What a super Saturday bonus run!

We welcomed no less than FOUR new runners to GoodGym today- that's the bonus of a lunchtime run: people who find evenings tricky due to work commitments get the chance to come along and see what we are all about! Hopefully we will see Maddie, Amy, Oli and Steph back again soon.

There were some fabulous partner balances shown off in the warm up- the final poses of everyone carrying each other or in piggybacks should have been caught on camera and I am disappointed in myself! We had a little audience outside of Hotel Indigo looking aghast which I take as a positive. One of my favourite bits of Newcastle - the high level bridge - featured in our route today and the small but perfectly formed group stayed together all the way to the task.

We were helping out at the Dementia Hub for Age UK Gateshead where we visited to do a bit of painting a few weeks ago. We love this task as Julie the task leader is always so organised and chilled! As always, Julie had everything ready for us and had even colour coordinated stuff so we didn't have to keep asking questions! How amazing is that?!

Tasks today were:

• Taking desks apart and moving them downstairs

• Moving new computer furniture upstairs

• Looking important with screwdrivers

• Showing amazing mental strength by not giving up and just playing swingball

• Tidying and reorganising two large cupboards containing gardening equipment, games and crafts

• Moving items of large furniture on to the stage area

• Hoovering - there's a prize for guessing who wanted to do this...

The cupboards were basically like a massive game of Tetris, fitting lots of bits together to make better use of the space, and it was quite amazing to see the difference made by the team on this job! Kudos.

This was a task with a LOT of heavy lifting and the boys really got stuck into it, with desks dismantled and carried up and down the stairs in no time. I have a feeling everyone will be aching tomorrow! Julie said this was a job that would have taken their team of volunteers days to sort out and we were done in just under an hour. Despite the freezing cold headwind it was a lovely run back to base and a familiar afterglow of using our run to do great things.

Well done everyone!

PS: It was Carol Anne who did the Hoovering, and your prize is yet another free group run this Monday at Eslington House for Changing Lives

Anji x

I just wanted to do something good with my free time!

... and new member Daniel did just that tonight. Kudos for joining us on not only our longest run to date but possibly our coldest too!

It was typically brisk tonight for our last run of November so I kept the intro short (not like me, I know) before leading us off on a run so epic we had three possible routes there and none of them particularly scenic. Surely running down the Felling Bypass is best kept for the Great North Run only?! I have to give a special shout out to Liz who was a little worried she wouldn't keep up tonight, yet Queen Backmarker Charlotte and her were never more than two steps behind! The rain held off but that didn't stop us needing to dodge a million puddles.

On arrival at the Age UK Gateshead dementia hub, we were met by Carol Anne at her first post-op Good Deed, and the brilliant Julie from Age UK. She was every GoodGym trainer's dream: totally organised, materials laid out and tasks written on a clear plan so we wasted no time. Everyone was on painting duty for this one: Charlotte painting a Stage door, Dave painting a church door, and micro teams brushing up walls with bright blues and orange to match the Age UK logo. A few teams were squished into tiny doorways and corridors and suddenly the cold outside was forgotten. I especially liked the team that had their own personal baby gate to keep them hemmed into place!

It was so great having the Dynamic Duo Charlotte and Carol Anne back together, especially so that Charlotte could relay the story of our super-cute mission to Mr S's house yesterday.

The Dementia Hub is just a few weeks away from their big opening day and it was so brilliant to have a big team like this on task and having fun. We were able to complete all of the jobs in the time set...

And we only managed to break one roller!

We are planning to return to the Dementia Hub for a series of community missions in January, and group runs to look after a patch of their HUGE garden in the spring and I already can't wait. A brilliant task where we were able to see the impact we can make straight away while we start our week the best way possible.

See you all next week for our return to Smart Works Newcastle Remember, next week is walkable so try to bring along a beginner and show off our wonderful community at one of our favourite tasks.

Happy running and walking Anji x