Wow! It was the most beautiful morning and it felt AMAZING to meet up in daylight after so many dark evening sessions! Even MORE AMAZING to have 7 runners run 3 k and work super hard to help Powderham Crescent Residents Association with some gardening tasks!

A very warm welcome to Anna, Daisy and Craig who joined us for the first time, checking out what the GoodGym is all about. We hope you loved it and want to come back again soon for more running and doing good! Also fantastic to see Claire again for her second group run plus Anna and Lawrence, two of our most seasoned GoodGymers in Exeter! Lawrence celebrated 10 good deeds today! yay!

What a Sunday Super Crew!

We started our session at the Phoenix (we start all our group runs here which is great as we can lock our bags up in a safe place, use toilets and get refreshments in the bar if we like). After a little welcome speech and safety briefing we carried out a dynamic warm up session and then set of running towards our task location, Powderham Crescent.

We took the route via Northernhay Gardens which were beaming in sunlight and it was great to show this park to some of the runners who had not seen it before. As always we re-groped at regular intervals and made the most of these stops by carrying out some squats, lunges and agility work. A big thank you to Anna who back marked the whole way to make sure no-one got left behind.

On arrival to Powderham Crescent we were amazed what a stunning place was hiding between the tall buildings. Once you had entered in through the gates it felt like you had entered some kind of secret garden. Beautiful shrubs, bushes and trees everywhere made it look so lush and green even in the middle of January!

We were welcomed by Jonathan and a few other members of Powderham Crescent Residents Association. They showed us a very overgrown path that we were to dig out and clear from brambles, ivy and other overgrowth. We dug, rakes, pulled, chopped and worked really hard for 45 minutes. It gave us a full body work-out and it was amazing to see how much we got done. Just check out the before and after photos!

When we arrived I didn't think we would get anywhere with this, but just look at it now! The whole path is visible!

Craig even managed to remove a huge plant with roots buried right through the tarmac! Fantastic work all of you!

After a lovely cup of tea (big thank you to the task owners) we felt re-energized and we set off running again. We stopped in the Northenhay gardens where we had the most amazing views over the city and the hills beyond. We had lots of fun working in pairs doing squats and planks. What a lot of getting fit and doing good in one morning! Great work everyone!

Back at the Phoenix we carried out some important stretches. We also talked about different ways to get involved with the GoodGym, such as coach runs and mission runs, and how easy it is to take your next step to get mission verified.

To finish off with I have to say how amazing it was to have you all with me running and doing good today! What a stunning day, so much achieved, so much fun! I really do hope I get to see you all soon again!

Next up

Next week we will return to St Davids Church and continue our work with refurbishing the parish room. We will have two different speed groups for the run, all abilities are warmly welcomed! I would love to have you along so please sign up here and join the fun!