We gathered at phoenix cinema to do some litter picking, but this was proper plogging ( Scandinavian style, ) running through the streets and green spaces of East Finchley skewering, rubbish with litter, pickers. To do this at speed is quite an art! Rather like jousting, you run at your piece of rubbish, and just at the right moment lower your litter picker down to make the interception. We headed towards Ally Pally and a magnificent view of London on a clear, warm autumnal evening. We were moving out of Barnet into another borough, so this was a proper boarder raid! We picked up a lot of rubbish en route and then split into pairs to work around the hill of Alexandra Palace. It was a lovely setting with bats dancing above us in the dark night sky. We headed back along the same route led bye Rachel, who set quite a pace. We stopped to do some star jumps to make sure we got our heart rate up for the final leg back to the Phoenix. We warm down with some stretches and had a nice social at a local restaurant! Great to see Jacqui & John back. Thanks for coming running and securing some rubbish !

Nineteen goodgym runners ran to help Alexandra and Park Trust. We gathered as usual at the Phoenix to number up and this time chat about our favourite desert. It was the usual eclectic mix but apple crumble won through with three votes. (yes with custard!) Welcome to Anthony and Mike on their first runs with Goodgym Barnet. Well done to Rob with 10 good deeds in August and 200km of strava recorded running! (give them a shout out) All together we did a gentle jog down to Cherry tree park for a warm up and some coordinated star jumps. (Not so coordinated for some!..see photo) We then started one of our most scenic runs along Highgate woods and Parkland walk ( an old railway track with a great view of London) Gordon from the friends of Alexander palace was waiting for us at the site depot. He told us about the trust and the work of the friends to support the charity ( Worth visiting the recently opened theatre if you get a chance..’Preserved in a beautiful state of arrested decay’) We then paired up to go litter picking. The last time we did this we literally found pound notes and this time we found a one pound coin. (Thanks Sally for donating to the friends (see photo)) We warmed up again with some squats and headed back with dusk now very evident. (head torches for next time)

Thanks for coming…. you did good!

Fourteen fabulous GoodGymmers ran 6km to help the Friends of Alexandra Palace litter pick their beautiful park.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we welcomed Beth back for her first run of the year with us - good to see you again!

AND Avital for her FIFTIETH GOOD DEED!! 🔥 Well done and look forward to seeing that black shirt 🖤

Abi and Sally were also joining us straight from a triumphant weekend in Sofia with the GG race team! it sounds like a brilliant trip and well done for getting stuck straight back in with group runs.

We set off with Abi and Sally backmarking. It's about 2.5km so we took it at an easy pace to start with and we scooped up Fiona and Rachel on arrival. We met with Chiara who explained our tasks for the evening: picking up litter left from a busy sunny day in Alexandra Park. Dividing into teams of two and three, we picked up grabbers and bin bags, and were led down to the south side of the park to get started.

It seems there had been quite a few picnics so there was plenty of rubbish: the teams went off road and combed through the park. There was plenty of rubbish strewn across the open spaces and in the woods. Litter picking is an ongoing challenge in the park and we hope to set up a regular community mission on Sundays throughout the summer. After half an hour we had filled loads of bags and carried them back to base for disposal.

We said our goodbyes to Chiara and set off. From there it was a nice relaxed run back to the Phoenix for stretches. Great work everyone - looking forward to next week!

Twenty two ran for goodgym barnet to Alexandra Palace to help the friends of the park clean up litter from the bank holiday weekend. We started outside the phoenix cinema with a head count, a name and a favourite film. With the hard part done ( its so hard to pick a favourite film!) we jogged to Cherry Tree woods for a warm up. It was a beautiful evening to run, an excellent temperature and an autumnal feel about the evening. The run was mostly off road along Highgate woods and through the Parkland walk, the old railway line to Alexandra Palace, with fabulous views over London. This has got to be one of our most picturesque runs. After a short but steep incline we reached the information centre for Alexandra Palace, where we met up with Charia and Gordon, who help coordinate the friends of the Park. We were tasked with litter picking and set off in a line of pairs and threes into the park grounds. To make things a little more interesting I had prizes for the best litter picking groups. The first prize went to Mairead, Claire and Katie who collected one and half bags of refuse and the second prize went to Laura who found two ten pound notes and donated them to the friends of the park. There is money in rubbish after all! We were then invited to the time honoured ceremonial throwing of rubbish into the skip.(not before checking for some more ten pound notes.) The sun had set so it was a dark run back through the streets to east Finchley where we found Sarah waiting for us with WARM cookies!.. now thats what you call a warm down!.. Thanks to Rupesh for back marking and well done new runners Kate & Peter. Give everybody a shout!

Thanks for coming and doing good!