Eleven good gym runners ran to help at Saint Mary‘s Church Finchley. A grade 2 listed building and one of the oldest if not the oldest building in Barnet with elements built from 16th century. We started off at the phoenix cinema (another building which is one of the oldest of its type in the country) gathering to chat , number up and state our favourite superhero. Jody won the day by revealing that her dad was a superhero. (Looks like she’s blown his cover but at least Barnet can sleep easy tonight!) There was a gentle drizzle to start but otherwise a nice night to hit the back streets of East Finchley by winding our way through quite roads and alleys. We stopped briefly to gather for a sprint up a short uphill section of alleyway. We reach the church dead on time to meet Helen who was waiting with tools to do the job in hand. We were to clear the path around the church of leaves and weeds. We set to work and in a short time had collected four garden bags which we loaded into Helens car. Helen then took some time to show us around the church and talk about its history, this included showing us some markings from the Norman era of the church! We also gathered around a church poster of Agnes ( one of our own runners) who had run the Eden half marathon for charity. A nice coincidence! ( see photo) We then started a more direct route back to the Phoenix escorted by a deluge of bangs and flashes. I chatted with Abdul who was telling me how much his fitness had improved by joining GGB. Indeed in todays news a vast study had proven a correlation between one run a week and improving life expectancy. Check it out Here Tell your friends! We soon returned to the Phoenix and had to sadly say goodbye to Marie on her last run with GGB before returning to France. Thank you for bring the crepes and Bon voyage!

Thanks for coming you were super heroes tonight!

Ps Two Christmas party dates for you Goodgym 6th ( party) 11th December ( GGB social meal) Let us know if you can make one or both!

Fifteen fabulous Goodgymmers ran to Northway Gardens to help the volunteers.

Meeting at the Phoenix Cinema we were joined by our marathon hero Marie who completed the Lyon Marathon on Sunday!! give her a cheer!

As we got ready to leave we discussed our favourite hot drinks (important given the weather): the most popular answer seemed to be Flat Whites (#NorthLondon) but honourable mentions to hot ribena, bovril and chai tea!

it was a nice short run down to Northway Gardens and Brian was on hand to explain our tasks. We would be clearing branches and sticks from the beds and grass and piling it up for collection as well as carrying 27 bags of compost and sand through to the gardens from the road.

it was a lot of hard work, including some very spiky branches, but the team did great shifting all the branches and the bags in super quick time.

after a quick team photo we said our goodbyes and ran back to our 'outdoor track' (a residential road) for a fitness session.

Tonight's was a running session: we ran 1,2,3 laps of hard effort with an easy effort lap in between. everyone did brilliantly and the tired faces at the end suggested some very hard work.

from there it was an easy run to the phoenix for stretches and high fives. thanks for coming team see you next week!

D

twenty two ✌️ terrific GoodGymmers gathered at the Phoenix to run to Northway Gardens to help in this brilliant local space.

In what was quite the busy evening, we were joined by: Joanna and Julian for their first good deeds. Welcome! We welcomed Danny who is on the injury comeback trail, and we were joined by our marathon hero Rob who made it through the Norfolk Coastal Marathon at the weekend despite some particular difficulties along the way. Give him a massive cheer!! It was a particularly blustery, rainy, stormy day so kudos to everyone for making it along.

We quickly posed for a group photo with our flag while we had the light, before setting off to Northway Gardens. I led us down there with the dream team of Sally, Fiona and Danny back marking.

It's a 2k run so we dashed along to meet up with Brian. Northway Gardens are a lovely open space completely managed by volunteers so Brian really appreciates our help in doing some of the heavy lifting so the gardens can stay in great shape.

Today's task was: soil. A car full of soil to be precise. Brian had managed to cram 25 bags of Soil Improver into his car so our task was to: transport the soil to the flower beds, open the bags up and spread the soil around the beds. It's pitch dark in the gardens themselves, so we were pleased to have our giant torches with us which we hung from trees to illuminate our work space and we got going. We used wheelbarrows to shift the bags before opening them up and spreading the soil.

We moved so many bags! But as ever, we showed that many hands makes light work as we got through all the bags and spread all the soil with 20 minutes effort. Brian said the same job took him all day on his own the week before. The power of teamwork in action.

After clearing up and saying our goodbyes, we made our way to the tennis courts for our fitness session. With Danny and Rob doing their best floodlight impression (see photo for evidence) we set about running laps. The workout was: two laps easy, two laps medium, two laps easy, two laps hard, two laps easy, two laps hard, followed by squats and calf raises. There was some hard work and some tired faces at the end. Great work team.

From there is was a simple easy run back to cinema for stretches and high fives. Thanks for coming guys. See you next week.

D

Thirteen keen good gym runners braved the holiday season to help Stephens House and Gardens. We numbered up and suggested our favourite food to cook. (The clear winner was a vegetarian curry but also included jam on toast!…a very underestimated dish not seen enough at Michelin star restaurants in my opinion ) We set off with Rupesh leading the way through the streets of east Finchley and Abi and Laura back marking. A fabulous evening for a run we kept together by doing paired exercises every so often. This included arm resistance exercises, squats, shoulder stretches and sprints. On reaching the park and its compound Peter the gardener gave us various jobs. Sawing wood, raking, litter picking, gathering sticks and cutting a hedge. Stephens House and Gardens relies on the support of the public to stay open (it is not supported by the council) and volunteering is vital in helping keep costs down.When we had finished we gathered for a photo with Spike Milligan’s statute warmed up again and ran home.

Thanks for coming and doing good!

The Park]( http://www.stephenshouseandgardens.com)

Fifteen fabulous GoodGymmers ran 4k in Barnet to post flyers for the Phoenix Cinema.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we received a note to say that our planned task - Martin Primary - had to cancel. So a quick change of plans and we grabbed some programs from the cinema and set about posting those around East Finchley and Muswell Hill.

First off there were celebrations for Rob - on his 100th GOOD DEED!!!! Well done Rob. Here's to the next 100.

We were also joined by GG first timers Tash and Abdul - nice one guys thanks for coming! AND there were tourists Carol, David and Dharmesh. Great to see you all.

We jogged down to Cherry Tree Woods for a warm up. Low kicks, A kicks, fast feet and squat jumps left us feeling warm and ready to go. We were also joined by a small fluffy dog who was determined to join us. We are in need of a mascot...

We set off to Muswell Hill with Fiona and Jodie back marking. Dividing into teams, we passed the flyers between us and got to work. There are plenty of hills our way, but the team got going with our trusted relay system and got it done in no time. We posted loads of flyers which will hopefully drum up some business for our charitable hosts.

We made time for a quick team photo - the instruction was 'the 100 emoji' but maybe it's closer to binary. You decide.

Finally, it was back to Cherry Tree Woods for a fitness session. As the rain started to fall heavily, we set about a lap of the open space (600m ish we reckon). The task was simple: two laps, 60 secs rest in-between, and the second lap must be faster than the first. The team got to work with Rob and David leading the way, easily accomplishing their task, knocking at least 15 seconds off in the second lap. Nice work.

Then it was back to the Phoenix for stretches, high fives, Rob's cake (thanks Liz!), cadbury's celebrations (thanks Fiona!) and a pub trip. Classic GGB. See you all next week.

Over to Ray: