15 GoodGymers ran 4K to Rhodes Estate and conquered a mammoth task of digging, shifting and carrying in one of Hackney’s most physical tasks ever!!

Thanks to everyone who was able to come along this evening!!

A short run and monster task was the order of the evening while listening out for the football cheers in the background.

A shout out to the magical GG Olympics and for additional volunteers at the British 10k.

Then we were off a short 2kish run to Dalston where we met Alex and the Rhodes Estate Community gardeners.

After a mountain of compost was delivered with a bit of error in the tipping we had been recruited to dig and shift it back into the designated store area as to not incur the wrath of the council.

We got digging and shifting the tonnes of over flowing compost back into the designated area at a Bolt like rate lead by Elite Shoveller Dominique.

The compost also had secondary locations and we loaded up wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow to disappear to the far side of the Estate and air the growth of the gardens there!

30 minutes of hardcore digging and shifting we had victory!! All soil present and correct in the right areas!!

We turned our attention to the 6 massive 100kg Railway sleepers. Team work makes the dream work! And with many hands making still heavy work we carried the sleepers 200 meters using sticks to carry them. Creating a blockage so that naughty drivers couldn’t drive over the flower bed to get around the bollards in the road.

We so much physical work complete we drifted back to base after very much earning our endorphin rush!!

Catch you next week!! Don’t forget about the Summer BBQ at the Wick garden on the 17th.

Smooth Running

Joel

A small army of red tee shirts met at the Phoenix for Barnet's first birthday. There was glitter. There were red and white balloons. There were smiles and laughs.

So many wonderful runners showed up to celebrate our birthday, including GG newbie Maz – give her a cheer! Shout out to all the GG tourists who came to visit for the special day and to all the GG Barnet oldies, who we've missed in the weeks (months?!) gone by – thanks for coming back!

After a brief introduction from Pennie, 28 GoodGymers headed to Cherry Tree Woods for an animal inspired warm-up. It's safe to say we were already pretty toasted in the evening sun, but high-five fitness sessions don't complete themselves!

Picking up the pace, we headed 2km to our task – supporting volunteers at Long Lane Pasture. The pasture is an incredible green space run by a group of volunteers, and they needed some hands building their compost piles. This was actually the task we did on our very first GG Barnet run last year, which made it even more special. No councillors in suits this time – but we still beat our numbers with the largest ever Barnet turn out in history! Big cheers all round, really

Splitting in half, the Barnet runners worked in teams to rake and hoe the long grass; piling it all on to the compost heaps. One beautiful sunset and 25 minutes later, we regrouped and were honored with a 1st birthday chocolate cake(s), gratefully given to us by the volunteers at Long Lane Pasture. What babes they are!

Next up was circuits and frisbee matches. While half the runners star-jumped and lunged, the other half took part in fiercely competitive frisbee games designed to get us all running fitter and faster.

Chocolate cakes (sort of) burned off, we returned to base – the Phoenix cinema. Damian lead the speedy group back, whilst Pennie took the leisurely group. We then took over the cinema cafe balcony and toasted a year of great group runs. Muchos grassias (gracias) Pennie – we are as excited about the next 50 weeks as the first 50.

Happy birthday Barnetians - cheers to your efforts in 2016/2017 and here's hoping we can reach out and help even more people in our community in this next year, particularly isolated older people.

Don't forget to sign up for next week's run here. We'll be doing some silent gardening for the Westminster Drugs Project.

TFF (Task Force Freya)

Ps. This week's Barnet berry was blackberries! Some blackberries picked from the pasture were used to make Barnet's oat & cinnamon biscuit of the week. I thought they were bloody brilliant (but I made them so I may be biased...)

Thanks to everyone who brought cakes and snacks for the after party at the Phoenix. And thanks to the Phoenix for being such wonderful hosts!

We've got 10 free tickets for regular runners to go and see something. Louis is our desingated movie organiser. There's 6 spots left, so if you want in, email Pennie asap!

5 fitness Finding GoodGymers got the first Fitness 4 All- Tower Hamlets started in style!

On a beautiful East London evening we got down to some running technique refining drills to really tap into our Inner Speedy runner!

Focusing on the all important knee drive together with our feet landing underneath our bodies. We laid some great foundations to allow us to become more efficient and in turn faster runners!

Throwing in some top top lower body conditioning and the ever important and perfectly executed core exercises. We smashed out an awesome session and really look forward to building on this on each Thursday in June!

Look forward to seeing you all next week

Smooth Running

Joel