11 runners ran 3.7km to help sorting donations at the Scope charity shop

As we moved into March the group set off for one of the favourite tasks, sorting the donations for our friends at Scope. A text message from our host Liam at 5.40pm sent Huw into a brief panic but luckily it was nothing sinister and our task was on as planned. 8 of us ran through the city centre with a loop around the Curve to meet the walking Mel, Irene and Lindsay with our arrivals perfectly timed this week. It's a testament to the commitment of our runners that even when people are carrying injuries they still want to come and do some good on a Tuesday night.

We descended to the darkened basement, for a moment thinking that Jen accidentally bringing her headtorch might prove to be a stroke of genius of clairvoyant proportions, but once we managed to find the magic switch we were in business. After a chain gang style shifting of our previously sorted donations into another area we set to work making a dent in the heaving storage cages to get more donations ready for the shop floor. Sharon and Jimmy ensured we worked more efficiently than ever before by organising our labelled bags into a system making it easy to locate.

A visit to Scope wouldn't be the same without a little dressing up and hats were the theme this week as we uncovered a delightful range of headwear for people to model for photographer Mel. With a new instruction tonight to seperate men's, women's and children's bags into different cages it became apparent that the women of Leicester are clearly extremely charitable (well that or they are more prone to a refreshed wardrobe) as the number of bags of women's clothes outnumbered the others significantly.

With the floor cleared the runners headed back via New Walk to try out a drill to loosen up and strengthen the glutes before a little work up and down the hill to get the heart pumping. Sharon, Michaela and Jen edged the gents by a whisker in the drill mastering the technique admirably, one to practice for sure.

Back at base we stretched off and some ventured for a quick beverage in the Black Horse to finish the night off.

In search of a pun for the report title as ever, I've opted to squeeze in a tribute to Prodigy singer Keith Flint who sadly passed away at the weekend. His story reinforced for me the massive positive difference GoodGym can make to our own mental health and wellbeing as well as those elderly and isolated people in communities who benefit from our volunteering.

Good luck with whatever running you manage this week.

HD