The sun shone on a new task with a superb name, gardening for The Spitler in Newcastle for our weekly GROUP RUN!

It was a big hello to Siobhan and a welcome back to Gwyneth who joined us last week as well as Peter who we haven't seen for a little while. We had loads of great stuff to celebrate including a record Community Mission for the Junior parkrun takeover yesterday alongside the usual brilliant parkrun news.

It was awesome!

We kept the celebrations long and the warm up short due to limited space - it's a long story- then headed off to the brilliantly named The Spitler, a community hub for the Spital Tongues residents, also known as Spitlers. You learn something new every day eh?! This little community hub is a hidden gem nestled behind the RVI hospital right near the centre of town. It relies on volunteers to provide loads of good stuff for people who come along to use it. Task Force legend Charlottle had hooked up this task for us a while ago and it was a perfect night for it: clearing paths and weeding a small green area at the back of the centre.

Task owner Alison had everything ready, and had even brought a dog along for me to fuss and be generally distracted by. We were straight on with the job. Weeds pulled, paths swept, rubbish bagged and a clear and sparkling area in just 20 minutes. Check out the before and after photos for a dazzling transformation!

We trotted off to Leazes Park on the way back for our weekly fitness session in which we squatted, lunged, ran up and down steps and tried to explain what "running slowly" means to Harry, Nick and Tom. We finished off by completing a five minute Tempo Surge run and briefly helped some passing police with their enquiries before heading back.

Top job, GoodGymers.

Not one, or two, but THREE Community Missions await this weekend if you'd like to get involved.

SATURDAY Monthly Mission at Nunsmoor Park is listed here ALSO ON SATURDAY Path clearing at St Lawrence Park which you can find here OR SUNDAY at Harbottle Park where you can tidy and trim the hedges. That's listed here

Evan's planned another Bank Holiday daytime social which you can pop along to for games, picnics and general merriment then the Group Run runs as normal. It's a bonanza 10K leg stretcher for Friends of Felling Park, so come along if you can and do the usual great things in your red or black tshirt.

Happy running and walking,

Anji x

We've been wrapped up in layers for so many weeks now I didn't realise the true splendour of seeing so many black GoodGym tshirts in one place! The sun had his hat on and at last it was warm enough to run without layers on.

HELLO SUMMER!

With many nursing tired legs following an epic weekend of running at the Sunderland City Runs for many and the NEMC 50K Ultra at Gosforth Park for a few, I thought we would be down on numbers this evening and I was pleasantly surprised as 25 arrived, happy to see Monday had come round again. We welcomed new runners Jo and Gwyneth with a couple of step-related warm ups that had everyone who ran the Sunderland Half yesterday giving me evil looks. It's for your own good, I promise! We also caught up on a lovely [mission] that Katy and Carol Anne did on Saturday. Check out their report for guaranteed warm and fuzzy feelings.

As well as giving me this week's brilliant pun, Debbie was walk leader for the first time tonight (nice one Deb!) and we gave her group a head start to head off up the great summit of Westgate Road. It was our regular visit to Elliott House for our charity partner Changing Lives where we are helping to make their huge garden a nicer and safer place for the residents. Elliott House is a home to vulnerable men in our community and it's great to lend a hand to make their garden a better place for them to hang out. We were met by Alice who is always super-organised, and got to work picking up where we left off a few weeks go on our last visit clearing out the Poly Tunnels, clearing paths and trying to avoid dead rats. Or at least that was what Nick was doing.

It was a dusty and warm job that involved a few nettle stings for some but everyone happily got stuck in. Louise found the remains of a very squashed rat while Evan sniffed out a smaller one and held it aloft for a Lion King photo. The time seemed to fly over tonight and before long we were on the way to our brand new fitness session area tucked away behind Dance City. Street Circuits were the plan and we did reps of running, steps, tricep dips and marvelled as Emma showed true skill and prowess at leapfrogs. Truly.

You are all my favourite!

The great thing about this area of town is that we are almost back at Hotel Indigo so we were home with very little grumbling from those with tired legs. Brilliant effort, everyone!

It's fantastic to see so many of you already signed up for this weekend's Community Mission - maybe because someone mentioned breakfast? If you can't make it for that, hopefully we will see you for a great new Group Run next Monday for The Spitler

Have a super week knowing you started it off the very best way.

Anji x

WE DID IT! We reached over 1000 good deeds for GoodGym Newcastle

What a brilliant evening and I am sure you'll agree, a brilliant pun too (thanks Paul, this is now always your job) with a fantastic task, a great turn out and a visit from ITV Tyne Tees to show off the great work (and excellent banter) at GoodGym Newcastle.

Since our April 30th launch last year, we have racked up an amazing 1009 good deeds, which equates to over 750 hours or 31 days of deeds. In hard cash, this is the same as £6157 worth of tasks in minimum wage terms. That's what we have saved all the organisations we have helped and I think that's something for us to shout about! Thanks go to our favourite numbers man, my fellow book nerd, Andrew for the stats.

I don't know if it was the camera crew, the Raising and Giving week at Newcastle Uni, this wonderful milestone, the fact there was the option of after-run drinks or a combination of all, but we had our highest turn out in ages tonight to smash through the 1000 mark in our monthly visit to help at Newcastle University Students Union .

Our warm up was taken by Katy and Evan as I did my TV interview (check me out!) and Jon got acquainted with a Go Pro which he was tasked with wearing for the run to capture footage for the ITV news piece. Energy was high with loads of laughter that I am sure will (hopefully) mask the fact I was shivering as I was interviewed! Charlotte led the walking group off through the icy cold night then off we went on the short run up Northumberland Street. On arrival we were met by the team at the Students Union with three brilliant tasks for us to do- something for everyone. The tasks were:

• Sewing Wiggly Bags for Chemo patients in the childrens' cancer ward at the RVI

• Making candles using bees wax, and learning about bees with the bee society

• Assembling flat pack shelves for the NEST group who work with refugees

(Can you see now why the pun this week is SEW brilliant?!)

The ITV Tyne Tees crew were fantastic at grabbing interviews and footage of the tasks as well as the Superhero themed fitness session afterwards, and I can't wait to see your moments of fame. Keep an eye on ITV Tyne Tees news this week as it could be on any day. I am sure they caught the brilliant mix of the relaxing and educational task with the bee society, the chilled sewing task with an exceptional sweetie collection and the real physical challenge of the night, assembling the shelves.

Kudos everyone!

It was great to have so many new runners along, especially those from Newcastle University involved for Raising and Giving week, and we hope to have you along again sometime soon.

Well done everyone. See you next Monday for our first visit to Byker Community Centre. You can check out the details for that and sign up here

Happy running!

Anji x