GoodGymers Aimee, Andrew, Debbie, Evan, Louise, Sinead and I headed down to help out at the Smart Works stock sale at the Newcastle University Students' Union, allowing Louise and Andrew to re-live their Newcastle Uni days.

We got up our step count by going on a mini but very noisy adventure through Haymarket armed with wheely rails to return to M&S (three times!) We got some odd looks and caused a racket but ignoring my minor altercation with a blackboard, all of us managed to avoid any collisions.

We returned to the NUSU as the sale ended to take the clothes off hangers and pack them up, presenting the opportunity to browse the leftover stock (Evan had his eye on a very fetching green leather midi skirt - please see pic).

Alas there was not much hanger-ing around for us and we were back out to the streets of Newcastle again, this time to transport mirrors and clothes racks to Smart Works HQ. Louise perfected the art of walking backwards as we re-enacted the Chuckle Brothers to-me, to-you routine, Aimee carried the world's most awkward-shaped box, Evan and Sinead carried the racks, and Andrew was our personal porter on wheels.

Andrew then headed off to do more good things as per with FoodCycle, Louise made it back in time for The Chase and Aimee and I worked up an appetite for pizzas (think the additional broccoli might be pushing it though Aimee) - all in all, a rail-y good task! Thanks for having us Smart Works.

Imagine opening Twitter this morning and finding out that we were behind a door of an actual advent calendar... and not just any calendar, the SMART WORKS CANNY CALENDAR! This set us up perfectly for our third visit to Smart Works Newcastle a fabulous charity in the heart of city that provides clothing and coaching to women to as they return to work. We have a brilliant partnership with Smart Works and we are always given a great variety of jobs to do when we get there.

A few reminders in the briefing and warm up tonight that I will re-remind you of here: 1. Please submit your votes for People's GoodGymer of GoodGym by private message or email before 17th December 2. Please don't leave Carol Anne feeling lonely at the Community Mission this Saturday. Pop along and lend a hand, there will be glitter and Christmassy treats! 3. Our last task of the year is December 17th followed by festive food and drinks, come along for both or either. 4. We now have enough donations for our #GGNCL flag which I will be ordering in the next few weeks- THANK YOU.

Charlotte took on her 30th good deed tonight, leading the walking group and earning herself the Walking in a Winter Wonderland badge (I'm not jealous at ALL) joined by two new members of the GoodGym family- the fab Katie and Helen- as well as Carol Anne and Niveditha. Meanwhile we negotiated the Christmas markets at Monument (how good did the food smell on the way back though OMG) and I managed to stop Ross from jumping on the teacups/weird slide thing/ferris wheel on Northumberland Street. There is something epic about running en masse through a bustling city centre that gives me goosebumps every time!

A warm welcome and 4 flights of stairs met us at Smart Works and we were given our jobs for the night: sorting through donations from the generous Geordies who have been dropping items off in huge numbers for Christmas time, steaming clothing with a very posh standing iron, tidying up clothes on the rails, general dusting and tidying in the fitting room and making up pamper packs of essential toileteries.

"Would I wear this for a job interview? - Nick, holding a pleated skirt "We might have known who'd be first to dress up" - everyone, looking at Dan in a dress

As always we had heaps of fun, not least by trying on some of the donations and finding out Dan can rock a summer dress and Evan's colour is knitted mint green. Task owner Michelle told us the difference we have made tonight would usually take the regular volunteers at Smart Works weeks to complete.. it took us just over half an hour! We were so pleased to help such a worthwhile cause and can't wait to go back in the new year.

Another bonus of visiting Smart Works is the ready-made fitness session space right outside and tonight we did a triple whammy of rock-paper-scissors (bringing out Emma's competitive side) running laps and a memory game of exercises. Who'd have thought a group of adults would have an amazing time playing playground games? In a car park? On a Monday night? In December? I WOULD!

Thanks everyone for another brilliant start to the week. There will be another chance to run or walk to do good deeds next Monday at our December visit to Newcastle University. Sign up here and get yourself along for guaranteed giggles.

Happy running!

9 of our group completed the Great North Run yesterday and brought along their tired legs to prove it!

The strap line of this year's Great North Run was #BeYourGreatest and great is what we were tonight. If you've never done a half marathon, it's hard to describe what your legs feel like the next day. If you imagine every part of your body hurting, then inserting bricks into your quads, calfs and sewing your skin back up with rusty nails you'd be about half way there. There were some great (pardon the pun) achievements in our group yesterday and I promise I will only say "never again" again for the next three months before I get over it. The iconic 13.1 mile stretch from city to seaside shows off what is amazing about our region and I'm so proud that we had such a presence there yesterday both as runners and all=important support crew.

But on to tonight!

After a warm up of some gentle mobility drills and a catch up from me about how to survive a half marathon when you probably should have got in an ambulance, we trotted up to Smart Works for our second visit. Smart Works is an amazing charity in our city that provides clothing, coaching and support to women returning to work. This wonderful project has already helped 35 women to gain paid employment or a year-long apprenticeships, despite only starting in April! Although Smart Works HQ is up four flights of stairs it's one our our favourite tasks, as there are plenty of jobs to get stuck into.

Jobs tonight included sorting out clothing donations, dressing mannequins, organising displays, tying together coat hangers, putting clothes into sizes and occasionally trying things on for a laugh

With the exception of the mannequins falling over a lot, we flew through the tasks, even creating an impressive human chain as we delivered the massive donation bags to the store room! Job done and two very happy task owners.

Epic!

The park outside played host to the fitness session and to some slow, fast and hobbling running as well as the numbers game in which the 9 GNR finishers showed how hard it is to do squats, lunges and well anything, the day after a half marathon with a massive downhill bit at the end. Top encouragement from Dan in cheerleading mode as always- although I would have preferred it if he'd kept the pink scarf on that he'd been modelling inside!

Thanks to everyone for coming along on a drizzly evening, the first dark run back in Toon and for cheering me up massively. Hope you all have the best week now that you've started it in the best way. Happy running!

Anji x

I'm going to be bold, and write in bold, and say right here and now that tonight was my favourite GoodGym group run so far There I said it.

Tonight we ran via a few photo opportunity detours to the fantastic new charity project Smart Works Newcastle who provide clothing and coaching to women to support getting them into work in our city. In just 8 weeks, Smart Works have helped to get an incredible 15 women back into secure employment. Everyone arrived feeling inspired after the visit from the local press during our warm up, and conversation topic of hidden talents on the way there! We can basically set up a pretty good rock band and a football team in the next week or so if we wanted. It was great to use this time to break the ice for our three new runners. Welcome to the family Sarah, Michael and Fiona!

Michelle from Smart Works wasted no time in getting us to work with the tasks of:

Sorting clothing into sizes, sorting out the underwear boxes, tidying up the coat hangers, building new clothing rails, steaming items to hang up, sorting donations out into sizes and piles, eating lollies, dressing a mannequin, occasional dressing up in donations and creating fancy jewellery displays.

Hidden talents were once again unveiled and notably we found out that Dan knows a lot about types of heels.

It was one of those tasks where every room I went into was filled with laughter.

I will never unsee David in his "summer look" of a dusty pink off-the-shoulder crop top, and will never forget Michael helping Paul into his fitted jacket.

I was super impressed at the speed at which Team Flat Pack got the clothing rails built, before swooping in and getting stuck into another task! I don't even think I own a screwdriver. The task I was most jealous of tonight was the steam crew, steaming clothing to hang up. I have once straightened a tshirt out using my hairdryer though, which is kind of the same.

We found a cool little spot behind the MEA House building for the fitness task tonight which was a numbers game of strength exercises where once again all I could hear was laughter. I don't know if it was the fact we were going for food and drinks afterwards that kept people going but the energy was amazing! I'm already excited for next week's group run! Sign up here

There's a Community Mission this Saturday, the details are here And don't forget if you're mission verified, there is the first chance to do a mission this weekend so check your dashboard.

Have a super week with loads of HAPPY RUNNING, Anji x