Fourteen fabulous GGers ran 5k to Dell Fields Care Home for Barnet's first double task group run.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we were joined by Saba, visiting from Islington, Katie from Camden, and Akthar for his second group run. Welcome along!

We were also joined by Federica for her LAST Goodgym run (for the time being) as she is leaving later this week for Actual Peru. Amazing! We're very sorry to see her leave but also a bit jealous of her trip. Looking forward to seeing photos and make sure you give her a cheer. Hope to see you back sometime in the future Federica.

So - to GG Barnet's first double task evening! We had our arranged task with Dell Fields Care Home - running 2.5k each way to varnish the garden furniture, and we were also contacted by the Syrian Kitchen who got in touch for some help promoting their event on Saturday. The Syrian Kitchen are a brilliant initiative here in Barnet, offering three course traditional Syrian food, cooked by refugees. They hold regular supper club events - check out their twitter: @bsyriankitchen. We've also be offered half price tickets for GoodGym runners!

We set off with Paul backmarking and started to flyer the residential roads on the way over to the care home. Once we arrived, we set about varnishing in the garden right away. There were four tables and two chairs to get on with and with some rapid brush work we got all of it done in 25 minutes. There was a family enjoying the garden while we worked, but they didn't mind our chattering and even asked to take some photos to promote on the local Facebook group!

There were not quite enough brushes to go around so Hazel led a team of four to do some more flyering (and more running!). Good work.

Hard work done, we tidied up and set off. We stopped in Viccy Park for our team photo (look at that sky!) and carried on back to the Phoenix. There were a few more flyers to dispense, which we did rapidly (making it 100 flyers distributed), and got back to the Phoenix for a stretch (via a sprint finish of course).

Lisa, Fay, Graham and Rupesh joined us at the finish to come to the pub. You can see the photo of our lovely group saying goodbye to Federica (shortly after catching the end of the football as well!).

There is lots of GG news and events coming up so keep an eye on the website guys. Most importantly - the social on Thursday, and the British 10k on Sunday (with Alice and Fay running - good luck guys!! & Lisa, May and Louis volunteering).

Hope to see you next week for some gardening at Stephen's House!

Over to Foreigner 🎶🎸

Twelve terrific GoodGymmers ran to dell fields care home to tidy the garden for local residents.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we discussed the beautiful weather and how much it has lifted our moods! It really was a gorgeous day.

We set off to dell fields with Jody back marking. It's a 3km run each way and the team managed it in a nice fast time - 19 mins including the hills and road crossings.

Reaching the care home, we discovered that we had not been left and tools or instructions for the garden. That didn't put us off though - we got stuck into weeding the flower beds in the garden to keep them looking nice. Varnishing the outdoor furniture can wait until next time! After 25 minutes we had cleared a big pile of weeds. We put it in the compost and headed off.

We went back via Victoria Park for a quick fitness session: out and back runs varying our pace, jumping Jacks, squats and some pocket to socket practice. We then set off home with a spring in our step and set another fast pace. We stopped 300m from base for a nice fast finish with the team continuing to be very speedy today. Must be all that sunshine ☀

We stretched then tucked into this week's biscuits: fox's chocolate rings courtesy of fay. Thanks Fay! And get well soon. Next week we have a shorter run to Stephen's House to assist in the garden. See you there

This week 11 marvelous GoodGym-ers ran 6km to clear weeds in the dark for a local care home.

We were joined by GG tourist Lucy - Give her a cheer!

After a quick warm up in front of the Phoenix we headed off towards Dell Fields, with Damian leading the pack and Paul our trusty back-marker.

As expected, the garden was pitch black on arrival. Luckily most of the runners remembered their torches! Working in pairs, the group got to work weeding the flower beds and tidying up between the tiles. Darkness can't stop us.

20 minutes of hard graft later and it was time to tidy our things and get in a quick conditioning circuit. Damian had requested I show him commando planks earlier in the day, so we worked through a few of those, mixed in with press ups and squats, to build a strong trunk to carry us through all the running (and the weeding).

We said our goodbyes and headed outside, where we paused for a quick teaching moment on foot positioning before heading off. This time I lead the gang, while Damian was our back-marker. Nicola, Avital and Lucy kept me company up front, giving me a chance to remind them to push off their back foot and pick their feet up. A lesson Nicola momentarily forgot along the way, which lead to the longest stumble of all time - but with a fantastic recovery. Well caught!

Once back at base we did all the stretching followed by chocolate digestives, courtesy of Paul.

I have two Tuesdays left in charge of Barnet, so please do come along and see me! And feel free to follow me the gram @SuperPennie to stay in touch!

This week's pun, courtesy of Rob