This week 16 runners had the best of times passing a virtual baton around our group!

The relay started on Monday morning and over the week we saw a fantastic selection of different runs! Here are a few of them:

• Lucy went for a birthday run! Yay! Hope you had a great day!

• Sam did some wild Dartmoor running! Amazing views!

• Craig and Florence ran on the hottest day of the year so far! Brilliant effort in the heat!

• Lizzi did an 8 k charity run, raising money and awareness for Help Refugees #chooselove

• Helen ran 30 laps up and down the same street as she is shielding whilst waiting for her dad’s surgery in a couple of weeks

We also had the best selection of batons ever!

• Real baguettes filled with ham and cheese

• 3-4 dogs (I lost count!)

• Spades

• Gin&tonics

• Beers

• Twigs and branches

Absolutely brilliant! I totally loved seeing all you got up to! After two and half months of not running as a group our community as runners who do good and have fun is still going so strong! So much GG love!

Next week we are back doing joint community missions and I can’t tell you how excited I am about it! We will be maximum 6 people at each mission and work with plenty of space between us at all times. Take a look at the listings here.

For fitness next week go out and smash your favorite run, post a picture of it on twitter, Instagram or Facebook with the text “This week we run for the Westbank and for Global's Make Some Noise”. All to raise awareness of two brilliant charities! Sign up here to join!

This weekend Exeter Phoenix kick-started Mental Health Awareness Week with Bloom, an online festival of Mental Health Awareness. We were super excited to be part of this with a GG fitness challenge, a talk about the GoodGym and some little tips on how to stay motivated when training at home!

There was a great collection of at-home-activity throughout the weekend and 20 GoodGymers took part in the GG Fitness session which consisted of some HIIT style cardio exercises, some toning exercises and some core work. It was fantastic to have Denise and Linda joining us for the first time! I really hope I get to meet you in person when things are back to normal and we can go out on our usual group runs again!

Training at home is not always so easy... A big cheer to Sarah who persevered with the training session even though she had to pause and sort out snacks for her kids multiple times. I think a lot of us know exactly what thats like! Lisa was quite exhausted after having been up multiple times in the night with the new addition in her house, a suuuuper cute puppy, but still made the session! Great stuff! Also, a huge cheer to Rosie who completed the training session 3 times! Brilliant effort!

A very special thank you to Lizzie who had made the spoken word poetry film about running that was added to the talk about the GoodGym!

Finally a very big shout out to the Phoenix who rather than canceling the Bloom weekend due to the Covid-19 adapted it so that it could take place online. Mental Health Awareness is more important than ever in these strange times and it was awesome that the Bloom went ahead. We totally loved being part of it!

Two weeks into LOCKDOWN and it was definitely time to turn it into a ROCKDOWN! 15 fantastic runners took part in the Roxanne Burpee #GGfitnesschallenge and totally smashed it!

It’s impossible to say what was the best thing with this challenge.. Sure we got fit whilst having fun.. But also, the sun was BOOMING and a lot of us, like Lizzieand Dean, were lucky to complete the challenge in sunny gardens! Anna and Florence went for beautiful solo runs and then smashed out the burpees, whilst myself and Lisa chose to go for some proper rockdown looks… Maybe something we should continue with for all GG-fitness challenges?

Next weekend it is time for a new challenge.. THE EASTER ABS CHALLENGE! It will involve more music and you can eat as many easter eggs as you like afterwards, so don't miss out! Sign up here to join!

GoodGymers all over the country smashed the #ggfitnesschallenge with some Super Sally Sunday Squats! Never has Britain seen so much squatting talent in one single day!

The first entry to the Super Sally Sunday appeared in my inbox before 7 am from the lovely Rebecca from GG Haringey! Amazing work completing the challenge so early in the morning!

Dave from Bristol sent his entry in not long afterwards and claimed that:

The Sally Squats were much kinder than the Bristol Burpees!

Well... Samuel might be of a different opinion as he added his own wife Gemma as extra weight to his round of squats! This was Gemma's first GoodGym session, what an introduction!

Dean also added extra weight by lifting a full crate of his favorite beers, Emma added in a bucket of paint whilst Florence used some more traditional weights.

Other GoodGymers took a more relaxed approach and carried out the Sally squats in PJ's and Lizzie decided to work on technique rather than adding weights. Judging by the video she sent in she totally nailed it! Her top tip for a perfect squat is:

All body weight on the heels and then just think ass to the grass!

The last entry came late Sunday evening from John, who added the Sally Squats to the end of his daily run. Great work!

What a fantastic day of Super Sally Squatting! Such top effort that all competitors in Britain's Squat Talent go through to next week's challenge, Rock with Roxanne Burpees. Until then, keep well, keep running, keep your distance and keep smiling!

14 amazing runners ran 6 k and helped Franklyn Hospital prepare a wildflower garden for improved well-being. What a fantastic night!

After a day of very heavy hail showers and strong winds, I was worried that no-one would be up for running this evening, but I so should have known better. It takes a lot more than hail to scare away the awesome GoodGymers in Exeter. 14 brave runners turned up! Woop woop! A very warm welcome to Dean, Toni and Alex who joined us for the first time. You did a brilliant job running and doing good with us. We hope to have you along soon again!

We started the evening with a dynamic warm-up session. Not only did we let our chickens out, we also got to do a great egg and spoon race. What more do you need to get into the GG vibe?

With the spirits high we then set off running towards our task location. We stopped to re-group at regular intervals and had lots of fun doing squats, lunges, press-ups and press-ups. Big thank you to Sarah who back marked so that no-one got left behind.

The run took us up and down some of Exeter's steepest hills. We do love hills, don't we? Everyone, new runners as well as experienced GoodGymers, gave it all they had and we totally battered those hills!

When we arrived to our task location, Franklyn Hospital, we were welcomed by Carrie and her lovely colleagues. They walked us around to the back of the hospital and showed us an amazing little orchard where we were to dig up a big area, preparing it for wildflowers to be planted. The wildflower garden will be enjoyed by patients who suffers from dementia.

Wildflowers for Wellbeing- What a brilliant idea!

We had the best of times working at the task this evening and I am not just saying that, we really did! The area that we dug up was on a slope and marked out with little white sticks so that we could see it clearly in the darkness and there were also some very sweet candles dotted around in the garden. It took us a little while to get the right technique digging up the turf, but by the end of it we nailed it and there were some pretty amazing looking rolls of turf- like giant slices of mud-swiss-roll!

It's certainly not every night you get to go out digging in candle light!

Not only did we manage to dig up the whole area that had been marked out for the wildflower garden, we also managed to transport all the turf 30 meters away to a big compost heap in wheel barrows! Wow, we certainly got fit whilst doing good!

When the task was complete and we had managed to wipe the worst mud off our trainers we were treated to a very yummy buffet with drinks, sweets, cakes, flap-jacks and more. We were also given little Thank You cards made by the patients at the hospital and tulip bulbs to take with us home. Thank you everyone at Franklyn Hospital for treating us to all this!

Egg and spoon race, wheel barrow race, party food, goodie-bags and a good deed! Does it get any better than that?!

Refueled and warmed up by having carried out a good deed, we set off running again and made it back to the Phoenix ALMOST before we were hit by a pretty impressive hail shower. But, to be honest, I don't think anyone cared one bit about the hail... We were all on a bit of a high after having achieved so much together at the task, having tackled those hills and all the fitness challenges along the run, and felt far too happy together to let the hail bring us down!

Back at the Phoenix we stretched out and talked about what is happening next:

• On Sunday we have a great community mission, helping Ludwell Life with some gardening and conservation tasks in Ludwell Valley. Come and join us!

• Next week we will run 6 k and help delivering the Whipton and Beacon Heath community magazine. You will get super fit and do something super good at the same time! Don’t miss out! Sign up here!

Can't wait to see you all soon again! You are totally awesome every single one of you! You all make our GG group just as brilliant as it is, a community where everyone is welcome and where we tackle everything TOGETHER!