We've said at so many of our tasks "I wish I had the time/motivation to do this in my own house!" ... turns out that now we do!

Turning lockdown into a positive, our weekly workout contained squats, bicep curls and most importantly it covered the jobs you usually put off until last! Cupboards were tidied, windows were left sparkling and fridges were cleaned better than ever.

"Holly loved that I was being forced to clean my own house!" - Aimee

Well done to all who got involved.

We are a little thin on the ground .. can't think why?

Maybe it's because as many left for work this morning, we were under a little bit of snow. Thankfully that had cleared off in time for tonight's Group Run and we were ready and raring to go, albeit still wrapped up in several layers as we braved the elements. Our Group Run tonight managed to just scrape us into the February #GiveItHeart theme with just a few days to spare, as we were off to deliver leaflets for British Heart Foundation in Newcastle.

Miranda had pulled this task together for us, a team effort as Aimee had been to collect the leaflets for us too. Excellent Task Force effort! You can find out more about the life saving work the BHF do including research and fundraising to help beat heartbreak. We'd been asked to deliver the leaflets to the area near Leazes Park and St James', so we adopted a scatter approach for this one with three areas targeted by walkers and runners.

We caught up on the weekend's achievements including Charlotte running her first Half Marathon at Carsington Water Half since a terrible year filled with injury, and I tried not to whinge too much about the terrible race I had at the same event! Debbie also took part in an epic coastal 10K in Northumberland which featured hail, a headwind and an almost lost jacket.

Aimee did a great Task Force round up, recapping three great Community Missions that took place on Thursday and over the weekend involving 15 brilliant GoodGymers doing everything from sorting toys to gardening and marshalling a race! You will find the reports for the missions here. We also looked ahead to a busy Saturday with two more chances to do good things on Saturday alone! Bonus!

Despite my dislike for pancakes (yes, sorry, really) we did a pancake day warm up to get moving before heading off on the multi-distance run and walk. It took us just 25 minutes to deliver the 200 leaflets and we learned an important lesson about back doors and front doors looking exactly the same! Luckily no fingers were trapped, no gloves were lost and we were suitably warmed up for the fitness session!

For fitness tonight we used the area by The Core building, on the old Newcastle Brewery site. I think we could have all done with a beer but instead we smashed out some hard interval reps at our own paces, some very strong running from Elliott on display tonight especially. It was then time for some 30 seconds finishers (sore arms today, anyone?) and we were rewarded with a very short easy jog back to base to stretch and feel brilliant.

We are back with more leafleting next week and as it's March, it's Spring so it will definitely be warmer.

Hopefully.

Anji x

Oh great, it's my turn to feel silly running through the centre of town in angel wings!

You read it here first, I have finally gained my wings and achieved my 100th good deed with GoodGym Newcastle! Phew. #GGNCL has changed my life in so many ways and brought so many great people into my life, that it feels impossible to choose a favourite task amongst that 100, but at a push I'd say the massive one we did at Newcastle University or that first visit to Recyke Y Bike with the amazing sunset on the way back. They have all been so brilliant, and if you haven't done so in a while, spend some time this week looking back on the run reports and reflect on all the great things we do Thanks to everyone who has made GoodGym Newcastle what it is today, you've made it amazing.

It was another big turnout for our first visit of the year to Newcastle University students union. We love working together with Newcastle Uni as they give us such a great variety of tasks and work hard on integrating students with GoodGym Newcastle to provide them with great ways to get fit and do good things during their time at University. Tonight we were heading there to support NEST, a student-run volunteer project which offers amongst other things free English lessons to the refugee community in the region. Through the delivery of these lessons, refugees improve their written and verbal communication skills enabling them to gain necessary language qualifications required to gain employment in the UK. Boosting their confidence empowers them to integrate themselves into the local community, reducing the stigma and prejudice from existing residents.

We think what NEST do is nothing short of amazing.

We had a catch up on some great things that happened over the weekend including Tom's 50th good deed- yay! and heard about the last few community missions planned for January. Our partner- balance warm up game was as popular as ever with some weird and wonderful contributions from all! This was a great exercise in welcoming new runner Elliot along who happily got stuck in without questioning why we would start our evening with a Primary PE game in a car park.

It's a short jog to Newcastle Uni which was lucky as Paul casually ran another marathon yesterday and didn't have too long to grumble about his legs! Task owner Bridget along with another few volunteers from NEST met us there and ushered us into a toasty warm classroom for tonight's Good Things. There were two tasks waiting for us: sorting through and organising learner pack book bags, and creating number and letter display posters for the families who access NEST. Rachael took charge of the poster organisation while her crew showed off their artistic flair/failing while Debbie took charge of the laminator. Meanwhile out in the corridor the bag packers loved the chance to relax while they organised the book bags. This was a perfect example of the impact such a large group can have on completing tasks that would usually take charities much, much longer.

We used the courtyard area for the fitness session tonight which was a pulse-raising, competitive super fast game of chain tag in which Darren showed the best way to win is basically to spend half of the game hiding. This was definitely a fun way to get some interval training done and there were some red faces by the end of it!

I'm not sure where Tom is, but I think he's cheating

Thankfully the short jog back to base gave everyone the chance to make friends again.

Once again there are two chances to do good things this Saturday as we rumble on through the January challenge doing as many great things as we can. First up is your chance to help out at Newcastle parkrun where we are hoping for a big red tshirted takeover. If you want to get involved in this one, it's really important you follow the instructions in the listing and contact Newcastle parkrun to get yourself added to their volunteer roster. Even if the roster looks full, there will be the chance to double up at marshal points and wave the flag (literally!) for GoodGym Newcastle. If you're coming along to run, let's see you in your red and black tshirts: I will look for you to grab a big group photo near the start at 8:45am. Straight after that, I am leading our monthly visit to Nunsmoor Park where we will be helping out with jobs in the park right up to lunchtime. Stay as long as you like for that one!

There are more great things coming up to the end of the month and onwards, just keep checking the listings for more updates from the terrific task force.

See you next Monday for more running, walking, goodness, games and occasional fancy dress.

Anji x

A big, huge, massive WELCOME BACK to GoodGym Newcastle for 2020

Tonight a massive 24 runners and walkers assembled for their first dose of Good things in the new year and it was so great to see such a super mix of old and new faces. Welcome to our new runner Nada for getting stuck in and making us all smile!

We had loads to catch up on including a massive epic challenge that Andrew, Evan and Darren took part in yesterday: The Winter Wipeout. Not content with just doing something very hard and in very hard conditions, the three of them took part in less-than-standard running gear. Well done you three, we are really proud of you!

We warmed up with a quick recap of Best Christmas Presents which made us all smile. Choices included a Dyson hoover, a candle of Beyonce's face, a few pairs of trainers and not forgetting "This is quite lame, but, ALDI FACEWASH". We then split off into three plogging groups for the task. Heading off on three different distances were the walking group with Charlotte, the longer run group with Paul and the medium distance and chats run with me. We'd be taking part in a general tidy up on the way to, in and around Leazes Park to give us the chance to kick of 2020 with a sociable (and easy!) task for the night.

The task itself was much easier than previous visits to Leazes Park with many of the areas we usually find a lot of litter surprisingly clear- this was of course great to see! We did find enough to fill a few bags and there was also a dumped Christmas tree in the bandstand to take care of- Martin and Jon to the rescue on that one. It also gave everyone a really nice chance to catch up and ease back into GoodGym for 2020.

The fitness session was another story

A few people mentioned they were starting to feel cold so that gave me the perfect excuse to get everyone working extra hard! Two paired games to start, then into teams for a spot of file running, recovering with easy laps by the lake. Kudos to everyone for such brilliant effort in this tonight, and shout out to Paul for standing in the cold to be our human turn-back point.. we didn't almost forget you.. honest.

As part of the JANUARY CHALLENGE we are squeezing as many good deeds into one month as we possibly can, so get along to a Community Mission or two this month if you can. You'll find them all listed on the website, ranging from gardening to a takeover at Newcastle parkrun. There are a few of our old favourites in there as well as some brand new sparkling tasks for you to get involved in to start the year off with a bang. As well as this, don't miss out on a bonus Group Run on Saturday 18th January which is the ideal run to bring someone along to who wants to give us a try as part of a New Year's Resolution!

Hope to see you back with the same brilliant energy for our monthly visit to Newcastle Eagles next week.

Welcome back!

Anji x