GOODGYM IS 10! What a brilliant way to celebrate, by doing good things with good people on a very good Monday evening. From our founder Ivo taking a newspaper to a friend to where GoodGym are now, making communities better, making friendships and fighting social isolation is certainly worthy of celebration. We had the chance to see the brilliant new GoodGym book and had a think about what we can do with our spare copy, before I shared a fantastic GoodGym speech listing the many ways you know you're a true GoodGym-er! It was brilliant having such a massive turn out for the #GG10 run, and amazing to welcome three new GoodGym Newcastle runners along for the night. Welcome Debbie, Sinead and Lou!

We had one of our favourite ever tasks tonight for our Group Run to Byker, where we were lending a hand to the brilliant organisation Recyke Y Bike. This great charity takes donated and abandoned bikes, fixes them up and sends them to schools in The Gambia. They also send bikes to Deerbolt Prison in County Durham where young offenders gain vital engineering skills refurbishing bikes alongside confidence and self-belief. Recyke Y Bike also runs formal and informal training on site and out in the community to give people the skills to keep their bikes safe and on the road. And if that's not enough, they also give bikes to children and adults in need in the North East! Phew!

We were met by brilliant Task Owner Sara after Andrew had hooked us up for this Group Run, who told us all of the great things Recyke Y Bike do, and introduced us to her not-so-fierce guard dogs. We very quickly got to work on the tasks in hand!

• Painting two sets of shutters (check out Aimee's brilliant before and after collage!)

• Wallpapering work benches and a feature wall using cycling magazines

• Sweeping and mopping the workshop floor

• Cleaning out the staff kitchen

• Cuddling dogs

We managed to give the huge workshop a massive makeover in just 40 minutes with the usual cries of "JUST A FEW MORE MINUTES!" when I called time was up! Sara was so pleased with what we managed to get done, and has already invited us back for future Group Runs and Community Missions. It was a quick change out of painting suits as we quickly gathered everyone together ready to dash to the Quayside for our #GG10 group photo before the sun had set. We are counting this dash as speed work and an unofficial fitness session as there was definitely some sprinting on show.

Look at how beautiful it looks tonight!

Thanks to several (hundred) attempts including a few by a random runner passing by, we achieved an iconic GGNCL photo for the 10th birthday. Look at that skyline!

We will be adding a last-minute community mission this Saturday for #GG10 Super Saturday so keep your eyes peeled for that one. Maddy is leading a lovely new Community Mission on Sunday at Jesmond Orchard if you'd like to get involved. I'm leaving you in the capable hands of Katy for a visit to Nunsmoor Centre next week where I am sure she will also have a most excellent fitness session for you all! Sign up for that here. There's a walking option next week too, so it's suitable for all.

Big thanks to everyone who was involved in such a special Group Run for #GG10 and to Paul for one of the most outstanding puns of all time.

Happy running, walking and good things,

Anji x

PS Shout out to Rachel and Dan keeping the GoodGym spirit alive with a spot of plogging in Spain tonight!

Stand by, we have a Centurion, this is huge!

Tonight we crowned our very first GoodGym Newcastle 100, with Andrew reaching his 100th Good Deed and therefore being the first person ever to wear the expertly stitched Golden Wings of Goodness. Andrew's favourite tasks have been helping out Henpower, and lending a hand at Northern Pride where he "couldn't believe he had so much power"!

(Thanks Paul for being the creative genius behind the wings!)

Andrew is a valued member of GoodGym Newcastle and a superb leader within our task force, being responsible for many of our Community Missions especially those with Newcastle Parks. What's most impressive is the amazing transformation Andrew has been through on a personal level since coming to GoodGym Newcastle, which you can read all about here. Thank you Andrew for all you give to GoodGym, week in and week out.

We caught up on a weekend well-spent at three Community Missions including a parkrun takeover for Leazes parkrun, our regular Nunsmoor Park Monthly Mission and a rare afternoon mission at Elswick Park , racking up a huge 19 good deeds over two days. Well done to everyone who lent a hand once, twice or three times! There was also a moment's applause tonight in memory and respect of true GoodGym hero Sean Coxhead, who has inspired us over the last year.

Our task tonight was a new one for us, as we helped out at the fantastic new Newcastle Eagles Community Arena in their community gardens. We were really honoured to be asked to help at this task. Task owner Neil explained tonight that the weeding we started tonight and will continue in Group Runs to come will save the Eagles charity over £800, so not only are we making a difference to how the gardens look but we are saving them a huge pot of cash, too. It was brilliant having GoodGym Yorkie Katie along to grab her Scout badge and get stuck into a Geordie GG Group Run.

Paul led the run while I hobbled over with Faye, and by the time we arrived everyone was already getting stuck in, weeding and clearing in snazzy new high vis and looking important with wheelbarrows- I'm looking at you, Dan. With much bending, stretching and wheelbarrow-ing, it was a real full-body workout and the time flew by. We had a brilliant area to do the fitness session in so we rounded off the night with a series of running drills to activate hamstrings, glutes and calfs whilst looking awesome and not at all silly. Our fast finishers were shuttle runs and ladder drills and that was quite enough for Monday.

It's a Great Big Great North Run weekend in Newcastle this weekend and we so excited to be hosting a few things that are running, volunteering and cheering based! Help out at the Junior GNR on Saturday giving out medals and tshirts to running heroes of the future in our Community Mission for Heel and Toe Charity. If you're looking for something a little more laid-back, there's also a Community Mission at St Lawrence Park happening at the same time.. tea and biscuits guaranteed!

There's another Newcastle Parks Community Mission on Sunday too, which you can find out about and sign up here if you need an escape from Great North Run madness! On to the big day itself, we know many of you are running so GOOD LUCK, ENJOY THE BEST RUNNING DAY OF THE YEAR! We have a cheer station led by Charlotte, just outside Gateshead Stadium, so KEEP LEFT to give her a wave just before the 5K point. You can come along to cheer with her from 9:30am, all the info for that is Here. And on the evening, recover from all the running and cheering at our very own reserved area at Brewdog Newcastle for the Post GNR pizza and patter night.

Have a brilliant week doing great things.

Anji x

Our trips to Byker are always eventful and tonight was no exception as we paid a return visit to Byker Community Centre, a task first sourced for us by Dan back in February! You can read about what we got up to then, here

We had so much to catch up on despite no community missions taking place over the weekend. Nick and Abi did their first ever mission and saved an escaped greyhound on the way. Their task truly made a difference to an isolated older person in our area. You can see what they got up to in Abi's report here

Kudos !

There was also an amazing social yesterday in which Team GoodGym took part in the Whitley Bay sandcastle competition. You can see their incredible work of art on our Instagram and Facebook Page AND the GoodGym Newcastle rugby team, victorious in their touch rugby league had brought along their trophy for us to admire

Is there anything we can't do?!

I overestimated the warm-up, the distance and the time and we arrived at the task late to find that there had been a very last minute change. There was no room of doom as promised as the hall was now being used by a yoga group. Dan thankfully had new instructions after arriving at the task to meet us and seeing the task owner who had kindly left us some grapes and water! Our new tasks were to tidy up the gardens to the rear and side, do a spot of weeding and do a general tidy up and litter pick around the grounds of the church beyond the centre. We were pleased we could still make a difference after a hot and hilly run there.

We couldn't believe the amazing view of the Quayside below- check out the group photo to see the Tyne Bridge just making a cameo appearance behind us- it was a stunning evening! The task was completed quickly and we got into teams for a hastily prepared fitness session (I had planned to use the hall inside!) We were a few minutes into the circuit session when I realised we were missing a whole group who were so dedicated to the weeding (check out Rachel's pics!) so it was a mix of my all-consuming guilt and them feeling really smug when they eventually came back.

I am so sorry !!

There was a last-minute good deed for a few of us before we left as a music group arriving at the hall needed our help to carry some drums inside too. We can't help being helpful! Hopefully we can go back to Byker Community Centre and do the great task we had planned in a few weeks time... I will keep you posted.

If you're looking for some more good things to do in the community, Andrew's leading a Community Mission this Saturday to spread the word of a free community meal, for FoodCycle Monkchester. If you would like to help out, all the information is here

We are also helping FoodCycle out at the Group Run next week as we spread the word of FoodCycle Westgate. There's a walking option on next week too!

For something completely different, you can join us for a Running Technique session at the Quayside on Wednesday 21st August, suitable for all running abilities. Check out the listing here

Have a great week knowing you started it doing good things,

Anji