Loads of excellent people ran VERY FAR to collect Christmas gift donations for Evolve Housing

It was Lambeth's last run before Christmas and so we had some lovely visitors from other boroughs. We were heading off on a monster run to pick up gift donations from Clapham Junction and deliver them to Evolve Housing's office in Stockwell.

There were two run options: a 5km Santa Dash, with a bus to Stockwell and a 10km All the Trimmings. We set off through the bright lights of Clapham and past the Winter Wonderland on the Common. On reaching our collection point in Clapham Junction, we discovered many DVD donations and also some clothes. People picked up a few items each and then we divided into the bus gang and runners and off we went to Stockwell.

Once the gifts were all safely delivered, we went back to base for some stretches and then headed to the pub for some festive drinks. Katie gave out some Shit Prize of the Month and Year - it was a very tense moment!

On distance, Judy Reid smashed it for the ladies but overall winner was Michael, who has been a steady and committed runner since joining GoodGym and really clocked up those miles (1332km and counting!). Then we were onto the thing that GoodGym is all about: GOOD DEEDERY.

A massive commendation has to go to Frances, who has clocked up 54++ good deeds since joining in April. In third place came David, with 89, second place, Tom Hunter with 92 and the winner of Shit Prize of the Year went to the birthday boy himself Tom Benson with a ridiculous 102 good deeds!

All deeds and distances correct as of Monday evening so now they are EVEN MORE!

We ate lots of cake and generally were merry. What a brilliant year it has been. Thank you to everyone who makes Lambeth a success week in, week out. You really are the best!

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

Ten tremendous GoodGymmers ran 6 kilometers to deliver flyers for the Phoenix Cinema.

(that pun? Yeah, I went there https://open.spotify.com/track/4IYKjN1DrYzxKXt0umJqsG)

For world mental health day, GoodGym has partnered with Thrive LDN, a new charity that is promoting health and well being for Londoners. Being GoodGym, we know all about getting fit and doing good. Here in Barnet, we don't normally need any encouragement for a good chat, but we decided that we'd be extra chatty tonight - it's good to talk guys - while doing lots of running and delivering our flyers.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we were joined by Fati and Ina, both joining us for their first ever GoodGym run. Go give them a cheer!

Every two months or so we deliver flyers for the Phoenix (themselves a charity doing brilliant things in the local area) so tonight we gathered up bundles of leaflets for the cinema's October - November season. Graham and I stuffed our bags full, while everyone else gamely took bundles in their hands.

After a quick warm up, we set off. As we were flyering the local area, we decided to do a 2k loop to get those legs moving. Jack and Graham were joining us from their exploits at the Oxford Half Marathon (it looked so great, give them a cheer) while Jacqui had run a casual 10k on Sunday in the Adidas City Run, after I saw her in the pub on Saturday night: love it.

Once we reached our targeted roads, we split into teams. Paul took the right side of the road with his team, while Nicola led on the left. (Nicola and Paul are our two new recruits for the Barnet task force: welcome!)

Guys, we posted so many leaflets.

Using the tried and tested relay method, we quickly covered 4 big residential roads and delivered all of the leaflets, with hills and some absolutely giant driveways not putting anyone off.

From there, we headed back to base, but not before a couple of running drills. Firstly, we used the end of Southern Road, closed to the traffic, to run in pairs at a nice fast pace to pick up our heels a bit. After that, we attacked Indigo Walk, a tricky alleyway that seems to go on forever, getting steeper as you go. The team did brilliantly and we celebrated with an easy run to base from there.

After a stretch and some high fives, we ate biscuits. Tradition.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was Jammy Dodgers.

See you soon!!

D

Last night 18 GoodGymers - including two new runners - ran 6k to sand some furniture at Barnet Furniture Centre.

We set off whilst it was still light with Hazel leading and Freya backmarking. Arriving at BFC, Jade dolled out the sandpaper and we got to work - a bench, a table top and legs that needed smoothing down, and some red drawers with hundreds of coats of different colours that needed some serious elbow grease. The group got stuck in and Jade was so thrilled with how much we managed to get done. She'll update us on just how many different colours there were on the red drawers - there at least 5 we could find!

Jade showed us more of the treasure trove that is BFC and explained that they upcycle furniture and either sell it on privately or provide it for free to those in need.

'I like to think of us as the Robin Hood of Furniture!' She said

It's an amazing place and a great opportunity to blow off some steam with a serious bit of elbow grease!

It began drizzling as we warmed ourselves back up for the run home and it didn't stop! Happy and quite sodden the first group to arrive home put on a sterling sprint finish before some stretching and a well deserved biscuit from Hazel.

Shoutout to Shawn who did his first mission this weekend and told us all about it. Missions are a fantastic way to make an impact in a different way to a group run - there is one happening this Sunday (17th) that you don't need to be document checked for - it's a gardening day at St Stephen's House. It's going to be brilliant, make your Saturday even more special by signing up here.

Looking forward to being back at the BFC soon. Well done everyone, a cracking run and task. May the rest of your week unfold just as well!

Lucy J

What a wonderful evening

It started out with a task briefing in the fitness centre. This night we’d be delivering flyers for Wand UK again. Wand is a fantastic charity that provides support for vulnerable and isolated women in the communities. Their services include mental health and wellbeing support, computer and English classes, advice with domestic abuse and parenting. They have also put on an extra project called ‘Holding Hands’ to help those affected by the Grenfell disaster - providing free emotional welling and holistic support, tai chi & yoga classes and massages.

Meet me in Norland Park

After a warm-up we set off together toward Norland Open Space. There, the group was split into two (gender balanced ;) teams. Then armed with maps and new highlighters, they set off to deliver the flyers in different areas - one lead by Polly and the other by Jason.

They navigated successfully and did a speedy job, meaning we could all meet back at the park at 8 for a core workout.

Round the tree Goosey

Our fitness session was a was like a game duck duck goose with a detour. The group did a series of core exercises whilst one member race out to a tree across the park and back. This made the timing different for each exercise. Star jumps, burpees, legs raises and more.

Once everyone had a run out to the tree we wrapped up and headed back home whilst discussing the best local park runs.

Congrats to Esther for making it along to her first Goodgym run. Give her a Cheer!

Next week is our 1st birthday! Join us for celebrations.

With the summer holidays in full swing, tonight we were a small group but we still packed a punch and got a lot done between us!

We started our run tonight with a warm up jog down to Walpole for a running technique and drills session before the main event. This consisted of a number of different exercises designed to get our bodies ready for running including some very graceful looking horse style kicking (I promise this is a real running drill!).

We then set off to run to the Elthorne Park stretch of canal on the River Brent where reunited with the wonderful Jack from The Canal & River Trust. This was our second task on this part of the canal and it was great to be back even though it did look like someone had recently had a cider party there and forgot to take all their rubbish home!

Jack split us into two groups, one to tackle an overgrown buddleia bush and make the canal safer for passing cycles and pedestrians and one to paint over the unsightly graffiti on the underpass. Andy, Emily and Larissa were quick to express their interest in painting which involved some lovely boiler suits. It was a strong look guys!

Ronan, Mike and Alex put their hands up to saw and shear the vegetation growing over the towpath whilst I did some ad hoc litter picking between checking on the groups and taking photos, afterwards it was like the cider party had never happened.

Jack always comes really well prepared when he meets us with lots of tools and a number of different tasks we can complete in the location, however the one thing he did forget this week was a wet paint sign! Therefore we've made a little make shift wet paint sign which we will return to paint over next time!

With a good nights work complete we did an Indian file running session to get back to base for a quick stretch and cool down.

Thank you all for coming, every one of you guys are great but special mention this week goes to our visitor Andy from GoodGym Hounslow whose on a mission to get to 50 good deeds before his Wandsworth (friendly) rival! We were deed number 41 on the list so it's getting close now, good luck Andy hopefully see you back with us soon (or will your rival use us to get their numbers up too?!).

Next week we are heading to Ealing Food Bank to help with a bit of maintenance and you can sign up here.

See you next time, happy running :)

This week 16 GoodGym-ers ran 5.5km to help the Barnet Furniture Centre with a flyer drop around Muswell Hill.

We were treated to a guest appearance from GG Barnet oldie Mark this week – give him a cheer!

Lots of hills for us to run up – with even more stairs for us to climb. Damian lead us to a residential part of Muswell Hill while Heather was our trusty back-marker. We split into teams to cover as much ground as possible.

We regrouped under the bridge, where Freya lead us up the stairs to a secret pathway up above London with the most beautiful view. Danica donned her badger face for the photo op before we ran back down to continue the flyering.

My team ran up a giant hill to flyer houses all a million steps away. GG Barnet is building legs of steel. Prima said flyering with the GG crew made running up hills a whole lot better – which everyone agreed with. Running up is always better with company.

The two teams then came together to split up for a final flyer push, before putting the remaining stacks back into our bags and heading towards Cherry Tree Woods for some games and burpees.

After all the running, I figured I'd be nice and let everyone sit down. So we played Duck, duck, goose. After several rounds, we played a game of Bulldog before finishing with the Barnet Burpees. Shawn and Paul were pretty speedy with the burpees and Heather requested we do the worm instead. Turns out none of us can do the worm. Something to work on.

We then ran back to base for this week's Barnet Biscuit: Flapjacks, courtesy of Damian

Well done, team!

Anyone looking to do a Parkrun with Freya this Saturday, sign up to Ally Pally here. More hills, beautiful views at the top.