I'm going to be bold, and write in bold, and say right here and now that tonight was my favourite GoodGym group run so far There I said it.

Tonight we ran via a few photo opportunity detours to the fantastic new charity project Smart Works Newcastle who provide clothing and coaching to women to support getting them into work in our city. In just 8 weeks, Smart Works have helped to get an incredible 15 women back into secure employment. Everyone arrived feeling inspired after the visit from the local press during our warm up, and conversation topic of hidden talents on the way there! We can basically set up a pretty good rock band and a football team in the next week or so if we wanted. It was great to use this time to break the ice for our three new runners. Welcome to the family Sarah, Michael and Fiona!

Michelle from Smart Works wasted no time in getting us to work with the tasks of:

Sorting clothing into sizes, sorting out the underwear boxes, tidying up the coat hangers, building new clothing rails, steaming items to hang up, sorting donations out into sizes and piles, eating lollies, dressing a mannequin, occasional dressing up in donations and creating fancy jewellery displays.

Hidden talents were once again unveiled and notably we found out that Dan knows a lot about types of heels.

It was one of those tasks where every room I went into was filled with laughter.

I will never unsee David in his "summer look" of a dusty pink off-the-shoulder crop top, and will never forget Michael helping Paul into his fitted jacket.

I was super impressed at the speed at which Team Flat Pack got the clothing rails built, before swooping in and getting stuck into another task! I don't even think I own a screwdriver. The task I was most jealous of tonight was the steam crew, steaming clothing to hang up. I have once straightened a tshirt out using my hairdryer though, which is kind of the same.

We found a cool little spot behind the MEA House building for the fitness task tonight which was a numbers game of strength exercises where once again all I could hear was laughter. I don't know if it was the fact we were going for food and drinks afterwards that kept people going but the energy was amazing! I'm already excited for next week's group run! Sign up here

There's a Community Mission this Saturday, the details are here And don't forget if you're mission verified, there is the first chance to do a mission this weekend so check your dashboard.

Have a super week with loads of HAPPY RUNNING, Anji x

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

It takes a lot of commitment to come to GoodGym on a Monday, after work, in the Summer.

It takes a bigger commitment to come when there's an England match on the telly!

Massive kudos to everyone who came along to the Group Run tonight where it was fab to welcome new runner Suzannah to the family. Our task was a simple one, run to the Quayside, clear up a section of the Cycle path for Sustrans , complete a fitness session and run back. Run, do good, get fit and look for weird things during the litter pick.

Charlotte led #TeamInjured on a short route and everyone else took the old tried and tested route by the Arena and down to the beautiful - but windy- Quayside, crossing over to Gateshead for the first time in Newcastle GoodGym history! We were met by Sarah from Sustrans and set to work for 30 minutes of speedy volunteering

Tanya managed to find a can of Hell, Liz bagged (literally) a steak knife but Weird Item of the Night accolade went to Paul, who found ...............

A POTATO

Sprints were the order of the day for the fitness session as we charged the Quayside path learning how best to use our upper body to pump the arms for maximum speed. Paul has some awesome photos of this session which we will pop on to the Facebook page later. Everyone channeled their inner Mo Farah for the session which Kate said was one of those times you don't think you want to do something, then it feels awesome, and you just want to keep going! Maddie's sprints were legendary tonight too!

So that's it for another week of Group Runs. Sign up to next week's run here and our FIRST Community Mission on Friday for the Jo Cox Foundation Here

Happy running! Anji x

The Sun Streak continued for week 4 of GoodGym Newcastle

The sun shone on a massive group of Geordie GoodGymers on their visit to Brims House, a home for veterans in our community with Changing Lives Newcastle

In a slight bit of route trickery by Paul we made our way up Westgate Road in a slightly less uphill direction, chatting as we went and making sure all 9 yes NINE of our new runners were made to feel part of the family.

We were met by the lovely Alice and Stuart at Brims House and after a quick registration and brief we were set to work. Two garden tasks including mowing a lawn by hand, painting (yes this is possible) and a discovery of potatoes by David while an indoor team did a kitchen spruce-up and a deep clean in the living room. Precious also did a grand job of the windows which I'm not even sure was on the list! No wonder they want us back! Stuart thanked us and admitted he didn't think we would do such an amazing job in just 30 minutes!

Off downhill we went with the promise that this week the fitness spot prize was up for the taking. A huge game of dishes and domes began with 80% of people saying they weren't that competitive.

they lied

Team 4 were victorious and we celebrated by wearing the hats as cones before awarding Chance with the fitness prize, the coveted Drumstick Lolly for services to cone tactics in the competition. The envy of everyone on the way back, I'm sure you'll agree.

Great work everyone! See you next week for the Canny Quayside Clear up with Sustrans NE, and all-important bank holiday drinks afterwards.

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