Twelve runners set out on a beautiful Monday night for short trot down to the Old Harlesden Police Station where a huge task awaited them out the back...

Abraham was there to meet and greet, and introduced us to Colin, who explained that a new art complex called CREATE SPACE will soon be opening there and will be available for local community use, and that they are fighting to make it a great space for everyone, rather than letting it be developed into blocks of flats. Anyone looking for more information about volunteering or signing up as members can contact colinlearatceatespace@outlook.com (0749 232 1626).

Colin led us out to the previously unexplored territory round the back of the station, (where the creepy old Willesden gallows are located!!!) and set us all to work, with Sadhana, our intrepid (and prolific) photographer catching all the best action moments!

There was (quite LITTER-ally) heaps to do;

• moving wood

• weeding

• sawing branches

• moving piles of mattresses

• litter picking

• fighting unruly ivy...

...but the team were undaunted - we had no trouble with the rubble! and cleared some space in that place! Bravely ignoring slugs and wee beasties, brushing past clumps of nettles and thistles and enduring their nasty stings, we worked on for 50 minutes, searching for doc leaves to soothe the pain, but to no avail... We packed up and set off back for the Queensbury with just a sliver of daylight left - yay for spring!

Before you go... The next GoodGym monthly drinks will be on Thursday 6th April from 6.30pm til late, upstairs at the Marquis of Cornwallis, WC1N 1AP (near Russell Sq). All the details are here: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-monthly-social-april I hope you can make it!

The next is a 'save the date' for the GoodGym Olympics, which will be held on Saturday 10th June at the Parilament Hill Track from 1-6pm; the idea is that different boroughs compete in events like 400m, and the elimination mile, to more novel events like a welly throwing competition and even hopefully a wheelbarrow race with real wheelbarrows. Each area will be encouraged to make their own flag for the event and even have a GoodGym Bake-off (ala a summer fate style), so hopefully it will be something for everyone.

Bye for now, till next time! XXX

On an evening which was bright, dry and beautiful.... yes that's right.... BRIGHT DRY AND BEAUTIFUL HURRAAAHHHHHHHH spring had definitely sprung when twelve GG bunnys hopped and leaflet dropped their way to 11k. Yay!!

With the task at hand being the bi-monthly all community leaflet drop, usually the fitness vibes that accompanies comes from track attack. However to bring in the new season I decided to spice things up with a newness here too. So, instead of going round and round, we went up and up - hills that is.... but the best hills near by meant we had to bandit our way through to our neighbouring borough of Camden, running 5 jubilee stations on route to boot. All the way to Swiss Cottage and the hill that leads to Hampstead! Pow Pow.

So the 2 mile warm Up turned into a delightful cruise, basking in the last of the sunshine, we whizzed through Kilburn, West Hampstead, up to Finchley Road and beyond to good old cottage of the Swiss. It's safe to say we were working as a team, as no body was left on their..... Toblerone OMG I can't even take Credit for that terrible pun - step forward please Mouse and take a bow!! LOL

On route, as the team paper chased their way along, handing out all the leaflets on route, I on the other hand could not take enough pics. The beautiful blossoms and natural spring colours coming through, beaming out like they were screaming at us "spring has sprung" and it certainly did give us more Spong in our own steps. Glorious!!

Before long we had arrived at check point one - the base of the hill, just behind Swiss Cottage station and with a neat little one mile distance to the station at the top (Hampstead) the team buckled down for a fast paced grind on that oh so steep and taxing incline.

Taxing maybe, but no one paid the price of surrender, as one by one the pack flew into the home straight, just as the last of the light was etching away and the glow of Hampstead tube took over to light our way in(ham)stead.

Back slapping and congratulations of our epic hill dash over, with a swift turn on our heels we were back to it, pacing back down, with gravity on our side this time! Thank good(gym)ness !!

With a speed split emerging and rapid front pack, the team eventually split in two and with Debs and Enrique taking the lead, group one sped off into the night with epic pace. Group two led by me was a Girl Power affair, but with crew love cheering us on, we recharged the old batteries for one final push the last 2miles back to base.... Of course with lots of stops for photo-calls all the way home. Click click flash, the final hurdles we did smash.

And before we knew it the burning lights of walk lane were upon us once more and one final corner turn led us back to the twinkle of The Queensbury and our home once again. Full team recoup, regroup and stretchy stretch, we finished for the night exactly how we'd begun, smiles and good vibes.

A Beautiful night, filled with beautiful people, doing beautiful things. It can only be GG Brent of course!!

See you next week!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

11 very soggy GoodGym-ers ran 5km delivering flyers for the Barnet Funiture Centre

This week the bravest of Barnet runners came out to help spread the word about a fabulous local charity doing incredible things in the neighbourhood.

We were joined by special guest trainer Tom, the new Sheffield trainer, who lead the pack to the task with the help of Damian after a fab warm up by the side of the cinema. We were also treated to the return of Stacy, who's finally recovered from injury after her epic running of last year.

Once we reached our starting point, we split into two teams. Team Hazel took one road while Team Freya took another. In the end we covered about six roads then did two rounds of exercise before heading back to base: rocket jumps and 180º squat jumps. GG Barnet has cracked the most efficient of flyer jump-frog systems known to man.

Back at Base, Tom lead us through some very thorough stretching and we all congratulated Hazel on breaking the 100km mark this month – the third Barnet runner to break 100 in Jan. You're all bloody brilliant! (The other two being Damian and Freya.)

We were then treated to TWO sets of Barnet Biscuits. Jody made Jammy Dodgers and Eleanor made Ginger Bread Men. I'm very excited by how the group has really taken on responsibility for the Barnet Biscuit and by how fantastic everyone seems to be at baking. I hereby crown you both The Barnet Bakers of the Week. Because we all know how much I love alliteration. Joanna has promised to bring the Barnet Biscuit next week, which is very exciting! Tom loved the idea so much he'll be taking it up North. The Sheffield Shortbread, perhaps? Sheffield Sweeties. I'll leave the name of that one to you!

Next week we will be helping the RSPCA again with another run nearby to flyer. It'll be a short one: 3km total. Sign up here. And on the 14th we'll be running to the Barnet Furniture Centre in Frien Barnet to paint a wall for them. This will be a long one: 3.5km each way. Sign up here

Well done to Eleanor for bringing her docs along this week to get mission-verified. It's great to see so many of you getting this sorted! If you'd like to help out with missions or become a coach runner, bring your docs along to the next run. You just need some photo ID and proof of address (two of one and one of the other).

See you next week! Pennie