MudGym

Time flies and it really doesn't feel that long ago that we were last at Elliott House!

We started the evening with some celebrations of a marathon kind as we cheered on Nick and Abi's awesome PBs at the Yorkshire Marathon yesterday. Top effort to come and get involved on tired legs too! There were also three super community missions to hear about, which you can catch up on here.

Congrats to Andrew for grabbing the treble and completing all three!

Debbie filled us in on the new parkrun at Jesmond Dene and we said a big hello and welcome to new runner Lauren who joined us for the first time tonight.

The Traffic Game got everyone warmed up on what felt like a chilly evening, giving Charlotte and Abi the chance to get a decent head start to the task. We haven't had a conversation topic for a while so the run out had the music related question "Which gig would you go to see, of any musician dead or alive" and we got answers ranging from Joy Division to Elvis. I still can't believe nobody said Steps!!

Our monthly visit to our friends at Changing Lives allows us to the support of their regular volunteers who have been working on transforming the large garden at the back of Elliott House which is a home for vulnerable men in our city. The aim is that in the coming months, the residents will have a safe place to enjoy and work in themselves. Alice our brilliant task owner met us and kept us organised as always as we headed straight out, collected tools from the shed and got digging. Since our last visit, the large Polytunnels have been removed and taken to Zimbabwe, and the garden now looks absolutely massive- it's amazing to think of the progress we have made in the last couple of months. There was a lot of excellent digging, a great deal of mud and it was also brilliant to see Charlotte replacing the crutches we've seen her with for the last few months, with a shovel in her hand instead! Go and give that woman a cheer!

As I had decided one massive hill wasn't quite enough for one night, we did some hill reps and a sprint off on the way back as part of tonight's fitness session which also featured Faye as the world's flashiest bike marshal at the top of the hill. Top work to Darren for smashing the final hill while Paul suffered something of a false start.

Team work!

If you'd like to get involved in a Community Mission with guaranteed tea and biscuits, check out the Saturday visit to Nunsmoor where we are popping along for our regular monthly visit. It's led by Ross, and you can sign up here for that one!

Have a great week knowing you started it doing good things. Happy running and walking, Anji x