing to finish first at Prudhoe Riverside parkrun and make it across to the community mission all in the same morning. Miranda told us all about helping out at the mission on Saturday and I filled Nick in on a creepy dream I had in which he arranged for everyone to sleep over at a Group Run task where there were bunk beds. Please note, fortunately this did not happen in real life.

A very brief warm up and a new conversation topic set (who would you like to see live in concert- dead or alive and from any era?) then off we went.

Now it's been a while since we last ran up the Westgate Road hill and we managed to stay together tonight for the first time ever- was it just me or did it not seem as long tonight? I was so pleased we celebrated with a little mexican wave at the traffic lights- also inwardly celebrating that we only had to run back down it on the way back.

We were met at Elliott House by the fabulous Mark and Alice,who is our main contact for Changing Lives tasks. Elliott House is home to vulnerable men in our city and it was actually the first EVER GoodGym Newcastle Group Run last year so it hold special memories for us! We were starting work on the huge gardens behind Elliott House tonight which is about to have a major makeover over the course of the next few months thanks to us and a volunteer group being tasked directly with the job! It was a super physical task that allowed both solo and team work skills as we got stuck into:

• Clearing out the shed including hoovering and cleaning a massive chalk board

• Pulling up weeds

• Tidying up

• Litter picking looking important with headtorches on

• Posing for photos with strange props (as always) - please see random toilet photo for evidence

We blitzed through the jobs in half an hour tonight before posing for one of my favourite ever group photos. What's brilliant about this task is that it will become a monthly run in which we will be able to regularly see the difference. During the lighter evenings, the plan will be for some of the residents to join us too as they grow in confidence in working together to make their gardens somewhere nice for them to hang out. I will let you know when we have some dates in the diary.

There was a short interval session on the way back tonight in which we saw Abi's amazing sprint technique and found out the weird place I hang my whistle up at home, and everyone worked super hard ahead of their return to The Forth for this week's social. Brilliant energy and a smashing end to a fab night!

I am still awaiting confirmation of the Group Run for next week so keep checking the listings as well as social media and get signed up when you can. There are two great Community Missions again this weekend so pop along if you can. There's a return to Ouseburn Farm on Saturday and lending a hand at Junior parkrun on Sunday

Have a great week doing good things,

Anji x

PS two admin things to ask of you please! If you run regularly with us, you can request to join our private Facebook Group "GoodGym Newcastle Runners" and also can I ask that you please change your profile photo on your GG profile to a photo of yourself to it's easy to contact you if I need to. Thanks!