Goodgym barnet - refuse to give up on Ally Pally hill

Twenty two ran for goodgym barnet to Alexandra Palace to help the friends of the park clean up litter from the bank holiday weekend. We started outside the phoenix cinema with a head count, a name and a favourite film. With the hard part done ( its so hard to pick a favourite film!) we jogged to Cherry Tree woods for a warm up. It was a beautiful evening to run, an excellent temperature and an autumnal feel about the evening. The run was mostly off road along Highgate woods and through the Parkland walk, the old railway line to Alexandra Palace, with fabulous views over London. This has got to be one of our most picturesque runs. After a short but steep incline we reached the information centre for Alexandra Palace, where we met up with Charia and Gordon, who help coordinate the friends of the Park. We were tasked with litter picking and set off in a line of pairs and threes into the park grounds. To make things a little more interesting I had prizes for the best litter picking groups. The first prize went to Mairead, Claire and Katie who collected one and half bags of refuse and the second prize went to Laura who found two ten pound notes and donated them to the friends of the park. There is money in rubbish after all! We were then invited to the time honoured ceremonial throwing of rubbish into the skip.(not before checking for some more ten pound notes.) The sun had set so it was a dark run back through the streets to east Finchley where we found Sarah waiting for us with WARM cookies!.. now thats what you call a warm down!.. Thanks to Rupesh for back marking and well done new runners Kate & Peter. Give everybody a shout!

Thanks for coming and doing good!