Are we going to be allowed to pet the animals?!

It was a new task for our Group Run tonight following a switch around of our regular visit to Eagles Community Arena, this one pulled together by fearless fun run leader Katy. This had been a visit for previous Community Missions including a painting task last summer, so it was ace to get the chance to go along for a Group Run tonight too.

We took a different spin on the weekend round up today, with Katy also giving a special task force intro for the first time ever and giving us the lowdown on all the action from last week's puntastic Community Mission on Valentine's Day and all the great things that are coming up- so many things to get involved in, check them out here and sign up if you fancy.

It was a big welcome to new runners Eion, Melvyn and Maddy's Dad Andy who joined us for their first ever GoodGym run tonight. They all brought so much energy along with them and were so great to have along, we can't wait to see them all again. There was a lot of hand shaking and general kindness in the run/jog/walk warm up themed for Random Acts of Kindness day- kindness is our thing, right?!, then we got ready to head off to Ouseburn. Our conversation topic was around favourite films and thankfully not Spotify playlists which I had been forced to share in Apple last week. I loved the route tonight across the city and towards Byker, before dropping down the very steep bank towards Ouseburn Farm. Even better was having the wind behind us all the way!

Ouseburn Farm sits right in the middle of Ouseburn Valley and it's a working farm in a very cool part of Newcastle. They offer loads of activities and educational opportunities which you can read about on their website here. There were no animals for us tonight, just straight into the education rooms for our task. We were met by the brilliant and super-organised task owner Stuart who had loads of cleaning products out and ready for us. Our task was to clean down doors, skirting boards, door fascia and frames, with the biggest challenge being that we had to stay quiet due to a yoga class going on next door.

Namaste

We turned the room, staircase and passageway sparkly clean (Maddy, great job on that glass, by the way) and regrouped ready to head back into the cold for fitness. I kept it simple tonight, parlauf hill sprints and long recoveries with loads of cheering, high fiving and excellent marshalling from Paul and Rachael.

I'm sure you said there was only a minute left, a minute ago

As my final act of kindness I allowed everyone to walk the hill back up from Ouseburn as a little bit of a cool down before we headed back to Hotel Indigo.

Hope you all have a great week knowing you started it with good things!

See you next week,

Anji xx

PS: I wrote a thing for the GoodGym website for the Give it Heart theme last week, all about what it's like to be a runner with a heart condition. Please give it a read and share with anyone you think it might help. You'll find it here.