You might not get all of it done tonight

We love pleasantly surprising our task owners and that's what we did tonight!

It was a night of firsts for our almost 6 month birthday (tomorrow!) as we had our first school task, first big painting job and the first time in ages we have all been in the same room for the whole task!

Tonight our group run took us to Gosforth as we visited Newcastle School for Boys for a Changing Rooms-style makeover on, well, the changing rooms! Newcastle School for Boys is a leading independent school in Newcastle including a junior and senior school educating boys from Nursery to Year 13. This was also the school where regular GoodGym runner Louise's son went (check out her Proud Mum photo in tonight's pics when she spotted his face in the corridor!) We were offered the task this evening as the boys are currently on Half Term break and Steve the caretaker needed a hand with a big painting job.

On arrival to the school, Katy and I went ahead to check out the space that we were giving a lick of paint to and Steve warned us that we may not get it done. Now we love a challenge like that and we knew we could prove him wrong in the best possible way. Steve had very kindly laid everything out for us: rollers, emulsion, brushes, dust sheets and the icon of all tasks: blue roll so as soon as everyone arrived we were immediately able to get started.

"I was nearly crying with laughter at the start because I paired up with Carol Anne and we realised we were the shortest pair and neither of us could actually reach very far! - Charlotte

Luckily our GoodGym group is like a (slightly dysfunctional) family with people of all ages, shapes and sizes meaning there was someone who could fit into, or reach up to, any nook or cranny in the Changing Rooms. I won't mention where poor Emily ended up having her head next to. Much giggling throughout tonight while we slapped the paint on both the walls and occasionally each other and tried our best to not leave bottom imprints in the new paint. We love to leave our mark but that may have been pushing it.

40 minutes passed and job done!

Another brillant example of team work and GoodGym magic, and fingers crossed we will be able to go back and work with some of the older students in the new year!

Have a great week everyone. Hopefully I will see some of you at the Community Mission for Apple Day and at another new task next week.

Happy running! Anji

Like stats? Love GoodGym? You've come to the right place!

Tonight we started our Group Run with a bunch of amazing stats courtesy of our resident statistician Andrew to motivate us on a cold and windy night in the Toon. Hold on to your hats, these are some great numbers! As we approach our 6 month anniversary and before we ran tonight, we had racked up:

• 641 Good Deeds
• 33 good deeds JUST by Carol Anne, meaning as a solo GoodGym runner she accounts for 5% of Good Deeds at GoodGym Newcastle!
• Total Group Run distance: 2644.5km
• In just six months, in distance we have travelled all the way to Istanbul in relay (swim and run) or 1/4 way around the moon.

It was also our 11th Changing Lives task and a new project for us at Gifford House. Is that enough numbers for now?

It was the first time we've run over the High Level Bridge and as if by magic the police had closed it off for us (nothing to do with the broken down bus, honest) and what a lovely trot across it was! Up the hill, via the high street in Gateshead we managed to stay together, shaking off the Monday blues after a paired game in the warm up to welcome three new runners to the family. Massive welcome Hannah, Chloe and Ellen!

Our destination was another Changing Lives project, Gifford House. Gifford House provides accommodation with 24/7 support for males ages 18+. There are 11 bedrooms and they can live for up to 2 years at Gifford during which time they are encouraged to get involved with training and preparation to employment. Our tasks tonight were:

• Kitchen deep clean including the oven
• Vacuum the stairs, living room and corridors
• Plant bulbs and tidy/weed the garden
• Living room clean up including skirting boards, furniture and shelving.

With 25 of us getting stuck in the task seemed to fly by, one of the residents commenting,

"There are more than 3 times the usual amount of people in this house! It's unreal!"

I have to give a special mention to Liz tonight for commitment to her task as after cleaning the kitchen floor, she realised she had forgotten her jacket, and after tip toeing back through the kitchen, returned to clean it again. Top marks for effort Liz!

We are always spoiled with drinks and snacks from Changing Lives and after dragging Michael away from the custard creams we were thanked by Changing Lives staff who told us the difference we made was huge.

"I just have to say, I think what you all do is amazing"

It was a lovely easy run back down the hill via more emergency services (fire engines this time if anyone's playing 999 bingo!) before we found a spot to complete everybody's (nobody's) favourite fitness session THE DREADED HILL REPEATS SESSION Hills are great. They make you work hard, elevate your heart rate, build endurance and stamina and make you feel epic. It just always takes a little convincing! Group hills were completed first followed by an epic Kenyan Hill Sprint which was won by our self-named Broken Man, now named King of the Hills Nick What a way to celebrate your tenth good deed and return from injury. Bravo, King Nick.

So that's all for another week of Group Run GoodGymness. There's a community mission this Saturday at Nunsmoor Park which you can sign up for here and then we have our first school task next Monday for the group run where we will be doing a spot of painting, so don't wear your best gear for that one!

Have a great week, Anji x