The Goodgym Aid Station 2 team (created as a response to the amazing level of enthusiasm garnered by the Goodgym crew!) assembled outside Westminster bright and early on Sunday morning, ready for a day of race prep and good vibes! Our objective was to lay out hundreds of paper cups in a neat and organised manner before the first runners pass our water station for the ASICS 10km.

All the volunteers (including the lovely team from Fordy Runs group, who were also on hand) got straight to it, and we had towers of cups ready to be distributed in no time! Which was certainly to our advantage, as the first runners were tearing round the course as we worked (first place approached our 9km aid station in about 26 minutes!).

For the rest of the morning, we had a blast cheering on the all of the passing runners, approaching the final stretch of their races. Experienced semi-pro club runners, first timers, charity challengers and plenty of Goodgymmers were out enjoying their first mass participation running fest on London streets for almost a year and a half. The atmosphere was electric.

Thank you to all of the Goodgym team for coming out and supporting grass roots running races, and for encouraging your fellow running folk to achieve their own personal goals. Can't wait to do it again!

What a fantastic paddle on the canal, hanging out with the herons, swans and sharks!

I think we did so well not to have anyone fall in!

If you enjoyed this evening you can always join their adult canoe club on Wednesday evening https://www.laburnumboatclub.com/adult-canoe-club

Tonight twenty two terrific GoodGymmers ran 3.5k to Long Lane Pasture to help maintain this brilliant local space.

Meeting at the Phoenix we were joined by Maria for her first ever GoodGym run - welcome!! We celebrated the team's recent effort at the Brixton 10k on Sunday (Run Through team photo above!) and started to think of where we could go next... Racing is more fun in teams so let's get on it.

We set off with Sarah back marking and quickly made the run down to Long Lane. The Pasture is maintained by volunteers and kept as open space and a nature reserve. We were asked to rake up the grass and hay from some cutting over the weekend, and continue the work with the lawnmower to finish cutting back some of the longer grass.

The teams divided up the gloves, rakes and wheelbarrows and got to work. We were warned that the grass contained lots of brambles and thorns so thick gloves were a must.

Rob and Avital took turns mowing the lawn - it was heavy, hard work - and quickly cut back the remaining grass. Everyone else worked through raking and clearing, and dumping lots of wheelbarrows of grass on the compost heap.

Finishing up, we dropped off our tools and met in some of the clear open space for our fitness session. Today it was core work. We did four exercises for 45 seconds each with 15 seconds rest inbetween. The finisher was, naturally, a plank. Everyone did great, making me think that maybe a plank off is needed sometime soon....

From there it was time for our goodbyes and the run back. Graham led a fast group, with Sarah back marking. Back at base we stretched and shared this week's Barnet biscuit: chocolate bourbons.

See you soon team

D

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!