Long Lane of Litter

This week GG Barnet ran 4km to help a local nature reserve.

Well, 3km plus 1km of extra.

And not so much to help a nature reserve, but I'll come back to that shortly.

We were joined by GG tourist Danny, who ran all the way from Brent to join us! Give him a cheer!

Selam and Jack both completed half marathons over the weekend, so give 'em both a cheer for still coming to run with us on tired legs!

After a quick warm up, trying to get people to build some bounce into their steps, it was time to go. Graham was our trusty back-marker, while I lead the way.

Our run very quickly came to a stop when we reached the traffic lights and waited for the ambulance to pass. But then we were off again. When we reached the top of the alleyway, we paused for a bounce break, getting everyone to work on their jump squats. Powerful legs are important for runners, and jumping is a great way to build that power up. Still learning to bounce.

We then had a nice long down hill run through the alleyways and along Long Lane. We paused for a wall sit on arrival, before heading towards the pasture. The place looked closed, so I set the gang up with a sprinting challenge, but they were rescued by the arrival of our wonderful task owners.

But trouble was afoot.

As we walked into the nature reserve and along the path up to the gazebo, we noticed the massive pond that was usually more of a puddle. Donald explained that the rain had really thrown a spanner in the works in terms of us cutting and shifting the bramble as planned, with mud in some places being ankle deep! There was nothing we could do, the task couldn't go on.

So with a bit of quick thinking, we found ourselves a new task and decided to do a litter pick by the alley outside. Wayne had already done the alley next door, so we did the other side. Borrowing some great gloves from the boys and pinching some plastic bags.

We filled about a million of them. I've never seen so much litter before in my life. One passerby saw the team doing all the good and volunteered to help us! She grabbed a glove and a bag and got stuck in.

Bringing the community together, one disgusting underpass at a time.

There wasn't any bins around for us to leave the rubbish, so we went on a little escapade along the street to discard all the bags in various black bins. We tried to spread it out as much as possible, so as not to be annoying. One couple came out to see what we were doing. They were ready to tell us off for using their bin, but when we explained what we were doing they seemed really happy and thanked us for doing good.

We did do good.

We then split into teams, with Jody leading the first group back of leisurely runners, while the rest of us returned our gloves and handed over a couple of items we didn't know what to do with - including a walking stick in perfect nick.

I then lead my group back, with Shawn our trusty back-marker. We made a couple of stops along the way to work on knee drive and bounceability through the ankle, before heading back to base. We caught up with the first group near the end, so we all got to finish together. Just in time for some stretching and biscuits, courtesy of Jody.

Next week is my last run leading GG Barnet! Hope you can all make it along. We will go to the pub after for a beverage. If your'e on Instagram or Twitter, follow me @superpennie and stay in touch. And come visit me in Haringey, if you're ever free on a Wednesday night!