Twenty-three trash hating GoodGymmers met at the Phoenix to litter pick around East Finchley.

We have some excellent equipment, so we try to make full use of it every few weeks to keep our local area tidy. On arrival we were joined by Jonah for his first group run. Welcome!

It was a cold cold night so we hopped to it: after a quick warm up and (shamelessly) stolen from GGI ‘what was your first job' game we ran up to Strawberry Vale armed with litter grabbers, gloves, torches and bags. We chose the location because: 1. It’s always gross up there 2. It is conveniently located at the top of East Finchley for a simple plogging route back.

We divided into four teams and got to it. There was a lot of rubbish: four vodka bottles (Jacqui always finds the booze, somehow), a load of tiles (?), and the usual assortment of crisp packets. Once it was reasonably tidy there we plogged along the High Road before ending up at East Finchley Station for a final litter pick and team photo.

Paul then took some chilly runners back with the equipment to the Phoenix to warm up, while I took a group off for our fitness session.

Tonight it was ‘track’ running using our little triangle of roads behind the station. It’s about 100m around, so working in blocks of four, the team worked on laps of warm up speed, hard effort, then active recovery. Julian was our fastest on the night, while Beth in particular has made massive strides in her running recently (keep an eye out for her upcoming races). It was a big effort by everyone with a noticeably less chatty group in the immediate aftermath.

Nice one team. See you next week!