The sun was out again for our Bank Holiday group run with Sustrans

It was another gorgeous Newcastle night for our first group run to the Quayside, heading out of the city centre after celebrating Debbie's parkrun PB and Michael for running his second-best ever Half Marathon in Edinburgh.

Top commitment for coming to the session on Half Marathon Monday legs!

Through the city centre and down to the quayside (with much excitement for running back up the bank by the Metro Radio Arena) we went, meeting Sarah from Sustrans on the way. Everyone got stuck straight into the big litter-pick without a second thought, with Emma and Kate confessing they had come straight from a camping trip to GoodGym without time for a shower, therefore completely unphased by any rubbish they were to encounter on the task!

Within 30 minutes the stretch of Quayside path was clear and Katy proudly took my special award for finding the weirdest piece of litter of the night:

an incomplete set of false nails

We did our first ever hill session on the way back as part of a Paarlauf- themed fitness task, doing hill reps with short flat recoveries to get the heart rate up and learn the best form for uphill running. This will no doubt come in handy on the way up Westgate Road to Elliott House next week! Carol-Anne coped with the disappointment of not having a Hoover to use this week by winning my sweetie reward for excellent hill running.

In a GoodGym first, we were serenaded by a passing jazz band during our stretch-off, ending the Bank Holiday fun in an all together random way before staying at Hotel Indigo for drinks to say well done to us.

We are back at Elliott House with Changing Lives next week. Sign up, come along and do good things. I can't promise a jazz band, but I'm sure it will still be awesome. Sign up here

29 runners took on the Mega Byker bag drop challenge and showed that many Geordie hands really do make light work!

Starting the session with a chat challenge to pay everyone a compliment on Mental Health Awareness week we set off on a run across town and over the Central Motorway looking epic in our red t shirts in the sunshine.

Heading over Byker Bridge and a quick photo stop at Scope on Shields Road and we were treated to the chance to see Will in his favourite brandishing things pose, this time with a handful of donation bags.

The challenge was on... 300 bags to deliver in 30 minutes

Two teams split off, one to the Heaton Road area with Anji and the other to Chillingham Road with Paul where they skillfully avoided the call of the pub on the corner. The scatter approach was why everyone had a different distance on their watches by the end, some of the group ran up to 10K in total last night!

top effort!

We smashed the 300 bag target well under the 30 minute limit and headed back to Byker Bridge for a massive interval session running easy and sprint splits between the lamp posts, giving Anji a chance to share the sound of the coaches whistle in everyone's ears! Back to the city centre we went with Tanya doing an amazing job of back-marking for the first time.

Our next group run is with Changing Lives at Brims House and the good news is I forgot to give my fitness session secret prize out last night so it rolls over to next week. Sign up here

28 group runners avoided the temptation of beer gardens and barbecues and ran to do good for Changing Lives in Newcastle last night, despite it being a beautiful Bank Holiday Monday.

Mulubrhan confessed to having two excuses not to run and ignoring them both, he even forgot his trainers and went to buy a new pair so he could take part in our second group run and task at Francis House commitment

We took an indirect route to Francis House so we could get the famous landmark and Newcastle United fortress St James Park on our Strava maps, before being met by staff from Changing Lives and swiftly set to work. Three groups doing good deeds tonight: a big deep clean in the kitchen, a garden tidy-up and an important chance to see Carol Anne brandishing a hoover in the communal area clean-up. After a giving the house for vulnerable women a massive makeover we headed off to Summerhill Park to get our fitness session in!

It was a mini runners circuit on the cards: squats planks and the all-important lunges expertly demonstrated by Paul with everyone multi=tasking and giving their all at the same time as getting to know each other. Another detour run back to get our 4K distance in before stretches and our first mini social- drinks at our start venue Hotel Indigo

Awesome work everyone!

See you for our mega-bag-drop-challenge next week! Sign up here: Mega Byker Bag Drop