Delivered bags where the streets are paved then grabbed a dog desperate to be saved

There was so much to celebrate tonight! It was Ross ' birthday, my 30th good deed, Charlotte's 20th good deed, the count down to Rachels Big Birthday and Kate found out just before the run that she had passed her Masters! Happy Everything, Everyone!

It was so lovely to hear Carol Anne's report of her first Coach Run and the start of a wonderful friendship, as well as a run-down from Katy about the Community Mission on Saturday and Dan on yesterday's mission. It has been a massive 7 days for GoodGym Newcastle and we grew by 2 more GoodGymers tonight... drumroll and big welcome to Molly and Lalage! We salute people who turn up for the very first time when the weather is grotty.

Team work was required to make the dream work tonight as I have a dodgy calf that was not happy with that useful action of running. Dan was back from his long term injury and I tried not to accept the baton from him! A combination was key tonight between myself, Paul and Katy.. but more on that later.

Our task tonight was the Byker Bag Drop which takes us to the famous area over Byker Bridge to Shields Road. We love to help Scope a charity shop that sells second hand clothes, books and many other things at a discount price to raise vital funds for the charity. The shop relies on donations from local people and this regular delivery of donation bags keeps the shop stacked with glorious bargains. We always manage to drop off around 250 bags in just 20 minutes and always feel like we could do more! The rain didn't dampen spirits and it was on with the head torches to get the bags delivered in the Heaton Road area.

Onwards we marched to Armstrong Park for our fitness session which was led for the first time by Miss Watson, our resident teacher and run leader Katy A brief pause was required at the start when I heard my favourite words ever STOP THE DOG! I moved faster than I have managed in the last few days to rescue a beautiful pooch that had absconded from its anxious owner at the sound of fireworks going off in the park. I am pretty confident that cuddling a frightened dog should be added to my good deed total to make 31.

Katy's fitness session was amazing

AMRAP was the session meaning As Many Rounds As Possible (yes, I googled this) and pairs of GoodGymers took turns between running laps around the park and doing 10, 15 and 20 reps of three quad-burning exercises. Everyone did such a great job that I rewarded them with caramel shortbread that I'd bought while standing around and trying to stay positive about The Calf. A great way to celebrate three GG birthdays in the next 5 days! Happy Cake Day Ross, Rachel and Lauren!

Next week's Group Run is a biggie as we mash up with Active Newcastle on a return visit to The Bike Garden for #RunandTalkWeek and round it all off with food and drinks at our monthly social. Come along, you might even get to cuddle a dog! Sign up HERE

Have a fab week and best of luck to everyone running in the Kielder Marathon weekend this weekend.

Anji x