Seventeen savvy GoodGymmers ran 5km to Stephen's House to help in the Bothy Garden 🌿

Meeting at the Phoenix, we welcomed tourists Dharmesh and Patrick to GGB - nice to see you gents! ✈

We also welcomed back our runners from a stellar weekend of racing: Shaun had done the Edinburgh Half, while Abi, Charlotte, Mumtaz, Sally, Patrick, Dharmesh, and Rob smashed the Vitality 10k in Central London on Monday. well done guys!!! 🏅🏅🏅

It is ALSO Katie's 50th good deed! give her a cheer! Phew!

We set off to Stephen's House with Abi and Charlotte backmarking. It's about 2.5km so we took it at an easy pace to start with and we scooped up Fay, Claire and Mumtaz on arrival.

We met Alison and Warwick who let us into the Bothy Garden and explained the task. The Bothy is used by a handful of charities who offer therapy and counseling services, for which the beautiful garden is very useful. Unfortunately disaster had struck: an infestation of box caterpillars meant that the plants, especially the bushes surrounding their new flower beds, are dying. The only solution was to dig up the afflicted plants and take them away to be burned 😔

Using gloves, forks and shovels the team got to work digging up the bushes were chopped, grabbed and squashed into bags and dragged away to be burned.

After half an hour we had cleared most of the plants and dragged the bags away. Our hosts Alison and Warwick would finish the job (and tidy up a bit) the next day. This was particularly heartbreaking for Alison and Warwick because they had worked so hard to get the garden looking so good. We are ready to help to get it back to it's former glory!

After a quick group pic we found some open space and worked on everyone's favourite: core! We did 6 core exercises, with 40 seconds on and 20 seconds rest in between. Well done everyone, especially after such a physical task!

From there it was a nice run back to the Phoenix, plus the sprint finish, then stretches.

We then headed to the Clissold Arms for our GGB SOCIAL! Thanks very much to unofficial-official social sec Mumtaz who not only organised, but ALSO baked brownies! Picture evidence above. Give her a cheer!!

See you all soon.

🤘🤘🤘

Fifteen fabulous GoodGymmers ran 6km to post flyers and promote Stephen's House. They are a brilliant local charity who have a great looking set of summer events for children in their gardens this summer so it's always a pleasure to help them out.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we welcomed Gail for her first ever GG run and Euclides for his first in GGB - great to have you along guys.

We set off with armfuls of flyers to Cherry Tree Wood for a quick warm up before hitting the residential streets of East Finchley. Dividing into two teams of 7, one led by Rupesh and one led by Katie, we set about rapidly posting our flyers. We sped up and down the lovely leafy streets posting using our trusty relay system.

In what seemed like no time at all we had posted all the flyers and set off for our fitness session! Everyone in GGB has been hit by race fever recently, with a big team heading to the Sofia running festival most recently, so attention has turned to Summer races (hello Maverick Trail) and GETTING FASTER.

So, to that end: we ran together to Highgate Woods for a lap of undulating trails before stopping off for some strides. GPS was a little wonky, but we think our flat section of path was about 225 metres. So: the team divided into comfortable speed groups and set off for a fast run out (70% effort) and a chilled run back. We did this twice and it was very noticable how much conversation seemed to dip from there...

After that, it was a nice relaxed run back to the Phoenix, with a sprint finish for those with a bit of energy left, and some stretches.

Great work everyone - looking forward to next week already. See you then!

Fifteen fab GoodGymmers ran 5k to help the volunteers at Northway Gardens.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we were joined by Freya for her first GG run in ages after rotten luck with injuries and Abi, who doesn't think she has ever been on a rainy group run... The weather looked like putting that to the test today.

After a quick warm up we set off with Sarah back marking and it was a quick run down to meet Brian, the head gardener. Northway Gardens are a brilliant volunteer run space that keep the garden looking beautiful and open to local residents.

He needed us to shift 30 large bags of wood chip across the gardens ready for the weekend and get to work clearing weeds from the tennis court ready for spring.

The team got to work, shifting the bags and stacking them nearly in no time at all. After that it was scraping the mould/weeds from the tennis court. First a coating of bicarb and vinegar before the team got to work scraping and clearing. Several bags filled and binned we tidied up, thanked Brian and we were on our way.

All that hard work done it was time for a fitness session.

We ran to our "running track" behind East Finchley Station and got to work on intervals. Dividing into twos and threes the idea was to pick up the pace and match our teammates effort and pace and building up to a fast finish.

It was a brilliant effort all round and from there it was a light run back for stretches and a trip to the pub as the rain finally started. Think Abi's record still stands though...

Great work everyone - looking forward to next week already.

D