If group runs were meals - stay with me here - then last night's in Barnet would have been a picnic. We had a lovely summer evening, we had the famous Barnet biscuit, and we had a task sandwich...

It all began at the beautiful Pheonix Cinema where we said hello to some ace new faces. Give a cheer to Tim, Laura, and Bethany, runners of Barnet! While you're there, why don't you also give a virtual pat on the back to Heather who, perhaps unsurprisingly, is topping the distance leader boards after running the Paris marathon last weekend. What a star! Hat tip to Hazel who is leading the cheers and the good deeds - way to go Hazel.

With Penny away on her hols, we did a head count and at the same time named our favourite biscuit in honour of the erstwhile biscuity trainer - chocolate definitely came out at the top of the rankings. Our task was only a very short run away, so off we set, looking forward to getting stuck in with the lovely Paul and Kim back marking for us. Ah, such hope, such optimism. It was only when we arrived at the Archer Academy ready to start digging a lovely big pond, did we find the building was locked. Tumbleweed skittered across the tarmac. It didn't look good. A quick call confirmed that the Easter hols meant that the school was closed. What were we to do? Luckily Barnet has a crack team of a task force, and after a moment of Damian and Hazel putting their heads together we came up with a plan. Paul still had some leaflets at home from a charity GoodGym had worked for previously - a brilliant sounding organisation called Barnet Furniture Centre that helps low-income families by providing them with affordable furniture. Phew!

We didn't want to waste the lovely quiet spot we found ourselves in and decided to do our fitness session first. It was circuits night, with five stations featuring burpees, sprints, squat holds, planks and press ups. 45 seconds of work, and 15 seconds rest between each circuit was a tough work out but Barnet meant business. There were some high energy burpees, some lovely straight-backed planks, and, well, there was some lying facedown on the tarmac too, but that was proof of a good work out. After a couple of games (Fish! Chips! Chicken??) we set off to deliver those flyers, dividing up into teams to get the job done quick smart. Which we did - in record time. Which meant that we had time for the last part of our fitness sandwich. Off we jogged with Damien leading us to a newly-mowed patch of lawn to bust out some core exercises. They were toughies, and ten minutes later our abs were well and truly worked. With that our fitness/task/fitness sandwich was done, and we had an easy run back to our start location. While we were stretching Paul and Kim told us about the chicken connoisseur - he searches for the pengest munch in London. We had some pretty peng munches with the dark chocolate post-run Barnet biscuits - thank you so much. You guys are some peng runners, Barnet! Thanks for a great night. Next week you'll be helping to spread the word about your lovely start location, you can sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/helping-out-the-phoenix

ps did you enjoy running along the streets of East Finchley with a soundtrack of your favourite tunes? I bet you did. Barnet cleverly has a spotify list YOU can add to. Just whack your choices on the list and Hazel will upload them to make a playlist for your next run:

https://open.spotify.com/user/hayzec/playlist/103nlP4rUGeecGerbkW51y

This week 17 wonderful GoodGym-ers ran 6km to paint a carehome's garden furniture

This is a very special week for GoodGym Barnet. Not only is it our 20th group run! (Applause) But it's also Hazel's 50th good deed. Give her a cheer!

We were joined by GG newbie Thais tonight, who totally smashed her first run with us! Be sure to click her name and give her a cheer!

After a quick warm up and intro outside the Phoenix Cinema we were off on our journey to Dell Fields to finish painting the garden furniture. I stalled for a couple of minutes to wait for Simon who was visiting us from Islington (with CHEESECAKE), but we decided to text him the route so he could catch up. Damian lead the group out while Paul was our trusty back-marker. This gave me the opportunity to float about in the middle and talk to loads of you!

On the final stretch a man stopped me to ask GoodGym and seemed very excited to hear we ran regularly and did good. He promised to tell his wife, so hopefully we see her next week! (This is a great reason to make sure you're wearing your GoodGym shirt!)

As we arrived at the carehome, so did Simon, who must have been running behind us just out of sight!

The group quickly took on sanding and painting roles as we finished varnishing the chairs from our last visit. As GG-ers slowly finished their tasks, they were treated to some strength and mobility drills up the garden path. There were duck walks, bear walks, hops and squats, while the others put in those finishing touches. Then it was a quick tidy, before heading out front for a very brief round of exercise before our run back.

We split into two groups to head home, with Damian, Freya and Paul taking the speedy lot back, and me and Hazel leading the slightly less speedy group.

Back at base there was stretching, cheesecake and, of course, biscuits.

The Barnet Biscuit of the Week: HOMEMADE BISCUITS courtesy of super TF member Heather, who couldn't run with us tonight but still baked us cookies!

We also had a bonus #BarnetBiscuit in the form of cheesecake from Simon AND oreos from Del. There were so many post-run snacks this week we didn't get to the oreos, so Freya has been tasked with keeping those safe for us until next week. Biscuit-sitting is a tough job. Let's hope she doesn't accidentally eat them all after one of her many runs (she's already don't over 60km this month)... Be sure to link strava up with your GG profile so your runs get counted in the heroes section too.

Don't forget we have a starter session THIS SATURDAY at Community Focus in Friary Park at 2pm. It'll be less running than a usual GG run, so definitely one to tell your friends about if they're a bit nervous about keeping up on the group runs. There will also be some running drills and some gardening. And probably biscuits. Meet at the community centre. Sign up here

And be sure to bring along your ID to the next group run or starter session so we can get you mission verified! Just need to see some photo ID and an official letter of some sort with your address on it and a date within three months. Two of one and one of the other. So, for example, a passport, a driver's license and a bank statement from less than 3 months ago – or a passport, a utility bill and a bank statement. We need lots of runners to help Ms F on 22 Jan, so if you're already mission verified you can sign up here.

See you on Saturday!

Pennie

18 GoodGym-ers ran 9km to set up Santa's grotto

This was the last GG Barnet run of 2016! It was also the 18th run ever! (Sorry, I told you it was the 17th... my bad!)

This was also the most amount of runners we've had on a run excluding the launch run – tying with our run to Newstead to paint the walls. It was nice to see so many of you – particularly the return of Aimee from the Phoenix, who arranged for some incredible mulled wine, mince pies and popcorn for us for after the run. She definitely deserves a cheer for that!

Also a massive welcome to GoodGym tourists Sarah and Frances who joined the Barnet crew this week.

This week we split into two groups, with Damian leading the speedy group with the help of Sarah as back-marker; and Heather leading the less speedy group with Hazel's help back-marking.

Sarah and Jody ended up taking a little detour after a quick costume change at the trafic lights. Luckily they had a map and were together!

When we reached Community Focus, we were greeted by Danusia and the team – and Buddy the dog. 30 very speedy minutes and a tonne of GoodGym magic later and a plain white room was turned into a grotto Santa will be proud of!

The team did a great job decorating the grotto, whilst having a little dance to some Christmas tunes.

We split into two groups again for the run back and celebrated the end of 2016 with a festive Barnet Biscuit: mince pies. Plus some mulled wine and popcorn – all courtesy of the Phoenix. So wonderful I thought it worth repeating =p

We also had some Lindt chocolate balls courtesy of Jody – which is probably my fave chocolate of all time.

We'll be back on 3 January 2017 with a run to Dell Fields care home to do some painting. Sign up here

Have a wonderful Christmas ( / winter holiday season) and I'll see you all soon! Lots of exciting things waiting for us in 2017. Well done for all your hard work so far.

Pennie