18 LOVEly GoodGym runners gave up their St Valentine's evenings to run c8km for a date with a paintbrush at the Barnet Furniture Centre but were stood up so decided to fly-er on the wings of love instead.

Pennie was still nursing an injury so it was up to another biscuiteer from Islington to look after the evening. I'm one of many people who admit they #runtoeat !

First dates, long-term relationships and blasts from the past

First to arrive was Del who'd I'd not seen in a while and then newbie Jacqui. Then we had LOTS more first-timers: Shawn, Catherine, Hayley AND Lilian; regular Barnetians and a few more familiar faces (Danica, Chris and Ollie) who I'd previously only seen in Islington and Haringey. Great to spread the love.

News

We welcomed the many newcomers, talked about the many ways of doing good, shared the news of our sibling's award in Wandsworth and talked about races.

We almost had a record turnout: some sources say the record is 19 and alternative news sources said 21. I haven't fact-checked this but I was tempted to still say it was a record turnout for my inaugural Tuesday run with GG Barnet.

Leg wax on, leg wax off

It was much milder than Monday but it was still important to warm up the heart and activate the leg muscles in preparation for a long run.

We marched, we lunged, we warmed up our calves and opened up our hip flexors with leggy versions of Mr Miyagi's wax on, wax off technique (or more conventionally we visualised mounting and dismounting a bicycle).

Squat's love got to do with it? Another great way to warm up the heart and soul is to do squats. Lots of them!

Fast or slow

GG Barnet stalwart, Damian, led a faster group and supported by Hazel at the rear. Heather made sure the philosophers and I made our way safely to the furniture centre with Del acting as backmarker.

It was a long run and Heather took Jacqui at the front and wanted more, more, more (that's how she liked it). They were not waiting around and threw in some push ups, loopbacks and sneaky ninja-like detours then seamlessly rejoining the group.

Tainted love

It was supposed to be painted love but alas our host was also injured so:

• we couldn't do our painting :(
• OR have the rest for our legs (sorry newcomers!!!) :(

Divide and conquer

However, we were left with a lovely note and a mahoosive stack of flyers so that we could tell the local Barnetians that they can find a new home for old furniture rather than throw it away.

We divided and conquered the many residential streets on the way back to the cinema and even left a few flyers on car windscreens. Wonderful work!

After around 15 minutes of high-flyering action we regrouped by the local nature trail and ran back as one pack-ish before meeting back at the base for a stretch of our muscles and a stretch of our stomachs with delicious chocolate wafers courtesy of speedster, Heather.

Thanks for having me, Barnet, it was a real pleasure and a massive thank you to the wonderful TaskForce and Graham, Dorian, Briony, Sarah and Nicola. You can sign up for next week's run here which is sorting DVDs for a care home and very on trend with BAFTA and OSCAR season: enjoy!!

Much LOVE

Patrick

PS: Thanks to Hazel for the run report title; I was going to go for Painted Love but that didn't work out!

PPS: Danica achieved her double wings of love with 200 deeds. Awesome!