We've been wrapped up in layers for so many weeks now I didn't realise the true splendour of seeing so many black GoodGym tshirts in one place! The sun had his hat on and at last it was warm enough to run without layers on.

HELLO SUMMER!

With many nursing tired legs following an epic weekend of running at the Sunderland City Runs for many and the NEMC 50K Ultra at Gosforth Park for a few, I thought we would be down on numbers this evening and I was pleasantly surprised as 25 arrived, happy to see Monday had come round again. We welcomed new runners Jo and Gwyneth with a couple of step-related warm ups that had everyone who ran the Sunderland Half yesterday giving me evil looks. It's for your own good, I promise! We also caught up on a lovely [mission] that Katy and Carol Anne did on Saturday. Check out their report for guaranteed warm and fuzzy feelings.

As well as giving me this week's brilliant pun, Debbie was walk leader for the first time tonight (nice one Deb!) and we gave her group a head start to head off up the great summit of Westgate Road. It was our regular visit to Elliott House for our charity partner Changing Lives where we are helping to make their huge garden a nicer and safer place for the residents. Elliott House is a home to vulnerable men in our community and it's great to lend a hand to make their garden a better place for them to hang out. We were met by Alice who is always super-organised, and got to work picking up where we left off a few weeks go on our last visit clearing out the Poly Tunnels, clearing paths and trying to avoid dead rats. Or at least that was what Nick was doing.

It was a dusty and warm job that involved a few nettle stings for some but everyone happily got stuck in. Louise found the remains of a very squashed rat while Evan sniffed out a smaller one and held it aloft for a Lion King photo. The time seemed to fly over tonight and before long we were on the way to our brand new fitness session area tucked away behind Dance City. Street Circuits were the plan and we did reps of running, steps, tricep dips and marvelled as Emma showed true skill and prowess at leapfrogs. Truly.

You are all my favourite!

The great thing about this area of town is that we are almost back at Hotel Indigo so we were home with very little grumbling from those with tired legs. Brilliant effort, everyone!

It's fantastic to see so many of you already signed up for this weekend's Community Mission - maybe because someone mentioned breakfast? If you can't make it for that, hopefully we will see you for a great new Group Run next Monday for The Spitler

Have a super week knowing you started it off the very best way.

Anji x

Tonight was one of those really satisfying tasks, alongside a very fun fitness session (if I do say so myself). Perfect for GoodGym's 365th day in Newcastle!

This week, our truly fantastic leader, Anji, and the route-master extraordinaire, Paul, were absent due to yesterday's London Marathon. Tom, Jon and Sally also were heading back from the capital while Carol-Anne and Michael had completed the Stirling marathon and half marathon yesterday too! Even though they couldn't make tonight we send big congratulations their way and gave them an applause that we know they couldn't hear but the sentiment was there anyway...Well done guys!

So, it was left to me to lead my first GoodGym run, and it was definitely a good one - not even just for the warmth and sunshine!

The warm up certainly got me a few funny looks when I told the group we'd be acting out different sports. As always, however, they soon got into the spirit and Evan had us on our bellies acting out surfing, Charlotte had us swimming and Andrew questioned what someone does when they play Ultimate Frisbee? Who knows?...I really hope that at some point, Marco Pierre White was watching out of the window from his fancy event at Hotel Indigo so that he could see us all looking particularly crazy!

Soon, it was off up Westgate Road (our favourite) to Elliot House, a home for vulnerable men in Newcastle which is run by Changing Lives. I should have known from the look of delight on their faces when we arrived that we'd come for the ultimate task. What awaited us were two poly tunnels which needed fully cleared of the plants which had been left untended...and I mean really unattended.

It looks like Jumanji!

It was also let slip that a few dead rats had recently been found inside and there may be some left - lucky us! That was not something to put these hardcore runners off - oh no! They grabbed their gloves and shears and got to work! Nick sensibly chose the weeding of the path while two teams got to work on each of the tunnels. I definitely didn't envy them this one as one of the tunnels became particularly dusty...

It just occurred to me...does anyone have hay fever? several hands go in the air...

In just 35 minutes, the tunnels were almost fully cleared (with a running total of just three rats) and a HUGE pile of bin bags were deposited into the skip. Thankfully, we'll be back in a few weeks time to finish the rest and there will hopefully be no more furry creatures to find. It was so satisfying to see such progress!

After such an uplifting task, it was also good news to know that the way back was downhill and that games awaited in Elswick Park. I had 'borrowed' some equipment from school and so we played a very appropriate game of Cat and Mouse (or Cat and Rat). It seemed that Ellen was the champion of the 'All or Nothing' round, while Charlotte and Amy beat out Evan and Andrew on their paired round despite such impressive wrangling skills, but in the end, team red were victorious over team yellow with three of their members hanging on to their tags!

There are lots of exciting things to get involved in before our next run, too! Saturday with Equal Arts Sunday at Harbottle Park GG Newcastle's Birthday Beach Bash on Monday

Thanks everyone for your support, hard work and laughs!

It was another brand new task for us this evening as we paid a visit to Live Theatre for the first time, thanks to Cathy for fixing up this super new group run for us! We had not one, not two but FIVE new GoodGym runners and walkers along to join us on this fine evening as we celebrated superstar Run Leader Katy's 50th Good Deed. Katy brought along a stack of amazing homemade cakes and most of her family to celebrate.

We had a huge turn out tonight, a walking group happily led by Ross and a running group already dreading the hill back up from the Quayside we'd need to tackle on the way back- and this was before they realised they'd actually need to tackle it multiple times in the fitness session!

We celebrated two brilliant missions last week and in her absence gave Charlotte a big clap for completing the Paris Marathon yesterday. I have been assured she stepped straight off the train and into the social met by a drink, a cake and a bunch of her #GGNCL family. Excellent timing! A quick warm up and a dash to the Quayside where Live Theatre was waiting for us.

The Live Theatre plays host to a number of events including regular school visits to the creative writing garden situated at the back of Broad Chare. We were asked tonight to do a number of tasks to give the garden some TLC including:

• Painting the decking

• Weeding

• Picking up litter

• Tidying up

It was one of those brilliant tasks where a stack of brand new equipment was waiting for us and we were able to immediately get stuck in. Dan and Dave swept the decking before the painting crew jumped in while everyone else set about picking and weeding the garden and courtyard under the shadow of the Tyne Bridge (check out the photo of Nick with the bridge in the background!) Rachel even managed to find a friend- an enormous worm - another brilliant photo opp for you to look for! The difference we made was immediately visible and we left a much tidier garden behind us in just 35 minutes. There was an extra good deed done by Andrew too as he fastened Evan's coat up for him, although why I don't really know. Who said Bromance was dead?!

As it ended up being a faster job than we'd anticipated, it gave us time to play a quick game of 'Anji Says', as well as pose for two DREAM GoodGym Newcastle group photos by both the Tyne Bridge and Millenium Bridge for the first time in our history. The walking group broke away and we took the opportunity to practice some timed hill repeats on the cobbled bank heading up from the Quayside which everyone absolutely smashed, burning off the last of any Monday Blues.

I know we will be back at Live Theatre - we have to get that other decking area done for a start!- and it would be so great to have another massive turn out so I will share details as soon as I have them.

No community missions this weekend, so make sure you join us if you can for our next Group Run on Easter Monday as we trot across to Byker for a huge leaflet drop for our friends at Scope. Thanks to Debbie for collecting the leaflets, and to Ross for chopping them up for us ready to deliver next week.

Have a great week full of good things, and I will see you next week.

Anji x

Warning! This group run contained a cloak, a tourist, a newbie, a Japanese relay race and 300 leaflets

Firstly, can I just say, I presume it was SO COLD TONIGHT to fully give our Camden tourist Beth a true taste of the North East?! As always we started the evening with loads to celebrate including a new runner (Hello Ellen!), a visiting runner (Yay Beth!) a cloaked runner - happy 51st Good Deed, Andrew! Not to mention a 6 month streak celebration for Charlotte and a super warm up in which we discovered Dave can make himself the tallest person in the group, and Abi has great balance until you actually tell her that.

We were off tonight on a task that thankfully required us to keep moving, as we embarked on a huge leaflet drop in the Arthur's Hill area of town for Vertical Veg for Greening Wingrove. There had been a slight panic that we had been given 2000 leaflets instead of 200, and here I must shout out Louise who spent a very rock and roll Saturday night counting them, to thankfully discover there were "only" 300. These leaflets are a vital way of getting the message out to the local community about a new project encouraging people to grow their own vegetables in their back yards. The super projects on offer from Greening Wingrove can be found on their website if you want to read more.

We scattered off in trios and pairs and managed to cover all the streets listed in the task request in a very swift 15 minutes, leaving extra time for the fitness session - yay! A quick reminder of some sprint technique, a quick warm up using lamp posts and a confusing five minutes arranging ourselves into teams for an Ekiden attempt. It's basically another name for a relay but since reading The Way of the Runner (Finn) I have been a little obsessed by the whole thing.

Ekiden (駅伝) = a long-distance running multistage relay race mostly held on roads. The Japanese term originally referred to a post-horse or stagecoach which transmitted communication by stages.

Our Ekiden comprised three short legs and one long sprint finish in which Nick and Darren were victorious, winning our praise and admiration rather than the classic Japanese prizes of household items such as bin bags and cling film. Well done to everyone for putting in loads of effort and cheering each other on, it was awesome.

The social tonight looked pretty good too as the social-ites headed off to The Stack, complete with a bag full of individually sliced cake courtesy of Andrew to celebrate his 50 good deeds. See photos for amazing cake evidence!

Don't forget, there are two fantastic community missions this week. Tomorrow where you can spend a chilled Tuesday morning tidying a school library and Sunday where there is digging to be done for Newcastle Parks. Get involved if you can.

Finally, it's a huge GOOD LUCK to Task Force hero Charlotte who is running in the PARIS MARATHON on Sunday! Have fun and smile every mile. Bon chance Charlotte!

Happy running and walking. See you all next week,

Anji x