Hip hip hooray, it was Nick's 50th good deed today!

I was immediately suspicious that he had waited for a longer run distance and poor weather to get best use out of the cloak, but it actually turned out quite warm! We salute you Nick for being one of our super-speedy runners and always smiley! Nick's favourite ever good deed was just a few weeks ago where he experienced the perfect combo of painting and pugs at Recyke Y Bike. We also welcomed two brilliant new GoodGymers to the family tonight: massive huge hello and welcome to Monica and Libbie who experienced their first ever GoodGym runs tonight and did such a great job. A quick catch up and a rock/paper/scissors warm up and we were ready to go.

The path of any GoodGym trainer never runs smooth so we had to do some team work to accommodate a task cancellation which occured while I was away working in France last week. Big cheers to Charlotte for sourcing a task for us to do instead and meeting us at the start point with the leaflets tonight. I was a little worried the jump in distance might put people off so I was delighted with the turn out.

Off to Jesmond we went!

Tonight's task had been done as a Community Mission previously and the task owners were so super grateful that they asked for our help again- perfect! Delivering the autumn newsletter is a great way of helping Jesmond Library to spread the word of their work in the local community, and remind people that they are there. We were able to split into groups of 3s and 5s to cover an area of five streets to deliver all 200 leaflets in one go.. I heard things got a bit competitive between Katy and Sam as they battled to get to more houses in the last few streets! They may be small but they are fierce!

We split up for two run-home options tonight with a steady run option with me or a speedy one with Paul, and we all met up again just before the city centre where spontaneous applause erupted.

OH MY GOSH IT'S GOODGYM!

The Community Mission this weekend looks a little sparse! If you are able to lend a hand at Elswick Park on Sunday afternoon do pop along to help with some shrub removal. We are back next week with a return visit to the fantastic Newcastle Eagles Community Gardens so come along to run or walk and do good things. There's a great area for our fitness session too!

Hope to see you then,

Anji x

GOODGYM IS 10! What a brilliant way to celebrate, by doing good things with good people on a very good Monday evening. From our founder Ivo taking a newspaper to a friend to where GoodGym are now, making communities better, making friendships and fighting social isolation is certainly worthy of celebration. We had the chance to see the brilliant new GoodGym book and had a think about what we can do with our spare copy, before I shared a fantastic GoodGym speech listing the many ways you know you're a true GoodGym-er! It was brilliant having such a massive turn out for the #GG10 run, and amazing to welcome three new GoodGym Newcastle runners along for the night. Welcome Debbie, Sinead and Lou!

We had one of our favourite ever tasks tonight for our Group Run to Byker, where we were lending a hand to the brilliant organisation Recyke Y Bike. This great charity takes donated and abandoned bikes, fixes them up and sends them to schools in The Gambia. They also send bikes to Deerbolt Prison in County Durham where young offenders gain vital engineering skills refurbishing bikes alongside confidence and self-belief. Recyke Y Bike also runs formal and informal training on site and out in the community to give people the skills to keep their bikes safe and on the road. And if that's not enough, they also give bikes to children and adults in need in the North East! Phew!

We were met by brilliant Task Owner Sara after Andrew had hooked us up for this Group Run, who told us all of the great things Recyke Y Bike do, and introduced us to her not-so-fierce guard dogs. We very quickly got to work on the tasks in hand!

• Painting two sets of shutters (check out Aimee's brilliant before and after collage!)

• Wallpapering work benches and a feature wall using cycling magazines

• Sweeping and mopping the workshop floor

• Cleaning out the staff kitchen

• Cuddling dogs

We managed to give the huge workshop a massive makeover in just 40 minutes with the usual cries of "JUST A FEW MORE MINUTES!" when I called time was up! Sara was so pleased with what we managed to get done, and has already invited us back for future Group Runs and Community Missions. It was a quick change out of painting suits as we quickly gathered everyone together ready to dash to the Quayside for our #GG10 group photo before the sun had set. We are counting this dash as speed work and an unofficial fitness session as there was definitely some sprinting on show.

Look at how beautiful it looks tonight!

Thanks to several (hundred) attempts including a few by a random runner passing by, we achieved an iconic GGNCL photo for the 10th birthday. Look at that skyline!

We will be adding a last-minute community mission this Saturday for #GG10 Super Saturday so keep your eyes peeled for that one. Maddy is leading a lovely new Community Mission on Sunday at Jesmond Orchard if you'd like to get involved. I'm leaving you in the capable hands of Katy for a visit to Nunsmoor Centre next week where I am sure she will also have a most excellent fitness session for you all! Sign up for that here. There's a walking option next week too, so it's suitable for all.

Big thanks to everyone who was involved in such a special Group Run for #GG10 and to Paul for one of the most outstanding puns of all time.

Happy running, walking and good things,

Anji x

PS Shout out to Rachel and Dan keeping the GoodGym spirit alive with a spot of plogging in Spain tonight!