#RunAndTalk: Gimme, Gimme Shelter (And I'll Make It Squeaky Clean)

11 GoodGym-ers ran 3.5km to clean Shelter's shop window

This week GG Barnet was joined by brand new GG-er, Teresa! Whoop whoop!

Massive props to Hazel for printing my register today and Damian for carrying the kit to Shelter.

This week is mental health awareness week, so GG Barnet took the opportunity to #RunAndTalk about the stigma around mental ill health and how mental health affects everyone.

After a quick warm up outside the Phoenix Cinema, Damian lead the group along the scenic route up towards Shelter at a respectable pace, while Hazel took care of backmarking. Along our short run I made sure we stopped for a few sprints for the speedy GG-ers wanting to get more KMs in their legs as well as some bodyweight squats to make sure those glutes were firing.

The lady from Shelter wasn't able to stay after work to greet us today, so we got on with cleaning the windows solo. We zoomed through the task incredibly quickly, so we ran over to a couple of other nearby charity shops to find ones with windows that could do with the GG touch. Gorilla window cleaning FTW.

We then ran back to East Finchley for a workout in the carpark near the park Sarah found last week, with Damian leading us back and Will taking over backmarking.

We stopped halfway for some hill sprints and a squatting ring of running. Today was all about working those glutes, because strong glutes make you better at everything – particularly running. As a special glute exercise, I threw in a kicking drill. This is when we found out Teresa is a Taekwon Do instructor in Islington. Boom.

After some stretching and a gentle jog back to base, we whipped out this week's #BarnetBiscuit: the Jaffa cake. Danica won first pick of the biscuit pack for guessing what the biscuit was from the pic on Twitter. If you're not following GG Barnet on Twitter, you should be. It's @ggbarnet. Surprisingly.

A few of us then went to the nearby pub, which seems to have become tradition now. We discussed joining us at the Zombie Evacuation. Join the GoodGym team with the password: goodzombies. It's on 6 November.

We also discussed the possibility of doing a drag race, which I am 100% behind and we need to make happen.

Next week is GG Barnet number 10. The Phoenix Cinema has promised GG-ers who come along to 10 GG Barnet runs a couple of free cinema tickets, so it's about time for us to be able to start cashing those in =p I think we should use these for a GG Barnet Phoenix movie night.

Come run with us next week! And don't forget to bring your ID and proof of address (two letters) along for your DBS check!

Until next time, folk! Pennie