11 runners turned up in Exeter quay this amazingly sunny morning to help Plastic Free Exeter with a litter pick. Tom W joined us for the first time. Great stuff! We hope you enjoyed it and will join us again sometime soon!

We all made our own way, running (some straight from yoga training!), cycling, jogging or walking to the quay, where we met up with volunteers from Plastic Free Exeter, to take part in the litter pick. We quickly got kitted out with litter pickers, bags and gloves and set off searching for litter. The weather was absolutely gorgeous; the sun booming from a clear blue sky! Amazing after all that rain in the week!

To begin with we mostly found small peaces of plastic wrappers, but we made sure we picked them all up, as we had been informed that these micro plastics spread really easily out into the sea and that it is important to pick up every bit of plastic, no matter how small! As we continued our walk along the quay we met some very friendly geese and swans. We also came across more and more litter...

Towards the end of our walk we found an area with prickly bushes and realised that the ground underneath was covered with bottles, cans, wrappers, plastic cutlery, takeaway boxes and all sorts of rubbish. Francesca even found a par of matching shoes! Shame they weren't running shoes.. could maybe have been useful to someone in the group! We also found a metal shopping basket (perfect for carrying the shoes in!) and Tom T found a glass full of green liquid with a straw perfectly placed in the middle.. It almost looked ready to be consumed but I am glad no-one decided to give it a go!

After an hour of litter picking, chatting and having a great time together, we walked back to the starting point to hand in 4 bin bags full of litter! Not bad at all! Some group photos followed and some price-giving for the weirdest peace of litter. Our very own GG runner Lisa got a prize for having found a pair of boots and a Christmas cracker! Congratulations!

Even though it is a bit depressing seeing how much litter is being chucked away and how much plastic there is lying around, I had the best of time walking around in the sunshine with you guys, doing good and getting fit!

Next Week we have our first really 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 Tinkham School and help them 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! Sign up here, I would love to have you along!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.

Can't wait to see you all soon again! Happy running till then!

28 runners ran 4 k to prepare Newtown’s Community Preschool for the start of term. Brilliant to see so many runners returning again and fantastic to welcome 18 (!) new runners to our group!

After signing in and locking our bags up at the Phoenix Art Center we jogged over to the Rougemont Gardens for a dynamic warm up session. It is hard to say what we enjoyed the most- the actual warm-up exercises or the cheering on by some slightly merry members of the public?

We then had a nice and flat (at least by Exeter standards) 2 k run to the task, Newtowns Community Preschool. The evening was nice and warm and it was lovely to hear everyone chatting along the way. We stopped at regular intervals to re-groups and we also managed some press-ups, wall squats, lunges and triceps dips. Great work everyone and a big thank you to Sam who back marked so that no one got left behind!

At the preschool we were welcomed by Debbie who had filled a big white board with lists of jobs that needed doing. There was certainly a lot to do and great with such a variety of jobs! We quickly got stuck in with the following:

• Weeding
• Sanding down shelves
• Digging
• Transporting soil in wheelbarrows
• Clearing out and refilling a sandpit
• Painting
• Making a mud kitchen
• Cleaning carpets and walls

It was amazing to see how much we achieved in just 40 minutes! The mud kitchen was made with the soil that we dug up on our launch evening at the community building in Belmont park. Great to see this come to use! The whole preschool looked great when we left.

The children will love it when they come back after their summer holidays!

On the return run we stopped in Belmont Park for a HIIT style circuit training session, which also included a running element. Everyone gave it all they had and worked super hard! We had a lot of faces matching the red GoodGymt-shirt. Obviously something to aim for every week!

After the circuit training we ran back to the Phoenix where we carried out some stretches and talked about some dates for our diaries:

Saturday 7th September: If you’re free and feel like doing doing a Parkrun come along to Exeter Riverside Parkrun this Saturday (7th). We hope to be a few GoodGym runners there together and we can have some coffee and cake (obviously just as important as running) afterwards. A great way to kick start the weekend!

Saturday 21st September: We have our very first community mission in Exeter on Saturday 21st September. This is a perfect date for it as it is the same day as the GoodGym will make a nationwide effort to complete the most community missions ever in one day, as part of the GoodGym 10 year anniversary celebrations! Amazingly it looks like our community mission will take place at the Westbank which is fantastic as the Westbank is funding the GoodGym in our area! More information about this will follow soon. For now just save the date. It will be fab!

Next Group Run: Next week we will run to Mincinglake and Marypole allotments to help them develop one of their plots.The run is 5 k in total, with a few hills, but nothing too steep! All abilities are welcome! We will also start with our monthly core session next week. Sign up here to join! It will be great to see you there!

To finish of with I have to say brilliant work again everyone! So happy to see our group growing and to get to know you all! Let’s keep up the good work and get fit by doing good!