Hey hey how is it Monday? (again)

The great news is that we weren't facing a stormy evening for our Group Run for the first time in ages. Whisper it.. could this be the beginning of Spring?

It was a rescheduled group run tonight as we headed off on another leaflet drop for our friends at Guide Dogs NE. GoodGymer Louise had hooked this one up for us, and it was great to have her along to explain what the task was all about, making it feel even more worthwhile and close to home. The leaflets will help Guide Dogs NE to reach some new sighted volunteers to work with those with sight loss to work with guide dogs. We had 300 leaflets to spread the word.

We had a great weekend round up including a double day on Saturday in which we had a takeover at Leazes parkrun and a tidy up at our monthly visit to Nunsmoor Park. Well done to everyone who took part! We have more coming up this weekend so keep an eye on the Community Mission listings for loads of chances to do good things, including this Saturday where you can walk and run to deliver leaflets with time for a parkrun beforehand too! I left Katy in charge to take one of her famous warm ups, which was all about influential brilliant women while I had the chance of taking part in the walking group for the first time in ages!

The Jesmond area seems to be our favourite chosen patch and once again we split into small teams to get leaflets dropped off in super-quick time. New runner Crispin got stuck in and even offered to do one of the longer distance runs. We like that Crispin, you can come back! Louise also managed to find her house from 1989, but we can't quite believe she was old enough to own a house in 1989 so we aren't sure on that part.

Fitness tonight was a super circuit of tricep dips (everyone's favourite, right?) expertly demonstrated and supervised with minimal shouting from Rachel; lunges and star jumps, out-and-back jogging and a lung busting hill sprint. 9/10 for all with a point lost for some dip-related whinging and repeated "Is that two minutes yet?" calls.

We are back to Newcastle Eagles next week for some brilliant gardening and some great bants as always. Hope to see you there.

Have a great week everyone!

Anji x

PS: GoodGym have published some advice on the Coronavirus outbreak for those running with GoodGym. Please take a look.

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.

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

It doesn't matter what your Monday's been like, GoodGym always has a way of making it brighter

Well, we made it! Our last Group Run of 2019 is IN THE BAG. What an incredible turnout for the final one!

We were paying our last visit of the year to our brilliant partner Changing Lives, the charity that supports vulnerable people to get back on their feet. They have given us so many amazing tasks this year and from the start at GoodGym Newcastle, including this year the chance to get involved in monthly visits to transform the massive back garden at Elliott House. Tonight was special as it was a different sort of task, but also due to renovations due to start at Elliott House in the New Year, it was set to be our last visit for a while.

Don't worry folks, I will find us another task up a massive hill for 2020

We started the night with a big golden celebration as it was Katy Queen of Squats 100th GoodGym Good Deed! Imagine being so brilliant, and so lovely, 100 times?! I - ahem - treated Katy to taking the intro and warm up for her 100th as I led the walking group off on a head start. Katy had colour coordinated her jacket and hair accessories with the golden wings of goodness but sadly she'd left her halo at home. Katy has done some amazing things during her time at GoodGym, going from new runner to Run Leader and Half Marathon runner, and I think you'll all agree she has the best games!

Happy 100th, Katy!

Excellent task owner Alice met us at Elliott House and led us straight up to a room where a stash of hidden gifts and nags awaited us. It was like a real Santa's grotto without plinky-plonky music. Our task was to get a production line going and in 20 minutes, to fill 50 Christmas Gift bags (again colour coordinated with Katy's wings) with presents for the Elliott House residents to open on Christmas Day. Each bag had to contain:

• A selection box

• A warm hat

• A mug

• Bar of soap

• Toothbrush

• Lynx bath set (it isn't Christmas without Lynx)

• Sweets

• Socks

Within minutes, a production line was going with bags being stuffed, passed and checked and the task was done by a record 7:04pm! It's nice to end the year with a PB! We hope the residents love their secret Santa bags as much as we loved putting them together. Quick photo session and back to Elliott House we went, where Rachel and Ross (no Friends comments please) were ready to meet us for after-run drinks.

We were so pleased to have the chance for a massive get-together at our base Hotel Indigo who are always so welcoming and accommodating to us every week. Massive thank you to all the staff there especially Adam who make us feel so welcome every week. With drinks in hand I announced the nominations for GoodGym's GoodGymer of 2019 which had been sent to me by you the runners over the course of last week.

The nominations were:

Andrew for the way he embraces everything GoodGym and the dedication he has to every good deed. Aimee for the progress she has made with her running, and the way she has embraced every area of GoodGym. Charlotte for the work she does on Instagram, and for being so passionate about GoodGym. Evan for his inspiring ultra-distance running, and arranging everything social for GGNCL. Katy for her brilliant games and for being a fantastic Run Leader whenever I'm not around.

It was really close in voting until the last few hours yesterday, then a sudden surge in voting gave Awesome Andrew a landslide victory, and he was awarded the coveted golden GoodGym dustpan and brush. You can tell by the photo how delighted he was.

I'm going to do the same face for this photo, that I've done for every photo this year

Andrew is leading a Community Mission this Saturday at St Lawrence Park which looks like the perfect chance to keep warm do good things and smash an extra good deed to stay on Santa's good list. The last Community Mission of the year takes place with Aimee on Sunday at City Stadium too, if you fancy doing a Double to end the year!

Thanks everyone for an incredible year of GoodGym Newcastle, in particular the Task Force for supporting and developing everything we get done. Every single one of you who come along whether it's once a month, every Monday, weekly visits to your coach or to every Community Mission help to make GoodGym what it is.

Our city is healthier, better and we are happier because of you

I'll leave you with Katy's brilliant poem that featured in my massive Christmas/Thank You card (thanks to everyone for their lovely messages!) and no apology that this Run Report has been epic- you get two weeks off from my rambling as a thank you.

Here it is:

GoodGym Newcastle is now 20 months old, And as 2019 comes to a close, It is time to reflect on the Good Deeds we've done, So we'll start from the top I suppose...

It all started with a painted Hoover, As we sorted through tools and toys, Paimted desks, clicking heels, cupboard and leaves, At JPR cheering the girls and boys.

Beeswax crafts, sewing and building shelves, Are all things we love to do! Litter-picks, weeding and marshallind in fog, Of those we've done quite a few!

There was painting and goat-walking, And then chopping down of trees. We made paper chains, sorted books, And were really good posties!

Scrubbed the decks, then painted them black, Can you believe I'm not even in May? Cleared a tunnel and found some rate, And remember digging in that rain?!

WERS got our help and we played in the park, Laughed and joked, everything shone. Yet more painting, we showed our pride, Delivered leaflets until there were none!

2000 good deeds was 'relay' great! Eagles and Recyke got our aid. First Centurion got his wings, then 3 more. Elliott Jouse- what a difference we've made!

But truth be told, it couldn't be done, Without someone taking a lead. Yes, you've got helpers to give you a hand, But you're who we really need.

Thank you Anji, our Queen of Drills, For your planning, playfulness and puns. 2019 has been a truly amazing year, All because of our Monday Group Runs!

• Katy

Happy Christmas one and all, See you in 2020!

Anji x