Last night 18 GoodGymers - including two new runners - ran 6k to sand some furniture at Barnet Furniture Centre.

We set off whilst it was still light with Hazel leading and Freya backmarking. Arriving at BFC, Jade dolled out the sandpaper and we got to work - a bench, a table top and legs that needed smoothing down, and some red drawers with hundreds of coats of different colours that needed some serious elbow grease. The group got stuck in and Jade was so thrilled with how much we managed to get done. She'll update us on just how many different colours there were on the red drawers - there at least 5 we could find!

Jade showed us more of the treasure trove that is BFC and explained that they upcycle furniture and either sell it on privately or provide it for free to those in need.

'I like to think of us as the Robin Hood of Furniture!' She said

It's an amazing place and a great opportunity to blow off some steam with a serious bit of elbow grease!

It began drizzling as we warmed ourselves back up for the run home and it didn't stop! Happy and quite sodden the first group to arrive home put on a sterling sprint finish before some stretching and a well deserved biscuit from Hazel.

Shoutout to Shawn who did his first mission this weekend and told us all about it. Missions are a fantastic way to make an impact in a different way to a group run - there is one happening this Sunday (17th) that you don't need to be document checked for - it's a gardening day at St Stephen's House. It's going to be brilliant, make your Saturday even more special by signing up here.

Looking forward to being back at the BFC soon. Well done everyone, a cracking run and task. May the rest of your week unfold just as well!

Lucy J

With the summer holidays in full swing, tonight we were a small group but we still packed a punch and got a lot done between us!

We started our run tonight with a warm up jog down to Walpole for a running technique and drills session before the main event. This consisted of a number of different exercises designed to get our bodies ready for running including some very graceful looking horse style kicking (I promise this is a real running drill!).

We then set off to run to the Elthorne Park stretch of canal on the River Brent where reunited with the wonderful Jack from The Canal & River Trust. This was our second task on this part of the canal and it was great to be back even though it did look like someone had recently had a cider party there and forgot to take all their rubbish home!

Jack split us into two groups, one to tackle an overgrown buddleia bush and make the canal safer for passing cycles and pedestrians and one to paint over the unsightly graffiti on the underpass. Andy, Emily and Larissa were quick to express their interest in painting which involved some lovely boiler suits. It was a strong look guys!

Ronan, Mike and Alex put their hands up to saw and shear the vegetation growing over the towpath whilst I did some ad hoc litter picking between checking on the groups and taking photos, afterwards it was like the cider party had never happened.

Jack always comes really well prepared when he meets us with lots of tools and a number of different tasks we can complete in the location, however the one thing he did forget this week was a wet paint sign! Therefore we've made a little make shift wet paint sign which we will return to paint over next time!

With a good nights work complete we did an Indian file running session to get back to base for a quick stretch and cool down.

Thank you all for coming, every one of you guys are great but special mention this week goes to our visitor Andy from GoodGym Hounslow whose on a mission to get to 50 good deeds before his Wandsworth (friendly) rival! We were deed number 41 on the list so it's getting close now, good luck Andy hopefully see you back with us soon (or will your rival use us to get their numbers up too?!).

Next week we are heading to Ealing Food Bank to help with a bit of maintenance and you can sign up here.

See you next time, happy running :)