We had loads of brilliant new runners, which was fantastic as it was the coldest night of the year yet. We celebrated Rose reaching 50 good deeds and also Sarah, who has nice new hair, which is a bit shorter and a bit pink too.

Tom Benson dropped off the bat light but was TOO TIRED TO RUN. We were all left wondering why but never mind that, we had two tasks to do. Both of them were outside so we all wore as many warm things as we could manage and went outside for a nice warm up.

A smaller group led by John Hunter and the bat light went to the Moorlands Estate, where they were met by Karen plus two residents, Kathleen and Antonella. There was woodchip to be spread and weeds to SUPPRESS so they got on with it at speed with some nice exercises to keep warm along the way.

The rest headed off to Loughborough Farm, where there was more woodchip to be spread, this time on some new paths. Katie took some of the group off to do some fitness and before we all knew it, the task was finished! We did a bit of speedy running through the park before returning to Papa's for some stretching then ran off home to have a hot shower and maybe a baked potato, as those are very warm.

WELL DONE LAMBETH!

It was a milder evening than we have had and that was GREAT NEWS for Lambeth, as this week both our tasks were outside. Before we set off, we welcomed new trainer Char, who will surely do great things up in Liverpool. We also gave much cheers to Sarah, for getting her 100 good deeds t-shirt. TOP WORK SARAH!

Group 1 ran the well-trodden 8km round trip up to the Portico Gallery in West Norwood. The job was to finish sorting out gazebo covers that we started before Christmas. It turns out that GoodGym Lambeth was not satisfied with the initial job and so did the whole thing again! John and Methusula the cat were very happy.

Group 2 ran to a new task - Katie went on a slightly funny route there but it was around 1.5km each way. The Grove Adventure Playground has been saved from demolition and is now being seriously spruced up so it can be used again. This is good news as it's a seriously fun place to hang out! There were swings, big slides and wooden walkways galore. We had a lot of woodchip to spread out and so got to work. One group went outside with Katie to do some nice strengthening of our ankles and calves and then we all swapped. The last 10 minutes saw a frantic rush of wheelbarrows and shovels. Then lots of people went down the big steep slide very fast!

Once we were all back to base we did some stretches and headed off on our first monthly pub night of the year. It was all very nice and big thanks to task force member Sarah for organising - she is heading off on some adventures for a while and we will miss her!

13 of GG Barnet's finest ran 4km, helped Northwold Rose Gardens & did a pyramid session

On a full moon Halloween evening we gathered at the Phoneix Cinema, welcomed newbie Wendy and talked about the news:

1. Last GG Monthly Drinks of the year next Thursday in Stratford - all details here
2. GG Christmas Party is on Friday 8th December at Battersea Art Centre - costume theme is BLACK & RED!
3. There is an Unofficial Unofficial GoodGym Facebook Group if you'd like to join, it's full of news, races, meet ups and more. Just say your from Barnet in the request and I'll accept you.

Led by Damian and backed by Freya we headed to Northwold Rose Gardens to help Brian with some gardening. This was none of your weeding in the dark lark, our tasks for the evening were follows:

1. Shovelling, wheelbarrowing and laying woodchip around hedges and trees.
2. Emptying out three compost (curry flavoured) bins onto various plants to help keep it rich and well fed.

Splitting into small teams we got to work. Various tasks featured Skelton (Freya), BadGym Rep (Damian) and Death (Paul) - nice one for dressing up guys! Slightly terrifying...

Pyramid session IN the dark!

After 30 mins of spooky graft we were done and went to the dark tennis courts for a pyramid session - 1-2-1 for speed efforts with 1 minute recovery in between. Using the tennis court fences we could work out where we were.

Once we completed our 2km run back, we stretched and handed our treats (no tricks).

Sign up for next week here, I'm covering for Pennie again as she'll be recovering from NYC Marathon - good luck!

PB out

After a speedy intro chat we got outside for a warm-up. Thinking about warming up those ankles, shins, calves and hips.

Following that we headed off on the 1.4km run to Star road and Maystar Estate. The Hammersmith and Fulham Goodgym has been back here a few times this year to help out in both the communal areas and some private gardens of older people who aren't able to care for them. This time we were there to dismantle some broken office furniture that had been left in the community hall and plant some daffodil bulbs in the flower beds around the estate.

After leaving a team of 4 to get going with the furniture lead by Jason; Pauline, the lovely task owner took us on a walk through the large estate to pointed out the flower beds.

Unfortunately, the estate's trowels had gone AWOL so the planting crew had to use the handle end of the rack and hoe to make holes in the ground. The method certainly didn't slow them down.

Actually, both the planting gang and the furniture team got their tasks done in no time, which left us enough time for a nice run back via the river. Thanks for wearing your headtorches!!

After getting back to base and doing a warm down, we all trooped down to The Distillers for our October social. Cheers to everyone that came! Sorry to those that got stuck at work, you were missed!

Helen suggested we do the 10k in Putney on 3rd December. Will you join us? Details and RSVP here

Next week, is Halloween and we're helping paint garden furniture and plant MORE bulbs. Sign up here