This week 17 wonderful GoodGym-ers ran 6km to paint a carehome's garden furniture

This is a very special week for GoodGym Barnet. Not only is it our 20th group run! (Applause) But it's also Hazel's 50th good deed. Give her a cheer!

We were joined by GG newbie Thais tonight, who totally smashed her first run with us! Be sure to click her name and give her a cheer!

After a quick warm up and intro outside the Phoenix Cinema we were off on our journey to Dell Fields to finish painting the garden furniture. I stalled for a couple of minutes to wait for Simon who was visiting us from Islington (with CHEESECAKE), but we decided to text him the route so he could catch up. Damian lead the group out while Paul was our trusty back-marker. This gave me the opportunity to float about in the middle and talk to loads of you!

On the final stretch a man stopped me to ask GoodGym and seemed very excited to hear we ran regularly and did good. He promised to tell his wife, so hopefully we see her next week! (This is a great reason to make sure you're wearing your GoodGym shirt!)

As we arrived at the carehome, so did Simon, who must have been running behind us just out of sight!

The group quickly took on sanding and painting roles as we finished varnishing the chairs from our last visit. As GG-ers slowly finished their tasks, they were treated to some strength and mobility drills up the garden path. There were duck walks, bear walks, hops and squats, while the others put in those finishing touches. Then it was a quick tidy, before heading out front for a very brief round of exercise before our run back.

We split into two groups to head home, with Damian, Freya and Paul taking the speedy lot back, and me and Hazel leading the slightly less speedy group.

Back at base there was stretching, cheesecake and, of course, biscuits.

The Barnet Biscuit of the Week: HOMEMADE BISCUITS courtesy of super TF member Heather, who couldn't run with us tonight but still baked us cookies!

We also had a bonus #BarnetBiscuit in the form of cheesecake from Simon AND oreos from Del. There were so many post-run snacks this week we didn't get to the oreos, so Freya has been tasked with keeping those safe for us until next week. Biscuit-sitting is a tough job. Let's hope she doesn't accidentally eat them all after one of her many runs (she's already don't over 60km this month)... Be sure to link strava up with your GG profile so your runs get counted in the heroes section too.

Don't forget we have a starter session THIS SATURDAY at Community Focus in Friary Park at 2pm. It'll be less running than a usual GG run, so definitely one to tell your friends about if they're a bit nervous about keeping up on the group runs. There will also be some running drills and some gardening. And probably biscuits. Meet at the community centre. Sign up here

And be sure to bring along your ID to the next group run or starter session so we can get you mission verified! Just need to see some photo ID and an official letter of some sort with your address on it and a date within three months. Two of one and one of the other. So, for example, a passport, a driver's license and a bank statement from less than 3 months ago – or a passport, a utility bill and a bank statement. We need lots of runners to help Ms F on 22 Jan, so if you're already mission verified you can sign up here.

See you on Saturday!

Pennie

13 Goodgymers run to St Johns Green for 2 tasks

Happy New Year! There was a bustle of excitement in the entrance of Leisure World on Wednesday night, as after a 2 week hiatus, Goodgym was back.

Yay!

We were especially honoured to have Gillian join us from London and she talked about getting mission verified, Coach running, and showed us a map where the waiting coaches live to encourage someone nearby to sign up to coach running.

And, Michelle returned. Congratulations to her on her house move and exams.

In expectation of the new year rush, I had 2 tasks prepared for us this evening.

#1 Planting Bulbs for Colchester in Bloom #2 Delivering Letters for CoHoC

As its so cold, having a task outdoors is a bit of a challenge, so those who didn’t want to get too cold opted to deliver posters, and Naomi, Tav and Chris got loads delivered all around St John’s Green.

The rest of us were planting bulbs and clearing rubbish and leaves from two ‘garden’ sections at the St John’s Green entrance of the underpass beneath Southway. We had LOADs of bulbs that had been donated by Colchester Castle Park.

25 minutes later and we regrouped having planted lots of bulbs, that we really hoped weren’t garlic, and delivered at least 150 posters.

We made sure to show all the joys of Colchester to Gillian, so a brisk run past the top of the High Street Elephants for some hill reps on North hill. Just 3 reps to ease us into new year before making our way back to Leisure World.

Thanks to Rosie for coming up with the bloomin' marvellous title

Our next Group run is a parkrun and Goodgym this Saturday, where we will be litter picking for RiverCare in and around Castle park. Please meet me by the bandstand to register your attendance from 9:30 - If you think you won’t have finished parkrun by 9:45, please show up early to parkrun so you can sign in before running. And sign up HERE