13 GoodGym runners joined forces with CREOS volunteers to ‘chip in’ on the Crouch End Open Space monthly working party.

What a day. The weather always seems to be good to us when we do a community mission at the Crouch End Open Space, yet today may just have been the brightest most sunniest CREOS task yet. Under the warming sun we eased into a few hours of good honest outdoor work, t-shirts and in some cases shorts out in force.

There was woodchip to be laid on paths. There’s always woodchip! It was very satisfying watching the woodchip piles get smaller as the woodchipped portions of the paths grew larger. Yep we’re getting pretty good at this here woodchipping business.

Elsewhere, loose branches and sticks were collected to continue building up the dead hedge GoodGym volunteers helped build at last month’s working party. This was to protect the ground around a very old oak tree that had been diagnosed as ‘stressed’ due to high footfall above its roots. I must say it did seem a touch less tense this month. I’d say that dead hedge is doing the trick.

GoodGymmers also got stuck in digging through soil and buried asphalt to make holes for the CREOS team to plant saplings - tough work this, well done to those that took it on. There was also clearing of cherry laurel which is a pest in these parts.

At 1pm we enjoyed the traditional picnic put on by the CREOS team for volunteers at the end of their working parties. What a lovely way to spend a few hours on a Sunday - thanks to all who came along and hope to see you next time at CREOS.

14 GoodGym runners helped CREOS spread woodchip over several pathways on a brilliant autumn's day.

CREOS is a conservation charity whose objective is to protect, maintain and improve the Crouch End Open Space area - a green oasis of open fields and woods located between Crouch End and Muswell Hill.

On the third Sunday of every month it holds working parties from 11am to 1pm, and this month 14 GoodGym runners joined in for a special community mission to move a mountain of woodchip onto the pathways snaking through the wooded part of their green space.

When Paul from CREOS saw how many of us there were he confidently declared it would be ‘a doddle’ for us to get this done.

In this doddle there were three main jobbles: shovelling woodchip into wheelbarrows; transporting the woodchip in wheelbarrows onto the pathways; and spreading out the woodchip on the pathways once it had been dumped from wheelbarrows. Our team quickly developed a fluid system of working, where at any moment shovellers might become transporters, transporters spreaders, and spreaders shovellers and transporters. Wheelbarrows were a common theme.

Luckily we had a good bunch of wheelbarrows, including one special musical wheelbarrow which drew from its two-note range to serenade us for much of the task. Unfortunately one of those notes doesn’t exist on any scale known to man. Who knows - maybe the other wheelbarrows appreciated it?

Frances seemed to end up with the musical wheelbarrow more often than not. She quickly mastered the instrument and gave impromptu recitals up and down the pathways.

There was quite a mound of woodchip to move, yet with so many hands on deck we made great progress and soon had to find more pathways to woodchip. By the time 1pm came around we had made a huge difference to the mound (now an upmarket molehill) and the pathways (now luxuriously appointed with so-fresh-its-steaming woodchip), and CREOS thanked us for our efforts by throwing us a picnic!

Massive thanks to all the GoodGym runners that came along to this community mission - you were all superb and the CREOS team were hugely appreciative of your hard work.

Meanwhile, where were you when Islington and Camden Trainer Paul Bown recorded his new marathon PB of 2:51:07 at Abingdon Marathon 2018? We were moving woodchip at CREOS! When the news came through of Paul's superb run some regulars of the group runs Paul leads assembled for a quick celebratory photo for PB and his new PB. #PB4PB

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!