WHAT IN CARNATION?!

9 wonderful GoodGym-ers ran 6km to help clear dead plants for a local carehome

Today was GG Barnet number 10, which means GG-ers can start claiming their free cinema tickets from the incredible Phoenix Cinema as they hit their tenth Barnet run. Damian was first past the post tonight. I have been given the first 10 tickets, so when 10 of us hit 10 we'll arrange a movie night to celebrate!

Today was also the first time the team gathered inside the cinema instead of the steps outsides, proving that summer is in fact over. Thank you for running around in the cold with me team! And well done for layering up this week! And a MASSIVE welcome to GG Barnet newbie Jody who rocked up to her very first group run already donning her red Tee! BOOM

After a quick warm up around the side of the cinema, making sure our muscles and joints were ready for the run ahead, we set off towards Dell Field Court care home in Finchley Central. Anna lead the way, while I backmarked. Georgina kept me company, powering through even when things got tough.

Tonight was one of our longest runs, only reaching the 6km mark once before. With a few sprints thrown in along the way, a few of the team even made it up to 7.5km. It was even Joanna's second run of the day, impressively!

When we reached our destination, we were lead out back to the very dark garden and set to work pulling out the dead flowers. Good thing we had those head torches, eh team? Only, two of my three ran out of battery fairly early on – doh! Mia made wonderful use of my last torch standing!

Everybody worked super hard, getting as much done as possible before it was time to pop all the dead plants in the green bin and head back to base. But not before a quick fitness session in the care home's driveway.

We did a mix of squats, squat jumps and squat walks to really fire up those glutes and quads, as well as mobilise those hip flexors. We even added in some squat walkouts for good measure. Particularly beautiful press ups from Jody and Mark

We then ran back a slightly shorter route with me and Freya leading the pack and Mark our trusty backmarker.

Damian smashed the Sprint Finish and then treated the team to this week's Barnet Biscuit: homemade flapjacks

Well done to everyone for your effort today, you all smashed it!

SIDE NOTE: The Hammerson carehome, whose shed we cleared up a couple weeks ago, has a number of charity places available for the LONDON MARATHON. They've offered them out to the GG Barnet crew. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll put you in touch with Atarhe.

Don't forget, if you want to get involved with Missions and Coach Runs, bring your documents along to our next run to get the ball rolling. You need photo ID and two proofs of address from the last three months. Next week we are going back to Strawberry Vale to litter pick, as the North Circular has collected an awful lot of litter along that road. The last time we were there, we were stopped by two members of the public to thank us for our help. East Finchley Councillor Arjun Mittra tweeted us pictures of the mess it's in again, asking for our help. I'm going to try and convince Arjun to join us =] If you want to tweet him something really lovely to try and encourage him, his Twitter is @arjunmittra.

See you next week, folks! Pennie