We learned two very important things tonight at our GoodGym Group Run to Newcastle University Students Union:

What Charlotte lacks in patience she makes up for in resilience Rachel did the New York City Marathon! We had no idea! She kept that to herself. (the second one is a lie)

We had a University-themed warm up where we found out the Group has a massive range of skills from ex-paper boy (Peter), Computer Games Designer (Paul) Pilot - possibly- (Dan), two teachers (Katy and me) and two brain boxes from Cambridge and Oxford (Kate and Emma) with everything else in between. Brains and beauty! We said a big hello to Lou on her first ever Group Run and hoped she would have a great evening.

It was our second visit to the Newcastle University Students Union tonight where we completed tasks in the union workshop, helped out with a literary task for the NEST project and everyone's favourite, (except Charlotte) wrapping selection boxes of beer for the students union bar! We love helping out at the University as it's a super-easy run which is perfect for those of us suffering Tin Legs following yesterday's Town Moor Marathon and Half, it's indoors and we are always really looked-after. On the Tin Legs: big shout out to the GoodGym Party gate who kept Ross, Paul, Evan and I entertained on our multi-lap trek around the Moor yesterday. You were amazing!

We split off into three groups for the tasks tonight and as always got straight to work.

Group One: The Shifters Moving items from one end of the university workshop to the other. Nick obviously felt this task was a little too easy and added to the challenge by accidentally dropping a million screws on the floor. This was superb group work for everyone lifting and shifting.

Group Two: The wrappers This group were wrapping a selection of books for the NEST project which works with refugees. The idea was fab, the books are wrapped and quotes about the book written on before being given to the refugees to show you should never judge a book by its cover- something sadly they often face. This laid- back chilled task was ideal for Rachel who is weighed down by her NYC Marathon medal (did she mention she ran that?) and ideal for Katy to showcase her Teacher Writing.

Group Three: The boozers As much as GoodGym is thirsty work, this group weren't there to sample the delicious Stu Brew beer. Their task was to construct then pack little cardboard carriers with four ales for sale for Christmas time. It was this that pushed Charlotte over the edge as it was basically like a cardboard jigsaw where none of the pieces fit. This earned her the name Stroppy Knickers (thanks for this Dan) and made me think this would be a brilliant GoodGym badge. Typical to Charlotte's never-give-up attitude, and Dan and Peter's guidance and encouragement, she cracked on with the job in hand and got several boxes completed!

Jobs done and fitness session ON! Three stations were waiting for the team tonight: stair reps, shuttle runs and ladder drills, all finished off with a wall squat won by King Peter and Queens Ellen and Christina. Another brilliant evening, great encouragement and loads of laughter.

If you fancy helping at Nunsmoor Park it's our monthly mission this Saturday which will be looked after by Katy. You can sign up for that here It will be our last visit there for this year, so get involved if you can. Make your own way there and stay as long as you like.

Our group run next week is a little further so please don't be late! Sign up to help Age UK here

Happy running!

It's never a great thing to find yourself without an organisation to help for your Group Run, but tonight we managed to spruce up a few areas of the city with some plogging, while dropping off postcards about GoodGym Newcastle to spread the word of our brilliant group on the way. It ended up being a double win, helping others while we helped ourselves!

The cold wind and rain didn't put 15 hardy GG NCL runners off and we treated (?) ourselves to an extended warm up, completing drills and playing a game creepily called Body Parts which I lifted from a PE session I once taught to a group of 7 year olds. Kids shouldn't be the only ones to have fun!

Warm up done, time to dash off through the city centre!

It was great to have new runner Niveditha along and I also had a nice chat on the way to Hannah who has THE most passport stamps I have ever seen during a doc check. These things impress a nerd like me! We arrived at Claremont Road car park where Peter had very kindly brought along his stash of litter pickers for us to use and we spent the first ten minutes of the task time collecting all manner of treasures from the car park itself, including many many fast food containers, a nappy and a pair of underpants. We didn't quite get the A-Z of litter we achieved in the summer but we weren't far off! What I liked most was Tom's manifesto of charging McDonalds for all the discarded cups we found, and he gets my vote if he ever goes for Prime Minister.

VOTE TOM

Part 2 of the task involved more litter picking whilst dropping off GoodGym Newcastle postcards to the residents of Claremont Road, home to students, professionals and everyone in between. Hopefully this publicity drive-by-paper will get us some awesome new tasks and runners in the next few weeks! Another quick dash to Exhibition Park entrance followed and on to one of my favourite fitness sessions: a triple-station tabata of short intervals (20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest) between squats, stair repeats and sprints. You could almost see the steam coming off everyone's legs as their quads burned in the light of the underpass.

Poetic!

It's a big weekend for some of us taking part in the Town Moor Marathon and Half on Sunday, and we are also manning one of the main marshal points on the course. Come along from 9:30am to wave and cheer on or just to bring hot drinks and treats to those marshalling!

We are back at the amazing Newcastle University Students union next week. I can't promise it will be quite as big as last time, but it will definitely contain great people doing great things. Who knows, Evan may even arrive on time to this one and not have a pint on the way. Sign up here

Happy running! Anji x

It was a completely different sort of Group Run for us tonight as we popped along to Balmoral Court for the first time in what we are hoping will be another great GoodGym partnership.

Balmoral Court is a residential home for people with dementia and we were there this evening to work with Equal Arts a charity improving wellbeing for older people and those living with dementia through creativity. The plan is that as they develop the Hen Power project, we will support them through informal sessions like tonight to develop trust and relationships with staff and residents. It's a great link for us that will give us warm tasks for the winter (BONUS!) and the chance to play with hens and build stuff in the spring (DOUBLE BONUS!)

We were given a warm welcome after a beautiful run along the Quayside taking in the many many fireworks displays going on all around- either that or there were a LOT of cars bike firing on the City Road tonight. It's a route that was new to GoodGym but shows off so much of Newcastle that we should be proud of. How better to see it than under fireworks?! I gave the group a conversation topic of "Spice Girls are back, tell me your 90s memories" which everyone ignored and pretended to be too cool to care about the Spice Girls.

We were met by Caroline and David from Equal Arts who gave us an introduction to the simple yet effective strategies they use to engage with the residents. Tonight we were going to be learning how to interact using newspapers by starting conversations about headlines, encouraging the residents to engage with the "now". Dave was straight in tonight choosing a copy of The Journal to chat with a female resident in the first stages of dementia. It was a really touching and though-provoking task and we all managed to have a chat with some of the residents in the short time available, with most of the female attention going to Paul who clearly has a kind face! Is there a GoodGym badge for that?

Due to the nature of tonight's task, there are no on-task photos of our ugly mugs for you to devour for the first time ever! We hope you understand!

If you are interested in getting more involved with Equal Arts or Hen Power, drop me an email anji@goodgym.org and I will put you in touch.

"It was a very thought-provoking night and a candid insight on the effects of dementia" - Carol Anne

We stopped off at the green space at the edge of the Quayside looked over by both the Cycle Hub (great for scones) and the Tyne Bar (even better for beer) for a quick game of Cones and The Ladder of Doom. The group had clearly run out of friendly and understanding spirit as it was everyone for themselves and very few choosing the option to get the people "out" of the game, back "in" again. Only two were left standing and much high-fiving rounded the fitness session off nicely.

"I might have got a bit competitive.. I need to remember I'm 27, not 7"- Charlotte

Huge welcome to Christina tonight, we hope you will be back for more Monday night GoodGymness !

We are back at Changing Lives next week, full details of which will be added as soon as I have them. Sign up for next week's group run here We will be staying for drinks and food at the Mile Castle next week so even if you're not coming for the task, come for the craic.

Happy Running, Anji x