The sun shone on a new task with a superb name, gardening for The Spitler in Newcastle for our weekly GROUP RUN!

It was a big hello to Siobhan and a welcome back to Gwyneth who joined us last week as well as Peter who we haven't seen for a little while. We had loads of great stuff to celebrate including a record Community Mission for the Junior parkrun takeover yesterday alongside the usual brilliant parkrun news.

It was awesome!

We kept the celebrations long and the warm up short due to limited space - it's a long story- then headed off to the brilliantly named The Spitler, a community hub for the Spital Tongues residents, also known as Spitlers. You learn something new every day eh?! This little community hub is a hidden gem nestled behind the RVI hospital right near the centre of town. It relies on volunteers to provide loads of good stuff for people who come along to use it. Task Force legend Charlottle had hooked up this task for us a while ago and it was a perfect night for it: clearing paths and weeding a small green area at the back of the centre.

Task owner Alison had everything ready, and had even brought a dog along for me to fuss and be generally distracted by. We were straight on with the job. Weeds pulled, paths swept, rubbish bagged and a clear and sparkling area in just 20 minutes. Check out the before and after photos for a dazzling transformation!

We trotted off to Leazes Park on the way back for our weekly fitness session in which we squatted, lunged, ran up and down steps and tried to explain what "running slowly" means to Harry, Nick and Tom. We finished off by completing a five minute Tempo Surge run and briefly helped some passing police with their enquiries before heading back.

Top job, GoodGymers.

Not one, or two, but THREE Community Missions await this weekend if you'd like to get involved.

SATURDAY Monthly Mission at Nunsmoor Park is listed here ALSO ON SATURDAY Path clearing at St Lawrence Park which you can find here OR SUNDAY at Harbottle Park where you can tidy and trim the hedges. That's listed here

Evan's planned another Bank Holiday daytime social which you can pop along to for games, picnics and general merriment then the Group Run runs as normal. It's a bonanza 10K leg stretcher for Friends of Felling Park, so come along if you can and do the usual great things in your red or black tshirt.

Happy running and walking,

Anji x