Sprinkling a special dose of Goodgym cheer, 13 radiant runners, pounded pavements, highjacked hills and put to bed PBs on a marvellous Monday night in Brent.

Full squad on deck for the first Monday in November, GG Brent were thrilled to welcome not one, not two but three newbies into the fold. The Super-Spanish addition - Cecilia and Helena and although new to Brent, a fabulous familiar face - Hazel, doing the famous Goodgym borough rounds tour. Additionally awesome was the fact that Hazel had brought along with her some home-baked treats of Brownies and Biccys for afters YAY!!

Joining me (coach Ellie) and our new runners in the ranks were a gorgeous gang of regulars including: Clairey-Bell, Mouse in the House Clare, Tabitha and Rebekah (aka sister sledge), Daring Debs, Lovely Liz, Super-dooper (don't forget the first aid bum-bag) marathon trooper Sadhana and... Man alert Monday: Neil and Enrique YAY.

Confessions before sessions, I had to relay the news that all my efforts to rescue the cancelled tasks had been unsuccessful this week. However, with some quick joined up thinking from Hazel and the crew, we turned our misfortune into a chance to spread the message of Goodgym with a handy leaflet drop, while grabbing the opportunity to stretch our legs and tackle a full on fitness fun and run session in the Wonderful streets of Willesden.

With this in mind, the team bounced into action. Led on in the front by the one and only 'Mouse' we set to work on the 1 mile dash to Queens Park, where the, circumference of the park, perfectly offers a one mile timed challenge op for the troops.

So armed with my timer and cheering lungs of steel, it was 3,2,1 AND THEIR OFF Dashing the fastest their legs could carry them, to set the bench mark.... here's lap one!

Breathless and quite literally steaming, the teams raced in, one by one.... under 7mins, under 8 and under 9s AMAZING Shocked at their own speed, there was no resting on our laurels and after a quick catch of breath off they went again. Incredibly, round 2 brought in consistent times for each athlete, proving there was no fluke and thankfully also..... no puke phew

Even after the epic 2 mile dash, this team of warriors finishing off, only the best way they could......squats of course to the glorious chimes of our Balearic beautys..... This will give us the Culos Perfectos in town* and that is a bunch of PERFECT BOTTOMS to you and me..... HA HAAAAAA

So after such an epic achievement of a session, there was only one way to finish, with Hazel's bountiful bake and stuffing our faces with goodies. Hurrah I suppose it goes to show, we will get the rewards when we Pud-in the work

Until next time x x x x

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Here at BadGym there are three ways to be evil:

1) Group runs. We all meet up once an week and go and make the borough a little bit more dreadful to live in. We find newly-decorated community centres and graffiti the walls; we visit public gardens, pour bleach over the flowers and scatter dandelion seeds everywhere, and we occasionally "give people a bit of a kick-in"

2) Missions. A small group of runners go to a vulnerable person's house, find a job that they struggle to do themselves and make it even harder. Classic example include putting lots of heavy furniture in front of doorways and removing the handles from saucepans.

3) Coach runs. This is where a runner is paired up with an isolated older person that they visit once a week and terrorise. The basic idea is to get as drunk as possible, get a cab to their house, do a runner without paying your fare and then sit and abuse the older person for a good half hour or so.

Four new evil-doers joined us tonight: 'orrible Oscar, Scary Scott, Spirit Sophie and Haunted Hazel. We hope you hated it and never come back.

So, this evening we paid a visit to Barnsbury Community Centre. Our job for the evening was to pull up flowers and plant weeds. We also had to smear lots of dirt around the new floor tiles in reception. We worked hard at generally messing the place up for a good 20 minutes and it look awful when we left. Brilliant!

And there was lots of getting fat tonight. Atrocious Alex provided gummy sweets and chocolate beans, Dastorous Dan provided homemade ghoulish biscuits and Spooky Simon provided the usual biscuits.

Ghoulish Game of the evening was finding three hidden chocolate pumpkins concealed underneath cones. Can't remember who found them now and I don't care cos I'm evil. BTW They were poisonous! Ha ha ha ha ha!

And also lots of dressing up this evening. See main photo for the efforts. Some clever ideas with Frightening Frances dressing up as "plantar fasciitis" and Ghastly Graham as a Trump supporter, but by democratic vote Bella and Hazel were clear winners and fought over their prize: a little millkybar ghost. I hope it rots your teeth.

Our disgusting debate? The best way to murder somebody and get away with it. Notable ideas: Richard suggested reversing over somebody in your driveway and Chilling Charlie like the idea of Ricin. There were other good ones that I forgot. If that makes you feel left out then GOOD!

I hate you all. Please don't come back next week,
Spooky Si

P.S. there's a picture of a mushroom with another mushroom on it in the photos. This is because I accidentally copied it across with the other photos then thought you might want to see it anyway

First of all a big big welcome to our first timers this evening: Pip, Will, Christina, Amanda and Laura. Great to have you all along.

New Barnet trainer Pennie was on the scene tonight leading proceedings in preparation for the GoodGym Barnet launch tonight.

Following the briefing and the look of amazement on Pennie's face as the group pointed out that she had a whistle attached to her rucksack, we set off on our two tasks. Aidan and Patrick were in charge of taking a team up to Caxton House to carry on with what we started last week. Aidan describes what went down:

5 Goodgymers took the challenge of a longer and faster run. We set off just after Patrick's group but immediately detoured to do a lap of Highbury fields, with the noise of a Corbyn rally in the background. We started as we meant to go on, at a nice fast pace. Taking the usual route past Emirates where we enjoyed the late night sun and of course the gentle incline all the way to Caxton!

We made it there with a great pace, but sweaty and out of breath, and Rose put us to work. Today's jobs were a second coat on the benches we painted last week and continuing to de-weed the brick path. With Patrick's group close behind us (we had beat them there of course!) we soon had a sea of red painting the benches a duck egg blue and plenty of weeds flying in the air.

Still plenty to do at Caxton House, so I'm sure we will be back next week to see the lovely Rose again. For the run back we gained Dan who wanted to join and also suggested a sneaky detour to Emirates. Everyone had the option: 1/3 lap run or 2/3 spartlek and of course everyone chose the harder 2/3 option!

Great group run guys!

Aidan

And Pennie led the rest of us to Barnsbury Community Centre.

We spent a good 25 minutes on a variety of tasks: adding compost to hanging planters, watering the plants, getting rid of some nasty weeds and painting pallets.

Post-task Pennie took everybody through their paces with a variety of drills and exercises: high-knees, planks and a gruesome squat/tuck jump combination was on offer. Barnet are gonna get pretty fit!

We (almost) broke tradition and had a cheesecake instead of biscuits tonight (but cheesecake does have a biscuit base). It tasted pretty good post-run. We also debated whether cheesecake is cheese or a cake (thank you, Caroline). A few voted for cheese, Steve abstained, some said pudding/dessert, but the majority reckoned it was a cake. Yum

Pennie will see you tonight and we'll see you back in Islington next week.

Simon