The first GoodGym Monday group run to finish in daylight for what feels like a very long time was a bit of a mixed bag, in more ways than one.

As part of the Great British Spring Clean 2026 (we are a day late but never mind), we decided to head to Heaton Park, one of the parks not targeted by the council's organised litter picks the last couple of weeks. The night began with us having obscenities shouted at us by some unkempt imbeciles and ended with a young girl's dad approaching us saying she wanted to thank us for our efforts. Quite a contrast in our interactions with passers-by tonight.

In between, Heaton Park was surprisingly tidy, with very little litter. The journey there and the journey away from the park yielded many bags of litter, at least two or three each for our group of four GoodGymers.

It was great to welcome Bryn for her first good deed tonight, we hope we didn't overload you with too much GoodGym-related information. We are very enthusiastic about what we do! Experienced hands Scott and Jack made light work of the litter that crossed our paths, while Richard was left wondering whether the pompom on his hat really deserved to be the subject of such obscene abuse (probably not).

In eight years of GoodGym Newcastle we have used wheelbarrows before, but (correct me if anyone knows better) I don't think we have moved mountains of sand with them. Tonight's task was to move the sand from Stepney Bank Stables' bottom yard up to their outdoor arena, to be used to create enrichment activities for the horses.

Stepney Bank is an actual bank with some decent inclines, as is Stepney Road, which leads up to the outdoor arena. With some encouragement from some slightly tipsy pub goers, five trips involving ten wheelbarrows full of sand were made. The tyres in the centre of the outdoor arena took quite a lot of filling, but we got there in the end. Given the highly physical nature of the task, this was a unique Monday with no run offered. This proved to be a good decision as we had a later than usual finish in order to complete the task. Many calories were burned by all involved.

The final throws of the task were distracted by a game of cat and mouse with an actual cat and mouse. After a lengthy chase in the dark, it wasn't a happy ending for the mouse. Hopefully the horses fare better with their enrichment activities.

On a very pleasant Sunday, three GoodGymers cleared most of a plot at Greenhill Allotments. The upcoming end of the financial year, and the allotment rental year, has seen plots vacated. GoodGym Newcastle was asked to help make the plots look a bit more desirable for potential new tenants.

As ever, gregarious task owner Sue met us at the allotments to describe what needed doing. We had some challenging visits to Greenhill Allotments last summer when it had been very dry, meaning the ground was extremely hard. This time the garden tools broke the ground much more easily and allowed us to get quite a lot done.

We'll be back at Greenhill Allotments in three weeks, please join us if you can!

What a day! 54 parkrunners and 4 goodgymmers - course record I think!

It was brilliant to see so many people, the park was buzzing. Great to have Adeh on board with us and he did a great job with the start line!

Great to see Tanya and Debbie again - we've missed you!

The weather gods were kind to GoodGym Newcastle tonight as the wind and rain that came before and after subsided as we cleared the litter after the Ouseburn Festival.

There were five bags full tonight, with probably the most unusual item picked up being a half full baby bottle.

If there's one thing about Geordie GoodGymers it's that they love a challenge

This week the challenge was on. 1200 envelopes to pack with newsletters and magazines for CVS Newcastle and avoid paper cuts!

It was overcast in Toon for our first ever fully-indoor task as we welcomed newbies Hazelle and Rebecca to the GoodGym family. We piled up the stairs in to CVS Newcastle offices and got straight into packing teams, the majority of the group choosing, suspiciously, the room where the biscuits had been laid on. Every envelope had to be packed with a magazine, a leaflet and a letter before being addressed with a sticky label. Easy work for this group of legends Much packing and sticking started, with Paul in charge of the Franking machine with his day, week and life made.

Happy Days

1200 envelopes were packed and piled in just 35 minutes much to the delight of Martin and Sally from the CVS who tried to work out a mathematical equation of the time we had saved them... this job usually takes two members of their staff two whole days!

We completed an epic paired session of agility ladder drills and 200m laps around Higham House where Louise also gave us all a handy German lesson (paarlauf is NOT Polish, it would appear) before heading back to base at Hotel Indigo

Thanks everyone for proving that many hands do make light work. Again.

See you next week for our cycle path clear up with Sustrans. Keep an eye on the details as the distance may be subject to change. Sign up here

Happy Running! Anji