This week 13 fantastic runners ran 8km (through heavy rain) to collect discarded christmas trees and take them to be recycled.

We were joined by THREE newbies! Jenny, Catherine and Ben – give them a cheer!

Not only was tonight our first run of 2018, it was also Sarah's last run before moving to Amsterdam.

After a quick warm up by the side of the Phoenix, we headed off towards Summer's Lane, over the north circular, through Glebelands. Damian was our trusty leader, while Paul was our back-marker, leaving me to move between the group and talk to all the new people.

We were greeted by a ginger cat along the way, when we stopped for our mid-run squats.

Once we made it the 3km to to the recycling centre, we split into three groups. Jody, Paul and Damian each took teams in different directions in search of discarded Christmas trees.

20 minutes later and we'd all returned to the reuse centre with our trees. We found five - beating last year's score (of three).

We then stopped for photos under the lamp post. This was were we saw the unexpected drama of a car crash. A driver stopped in the road to let me cross and by the time I'd made it back to the group another car had gone into the back of the first!

Graham offered himself as witness, so I waited for him while the rest of the group started back. Luckily, we were real speedy, and caught up with the others by the end of Glebelands.

Damian then took a speedy group back for the final kilometer, while I lead the others.

By this point we were all drenched from the torrential rain beating down on us. But a GoodGym-er never let a bit of rain stop them.

We were back at base in no time, stretching under the cover and eating Barnet Biscuits courtesy of Paul.

Next week we'll be heading to the BFC for an inside task with furniture. 3km each way. See you there!