TONIGHT I TOOK MY DREAM GOODGYM NEWCASTLE GROUP PHOTO

Oh also, we did an amazing group run and a task at Roycroft House for Changing Lives

Yay!

David got in a quick confession that he had chosen the England match last week over his GoodGym group run, quickly redeeming himself by saying he hadn't given into the temptation of a pint on the Quayside on his run up to Hotel Indigo and we said hello to two new runners, a Mother and Daughter duo, Sandra and Lauren. We hope you were made to feel very welcome tonight!

Now everyone knows the mark of a truly good running coach is finding great places to pose for a group photo, and tonight was a corker- a World Cup related stop off to pose by the mighty Shearer statue at St James Park. Kudos to our Sunderland supporter runners who joined in with the famous number 9's pose.

At Roycroft House, a project for vulnerable people in our city, we were split into little teams to complete the tasks of:

• Garden clear and tidy up (it was 24 degrees and everyone wanted to do this one!)
• Bathroom clean
• Kitchen scrub
• Living room make over
• Biscuit eating (this task mainly reserved for Dan

In one of our quickest completions ever, the jobs were done and dusted (literally) in 25 minutes!

Imagine being this awesome!

We went to Summerhill Park for lunges and a squat pulse challenge before a round of our favourite game Dishes and Domes where Rachel won my sweetie prize for comment of the night: "I'm always a dish" and indeed, she is.

Next week is our first task with Smart Works Newcastle followed by our summer social: food and drinks at the Mile Castle. Sign up to run here or just come and meet us afterwards for the festivities!

Happy running, Anji x

If there's one thing about Geordie GoodGymers it's that they love a challenge

This week the challenge was on. 1200 envelopes to pack with newsletters and magazines for CVS Newcastle and avoid paper cuts!

It was overcast in Toon for our first ever fully-indoor task as we welcomed newbies Hazelle and Rebecca to the GoodGym family. We piled up the stairs in to CVS Newcastle offices and got straight into packing teams, the majority of the group choosing, suspiciously, the room where the biscuits had been laid on. Every envelope had to be packed with a magazine, a leaflet and a letter before being addressed with a sticky label. Easy work for this group of legends Much packing and sticking started, with Paul in charge of the Franking machine with his day, week and life made.

Happy Days

1200 envelopes were packed and piled in just 35 minutes much to the delight of Martin and Sally from the CVS who tried to work out a mathematical equation of the time we had saved them... this job usually takes two members of their staff two whole days!

We completed an epic paired session of agility ladder drills and 200m laps around Higham House where Louise also gave us all a handy German lesson (paarlauf is NOT Polish, it would appear) before heading back to base at Hotel Indigo

Thanks everyone for proving that many hands do make light work. Again.

See you next week for our cycle path clear up with Sustrans. Keep an eye on the details as the distance may be subject to change. Sign up here

Happy Running! Anji

No less than seven new runners for tonight's trek up Westgate Road to visit Changing Lives at Elliott House where we did our very first task back in April!

What a Group Run it was!

Using Paul extra-special hill-avoidance-but-still-uphill route, we ascended happily up Westgate Road and on to Elliott House with special mention going to Jasmine who did her first ever run outside of a gym. Nice work Jasmine!

As always, we were greeted with big smiles and clear instructions and sent straight off to work, with painting, kitchen cleaning and gardening the order of the day. There was absolutely no stopping Jonny from getting his hands on a paintbrush tonight!

35 glorious busy minutes passed by in the flash of a marigold and we were back off (downhill- yay!) to Summerhill park. The group once again showed their obviously competitive not competitive streaks in a quick game of Cops and Robbers, using their sprinting, turning and dodging techniques to avoid being "got" by the cops! Mark adding an extra edge of peril with his scary glossed-up hands. The hardest part was staying in the boundary of my poorly marked-out rectangle, that was actually a parallelogram, apparently.

More on names of shapes next week.

Excellent interval training!

Great work and energy tonight everyone. My face hurts from smiling. See you next week for the CVS envelope packing challenge. Sign up here

Happy running everyone! Anji

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