We are a little thin on the ground .. can't think why?

Maybe it's because as many left for work this morning, we were under a little bit of snow. Thankfully that had cleared off in time for tonight's Group Run and we were ready and raring to go, albeit still wrapped up in several layers as we braved the elements. Our Group Run tonight managed to just scrape us into the February #GiveItHeart theme with just a few days to spare, as we were off to deliver leaflets for British Heart Foundation in Newcastle.

Miranda had pulled this task together for us, a team effort as Aimee had been to collect the leaflets for us too. Excellent Task Force effort! You can find out more about the life saving work the BHF do including research and fundraising to help beat heartbreak. We'd been asked to deliver the leaflets to the area near Leazes Park and St James', so we adopted a scatter approach for this one with three areas targeted by walkers and runners.

We caught up on the weekend's achievements including Charlotte running her first Half Marathon at Carsington Water Half since a terrible year filled with injury, and I tried not to whinge too much about the terrible race I had at the same event! Debbie also took part in an epic coastal 10K in Northumberland which featured hail, a headwind and an almost lost jacket.

Aimee did a great Task Force round up, recapping three great Community Missions that took place on Thursday and over the weekend involving 15 brilliant GoodGymers doing everything from sorting toys to gardening and marshalling a race! You will find the reports for the missions here. We also looked ahead to a busy Saturday with two more chances to do good things on Saturday alone! Bonus!

Despite my dislike for pancakes (yes, sorry, really) we did a pancake day warm up to get moving before heading off on the multi-distance run and walk. It took us just 25 minutes to deliver the 200 leaflets and we learned an important lesson about back doors and front doors looking exactly the same! Luckily no fingers were trapped, no gloves were lost and we were suitably warmed up for the fitness session!

For fitness tonight we used the area by The Core building, on the old Newcastle Brewery site. I think we could have all done with a beer but instead we smashed out some hard interval reps at our own paces, some very strong running from Elliott on display tonight especially. It was then time for some 30 seconds finishers (sore arms today, anyone?) and we were rewarded with a very short easy jog back to base to stretch and feel brilliant.

We are back with more leafleting next week and as it's March, it's Spring so it will definitely be warmer.

Hopefully.

Anji x

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.

You know that thing where you are so worried about losing something that you put it in a really, really safe place..

then you lose it

THAT.

So tonight we were all fired up and ready to do our first leaflet drop of 2020 for Guide Dogs NE Newcastle, and brilliant Louise had even taken some time out of her Sunday schedule to drop leaflets off for us at our base so that we were super organised. Until.. we couldn't find the leaflets! We are sure they are in a very very safe place ready for us to do this particular leaflet drop in a few weeks' time instead.

Darren to the rescue!

Thankfully Darren works super-close by for another fantastic North East Charity, and he was able to find us a batch of leaflets ready to go so we had a replacement task sorted in less than 5 minutes. Hooray! So quick change of plans, tonight we were spreading the word of Moving on Tyne and Wear. This amazing organisation supports people in Tyne and Wear who are aged 18+ and out of work due to physical and/or mental health issues. They also help people to address other barriers, such as long-term unemployment, debt, low skills, or housing issues, through one-to-one support. And all on our doorstep. MOTW is a real hidden gem changing lives in our city and we were so happy to get this bonus opportunity to spread the word.

We stayed indoors for intro tonight, catching up on the windy and wet Community Missions that happened at the weekend, getting February off to a flying start and continuing the momentum we started in January for 2020. There was a great turnout and some good things achieved as always. It was amazing to see some regulars, some occasionals and some newbies getting stuck in for the three great things that happened on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday- some of them doing all three!

Katy got everyone moving for a brilliant warm up- thankfully it had stopped raining by now- and giving us the shortest GG appearance ever, I then promptly sent her home as she is fighting a cold. She later popped up on our Facebook page with a bunch of brilliant bookings she's made for Community Missions coming up because she just can't help herself- Mondays ARE GOODGYM DAYS! We then went off running and walking to Jesmond to get dropping!

The 150 leaflets (Rachael's maths helping us with this calculation) were delivered in super speedy time to 4 key areas around Jesmond, with runners and walkers covering up to 6K in total from this task- the perfect way to keep warm! We only have one photo from tonight but I think you'd agree it's a cracker.

Quick tasks mean longer fitness sessions so we smashed out some minute/quick change lower body exercises, then into The Points Collector, running in pairs on flat/fast and hill sections of Exhibition Park to collect points. There was top energy from everyone tonight with brilliant team work and elbow bashing (if you know, you know).

Planning ahead? Check out the listings for the upcoming Community Missions starting with a Valentines Day special next week led by Maddy. Get involved if you can!

We are back next week running and walking to support student volunteer week at Newcastle University which will, as always be fabulous. It's a fantastic run for people who are new to GoodGym and wondering what we are all about, so bring a friend if you can.

Hope to see you there! Anji x