For our first indoor session of winter (I know right?!), Barnet Goodgym brought their energy and gusto to St Mary's Church in Finchley Central. Following a bit of a storm, a ceiling cave in and half a year of rain management, the church finally had the gutters fixed and roof patched. All that remains to mend are the pews.

Goodgym to rescue - nine of us in all! Five of us braved the bleak rain, gathering at the Phoenix - Beattie arriving first, as usual - for a run up the East End Road, including Amir who popped over from Brent. Lucinda and Subham took up back marking, though Subham kindly took the lead as we neared our destination, steering us to a lovely car-free route around the back of Stephens House - a run leader in the making!

Arriving at St Mary's Church in good time, we were met by our host, Helen, and Paul, Kirsten and our honorary mascot, Gus. Soon after Amanda and Theodore rocked up and we got to work.

The task involved waxing down damaged pews with steel wool padding, leaving them for a few minutes, then polishing them hard with tea towels. A fairly simple task, but one that turned into a good work out. The polishing was the real energetic work, requiring a lot of pressure to smooth out the hardening wax. But with so many of us we made light work of roughly 8 pews in the morning prayer section. The pews are used on a daily basis, so they were really glad for the work.

After, Helen gave us a quick tour of the church and a brief history of some of the older parts and decorations. Maybe we'll be back to do a bit more work, as the other pews might be in need of a bit of TLC anyway.

Then, with that lovely, satisfying feeling in our chests, we headed to the nearby pub to round the evening off by slaking our thirst and sating our bellies.

Eleven good gym runners ran to help at Saint Mary‘s Church Finchley. A grade 2 listed building and one of the oldest if not the oldest building in Barnet with elements built from 16th century. We started off at the phoenix cinema (another building which is one of the oldest of its type in the country) gathering to chat , number up and state our favourite superhero. Jody won the day by revealing that her dad was a superhero. (Looks like she’s blown his cover but at least Barnet can sleep easy tonight!) There was a gentle drizzle to start but otherwise a nice night to hit the back streets of East Finchley by winding our way through quite roads and alleys. We stopped briefly to gather for a sprint up a short uphill section of alleyway. We reach the church dead on time to meet Helen who was waiting with tools to do the job in hand. We were to clear the path around the church of leaves and weeds. We set to work and in a short time had collected four garden bags which we loaded into Helens car. Helen then took some time to show us around the church and talk about its history, this included showing us some markings from the Norman era of the church! We also gathered around a church poster of Agnes ( one of our own runners) who had run the Eden half marathon for charity. A nice coincidence! ( see photo) We then started a more direct route back to the Phoenix escorted by a deluge of bangs and flashes. I chatted with Abdul who was telling me how much his fitness had improved by joining GGB. Indeed in todays news a vast study had proven a correlation between one run a week and improving life expectancy. Check it out Here Tell your friends! We soon returned to the Phoenix and had to sadly say goodbye to Marie on her last run with GGB before returning to France. Thank you for bring the crepes and Bon voyage!

Thanks for coming you were super heroes tonight!

Ps Two Christmas party dates for you Goodgym 6th ( party) 11th December ( GGB social meal) Let us know if you can make one or both!

Eighteen keen goodgym runners gathered, on a beautiful evening, to help the local church clear ivy from its graveyard boundary fence. We had two groups gather at the Pheonix, three walkers, and a group of fifteen runners. The walkers set off at 6.50 followed by the runners 10 minutes later back marked by Sarah and Abi. We made good time through the back streets of east Finchley. When we got to the church we met with Helen who explained that we had to remove the ivy using secateurs and loppers from the fence in front of the graveyard. Within half an hour we had cleared the fence and had time for a little tour of the ancient church. Some of the building dates back to the thirteenth century and is officially the oldest building in barnet. The church is famous for the tomb of John Cartwright who was born on 28 September 1740 and died on 23 September 1824. He was a political reformer and radical spokesman of national importance who is known as the Father of Reform having championed universal suffrage (very apposite in this year of commemoration of women’s suffrage) and the introduction of secret ballots. He also founded the Society for Constitutional Information. It is a fascinating church and worth a visit if you are in the area! The album theme for the photo outside the church had to be and was for Thriller!

Thanks for coming and doing good. Happy birthday Sally!