The long and sharp of it

28 wonderful GoodGymers ran between 4-10km, took on Pennie's fitness session, painted a wall and gardened for the Home of English Folk Music!

Wow, what an awesome evening, GoodGym Camden is literally my favourite time of the week (don't tell my girlfriend that), you guys are a pleasure to lead and an amazing group of people!

This week we welcomed Giovanna and Eve who were new to GoodGym and we welcomed Pennie (Barnet Trainer).

In the news this week:

1. Happy birthday to Jess Cowan, taskforce member and GoodGym legend!
2. Well done to those who did the 4x1 mile GoodGym Community Games or Regents Park 10km on Sunday, well done to Neil Macey and John Shirley for doing both!
3. Very soon I'll have some exciting news about the GoodGym European Trip 2017!

Right onto to the task(s) at hand, this week we were heading to Cecil Sharp House, the home of English Folk music, to do some gardening and to Abbey Community Centre, which does amazing work with both children and the elderly, to do some painting!

Gardening Run Report written by PB:

After an active warm up taken by Pennie, including a game of tag (well done to Joao for winning!), we headed to Cecil Sharp House. It was a beautiful evening for a run, the only thing that was stopping us was traffic lights - arghhh! Anyway we were welcomed by the wonderful Susannah who explained how our monthly trip to the Home of Folk Music has helped them immensely - well done gang! This week our work was especially important as they have been shortlisted for the Camden in Bloom 'Best Business Entrance' award and will be inspected next week!

Award shortlisting!

We split into teams of four either sweeping, weeding, digging and clearing all sections of the garden and entrances! It's absolutely outstanding what can be achieved by a group in 30 minutes and, as always, we smashed it - awesome work guys!

Hard core workout!

After saying our goodbyes to Susannah we headed to Primrose Hill for Pennie's fitness session and, oh man oh man, it was definitely a session. Even as an observer I was getting tired ha! There were sprints, planks, mountain climbers, paired exercises and more. The guys at Barnet are going to be very fit and strong with Pennie as their leader! Good work to everyone for surviving.

We headed back to base with a gentle run, naturally splitting into two groups. Did you see the sky it was glorious?!

Painting Run Report written by Liz:

10 GoodGymers decided to do the long run to Abbey Community Centre and conquer Primrose Hill on the way. We all kept a good pace & managed to get up the hill. No matter how many time we've all done that run, the hill and the amazing views takes your breath away. We spent 30 seconds getting our breath back and went on our way to Abbey Community Centre where we were met by Laura who looked really pleased to see us and gave us all much needed water to rehydrate.

Cor that view!

The task in hand was to paint over an old Mural on a wall so they can draw a new one. We only had 20 mins to do the task and the wall was BIG but in great GoodGym style, no task was too big and we smashed it! We broke up into teams with the shorter GoodGymers (me included) tackling the lower parts of the wall and the taller people tackling the other parts. We were all surprised by how much we could get done in such little time but as the saying goes 'many hands make light work'.

Rewarding do-gooding!

After saying goodbye to Laura we headed back to base all commenting on what a fun, therapeutic and rewarding task that was. The main discussion topic on the run back was what beverage we were going to order at the pub to quench our thirst. Soda water and lime was unanimously the favourite! Maybe we should ask the pub to rename this drink the 'Goodgym'. I think ordering a pint of 'Goodgym' has a certain ring to it! (Oh this is a good idea Liz, nice!

With everyone back together we all stretched and then headed to the local watering-hole for a pint of GoodGym and some birthday brownies!

Next we will be helping Camden Council clear out a garage and another gardening task (TBC). Sign up here

Also don't forget GoodGym Barnet starts next Tuesday, go along and support Pennie and the new area! Also tell all your Barnet friends - sign up here.

PB out.