13 of GG Barnet's finest ran 4km, helped Northwold Rose Gardens & did a pyramid session

On a full moon Halloween evening we gathered at the Phoneix Cinema, welcomed newbie Wendy and talked about the news:

1. Last GG Monthly Drinks of the year next Thursday in Stratford - all details here
2. GG Christmas Party is on Friday 8th December at Battersea Art Centre - costume theme is BLACK & RED!
3. There is an Unofficial Unofficial GoodGym Facebook Group if you'd like to join, it's full of news, races, meet ups and more. Just say your from Barnet in the request and I'll accept you.

Led by Damian and backed by Freya we headed to Northwold Rose Gardens to help Brian with some gardening. This was none of your weeding in the dark lark, our tasks for the evening were follows:

1. Shovelling, wheelbarrowing and laying woodchip around hedges and trees.
2. Emptying out three compost (curry flavoured) bins onto various plants to help keep it rich and well fed.

Splitting into small teams we got to work. Various tasks featured Skelton (Freya), BadGym Rep (Damian) and Death (Paul) - nice one for dressing up guys! Slightly terrifying...

Pyramid session IN the dark!

After 30 mins of spooky graft we were done and went to the dark tennis courts for a pyramid session - 1-2-1 for speed efforts with 1 minute recovery in between. Using the tennis court fences we could work out where we were.

Once we completed our 2km run back, we stretched and handed our treats (no tricks).

Sign up for next week here, I'm covering for Pennie again as she'll be recovering from NYC Marathon - good luck!

PB out

After a speedy intro chat we got outside for a warm-up. Thinking about warming up those ankles, shins, calves and hips.

Following that we headed off on the 1.4km run to Star road and Maystar Estate. The Hammersmith and Fulham Goodgym has been back here a few times this year to help out in both the communal areas and some private gardens of older people who aren't able to care for them. This time we were there to dismantle some broken office furniture that had been left in the community hall and plant some daffodil bulbs in the flower beds around the estate.

After leaving a team of 4 to get going with the furniture lead by Jason; Pauline, the lovely task owner took us on a walk through the large estate to pointed out the flower beds.

Unfortunately, the estate's trowels had gone AWOL so the planting crew had to use the handle end of the rack and hoe to make holes in the ground. The method certainly didn't slow them down.

Actually, both the planting gang and the furniture team got their tasks done in no time, which left us enough time for a nice run back via the river. Thanks for wearing your headtorches!!

After getting back to base and doing a warm down, we all trooped down to The Distillers for our October social. Cheers to everyone that came! Sorry to those that got stuck at work, you were missed!

Helen suggested we do the 10k in Putney on 3rd December. Will you join us? Details and RSVP here

Next week, is Halloween and we're helping paint garden furniture and plant MORE bulbs. Sign up here

This week 12 GoodGym-ers ran 4km to shift sawdust and sweep leaves in a local park.

We started with intros at the Phoenix as always. I mentioned that there are 10 coaches in waiting for runners - so if you're interested in visiting one of those people, please do complete your coach runner training so you can get the ball rolling!

Shout out to our two new Task Forcers: Nicola and Paul – Give 'em a cheer!

Damian lead us to the Northway Gardens while Graham was our trusty back-marker.

Brian was waiting for us with two cars full of tools and leaves, ready for shifting. We split into teams to grab all the things and head through the park to our drop off point. Luckily, there were many of us with lights, as the gardens had no lights. We are now running in full-blown darkness, so I really recommend getting yourself a head torch. My fancy hand light was from Morrisons - £7. My head torch from Poundland no longer stays on my head – but still makes light and fits in my palm.

We shifted many wheelbarrows full of sawdust from the chopped down trees from around their stumps so the people could come back and finish the job. We also swept many leaves into buckets for compost.

We'll be back on 7 November to do the next bit. Be sure to sign up!

We then played Duck Tag and Squat Runs on the tennis courts, where we discovered Paul and Nicola are incredibly spry.

We soon ran home, with a little sprint finish UP the hill. Props to Graham and Jack for being so speedy!

Next week we've had a change of plan - We'll be running to the WDP not Community Focus. 3km each way.