Bonfire night was celebrated in style by 17 runners who ran 4 k to help Newtown Community Preschool improve both their indoor and outdoor areas. A very warm welcome to Ellie who joined us for the first time. Lovely to have you with us, we hope you enjoyed it and will come back soon for more doing good and getting fit!

We started the evening with a warm-up session outside the Phoenix. We walked and jogged around in circles, doing different movements when certain numbers were shouted out. We obviously also let our chickens out (long story) and some other dynamic stretches.

Warmed up and ready to run we set off towards the preschool. We re-grouped at regular intervals so that no-one got left behind and we made the most of these stops to work on our glutes and quads with lots of squat and lunge variations. We also managed to fit in a few press-ups to improve upper body strength. Big thank you to Lisa who back marked, such an important job!

When we arrived to the preschool we were welcomed by Debbie, who very efficiently showed us what to do. She had written up a big board with jobs that needed doing and we got stuck in straight away with the following:

• Bagging up soil
• Moving pallets
• Moving wooden poles
• Bagging up leaves and old apples
• Sanding down gateposts
• Cleaning
• Putting filler into holes
• Sweeping steps and alley
• Taking down a netball post
• Removing trunking
• Fix fabric up to ceiling
• Cleaning out the gutters in the play area

Can you believe we ticked of every single job on the list! AMAZING WORK EVERYONE! 17 of us working for 45 minutes is equivalent of nearly 13 hours of work and it really showed!

The children will love seeing their outdoor play area looking so nice and tidy tomorrow!

On the return run we picked up the pace a little. We also found the most amazing looking hill.. It was too good to miss so we smashed out some brilliant hill sprints to really get our heart rate going! Fantastic effort guys!

Finally, we finished of with a fitness session, focusing on core exercises. Strong core is so important, it keeps you in the right position even when you get tired at the end of your runs and makes you well balanced as runners. We did 10 different types of core exercises and I think everyones favorite was the Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes Plank! You even got to hear you run trainer sing to that one.. something that doesn't happen very often! As it was a celebration evening we also did a round of Squat, Squat, Goose. You just never get too old for party games! Even better when they make you fit, right?

Back at the Phoenix we carried out some static stretches, acknowledges what we had achieved both in terms of improving our own fitness and in terms of the work we had done for the preschool. We also talked about our Christmas race, the Haldon Jingle Bell Run. It will be great to go together as a group! The more the merrier! After stretching some of us gathered in the Phoenix for some drinks, a perfect way to end the night!

SHOUT OUTS

HUGE SHOUT OUT to every single one of you for coming out tonight and being so cheerful, so full of energy, for working so hard at the task and for just being such an awesome group! I can't think of a better way to celebrate bonfire night than to have been out doing good with you guys!

Thank you Holly for the run pun. I am so grateful for the help with this!

Congratulations to Florence who came second lady in Sidmouth 10 k run last Sunday. Fantastic work!

Good luck to Pete and Florence who are carrying out the first mission run in our area this weekend! Amazing stuff!

Thank you to the Westbank for making the GoodGym possible in our area and to the Phoenix for providing us with such an excellent starting point!

NEXT WEEK

The run next week is 5 k in total and will take us to Exwick for the first time! Exciting to do good in a new area! We will distribute Exwick news, a community magazine in which ideas and events for the area can be shared. This is usually done by just one or two people so by turning up in a big group we will make a huge difference! Sign up here to join!

Remember to bring a head torch and reflective clothing/bands if you have them. Please also wear some layers so that you don't get cold whilst working at the task.