Thirteen keen good gym runners braved the holiday season to help Stephens House and Gardens. We numbered up and suggested our favourite food to cook. (The clear winner was a vegetarian curry but also included jam on toast!…a very underestimated dish not seen enough at Michelin star restaurants in my opinion ) We set off with Rupesh leading the way through the streets of east Finchley and Abi and Laura back marking. A fabulous evening for a run we kept together by doing paired exercises every so often. This included arm resistance exercises, squats, shoulder stretches and sprints. On reaching the park and its compound Peter the gardener gave us various jobs. Sawing wood, raking, litter picking, gathering sticks and cutting a hedge. Stephens House and Gardens relies on the support of the public to stay open (it is not supported by the council) and volunteering is vital in helping keep costs down.When we had finished we gathered for a photo with Spike Milligan’s statute warmed up again and ran home.

Thanks for coming and doing good!

The Park]( http://www.stephenshouseandgardens.com)

For part II of today’s Barnet double deeds, we went along to regular GoodGym task location Clitterhouse Farm, just up the street from Millennium Green.

Between a lot of work from local people and GoodGymmers, things are taking shape there remarkably quickly. So much so in fact that it’s now spilled out into the neighbouring park, so the area around the entrance is getting worked into a play area for kiddies with plants around it. Before this can happen though the soil needs to be rejuvenated, so our task took on two flavours…

Whilst half of us turned-over the existing hard soil to break-up the surface, the rest shovelled nice new soil over the top of it. This way, the new plants will be able to get started and not give-up once their wimpy young roots reach the tough old stuff.

It wasn’t just soil mind, but also a ton of rubble that made forking through it a journey of intrigue, and hard-work. There were plenty of worms to keep us company in there, plus one of the local volunteers found an enormous cleaver stashed in the brambles. Naïvely, our lovely task-owner Patrick put his fingerprints all over the thing, so hopefully he has an alibi for the night the cleaver was last deployed.

After an hour of graft in a bitter wind we paused for an amazing cream tea and coffee laid on by the farm, the remains of Abi’s century cake (thanks Liz!) and a selection of Romanian biscuits (thanks Valentina!) All this food made us even more popular with Clitterhouse regulars Maya and Ella, the labradors that weave their way amongst people as they work.

After these refreshments our hardcore runners put in another hour (on top of the one spent at Millennium Green) before calling time and disappearing off hopefully somewhere warmer.

Thanks so much for coming out all, you deserved better weather for so much hard work!

Fifteen merry goodgym runners ran to help the Pheonix cinema trust. The cinema acts as our meeting point every tuesday so it was a pleasure to deliver leaflets to promote the up and coming films. It is one of the oldest continuously functioning, purpose built cinemas in the country. Saved from being demolished by a trust. It still preserves its original 1910 barrel vaulted ceiling and in a later refurbishment Art deco panels. It became a trust in 1985 and does great work in the community. Check out what’s on here It was great to have a large group of runners, despite the dreadful conditions outside, for our last run of the year. Including Alan on his first run with GGB (give him a shout) also for Sarah and Sally for their Christmasy outfits.( apologese for the rest of us!) We gathered inside the cinema to warm up and chat before setting off into the rain to deliver the leaflets. Fay led a walking group and the rest of us ran to deliver leaflets to the streets behind East Finchley station. In two teams of six we started Indian running on either side of the street, stopping occasionally, to do some paired exercises. It wasn’t long before we had delivered over 400 leaflets and started the return journey back to the cinema. We gathered again upstairs in the little Pheonix cafe for some nibbles (thank you Fiona) and for a farewell drink and a reflection on the year. Personally I have enjoyed meeting lots of new people both elderly and young, hearing their stories, discovering new places, helping valuable projects from pocket parks to old peoples homes. It’s been a great year for Goodgym Barnet with 899 good deeds done (by 103 runners) so you can be proud of all your efforts. We hope its been fun too and a little more connected to your local community.

Keep running, have a great break and see you in the new year!