It was our TENTH task for Changing Lives tonight and one of those Group Runs that seemed to have everything!

Can we first have a massive clap for Evan for dragging his shattered quads along to GoodGym tonight after casually smashing out his first ever marathon (and under 4:15!!) at the extremely challenging Kielder Marathon yesterday? I am already on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what his Tuesday Legs are like. There was so much to chat about tonight as it was also our #RunAndTalk session. This week, every GoodGym session will encourage people to #RunAndTalk to improve their mental wellbeing through running and to break down the stigma associated with mental health by getting people talking about it. Carol Anne put it best by telling me "Running makes me a better Mum"

One of our favourite run routes around St James' Park took us to the corner of Westgate Road where Cumberland House thankfully sits at the BOTTOM of the hill! Cumberland House is a Changing Lives project for vulnerable young women in our city and we were stopping off to give a deep clean to all of the communal areas. Carol Anne got her hands on a Hoover for the first time in weeks and everyone was delighted for her! To read more about the amazing work done by Changing Lives or how to help, click here The task owner was so happy with what we did tonight and we left a clean and fresh trail behind us when we left.

Skirting boards scrubbed, cupboards cleaned, windows sheened, and at one point I even found Tom and Tom cleaning the actual walls upstairs. It was a brilliant task to introduce new runner Max to the family and he got really stuck in to both the task and the social (and beer) afterwards.

Kudos Max !

We had a new location for the fitness session tonight, using the pedestrianised area in front of the Core building on St James Boulevard. We did our first Tabata (not Ciabata, Michael) session in which 10 second intervals were followed by 20 second recoveries with the odd charge up a set of steps for good measure.

What else would you do on a Monday night?

Everyone chose to do the whole session despite two options to stop, and the energy was immense. It was like being stood in the middle of a massive head torch-lit hamster wheel of hamsters in red tshirts doing good deeds and getting fit at the same time. Onwards we marched afterwards to the pun for a great catch up over food and drinks and conversation that will never be repeated outside the Mile Castle pub (eh, Dan?)

Next week's Group Run is going to be mega as we do our first big mash up with Newcastle University Students Union. Don't miss out, sign up now

Have a great week knowing that you did great things and changed lives on the way. Happy running!

Anji x