13 amazing #GGwinterwarriors came out in the cold and foggy evening, ran 4 k to deliver leaflets for Age UK Exeter and had lots of fun!

A very warm welcome to Naarani and Chloe who joined us for the first time! It was great having you along and we would love to see you soon again! Congratulations to Helen who has now completed 20 good deeds! Great work!

We started our evening with some warm-up exercises outside the Phoenix (our brilliant starting point). Our first exercise involved checking how well our body clocks work. We closed our eyes and jogged on the spot until we thought 1 minute was up and then sat down. It was harder than it sounds and the guesses for when 1 minute was up varied from 23 seconds to 57! After some more jogging in circles, high knees, heel kicks, lunges and more we were ready to start running!

Our very Christmassy Lisa back marked as we made our way over to St Leonards, our task location for the evening. It was lovely to once again run through the town centre which was beautifully lit up by the Christmas lights and also great to hear everyone chatting and laughing as we ran.

Our task this evening was to complete the leafleting for Age UK Exeter that we made a start on a few weeks ago. Like the GoodGym, Age UK Exeter works hard to combat loneliness and isolation among the elderly. Something that many elderly particularly miss is having someone to share a meal with and Age UK Exeter is therefor running a campaign called #EatTogetherExeter. What a fantastic task helping them get the word out about this!

As it was a very dark and foggy evening and we didn’t want to get spread out over too big of an area, we divided our group into two. One half leafleted whilst the other group worked super hard on some Sally Squats. We then made our way to a new area and swapped the groups over so that no-one missed out on the brilliant squats! I hope you loved them just as much as I do!

Such fantastic effort both delivering the leaflets and smashing the squats! You guys are the best!

Once the task was completed we made our way back to Princess Hay where we did some party games for our fitness session. It's Christmas after all! I think it is safe to say you can get very fit doing party games too.. Especially when they involve Black Burpees, Red Run-Card Challenges and Tinsel-Tag!

All that laughing definitely worked your core muscles too!

We then jogged over to the Phoenix for some stretches followed by some refreshments in the bar; a perfect way to end the last session of the year.

It's been fantastic to start up the GoodGym in Exeter and brilliant to see the group grow and become a real community! You are all part of that and I want to give you all a HUGE shout out for all the brilliant stuff you have achieved over the last few months! I can't wait for more in 2020! Lots of GG love to you all, have a great Christmas and a happy New Year!

Dates for the diary

• No group runs over Christmas (24th and 31st).

• In January we start off in style with a community mission on the 4th, doing a take over of the marshalling and volunteering for Exeter Riverside Park Run. What a fantastic community mission! Join us!

• First group run next year will be on Tuesday 7th January. We will run and deliver leaflets for Ride On, a small charity that works to make Exeter healthier and cleaner by offering bike maintenance courses, cycle training and cycle route information. It will be a great run, the task owner will join us for the full run session and there will be some little surprise prices at the end! Sign up here

• There will also be a community mission on Saturday 11th January, helping HospiceCare with a Christmas Tree Collection. There will be info about that soon on the website.

13 amazing runners ran 4.6 k and flew through the delivery of leaflets for Age UK Exeter. They also smashed out some hill sprints and run drills and got to experience some crazy photo shoots under the Christmas lights! What a night!

As usual we met at the Phoenix Art Center to lock up our bags and go through news and safety instructions. We also had the great pleasure of having Martin, the Chief Officer of Age UK Exeter, with us at the Phoenix. He told us about the work that Age UK does in Exeter, particularly in term of tackling isolation among the elderly. Though their campaign #EatTogetherExeter they provide opportunities for elderly people to share a meal with others, something that a lot of them rarely get the chance to do.

Before setting off running we carried out a dynamic warm up session. We jogged around in circles, moving our arms in different directions. We then carried out different movements corresponding to different numbers being shouted out. We quickly warmed up and set off towards our task location. During the run we re-grouped at regular intervals so that no-one got left behind. Town was beautifully lit up with all the Christmas lights and when we arrived to St Leonards the spirits were high!

Our task was to deliver postcards for Age UK Exeter, promoting their #EatTogetherExeter campaign. We divided our group into smaller groups to deliver the postcards and very efficiently covered street after street! We worked so much faster than anticipated and had delivered the whole pack in no time!

We flew through the flyering!

With some extra time for fitness we set off towards the quay were we found the most brilliant hill for hill sprints. Yay! Using a pyramid model we sprinted up the hill five times, increasing the sprinting distance 3 times and then decreasing it back down again. You guys smashed it! Truly fantastic effort by everyone! So lovely to be cheered on by people walking past as well!

Next up we sprinted over the bridge in the quay three times. Here we were not cheered on so much by people walking past, but by the geese and the swans in the water! They were clearly very impressed!

After a nice run up a long hill we gathered under the Christmas lights in Princess Hay for some run drills, working to mobilise our hips and knees, improve coordination and footwork and improve glute and quad strength. Although the drills were great and you all worked really hard I think it is safe to say we had even more fun exploring all the Christmas light displays! It might only be November but why not?

Back at the Phoenix we carried out some static stretches. Tom also showed us the butterfly stretch and we almost took off the ground with that! We then gathered in the Phoenix for some drinks and to plan our Christmas Party (more info on that to follow soon). Lots of CHEERING both on the GG website and in person took place plus some tasting of Scandinavian salt liquorice... it didn't proof half as popular as the Heroes chocolates though!

SHOUT OUTS

• Thank you Lisafor back marking! Great support for the group!
• Well done Tom and Lisa for reaching 10 good deeds! Brilliant work!
• Fantastic to have Pete on board as task force!
• Great to see so many of you signing up to our Christmas race and Dartmoor training run!
• Huge shout out to all of you: you are all heroes for coming out to get fit by doing good, not letting the dark or the cold defeat you! It is AMAZING to run together, to connect with the communities across our city and with each other! Sending lots of GG love to you all!

NEXT WEEK Next week we are running to Newtown to help Clifton Albert Residence Association maintain some alley ways in the area. The run will be 3 k in total, perfect for all abilities, and we will have a great fitness session as well with some brand new equipment that Santa brought early for us! It would be amazing to have you along! Sign up here

TRAINING RUN On December 8th we have a long distance trail run on Dartmoor. If you are keen to discover the excitement of trail running and to go out and explore the moors in a group sign up here, it will be a real adventure!

CHRISTMAS RUN Christmas Race: We are going to run Haldon Jingle Bell Run on December 15th! Yay! You can choose between 5 and 10 k and it will be great fun! Sign up here on the race event page and then also let me know here if you are coming so that I know how many treats to bring!