STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A Martínez...
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yes.
INSKEEP: How long you been running?
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, most of my life, I think. Yeah.
INSKEEP: OK.
MARTÍNEZ: In the teens, yeah.
INSKEEP: OK. That's really interesting. I didn't really get started until I had a kid...
MARTÍNEZ: Ah, OK.
INSKEEP: ...Who wanted to run with me. The truth is that getting into exercise of any kind can be tough. It can even be intimidating for some people. And it's also tough - maybe you've had this experience - tough to stay motivated.
MARTÍNEZ: No. I look in the mirror. That motivates me more than I need.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: So that was Ivo Gormley's experience. After college, when he went home to London and left his basketball team behind, his friends said he should go to the gym.
IVO GORMLEY: I didn't like that idea of exercising on my own in a sweaty basement and thought I could do something more useful with my exercise.
INSKEEP: So Gormley started running to deliver the newspaper to an older neighbor.
GORMLEY: He was housebound. And for him, it was, you know, a friendly visit on a day where otherwise he wouldn't see any other human beings at all. And for me, it was that brilliant motivation to get out there and run. I knew that if I didn't go, he'd be on his own.
MARTÍNEZ: That experience inspired GoodGym, an organization Gormley started which combines volunteering with exercise. It has more than 25,000 members across the U.K.
GORMLEY: So many people want to do a little bit more exercise, and so many people would like to do a bit more volunteering. And if we can make it easy and local and fun, then I think that's where the key to success is.
INSKEEP: GoodGym members run, walk or cycle their way to help their communities.
GORMLEY: It might be clearing some disused land. It might be planting a load of trees, stacking shelves at a food pantry.
MARTÍNEZ: Rather than training for an objective, such as the Olympics, Gormley measures success differently.
GORMLEY: We evaluate the impact on well-being, on life satisfaction, on connectedness. And on all of those metrics, we make a really significant difference.
INSKEEP: Claire Metcalfe (ph) lives in York, is a retired nurse and is also a GoodGym member. She's noticed a side effect.
CLAIRE METCALFE: I'd never run before I joined GoodGym. But astonishingly, here I am five years later, and I love running. And if I don't get out and run two or three times a week now, I feel frustrated.
MARTÍNEZ: Her favorite activity now - helping to plant tiny forests.
METCALFE: We were carrying bags of compost across the city. It was an absolute labor of love, and we planted about 650 trees. I've entered a race at the age of 60 coming up. It gets me out in the winter. It gets me doing things.
INSKEEP: Trying to picture planting trees while running.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: Anyway, Gormley says the bigger mission is what promotes consistency.
GORMLEY: You're part of something that's bigger than you. You're doing something that helps other people. And so you're really wanting to come back.
MARTÍNEZ: Improving their own health and the community's.
INSKEEP: And planting trees.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
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DAFT PUNK: (Singing) Work it harder. Make it better. Do it faster. Makes us stronger. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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