WE COULD HARDLY CONTAIN(er) OURSELVES TONIGHT... there was a park that was all ours!

It was the first "light evening" task of the year tonight and we really made the most of it with a visit up to Nunsmoor Centre where we had been asked to help to clear out and tidy up two large storage containers filled to the brim with TOYS!

So much to celebrate tonight as Paul adorned the Geordie cloak of Good Deeds, celebrating his 50th good deed on Saturday. We heard all about the life-changing mission Emily and Carol Anne did on Saturday and most importantly we sang a very Happy Birthday to Kate who promised us - apart from a really good set of speakers - we were her best present. A quick warm up that involved Katy shouting NERDS and Tom winning a game of sweetie alphabet with EASTER EGGS ( you had to be there) and off we went, with Charlotte and the walking group already on their way ahead of us.

Nunsmoor Centre were so happy to have us along tonight as a small organisation that relies heavily on volunteers they rarely have enough time to get jobs like this one done themselves. Our task tonight was simple: empty two large storage containers full of toys, sort them out then re-pack the containers tidily. "Play with absolutely everything" wasn't written in the instructions explicitly, but thankfully we found time to just do that, as I am sure you can tell from the photos.

"We are so grateful for everything you do for us, you really make a difference"

Containers swept out and repacked and we headed into the centre sports hall where we played one round of Shark Attack but I could tell everyone was itching to get straight back out and make use of the amazing park that was just ours for the night. Climbing, spinning and jumping definitely count as fitness work, and I will consider just bringing the group here every week from now on.

I'm pretty sure this was the hardest cardio any of us have done tonight anyway!

This really was just a Group Run filled with fun and games, with some brilliant doing good in the middle.

There are two Community Missions coming up if you can't make Mondays: check out Sunday's Foodcycle visit and the library tidy-up coming up next Tuesday Otherwise, we will be back next Monday for a leaflet drop task which will have a slight change from the original listing, the update will be coming tomorrow on the sign up page here

Have a great week knowing you did good things right at the start of it.

Anji x

P.S Special nod to Rachel (title) and Louise (first line) for the excellent punning tonight!

Imagine opening Twitter this morning and finding out that we were behind a door of an actual advent calendar... and not just any calendar, the SMART WORKS CANNY CALENDAR! This set us up perfectly for our third visit to Smart Works Newcastle a fabulous charity in the heart of city that provides clothing and coaching to women to as they return to work. We have a brilliant partnership with Smart Works and we are always given a great variety of jobs to do when we get there.

A few reminders in the briefing and warm up tonight that I will re-remind you of here: 1. Please submit your votes for People's GoodGymer of GoodGym by private message or email before 17th December 2. Please don't leave Carol Anne feeling lonely at the Community Mission this Saturday. Pop along and lend a hand, there will be glitter and Christmassy treats! 3. Our last task of the year is December 17th followed by festive food and drinks, come along for both or either. 4. We now have enough donations for our #GGNCL flag which I will be ordering in the next few weeks- THANK YOU.

Charlotte took on her 30th good deed tonight, leading the walking group and earning herself the Walking in a Winter Wonderland badge (I'm not jealous at ALL) joined by two new members of the GoodGym family- the fab Katie and Helen- as well as Carol Anne and Niveditha. Meanwhile we negotiated the Christmas markets at Monument (how good did the food smell on the way back though OMG) and I managed to stop Ross from jumping on the teacups/weird slide thing/ferris wheel on Northumberland Street. There is something epic about running en masse through a bustling city centre that gives me goosebumps every time!

A warm welcome and 4 flights of stairs met us at Smart Works and we were given our jobs for the night: sorting through donations from the generous Geordies who have been dropping items off in huge numbers for Christmas time, steaming clothing with a very posh standing iron, tidying up clothes on the rails, general dusting and tidying in the fitting room and making up pamper packs of essential toileteries.

"Would I wear this for a job interview? - Nick, holding a pleated skirt "We might have known who'd be first to dress up" - everyone, looking at Dan in a dress

As always we had heaps of fun, not least by trying on some of the donations and finding out Dan can rock a summer dress and Evan's colour is knitted mint green. Task owner Michelle told us the difference we have made tonight would usually take the regular volunteers at Smart Works weeks to complete.. it took us just over half an hour! We were so pleased to help such a worthwhile cause and can't wait to go back in the new year.

Another bonus of visiting Smart Works is the ready-made fitness session space right outside and tonight we did a triple whammy of rock-paper-scissors (bringing out Emma's competitive side) running laps and a memory game of exercises. Who'd have thought a group of adults would have an amazing time playing playground games? In a car park? On a Monday night? In December? I WOULD!

Thanks everyone for another brilliant start to the week. There will be another chance to run or walk to do good deeds next Monday at our December visit to Newcastle University. Sign up here and get yourself along for guaranteed giggles.

Happy running!

Attendance record smashed Amazing evening alert Record amount of photos uploaded

52 people for the Massive Mash Up at Newcastle University and it was kind of a big deal

I got home and immediately needed a lie down following this, our most massive group run to date and a smashed attendance record for Newcastle. I knew this one would be huge, but THIS huge? This massive mash up was the brains and beauty of GoodGymer Maggie (thank you!) who is Newcastle University Students Union officer for sport as well as a popular member of our group.

It was one of those evenings where people just kept arriving and it was great that it was all caught on camera by Katy and Matt from Sharp Life who were joining us to film a piece on GoodGym Newcastle. A quick welcome, a short warm up and round up of the weekend's achievements including hearing from Emily who was part of GoodGym York's Sean's amazing marathon yesterday. His story is here if you need any more inspiration tonight. It felt brilliant to run right through the city centre in such a huge group with so many people around in Northumberland Street seeing a see of red charging past them! Carol Anne thought we should have had some army-esque chant going as we went and it did cross my mind that having an entire cheerleading squad with us tonight should have meant we were prepared for such activity on the way.

GIVE ME A G! G! GIVE ME AN O! O! and so on...

We were met at the University Students Union building by Maggie and Phil and given a brief intro to the tasks that had been arranged for us which were:

• Clearing the storage space where the NEST group store goodies for the refugee community in Newcastle
• Making Wiggly Bags for and writing letters to poorly children in the RVI
• Painting a blackboard and cleaning out jars for the society that supports the Newcastle Food Bank
• Making bird feeders to hang in the trees around campus

Everyone thought they had the best task tonight but I think the wiggly bag group had the edge in that they had music and sweets, although the NEST group did have toys to play with, the bird feeder people got to take spare feeders home and the food bank group got to get clarty (that's Geordie for messy) so I think everyone was a winner. I heard one of the university students passing through and commenting that we were the "Happiest People Ever" so I think the fun we have doing good things was shining out of us tonight. Our commitment showed as Evan turned up a record 40 minutes late having had the journey from hell (and a pint on the way in the students union) kudos Evan

Such a great mix of tasks and everything was smashed within our task timing of just 45 minutes. All of the society leaders were delighted with the impact we were able to make in such a short space of time. The NEST group were all given thank you letters which was such a lovely touch too, and everyone felt really appreciated.

The university campus was a brilliant space for our fitness session: paired running and short-burst exercises in which everyone got sweaty, out of breath and will probably have epic Tuesday Legs from partaking in. We will definitely use the space again, don't think I didn't see those steps, they'll come in handy!

I've already had some fab feedback from some of you this evening so hopefully everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. We will be back at the University again hopefully a few times before the end of the year so watch this space, it's definitely one not to miss! Hopefully you will be along next week for our visit to a new Changing Lives project and more people doing good and getting fit, just maybe with less sweets. Sign up here for our visit to Gifford House.

Happy running! Anji

It was our TENTH task for Changing Lives tonight and one of those Group Runs that seemed to have everything!

Can we first have a massive clap for Evan for dragging his shattered quads along to GoodGym tonight after casually smashing out his first ever marathon (and under 4:15!!) at the extremely challenging Kielder Marathon yesterday? I am already on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what his Tuesday Legs are like. There was so much to chat about tonight as it was also our #RunAndTalk session. This week, every GoodGym session will encourage people to #RunAndTalk to improve their mental wellbeing through running and to break down the stigma associated with mental health by getting people talking about it. Carol Anne put it best by telling me "Running makes me a better Mum"

One of our favourite run routes around St James' Park took us to the corner of Westgate Road where Cumberland House thankfully sits at the BOTTOM of the hill! Cumberland House is a Changing Lives project for vulnerable young women in our city and we were stopping off to give a deep clean to all of the communal areas. Carol Anne got her hands on a Hoover for the first time in weeks and everyone was delighted for her! To read more about the amazing work done by Changing Lives or how to help, click here The task owner was so happy with what we did tonight and we left a clean and fresh trail behind us when we left.

Skirting boards scrubbed, cupboards cleaned, windows sheened, and at one point I even found Tom and Tom cleaning the actual walls upstairs. It was a brilliant task to introduce new runner Max to the family and he got really stuck in to both the task and the social (and beer) afterwards.

Kudos Max !

We had a new location for the fitness session tonight, using the pedestrianised area in front of the Core building on St James Boulevard. We did our first Tabata (not Ciabata, Michael) session in which 10 second intervals were followed by 20 second recoveries with the odd charge up a set of steps for good measure.

What else would you do on a Monday night?

Everyone chose to do the whole session despite two options to stop, and the energy was immense. It was like being stood in the middle of a massive head torch-lit hamster wheel of hamsters in red tshirts doing good deeds and getting fit at the same time. Onwards we marched afterwards to the pun for a great catch up over food and drinks and conversation that will never be repeated outside the Mile Castle pub (eh, Dan?)

Next week's Group Run is going to be mega as we do our first big mash up with Newcastle University Students Union. Don't miss out, sign up now

Have a great week knowing that you did great things and changed lives on the way. Happy running!

Anji x