What a way to start a Saturday! We met on a crisp, sunny Heath morning, with the autumn leaves doing their thing. Then it was straight into the hilliest parkrun in London.

After the run we swapped uniform for pink hi-vis and joined the parkrun volunteer team on barcode scanning at the finish. Phones in hand, we scanned runners, joggers and walkers across the line, from speedy finishers to families out for a stroll. Every scan means someone gets their time and their result, so it’s a small job that matters a lot to the people running. On this park run 601 people decided to run 5k as a morning start.

It was a lovely mix of people, with plenty of smiles and a few muddy shoes. Scanning is a great way to give something back to a free, community-run event that gets people moving every single week.

Hope to see you out there next time!

On short notice, we found out the Phoenix had no leaflets for us, but a quick message to the Artsdepot and our evening's activities were sorted. I trekked over with 450 of their Autumn programmes in my backpack - which slowed me down a bit! - but lucky for me a whopping seven other Goodgymmers were out for the session, including our favourite four-legged jogger, Gus. Great also to see Lucy taking a break from too much work and join us, and Patricia sticking with us for her fourth session in a month!

We warmed up as usual, taking it turns to pick exercises to our heart rates up. Beattie and Rachel had tonight's question: what item of furniture do you wish you had? A couple of sofas, a standing desk, Richard's wish for a sun lounger, and Paul wanting a tempur mattress (not a tempuRA mattress, which would need a very large deep frier).

Paul and Gus took up backmarking to keep out of the way, while the rest of us got started, splitting into teams to cover each side of the road. We leapfrogged our way through the back streets, occasionally tagging back to Paul to collect more. And we were done with 450 leaflets in about 25min.

Wanting a little more fitness, we jogged across the High Road to Market Place Gardens - a parklet and playground Goodgym Barnet helped prepare the ground for several years ago - for a little bit of circuit training. Push ups, reverse push ups, step ups with cardio inbetween - star jumps, burpies and variations, and squat kicks to finish. It only took another 15min tops and while Subham was keen for the game of tag Paul suggested, it was just a bit too dark and trip-hazardous, so we jogged back to the Phoenix for a decent stretch down and a quick snack and drink.

Well done to Beattie for clocking up a whopping 150 good deeds - a mini-milestone, but not far off 200. Plenty more to keep fit with!

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! ⛰️😅