We've lent a hand to FoodCycle in Newcastle twice in the last three days and that feels GOOD! Tonight was the great scatter leaflet drop for FoodCycle Westgate following on from the Community Mission on Saturday for FoodCycle Monkchester, which you can catch up on here

Pop over to give Andrew a massive cheer for organising all the FoodCycle tasks and for storing the leaflets for us.. hopefully we have created some space in your flat by getting this job done tonight! FoodCycle are super happy with the work we've done spreading the word. It was great to see Sam along for her first ever group run tonight too. Welcome!

We had lots of weekend news to catch up on including Lucy smashing her first ever parkrun; Louise, Dan and Abi taking part in the Gateshead Trail 10K and some great racing at the inaugural Try on the Tyne event on Saturday where Miranda, Katy and Ross did their first ever official 10K- how amazing is that? We also started making plans for the GoodGym 10th birthday celebrations, and shared details of the GoodGym Newcastle photo and picnic which you can sign up for in the party listing here.

It was a letter-making warm up although out of context, the warm up photos are probably more fun. It's always a super start to the night getting a bunch of grown-up (?) people playing a childrens' game. Miranda led a walking group, Paul led the runners and I hung out somewhere between everyone while we dodged a heavy downpour. Everyone had between 30-50 leaflets each and got straight off, scattering down the streets paralell to Brighton Grove near Nunsmoor Park where we have done regular tasks. We managed to cover loads of the streets in Andrew's plan (see the map in the photo!) and had a few fun moments including Ross finding a discarded plastic leg and Louise ending up delivering to the very house she lived at in 1986! What are the chances of that?!

We made it back to Nunsmoor for the fitness session in a little over half an hour. We changed location twice, once due to flooding and next due to a couple "doing a Jack and Rose" from Titanic in the car park (Thanks for that, Katy!) Tonight's fitness session was a new one adapted from an old PE game which we called THE REACTOR in which we had to use our reactions at the same time as physical prowess to avoid a quad-burning forfeit. There were some superb competitive sides on show but we all made friends again before we left. The most important bit was of course getting some good Instagram content.

It's a double Community Mission weekender- let's hope the sun shines! Sign up for a spot of Gardening at St Lawrence Park on Saturday or Help at Harbottle on Sunday.

We are also going to be helping out at the Star and Shadow during their big build clear up and clear out on the 22nd August. Find out about that and sign up here -they'd love to have you along.

It's back to Elliott House next Monday for the Group Run where Rachael has promised us she will conquer the hill- so make sure you sign up to be part of this legendary run moment. See you then!

Anji x

Our trips to Byker are always eventful and tonight was no exception as we paid a return visit to Byker Community Centre, a task first sourced for us by Dan back in February! You can read about what we got up to then, here

We had so much to catch up on despite no community missions taking place over the weekend. Nick and Abi did their first ever mission and saved an escaped greyhound on the way. Their task truly made a difference to an isolated older person in our area. You can see what they got up to in Abi's report here

Kudos !

There was also an amazing social yesterday in which Team GoodGym took part in the Whitley Bay sandcastle competition. You can see their incredible work of art on our Instagram and Facebook Page AND the GoodGym Newcastle rugby team, victorious in their touch rugby league had brought along their trophy for us to admire

Is there anything we can't do?!

I overestimated the warm-up, the distance and the time and we arrived at the task late to find that there had been a very last minute change. There was no room of doom as promised as the hall was now being used by a yoga group. Dan thankfully had new instructions after arriving at the task to meet us and seeing the task owner who had kindly left us some grapes and water! Our new tasks were to tidy up the gardens to the rear and side, do a spot of weeding and do a general tidy up and litter pick around the grounds of the church beyond the centre. We were pleased we could still make a difference after a hot and hilly run there.

We couldn't believe the amazing view of the Quayside below- check out the group photo to see the Tyne Bridge just making a cameo appearance behind us- it was a stunning evening! The task was completed quickly and we got into teams for a hastily prepared fitness session (I had planned to use the hall inside!) We were a few minutes into the circuit session when I realised we were missing a whole group who were so dedicated to the weeding (check out Rachel's pics!) so it was a mix of my all-consuming guilt and them feeling really smug when they eventually came back.

I am so sorry !!

There was a last-minute good deed for a few of us before we left as a music group arriving at the hall needed our help to carry some drums inside too. We can't help being helpful! Hopefully we can go back to Byker Community Centre and do the great task we had planned in a few weeks time... I will keep you posted.

If you're looking for some more good things to do in the community, Andrew's leading a Community Mission this Saturday to spread the word of a free community meal, for FoodCycle Monkchester. If you would like to help out, all the information is here

We are also helping FoodCycle out at the Group Run next week as we spread the word of FoodCycle Westgate. There's a walking option on next week too!

For something completely different, you can join us for a Running Technique session at the Quayside on Wednesday 21st August, suitable for all running abilities. Check out the listing here

Have a great week knowing you started it doing good things,

Anji

This was worth waiting for!

Our rescheduled Group Run with Sustrans was SO worth the wait!

We welcomed new GoodGym Newcastle runner Tim who had been signed up by his wife! Go and give him a cheer to welcome him to the group! Tim did a fantastic job tonight and we hope to welcome him back to many a GoodGym run. Paul described him as a "machine". We also welcomed Kate and Emma back from their holidays looking tanned and chilled and not making any of us at all jealous. We had a catch up on the weekend's action: Great North 10K running and cheering, Evan running up and down a lot of hills, Rachel making a long-awaited return to parkrun, and of course two great Communiy Missions for Newcastle Parks on Saturday and Sunday Well done to those that got involved!

So, another Monday, another Group Run but this was one with a twist. We were adopting a scatter approach with three small groups taking on three tasks on the cycle network in Newcastle. Our run was to support the great work of Sustrans , the charity that make it easier for people to walk and cycle. Three of the Mile Posts that mark the way on the cycle network needed some TLC and general GoodGym magic, and we were excited to get involved. In all, there are a thousand of these Millenium Mileposts and it was great to temporarily adopt them tonight.

I walk past this all the time and never realised it was here!

The three locations and groups were:

• Newcastle Business Park led by Paul

• Cycle Hub corner led by Katy

• Swing Bridge/Riverside led by Charlotte.

Each of them was supported by fab volunteers from Sustrans who met us at each one armed with paints and litter pickers for those unable to fit in the painting area! This was so well organised and I managed to run between two of the points to see everyone. Each group had the same task: sand the mile post down, re paint it while litter picking went on around to show the mile post off in all its glory when completed! We learned a bit of history about the Millenium Mileposts, including that each of them has its own emblem that you can take a brass rubbing from. Only ONE person has ever completed all of them. Anyone fancy being second?

I ran ahead and set up a 5 minute finisher fitness session to meet all the groups on their return, Paul's group sneakily arriving just as it was over. As they'd run the furthest, and fastest, we let them off this time.

If you'd like to do more good things this week, there are TWO community missions on Thursday. One during the day at Elswick Park and the other in the evening at Ray Gray Community Centre so get signed up and come along if you can.

Have a great week running, walking and doing good things.

Anji x

It was a Group Run so brilliant we changed it twice!

We had a couple of changes to tonight's Group Run task, and a LOT of rain, so I was super pleased with the turn out tonight! Maybe it was the promise of the social at The Hoppings afterwards?! We were off to Leazes Park for an A-Z of litter picking for the first time in ages!

We had a parkrun-centred catch up tonight with some great stories and ideas for new locations to try out. Andrew also caught us up with our Great Get Together Community Mission that happened at Felling Park on Saturday. You can find the fab report here with puns a plenty.

Our partner-balance game started proceedings tonight while Aimee led the walkers off to Leazes Park on an, ahem, extended version of the route there. What happens at GoodGym stays at GoodGym Aimee, so we won't say a word. We were at Leazes Park in no time where we quickly got started bagging and binning all manner of treasures. A rather large dead rat was waiting for us, as if it knew we were expecting to meet fellow rats at Changing Lives where we would have been for the original planned task! Nick was delighted.

An actual bin was one of the first items found, so the good news was there was somewhere to keep our findings. We tried our best to get an A-Z of litter but still haven't managed to find a Xylophone meaning we were (at least) one letter short. I was so impressed by our resourcefulness for this task this evening, and a big thanks again go to Andrew, Peter and Charlotte for bringing along the rubbish bags, litter pickers and gloves to make this a well-organised clear up despite being so last-minute!

High energy was on display for the fitness session where we stayed in Leazes Park for ladder drills in which we showed off our amazing agility and balance skills, sprints in tempo surge and lots of easy jogging to recover.

Kudos!

There's a brilliant new Community Mission TOMORROW afternoon if you can get involved. The regular visit to Nunsmoor Park is also here again, and a chance to help out at Fellside Primary also on Saturday. If you are going along to Fellside Primary school, please sign up by Thursday.

See you for our Group Run for Moving on Tyne and Wear next Monday. Sign up for that here and get ready for leaflets, fitness and hopefully no dead rats.

Have a great week knowing you made Leazes Park a tidier place to be!

Happy running and walking,

Anji x