Twenty one ran for Goodgym Barnet on a glorious but challenging day. We had to split our forces to deal with an emergency request from The Friends of Muswell Hill Playing Fields and Coldfall Woods They had been advised by the councils tree expert that the new saplings would die without additional watering. Goodgym Barnet rallied to the call with one of the largest groups we have ever gathered. After a short warm up we split the group in half with Damian leading out eleven runners to our scheduled task at Long Lane Pastures.

Damian said:

11 runners joined me to run to Long Lane Pasture. This is a brilliant local space that feels like a world away from London when inside. It's entirely managed by volunteers so our help is always appreciated. Tonight's task was raking hay and composting: we got to work with rakes, loading up wheelbarrows and transporting it to the compost heap. We must have filled about 15 wheelbarrows. Hard work complete, we were joined by a dog walker and her gorgeous little puppy Mabel, who we naturally adopted as our mascot and helped puppy train for a few minutes. We posed for photos then ran back to base via a quick fitness drill focusing on strength to help our running technique.

The second group ran the to the young saplings. It was pleasant running through quiet backstreets and then through the fresh smelling Coldfall Wood. It’s a impressively large and magical bit of Woodland. We stopped every so often to do squats and leg raises. After twenty minutes we met up with Linda who explained what we had to do. Using Jerry cans, filled from a nearby tap, we transported and then poured the water down the tubes at the base of the trees. Satisfied that we had done what was required we headed back through the wood with the sun starting to set. A warm down, stretch and high fives all round. I received the following text from Linda just after....

"Thank you Good Gym volunteers and Paul for arriving like the calvary over the hill in red to rescue some very dry young trees....the weekend rain had done nothing to improve their lot..your visit will!! big thanks from the Friends of Muswell Hill Playing Fields and Coldfall Woods www.coldfallwoods.co.uk"

Give a shout out to the new runners Claire, Sharon, and Sarah....and thanks to the back markers and to everyone who came.

You did good!