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 :)

A small army of red tee shirts met at the Phoenix for Barnet's first birthday. There was glitter. There were red and white balloons. There were smiles and laughs.

So many wonderful runners showed up to celebrate our birthday, including GG newbie Maz – give her a cheer! Shout out to all the GG tourists who came to visit for the special day and to all the GG Barnet oldies, who we've missed in the weeks (months?!) gone by – thanks for coming back!

After a brief introduction from Pennie, 28 GoodGymers headed to Cherry Tree Woods for an animal inspired warm-up. It's safe to say we were already pretty toasted in the evening sun, but high-five fitness sessions don't complete themselves!

Picking up the pace, we headed 2km to our task – supporting volunteers at Long Lane Pasture. The pasture is an incredible green space run by a group of volunteers, and they needed some hands building their compost piles. This was actually the task we did on our very first GG Barnet run last year, which made it even more special. No councillors in suits this time – but we still beat our numbers with the largest ever Barnet turn out in history! Big cheers all round, really

Splitting in half, the Barnet runners worked in teams to rake and hoe the long grass; piling it all on to the compost heaps. One beautiful sunset and 25 minutes later, we regrouped and were honored with a 1st birthday chocolate cake(s), gratefully given to us by the volunteers at Long Lane Pasture. What babes they are!

Next up was circuits and frisbee matches. While half the runners star-jumped and lunged, the other half took part in fiercely competitive frisbee games designed to get us all running fitter and faster.

Chocolate cakes (sort of) burned off, we returned to base – the Phoenix cinema. Damian lead the speedy group back, whilst Pennie took the leisurely group. We then took over the cinema cafe balcony and toasted a year of great group runs. Muchos grassias (gracias) Pennie – we are as excited about the next 50 weeks as the first 50.

Happy birthday Barnetians - cheers to your efforts in 2016/2017 and here's hoping we can reach out and help even more people in our community in this next year, particularly isolated older people.

Don't forget to sign up for next week's run here. We'll be doing some silent gardening for the Westminster Drugs Project.

TFF (Task Force Freya)

Ps. This week's Barnet berry was blackberries! Some blackberries picked from the pasture were used to make Barnet's oat & cinnamon biscuit of the week. I thought they were bloody brilliant (but I made them so I may be biased...)

Thanks to everyone who brought cakes and snacks for the after party at the Phoenix. And thanks to the Phoenix for being such wonderful hosts!

We've got 10 free tickets for regular runners to go and see something. Louis is our desingated movie organiser. There's 6 spots left, so if you want in, email Pennie asap!

This week 16 GoodGym-ers ran 5.5km to help the Barnet Furniture Centre with a flyer drop around Muswell Hill.

We were treated to a guest appearance from GG Barnet oldie Mark this week – give him a cheer!

Lots of hills for us to run up – with even more stairs for us to climb. Damian lead us to a residential part of Muswell Hill while Heather was our trusty back-marker. We split into teams to cover as much ground as possible.

We regrouped under the bridge, where Freya lead us up the stairs to a secret pathway up above London with the most beautiful view. Danica donned her badger face for the photo op before we ran back down to continue the flyering.

My team ran up a giant hill to flyer houses all a million steps away. GG Barnet is building legs of steel. Prima said flyering with the GG crew made running up hills a whole lot better – which everyone agreed with. Running up is always better with company.

The two teams then came together to split up for a final flyer push, before putting the remaining stacks back into our bags and heading towards Cherry Tree Woods for some games and burpees.

After all the running, I figured I'd be nice and let everyone sit down. So we played Duck, duck, goose. After several rounds, we played a game of Bulldog before finishing with the Barnet Burpees. Shawn and Paul were pretty speedy with the burpees and Heather requested we do the worm instead. Turns out none of us can do the worm. Something to work on.

We then ran back to base for this week's Barnet Biscuit: Flapjacks, courtesy of Damian

Well done, team!

Anyone looking to do a Parkrun with Freya this Saturday, sign up to Ally Pally here. More hills, beautiful views at the top.