This week 14 GoodGym-ers ran around Finchley flyering for St Mary's church's Christmas Fair

We were joined by three new faces this week in Barnet: Paul, Jessica and Chris – who's a longtime Bristol regular! Give them all a cheer!

This week we were flyering for St Mary's church in East Finchley. This meant the task was a running task, which is a lot fun. We ran 400m up to Creighton Avenue, where we split into two groups and very quickly posted 150 flyers through people's letter boxes. We had a super efficient relay train system going, where the person at the back would run to the next house ahead of the person at the front, meaning the group was running the whole way through.

The only break from running was for a few strength and mobility drills, starting with duck walks. Mobility work is incredibly important for athletes and hobbyists alike as it helps boost performance as well as reduce the risk of injury. It's also the stuff that'll make sure your body is still working well as you age. Some very impressive bear crawling from Chris, who zoomed up and down the little hill at pace.

We then ran back to base, looping back around to the Phoenix. Mark and I tried talking to some runners we caught up with on the way back about GoodGym to try and invite them along, but we didn't get very far. Mostly just blank looks. We did get really positive feedback from two ladies we ran pass during the task though, who had read about us in the Archer and knew who we were when we handed them a flyer. They even posed for a picture!

Shout out to Freya and Paul for acting as my trusty backmarkers for the evening in the two separate sections. Also a shout out to Anna who stopped me from accidentally running to Muswell Hill. And to Mark for coming up with this week's pun.

Back at base we had a quick stretch, congratulated Hazel for running 100km last month and ate biscuits.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was a very fancy chocolate-covered chocolate chunk cookie! Graham came up with wonderful idea of introducing a biscuit rota of some sort, so everyone can be involved with the biscuit bringing. So, if you feel like it's your turn, I want you to know that you are always welcome to bring biscuits of your own! (But you obviously don't have to!) Hazel, Freya, Damian and Heather have all baked things in the past, showing a true commitment to the Barnet Biscuit ethos. It's pretty amazing that we've ended up with so many bakers in Barnet and I'm quite happy to encourage a Barnet Bake-Off...

Next week will be our last run of 2016. We will be running to Community Focus in Friary Park to set up Santa's grotto. It would be great to see you there! It's our longest ever run – 4km each way – and will include Christmas tunes at the task and mince pies and wine back at base afterwards courtesy of the Phoenix. If you're coming along next week, it's a great time to bring your documents along for DBS checks so you can get mission-verified as soon as in the new year. Bring a head torch for this run, if you have one.

Remember to dress like Barnet if you're going to the Christmas Party on Friday!

Pennie