Can you spot all of the Chase and Status tracks littered throughout this report?? Answers in the comments below!!

On genuinely the coldest night of the year, 11 brave Brent warriors hit the streets, to leaflet drop their way to the top of the pops, then lay down some tracks, Goodgym style.

With a chill in the air, we had nothing to do but run fast and hard down to the Track for our once a month fitness focused sesh. Fighting the shivers, we paper chased all the way down Willesden High Road and as usual the team were the ultimate charmers handing out our local messages along the way, always with a Goodgym smile :) Once the leaflets were all successfully handed out to our fellow Willesdenites, before we could say *Gangsta Boogie * we had arrived safely at our destination for the night, the track!

With my crew (like always) committing their Blind Faith to me, their watchful coach I was ready to begin. No worries here though, as they can Always count on me to get their pulses and legs racing.

So with my squad at the ready, I began to explain the fitness session of their lives, hoping that all goes right, instead of All goes wrong. We started with warm up drills of high knees and bum kicks, up and down the stairs of the spectators gallery. This was swiftly followed by our very own Uzman (Army Soldier in training) leading us through some drills of his own, squats, press-ups and sit ups, with military precision.

After warm ups were complete, it was about Time to get down to some real track attack! You'd think they couldn't Love me more until I asked of them......"400m sprints, times four please!!!"

Can I just say, this crew are just off the scale fit, I have to tell you! With an average speed ranging from sub 6 to sub 10 min miles and always with lap consistency, even into the forth!! If you don't know what that means, here it is in simple terms..... THEY SMASHED IT No problem!! Even when our lovely Joe, felt a tightening in their calf, he didn't stop! While the rest of the team burned rubber, Joe and I hit up some Ab-soultely awesome Core work, side by side on the track!

After the main body of the session was complete, the team came back together for one last pace back to base. Feeling more alive than ever, the endorphines were definitely flowing strong, which led us home on a high!
But before the end credits could roll, we huddles together for a cool down of stretch and breathing exercises, which ushered in the calm and welcomed the final close.

Now it's time for me to Let you go, what an evening, don't you know! To give back to the borough, our beloved Brent. With all the effort and fitness, an evening well spent!

See you next time familia. Next week it;s all about the Xmas themed tasking for Brent! WOO HOO

This awesome run report was written by equally awesome sister sledge - Debs and Tabs!!! YAYYYYY!!

10 Goodgym runners braved the cold, less than 10 degrees so I'm told. To help Jack our trusty man, with the help of tools from his van.

We started off running through the bitter chill. Dinesh setting off fast against our will. Before long we arrived to the task at hand, ten-ding the canal, soon to be our piece of land.

As quick as we could we began picking the litter. Luckily for Jack this bunch couldn't be fitter. The bin bags themselves were pretty small, so we set ourselves the task to fill them all.

5 minutes to go and we moved to our biggest task of the night: Pulling the trolley out of the water, what a sight!

The boys set to it, that's right we had four! We're hoping they're all back next week, and even some more.

We hot footed down the road, back to our bit of Brent. Along the way dropped off Debs and Tabs, away they went.

A great task was had by all and thank goodness unlike last time, not one fall!!

See you next time!!!!

Eleven runners ran 6km to help Harlesden Town Gardens

On a dark November night, 8 runners met up at the Queensbury to set off on a 2 mile run over to Harlesden Town Gardens. We found runner Meg, and task leader Gabriel waiting for us with a welcoming bonfire already blazing steadily in the pit that GoodGym Brent runners had helped create in a previous task – great to see it being put to good use!

Dinesh and Dimple arrived shortly after the main group after having just missed us at the Queensbury, but luckily their navigation skills and nous led them to the heart of the action around the glowing fire.

We quickly formed a branch-busting bunch to saw up logs to keep the fire fuelled, and a marshmallow-skewering and toasting, sparkler-twizzling support group to keep them motivated. Claire had sadly underestimated the enthusiasm and marshmallow chomping capacity of GG Brent runners, and one pack of those fluffy sugar and gelatine clouds just wasn’t enough to go around, so Joe and Uthman saved the day by running to the corner shop to re-stock so we had enough to make smores (marshmallow and chocolate, sandwiched between two digestive biscuits, wrapped in foil and toasted in the fire, for the uninitiated!).

It’s great to see how the Town Gardens are evolving, and Gabriel told us about Friends of Harlesden Town Garden’s future plans to build a clubhouse there, here is the link if you’d like to cast a vote to support their funding bid:

https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/voting/project/view/17-4315

It was so cosy round the fire that it was hard to leave, especially after all the sugary indulgence – but somehow we managed to tear ourselves away and get back to the Queensbury again, I don’t know about everyone else, but the hills felt a bit steeper on the way back…!?

You Guys were ace, thanks for coming, great to see your faces!

18 LOVEly GoodGym runners gave up their St Valentine's evenings to run c8km for a date with a paintbrush at the Barnet Furniture Centre but were stood up so decided to fly-er on the wings of love instead.

Pennie was still nursing an injury so it was up to another biscuiteer from Islington to look after the evening. I'm one of many people who admit they #runtoeat !

First dates, long-term relationships and blasts from the past

First to arrive was Del who'd I'd not seen in a while and then newbie Jacqui. Then we had LOTS more first-timers: Shawn, Catherine, Hayley AND Lilian; regular Barnetians and a few more familiar faces (Danica, Chris and Ollie) who I'd previously only seen in Islington and Haringey. Great to spread the love.

News

We welcomed the many newcomers, talked about the many ways of doing good, shared the news of our sibling's award in Wandsworth and talked about races.

We almost had a record turnout: some sources say the record is 19 and alternative news sources said 21. I haven't fact-checked this but I was tempted to still say it was a record turnout for my inaugural Tuesday run with GG Barnet.

Leg wax on, leg wax off

It was much milder than Monday but it was still important to warm up the heart and activate the leg muscles in preparation for a long run.

We marched, we lunged, we warmed up our calves and opened up our hip flexors with leggy versions of Mr Miyagi's wax on, wax off technique (or more conventionally we visualised mounting and dismounting a bicycle).

Squat's love got to do with it? Another great way to warm up the heart and soul is to do squats. Lots of them!

Fast or slow

GG Barnet stalwart, Damian, led a faster group and supported by Hazel at the rear. Heather made sure the philosophers and I made our way safely to the furniture centre with Del acting as backmarker.

It was a long run and Heather took Jacqui at the front and wanted more, more, more (that's how she liked it). They were not waiting around and threw in some push ups, loopbacks and sneaky ninja-like detours then seamlessly rejoining the group.

Tainted love

It was supposed to be painted love but alas our host was also injured so:

• we couldn't do our painting :(
• OR have the rest for our legs (sorry newcomers!!!) :(

Divide and conquer

However, we were left with a lovely note and a mahoosive stack of flyers so that we could tell the local Barnetians that they can find a new home for old furniture rather than throw it away.

We divided and conquered the many residential streets on the way back to the cinema and even left a few flyers on car windscreens. Wonderful work!

After around 15 minutes of high-flyering action we regrouped by the local nature trail and ran back as one pack-ish before meeting back at the base for a stretch of our muscles and a stretch of our stomachs with delicious chocolate wafers courtesy of speedster, Heather.

Thanks for having me, Barnet, it was a real pleasure and a massive thank you to the wonderful TaskForce and Graham, Dorian, Briony, Sarah and Nicola. You can sign up for next week's run here which is sorting DVDs for a care home and very on trend with BAFTA and OSCAR season: enjoy!!

Much LOVE

Patrick

PS: Thanks to Hazel for the run report title; I was going to go for Painted Love but that didn't work out!

PPS: Danica achieved her double wings of love with 200 deeds. Awesome!