Our friends at Exeter Communities Together are improving their community allotment, to build a hut for their members to use as a social area. We were tasked with clearing an area ready for levelling, and we did a fine job! Great work from our new member Rob, settled into the mission very well. A fun and nice evening, we even got a bunch of grapes for our efforts!

Five GoodGymers ambled around Wonford delivering a community newsletter informal local residents about summer activities taking place in their part of Exeter.

Leaflet delivery sounds simple but it's a great way to explore a neighbourhood - you'd never know how hard some doors are to find! Some doors are not what they seem though, as Lucy R found out...

11 outstanding runners ran 5 k to help Exeter Communities Together create a community allotment! Welcome Ashley who joined us for the first time. It was brilliant having you with us and we would love to see you soon again!

GETTING FIT

We started the evening with a dynamic warm up session, engaging all major muscle groups, we obviously "let the chickens out" and also did some fantastic fast running on the spot mixed with high knees.

We ran a total of 5 k. Whilst we re-grouped so that no-one got left behind we did a variety of squats, lunges and oblique twists. We also did some great sprints between street lights. Fantastic work everyone!

During our fitness session we worked on strengthening our glutes and quads with 4 types of lunges and 4 types of squats. These exercises will not only improve your performance as runners also reduce the risk of injury. Great stuff!

Finally, we finished with some stretches outside the Phoenix, acknowledging all the good stuff we had achieved together. When talking about certain stretches being especially important to runners someone said:

Does that mean we are real runners?

The answer to that is: YES YOU DEFINITELY ARE, AND BRILLIANT ONES TOO!

DOING GOOD

Our task this evening was to help Exeter Communities Together creating a community allotment on Prince Charles Road. Exeter Communities Together is a new project that “aims to enable Black, Asian and minority ethnic residents in Exeter to have a voice and increased visibility in the wider community”. What a brilliant initiative and fantastic that we could get involved and help them out with getting their community allotment ready.

We worked very hard at the task. In 45 minutes we managed to complete the following:

• Dug up and leveled our two large areas, getting them ready for polytunnels to be put up
• Cut back a huge buddleia bush
• Weeded a strawberry area
• Dug up a plum tree
• Moved grass and branches to a big pile

I don't think it will ever stop to amaze us how much we get done by working like this together! Such good effort! Best of all is that we had such a great time whilst working! Faith, the task owner, very kindly made us hot drinks, lit a fire for us which smelled amazing and warmed us up (although some of you worked so hard you definitely didn't need warming up!) and gave us apples to take home. So lovely! Holly made sure she worked extra hard and used her apples as weights on the return run!

SHOUT OUTS

Thank you Joe who back marked this evening. Very appreciated!

Big shout out to Holly and Joe who, on the run over to the task, noticed an elderly lady who had fallen over and hurt herself and stopped to help her out. That's doing good on the way to doing good!

Fantastic to, not only have Ashley with us for his first GoodGym run, but also to hear him share his gardening tips with other runners!

Thank you Pete for the pun! You have no idea how helpful that is!

Great work Sophie who smashed us all at the sprints!

Biggest shout out to ALL OF YOU for being so brilliant, for coming out in the cold evenings and making a huge difference in the local community! You guys are amazing!

A big thank you to the Westbank for making the GoodGym possible in our area and to the Phoenix for providing us with such a brilliant starting point.

COMMUNITY MISSION

Sunday (27th October) is the big day! We have another Community Mission. VERY EXCITING! We will meet by the Waterfront in Exeter quay at 10.00 am to help the volunteer group Plastic Free Exeter with a community litter pick. What a brilliant initiative! This is a great chance for you to plan your own run or walk and still get that good feeling of having carried out a good deed. It's also a brilliant opportunity for us to show more people what the GoodGym is all about! I would love to see you there! Sign up here!

NEXT WEEK

Next week we have our first long run coming up so please feel free to share this with friends who like longer distances. We will run a total of 10k to Ellen Tinkan School and help them clear up an outdoor area to improve access to a classroom for children who are visibly impaired. This feels like a very important task that will benefit the children so much, so please do come along, YOU will make a big difference! If you are worried about the distance email me and we can discuss this, or we can make a plan for you to meet up halfway to the task. I would love to see you next week! Sign up here.

Remember to bring a headtorch if you got one. Please also wear some layers so that you don't get cold whilst working at the task.