Twenty four good gym runners gathered at the Phoenix cinema for the first run of 2020 to help Stephens House and Gardens. We had three first time runners,Jeffrey,Okan,Siobhan... and Eda tourist from York! Welcome and give them a cheer! It’s a very important month to get motivated and start getting into some positive habits so GG has launched the January Challenge. GGB is in a league table of 53 teams measuring good deeds done, mileage run and people involved. So if you know anybody who wants to get moving and get interacting with their community ask them along to one of our sessions. We have a starter event this Saturday at long lane pasture . Thanks to Rob, Simon Jackson, Rachel and Kat for being the first to start running miles and doing good deeds this year. We are top of the Bronze league so lets get promoted! (at the time of press) Details here We warmed up together shouting out our name, number and favourite colour. I think pink won out as the most popular colour amongst the group....find out more here We then headed off through the back streets of East Finchley heading north to the grade 2 listed house. We stopped occasionally to gather up and do some paired group exercises. This included squats, arm press and an up hill sprint. It was a mild surprisingly rain free night and we soon reached Stephens house (Avenue House). We were met by Melanie who is the charity coordinator for Stephens House and Gardens who advised us on what we would be doing. Built in 1859 by Rev. Edward Cooper and then enlarged and renovated between 1874 and 1878 by Henry “Inky” Stephens. Avenue House is a wonderful Victorian mansion with rooms overlooking the Gardens. Lived in by Henry Stephens from 1878 the house  originally included a library, school rooms and bedrooms. The house and grounds were left for public enjoyment by Stephens in his will and is now a charity. At the time of his death it was already in use as a Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital and between 1919 and 1925 was the RAF central hospital before the grounds were formally opened to the public on 3 May 1928. The house was then used for many years as a public library, and as the offices of Finchley Borough Council after Council Offices in nearby Hendon Lane were destroyed by enemy action in the Second World War. It’s rooms are now used to help fund and maintain the gardens as a public park. It has a lovely little cafe in the old stables. here Melanie had asked us to work in the dinning room waxing the oak panelling . We started by applying wax and then while waiting for it to be absorbed we moved into the drawing room to do some gentle breathing exercises and knee bends. If you are interested to see more please see this great Ted talk on the power of breathing. We then set about buffing the wood to a beautiful shine. Once completed we started a more direct route back to the Phoenix completing a 5.5km circuit by 8.30pm. Thanks for coming and doing some good for a valuable community asset in Barnet. Hope to see some of you this Saturday to support our starter event at a nature reserve in Barnet. Here

Tonight thirteen tenacious GoodGymmers posted flyers for the Phoenix Cinema, our wonderful charitable hosts.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we were joined by Abi (who just did her 100th good deed!), Valentina (for her second good deed), Fay and Fiona (fresh from their Manchester Marathon Relay exploits), and Claire, Katie and Mairead (who returned after a four month hiatus). Amazing! Give them all a cheer.

Fay and Fiona decided to Party Pace tonight, so they split off to do the roads near the Phoenix, while the rest of the team followed me to the roads behind the station for HILLS and BIG HOUSES (and driveways). We had grabbed an absolute load of flyers so we had lots of hard work ahead of us.

Of course, that isn't a problem for GGB. We hit the hills, dividing into two teams for both sides of the road, and looping around the residential roads of East Finchley before heading back towards the cinema. We posted so many flyers!!

A brilliant effort all around and we met with Fay and Fiona back at the cinema for high fives and more congratulations. See you next week everyone!

Twenty one tenacious GoodGymmers ran 6k to help clean up at Fernbank Nursing Home.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we were joined by some GoodGym tourists: Deb and Paul visiting from BRISTOL and Jenni from EALING. Welcome! So nice to see you all.

Tonight was a new task: Fernbank are midway through a refurbishment so all the back room areas are coated in dust. We were asked to don our cleaning gloves and wipe down the walls, banister and floors in the three floored stairwell.

But first we had to get there: I led the way with Danny backmarking the front group, whilst Sarah C led a group at Party Pace #chattingspeed. Its a long ish run for us in typically undulating North London so everyone did great. I was also able to plot in a new off road section: Lovers Lane - a hilly, narrow alley that doesn't really live up to it's romantic name.

Arriving at the home we donned our gloves and got to work. Everyone made predictably fast work of the cleaning with the walls, banister and skirting board quickly cleaned. Akthar and Paul took on the mopping and covered it all after we cleared everyone else out.

We said our goodbyes, posed for photos outside (thanks to a kind passer by for allowing me to jump into one) and set off. Graham kindly back marked on the way back, whilst Rob, May, Akthar and Rupesh set off for a fast group back to base.

It was a brill run, setting a really good time, and we were able to celebrate at the end with high fives and May's homemade cookies and brownies. Great work team - see you next week for flyering at the Phoenix.

Remember to keep October 14th free in your diaries: Vicki, May and Fay are running in the Royal Parks half and there is the opportunity to volunteer at the Shoreditch 10k. I'll be attempting to combine supporting at both: hope to see you there.

Twenty two ran for goodgym barnet to Alexandra Palace to help the friends of the park clean up litter from the bank holiday weekend. We started outside the phoenix cinema with a head count, a name and a favourite film. With the hard part done ( its so hard to pick a favourite film!) we jogged to Cherry Tree woods for a warm up. It was a beautiful evening to run, an excellent temperature and an autumnal feel about the evening. The run was mostly off road along Highgate woods and through the Parkland walk, the old railway line to Alexandra Palace, with fabulous views over London. This has got to be one of our most picturesque runs. After a short but steep incline we reached the information centre for Alexandra Palace, where we met up with Charia and Gordon, who help coordinate the friends of the Park. We were tasked with litter picking and set off in a line of pairs and threes into the park grounds. To make things a little more interesting I had prizes for the best litter picking groups. The first prize went to Mairead, Claire and Katie who collected one and half bags of refuse and the second prize went to Laura who found two ten pound notes and donated them to the friends of the park. There is money in rubbish after all! We were then invited to the time honoured ceremonial throwing of rubbish into the skip.(not before checking for some more ten pound notes.) The sun had set so it was a dark run back through the streets to east Finchley where we found Sarah waiting for us with WARM cookies!.. now thats what you call a warm down!.. Thanks to Rupesh for back marking and well done new runners Kate & Peter. Give everybody a shout!

Thanks for coming and doing good!