Our brilliant Barnet Goodgymmers gathered for the first group run of the year, starting like they mean to go on! We gave newcomer, Subham, a warm welcome and in return he gave us the title for the report. We wished the Phoenix Cinema staff a happy new year and warmed up, and off we went with Rachel as our backmarker and Anthony the fourth corner of our well-wrapped quartet, litter picking around East Finchley's high street. Which was surprisingly... clean?!

Undeterred by the windswept pavements, we jogged our way south half a kilometre scouring the verge and pavements, rooting out litter. We crossed near the Engine Rooms and, with Rachel taking the lead, jogged our way back up to the tube station to plog at what we found. Then we jogged a solid km further up the High Road and got stuck into that weird patch of wasteland on the corner of Leopold Road - which will be familiar to anyone who plogged with us that time Gus found a tennis ball. In scant moments we'd filled our sacks with the endless supply of bottles, cans, plastic and other unidentifiable trash.

Then we strode back through the bracing night like the legends we were. All in, a solid 2.5km round trip with a bit of lugging and lifting thrown in. A final thanks to Penny for dropping off the picking sticks and to Daniel for dropping off the council sacks for us to use - a very well coordinated effort behind the scenes, and hope everyone else gets well soon!