On Saturday 24th October, we headed to Sunny Hill parkrun in Hendon for another GoodGym x Move10 community fitness mission! 🏃‍♂️💪

We met, ready to tackle the infamous hills and take on the 5K course. Sunny Hill certainly lives up to its name, but don't let the sunshine fool you, those hills mean business! 😂

The course took us along paved paths, with plenty of climbs and descents to get the legs working and the heart pumping. With its challenging elevation, this parkrun is definitely more about conquering the hills than chasing a PB. Every uphill step was a little victory!

After the run, we were ready to roll up our sleeves for some litter picking to help keep our neighbourhood looking its best. 🌳 It was great fitness challenge a bit of weekend adventure and the opportunity to overlook of the beautiful Hendon from the top of the hill.

Well done toSubham who had a strong run, keeping his grade adjusted pace just a bit more than 5mins /km 🥳🍾

A big thank you to parkrun volunteers who make these events happen every week! ❤️

We came, we ran, we conquered (well, negotiated!) the hills. Sunny Hill certainly put the up in uphill running! ⛰️😅

Four sturdy Goodgymmers gathered for an evening session at the Phoenix. We had braced ourselves for poor weather and, with one brave soul asking for a walk rather than run, arrived in less-than-appropriate gear. Sadly, our walker pulled out due to work, but on the plus side, the weather turned out to be rain-free. Still, we democratically agreed to power-walk with optional jeffing .

And it turned out we could do a lot more talking while walking, and still get fit. Rachel had a lingering request to share revenge narratives, but in honour of Victoria horror stories of attending a gym, we instead decided to talk about favourite exercise experiences - 'good gyms'. We chattered away for the 2.7km through East Finchley's back streets to the Mutton Brook, then Lyttleton Playing Fields and finally to Northway Gardens, where we met Brian.

As ever, Brian was in good form, regaling us with his stories of managing the gardens, as well as of the amazing work volunteers had done to transform the rose beds over a decade ago. He talked about the history of the gardens and how things have changed in recent years.

Then to the night's tasks - a large fallen branch needed moving, and it took four (mainly because we wanted to be useful). We made short work of it, so Brian led us to task two. The Council had trimmed willows and put the fronds in the bushes by the path, so together we moved them all further along the hedge to a gap, where they were out of sight.

Then, with the job done, Brian led us back to the road, pausing briefly to show us a beautiful cotinus coggygria - a smoke tree, visibly red even in the dark. We parted at his car, and made our merry way back, chatting away and finally getting to those revenge narratives Rachel was keen to share. And there was even time at the Phoenix Cinema for a quick drink and popcorn before heading home.

This morning a Goodgym volunteer cycled to one of Barnet parkrun to Oak hill to run 5k.

The weather was chilled and the run started with a short walk to the start line. There was 2.75laps all flat, no hill just you against the time. Easy peasy and at the end of the run felt fairly heated.

First time running on this location so PB was guaranteed 🤣

George kicked off the run with a question about gigs, inspiring Rachel and Beattie, two stalwart GoodGymers, to give this report a slightly musical theme.

Beattie took a walk on the wild side with Patricia, while the others set off running, with Victoria as back marker. Richard went past like a flash—ah-ah!—and George once again wondered whether Richard had ambitions for leadership.

All the leaves were brown and the sky had a greyish tinge as the GoodGymers set to work for a while on an autumn day.

We raked the leaves with abandon and bagged them up, then tucked the bulbs into the soil, leaving them “dreaming Spring”. We pictured a host of golden daffodils to come, taking a moment to look up at the stars.

We made these memories for ourselves, with Theodore capturing our usual photos.

Finally, we laid down our tools and returned to the cinema, where we celebrated Richard’s 400th outing with pizza and popcorn.