The day finally arrived... the #GGNCL Cloak of Good Deeds has been deployed and adorned for the first time ever. Congratulations Carol Anne on 50 Good Deeds and the honour of running in the Geordie Cloak for the first time ever!

Was everyone else clock-watching yesterday on the countdown to a massive evening of end-of-year celebrations and the final GoodGym Newcastle task of 2018? Surely that wasn't just me!

After an amazing first year, we were all ready and dressed in suitably ridiculous headwear and fancy dress (nod to Rachel for the tutu and Michael for the Santa suit... and beard!) ready to smash our final group run of the year. We welcomed Jon who popped along for his first and definitely not his last group run with us and warned him it wasn't always like this!

Our task this evening was in Byker for the fabulous team at Scope who had asked us to do a pre-holiday volunteer drive by dropping leaflets to the area surrounding the shop looking for new volunteers. Shop volunteers are vital to keep the shop going in the run up to the madness of January shopping. I want to to say thank you to Scope for being such a great supporter of GoodGym and providing us with regular fun tasks like this one. We hope Santa brings you lots of new pairs of hands for the shop! The run over seemed to pass quickly as we discussed what we wanted for Christmas and I confessed to Paul that I haven't actually bought him a single thing he's asked for despite him being on Santa's Good List for always planning brilliant GG routes for us to run.

We were met at the shop by Tanya, Deb and Carol-Anne who were walking part of the task in order to courier the leaflets across for us, Carol Anne sparkling in the cloak much brighter than the lights of Shields Road, naturally. A few quick photos by a random passer-by and we were off. I gave the group just 15 minutes tonight to get the 200 leaflets out and as always I was blown away by how quickly this was done. No trapped fingers and only one lost glove... let's hope that didn't end up in someone's letter box eh Tanya? The charge back across Byker Bridge was on before we knew it and soon it was time for the part of the evening we were all waiting for... the pub... and the first GoodGym Newcastle awards.

It's not easy presenting silly awards in a packed pub the week before Christmas so I am sorry if you couldn't hear! Here's the run-down (pun intended) of our winners:

• Most colourful runner: Rachel for awesome socks, tights and running in a NYC marathon medal

• The genius award: Andrew for outstanding stats and number crunching

• Most encouraging runner: Katy for helping everyone with brilliant fitness sessions and teacher calmness

• Calm in a crisis award: Louise for hardly even flinching when I announced that I was about to collapse at the side of the Felling Bypass

• Most improved runner: Deb for taking 7.. yes 7 minutes off her 5K in less than a year

• Epic services to photography: Evan for always being pose-ready

• Most rapid sign-up award: Charlotte, always first to sign up, volunteer to back mark or lead a walking group

• Most resourceful runner: Peter for getting us a bunch of litter pickers and garden tools from his own Facebook appeal

• Class clown: Dan for having a comedy genius response to any situation and for being first in a frock at Smart Works every time

And finally...

People's GoodGymer of the year 2018 Carol Anne voted for by you, the runners.

Carol Anne was chosen for this honour, and the golden GoodGym dustpan and brush, for always being enthusiastic, positive and bringing sunshine to everything she does. Carol Anne is currently our only paired Coach Runner and she has forged an incredible relationship with her coach. A very close runner up was Charlotte for her amazing growth in confidence, enthusiasm for GoodGym and for giving so much extra in helping to spread the word of GoodGym. Carol Anne and Charlotte were the only two runners nominated for the award, and just two votes separated them at the final count. Well done both of you and thank you for inspiring everyone!

We ended the evening with me being slightly lost for words (THIS NEVER HAPPENS) as I was given a beautiful card, a trophy for best GoodGym Trainer and a mug containing gin - how well you all know me! On a personal note, I want to say thank you for making this feel like the best job in the world. Not even a year ago I was very unwell and unsure if my heart condition would ever allow me to run again. What you have all helped me to achieve while I have wrestled back to health and fitness has just been incredible and you've become family.

So that's that. We are now officially off until January 7th! Catch Katy, Louise and I on the radio from 18:20 tonight if you aren't bored of us yet and don't forget to sign up to the first Group Run of the year here

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!

Anji x