Damu, Michael and I gathered in Benwell just as the clouds gathered and delivered an unexpected shower. Our delivery, on the other hand, was of 200 leaflets for Food Cycle. I was a minute late (traffic just seems to get worse and worse!) and given the rain I didn't leave Michael and Damu to stand - let's deliver!

Regular readers of our reports will know that our friends at Food Cycle deliver a free meal once a week in five sites across Newcastle and Gateshead. We're always happy to help them spread the word.

Leaflet deliveries in Benwell are always quick due to upstairs and downstairs flats with adjacent front doors and short paths. It was a close run race between the rain delivery and the leaflet delivery. I think the shower finished first but we also finished the leaflet delivery in time for me to hear the draw for the next round of the FA Cup! To be honest, I wish I hadn't bothered! I hope that Leeds fan Damu is happier at the end of the night!

It was a night of fours tonight. Firstly, we welcomed our fourth new member of the week! Welcome Matt and congratulations on your first GoodGym mission - hopefully the first of many!

So that meant four fabulous GoodGymers for our mission - to deliver four hundred leaflets for our friends at Food Cycle. Food Cycle take donated food and prepare three course meals for anyone who needs or wants one. They have four centres in Newcastle (and one in Gateshead) and tonight we were spreading the word about their new centre in Benwell. The streets of Benwell were lively tonight! You might almost say that the residents were out in fource!

I will admit that when I saw the pile of leaflets I doubted whether we would manage to deliver them all. I should've known better! I mean, we're expert leaflet deliverers right?! Would you believe me if I told you we finished the task in forty four minutes? Well Ok, I might've used a little poetic license there, but it was definitely in the forties!

We had a full leg work out tonight too - it's not called GoodGym for nothing! There were squats to the ankle height letterboxes in one estate, step challenges up to the houses in other streets and hill reps up and down the Benwell streets. Just what we need four days before the Great North Run!

All in all, a tour de "fource" of a task tonight! Join us for our next session - a beginner-friendly session on Monday 11th September, meeting at Stepney Bank Stables at 6.15pm and helping our friends at the Ouseburn Trust in the Ouseburn Valley. Oh, and there'll be a BBC TV crew filming us. If you're a little camera shy we can make sure you're out of shot. Hope to see you then!

Lucy and I had quite a walk this evening as we delivered another 250 leaflets for the amazing charity Food Cycle, who turn donated leftover food into a tasty three course meal in various locations across Newcastle and Gateshead, available free for anyone who needs it. The streets we covered today all seemed to be built up steep hills with lots of the houses having steps or steep paths, so we had a great workout - exactly what GoodGym is all about! #DoGoodGetFit

We spotted a couple of unexpected things on our walk. Firstly one of the houses has a Roman Temple in the garden. I’ll say that again - a Roman Temple in the garden! Well it is Hadrian’s Wall country!

Secondly, some of you know that I have had incidents with dogs while delivering leaflets in the past. I thought a large dog had caught my eye in one garden. I was wrong - it was a lion! Thankfully of course, not real, but it still took a while for my heart rate to return to normal!

All in all a pleasant and productive evening. We’re doing it all again in Byker soon - I can’t guarantee lions or Roman artefacts but there’ll be a good walk with great company - what’s not to love?!

The Challenge: Location: Benwell Mission: deliver 250 leaflets for Food Cycle Challenge Accepted!

Food Cycle is a fantastic charity that takes donated leftover food and converts it into a delicious three course meal which is available free at locations across Newcastle and Gateshead each week. They had a new batch of 1000 leaflets to be delivered across four areas of Newcastle. Part one today was in Benwell.

Sub-challenge 1: strategic planning of two runs over the next three days and collection of the leaflets, trying to avoid the worst winds and snow of storms Dudley and Eunice. Outcome: mixed. Avoided most of the wind and rain today but the forecast changed so I might well have left myself a 19 mile run to do in the sleet on Saturday!

Sub-challenge 2: locate the leaflets. Outcome: easier said than done! Initially the leaflets appeared not to be where they were supposed to be but were eventually found after a second visit to the venue. The search allowed me to chat to the staff at the Riverside Community Health Project (who it turned out were hiding the leaflets!) which is another great local charity with an Early Years programme, women’s groups, interpreting courses and a men’s pie club, to name just a few! The staff were very interested to hear about GoodGym and might be requesting tasks of their own soon!

Sub-challenge 3: it turns out that LOTS of homes in Benwell have steps up to their front doors! Definitely challenging after this morning’s run! Outcome: quads and hamstring workout. Well GoodGym is supposed to be a physical challenge isn’t it?!

Sub-challenge 4: single-handedly deliver 250 leaflets in an hour. Outcome: smashed it! Take a look at my Strava screenshot - I always love how it looks with a leaflet drop and today’s is a particularly satisfying quadrilateral!

Overall challenge has Ben-well perfected!

Who’s joining me for part two in Walker next week?