18 LOVEly GoodGym runners gave up their St Valentine's evenings to run c8km for a date with a paintbrush at the Barnet Furniture Centre but were stood up so decided to fly-er on the wings of love instead.

Pennie was still nursing an injury so it was up to another biscuiteer from Islington to look after the evening. I'm one of many people who admit they #runtoeat !

First dates, long-term relationships and blasts from the past

First to arrive was Del who'd I'd not seen in a while and then newbie Jacqui. Then we had LOTS more first-timers: Shawn, Catherine, Hayley AND Lilian; regular Barnetians and a few more familiar faces (Danica, Chris and Ollie) who I'd previously only seen in Islington and Haringey. Great to spread the love.

News

We welcomed the many newcomers, talked about the many ways of doing good, shared the news of our sibling's award in Wandsworth and talked about races.

We almost had a record turnout: some sources say the record is 19 and alternative news sources said 21. I haven't fact-checked this but I was tempted to still say it was a record turnout for my inaugural Tuesday run with GG Barnet.

Leg wax on, leg wax off

It was much milder than Monday but it was still important to warm up the heart and activate the leg muscles in preparation for a long run.

We marched, we lunged, we warmed up our calves and opened up our hip flexors with leggy versions of Mr Miyagi's wax on, wax off technique (or more conventionally we visualised mounting and dismounting a bicycle).

Squat's love got to do with it? Another great way to warm up the heart and soul is to do squats. Lots of them!

Fast or slow

GG Barnet stalwart, Damian, led a faster group and supported by Hazel at the rear. Heather made sure the philosophers and I made our way safely to the furniture centre with Del acting as backmarker.

It was a long run and Heather took Jacqui at the front and wanted more, more, more (that's how she liked it). They were not waiting around and threw in some push ups, loopbacks and sneaky ninja-like detours then seamlessly rejoining the group.

Tainted love

It was supposed to be painted love but alas our host was also injured so:

• we couldn't do our painting :(
• OR have the rest for our legs (sorry newcomers!!!) :(

Divide and conquer

However, we were left with a lovely note and a mahoosive stack of flyers so that we could tell the local Barnetians that they can find a new home for old furniture rather than throw it away.

We divided and conquered the many residential streets on the way back to the cinema and even left a few flyers on car windscreens. Wonderful work!

After around 15 minutes of high-flyering action we regrouped by the local nature trail and ran back as one pack-ish before meeting back at the base for a stretch of our muscles and a stretch of our stomachs with delicious chocolate wafers courtesy of speedster, Heather.

Thanks for having me, Barnet, it was a real pleasure and a massive thank you to the wonderful TaskForce and Graham, Dorian, Briony, Sarah and Nicola. You can sign up for next week's run here which is sorting DVDs for a care home and very on trend with BAFTA and OSCAR season: enjoy!!

Much LOVE

Patrick

PS: Thanks to Hazel for the run report title; I was going to go for Painted Love but that didn't work out!

PPS: Danica achieved her double wings of love with 200 deeds. Awesome!

18 GoodGymers met on a summer's evening to water plants, dig soil, play a tag drill game and run 4km!

With Joel away in France eating desserts Paul Bown (Camden Trainer) stepped in to cover. There was a lot of good and gyming to do but before that we talked about that the news:

• Welcome along to the newcomers this week - Lorraine, Michele and Marjorie! Lovely to have you join us.
• It's GoodGym Monthly Drinks next Thursday at the Star of the Kings, it would be lovely if you could come along!
• Also why not join us for the Cardiff Half Marathon on 2 October, the last in the Big 6 GoodGym Races this year - it's going to be a good one!

Okay onto to GoodGyming; after an active warm up we headed off to Hackney Downs to help HUG, a new organisation, that is helping to create a community garden space in the area, you can find them on facebook here.

We met the lovely Myra who runs the project and she gave us our tasks for the evening, which were:

• Watering the plants, vegetables and flowers in the surrounding garden with a HOSE pipe. Rich took the lead on water with lots of others helping untangle, carry and pull the hose line. Particular thank you to Cecilia who got her hands wet several times turning the HOSE on and off.
• A second larger group used spades and forks to turn and pile up soil in the garden. This was very physical work because of how dry and dusty the soil was. The area which was beautifully cleared will be used to plant wildflowers, which is great for wildlife!
• The final group helped plant new flowers in the garden space and weed around the existing flowers.

Tasks galore!

All the tasks are incredibly important for the growth and sustainability of the garden project space. Well done everyone! Great work!

After a group picture we said our goodbyes to Myra and headed around the corner to do a tag drill game! It involves an individual demonstrating a drill to the group and then everyone does the exercise during the time the individual is running an out and back. It's harder to write down than explain/demonstrate in person but it worked fantastically; we had squat jumps, pushups, mountain climbers, star jumps and more.

Drills, drills and oh some drills

So we had taken care of the good and the gym so it was time for more GYM! We ran 2.2km back around some back streets and through London Fields, despite living in Hackney for about 8 months I still don't know it well enough - thanks for helping with the directions guys.

Finally we did some stretches, felt good about doing good and said "see you soon!"

Joel's back next week, and you are off to Hackney Elderly Caribbean organisation to help with some painting, sign up here.

PB out.

25 Bold and bright Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to Abney Patk Cemetery to shovel, carry, pour, jump on and rake 13 tones of special gravel to create a foot path.

On a oh so rare lovely summers evening in Hackney we had a brilliant turn out to light up the streets and bring some GoodGym shine to East London. Great to have so many GoodGym newbies and Hackney GoodGym newbies aboard the Tuesday evening Running Fun bus. We even had a special visit from Ken the trainer of newly opening GoodGym Chelmsford.

After a never to be attempted again new runner briefing and a not that informative pre run chat (sorry will do better next week). We got jogged around the corner to London Fields and got mobilised and warm with a dynamic warm up before heading out on the streets of H-Town brilliantly lead by Hackney Task Force members Clare and Cecilia assisted by the all important route map print out. Gliding through streets keeping a silky pace we reached Abney Park Cemetery to meet the super knowledgeable Tom who got us tooled up and gave us a interesting history of the cemetery and what happens there today.

Tonight we were starting the processes of creating/laying a footpath on an always hugely muddy path that runs through the cemetery. The idea is to create a path which is useable all year around this no need to walk to the sides of the path. The cemetery is a nature reserve keeping the nutrient levels down on the sides of the paths is key and this will allow wild flowers to grow instead of only brambles and weeds.

Starting at a ferocious pace the team split into 4 teams to get the most possible work done! Diggers, barrow runners, path rakers and path smoother's. The special cement composite gravel was being shovelled at a pace while the barrow runners tore up and down the path tipping the gravel out for the smothers to get smoothing by jumping up and down on it to compact it down then raking it smooth. While the path rakers formed a non chain gang and reduced the camber height in the middle of the path. A super sustained effort with everyone having a go at most jobs saw the pace stay high, particularly from the magic barrow that was being shared between Andreana and Holly. Big shout out must also go to Amy for her jumping up and down dance skills!

After 35 minutes for action we had laid 13 tonnes of gravel and turned it into about a 50 metre stretch of path! Top work team 👏🏾👏🏼👏🏻👏🏿

For the run back Team Sexy set off first on the race back to base, being lead by Cecilia the crew set a strong and steady pace. While The Speedy crew set off 3 minutes later and the Supersonic team lead by Rich waiting another 2 minutes before heading out after finishing off the post task tidy up. An epic race back to base with an impressive Supersonic long cut saw all three groups arrive back to base having completed an awesome run and an quality task!!

A few stretches and silent round of applause rounded off a top evenings Group run!!

Next week we are off to the Bikery for some painting action please sign up here.

On Saturday seesGoodGym ParRun tour come to Hackney Marshes ParkRun. Be great to see you there for 5k timed run. All the information can be found here.

Good luck to Ken as he starts on the Chelmsford GoodGym adventure next week!!

Thanks to Rich for the pun this week!!

Smooth Speed

Joel

Ten fearless Hackney GoodGymers braved the Tuesday Hurricane to deliver 600 flyers to promote St Luke church's amazing summer fair while running 3k and hundreds of stairs.

Only the strong survived tonight!! First the mental strength to get out the door and join the rest of Team Hackney, second to bound effortlessly up and down the stairs of 12 blocks of flats.

With the high number of stairs to be tackled tonight we started the evening with a series of plyometric exercises to strengthen up the lower body, improve core strength and balance as well as making our running efficiency even better!! We hopped, skipped and bounded in a mesmerising rhythm.

We then run 1.5k to St Luke's church to get loaded up with flyers for the very impressive Summer fair which doubles up as the Queens 90th birthday celebrations! Once fully loaded with flyers we descended on mass to each block dominating the task in record time!! Managing to stay together in the vast maze of the estate we bounded up and down the stairs super efficiently. In 40 action packed minutes we had completed the task and totally covered the estate in Summer fair cheer!! We left a very greatful St Luke's and ran the 1.5k back to base with many smiles and an impressive amount of feel good chatter.

After a rejuvenating static stretch out we were on our way feel great about an enjoyable task well done!

Next week we are back to Eco Active to enjoy the delights of levelling their community garden and many other jobs while being treated to some of the funniest stories you will ever hear. Would love you to come along!! please sign up here.

As a special treat we also have an amazing starter session on Saturday with the HUG garden on Hackney Downs! With a little less running but the same action pact 90 minutes of feel good fun be great to have you along and why not bring a GoodGym newbie friend along for good measure!! Sign up here. Please not we are starting and finishing at the HUG garden in middle of Hackney Downs. See you at 9:45!

Smooth sailing

Joel