Not Letting Opportunities Go To Waste

Our usual GoodGym litter picking collaborators weren't able to meet us this time; Gill is away and Scott was otherwise engaged. Lacking the usual stalwarts, I reached out to the Barnsley Litter Pickers group on facebook. This yielded some welcome results... nobody could meet us this week but there are some people interested for future runs with us. They gave me a location which warranted our attention to tidy. It was alongside the main road of Hunningley Lane which is quite a long distance from town, though we were happy to oblige.

To add to the challenge of the long distance to task, an extra hurdle to clear was actually finding the place; this normally wouldn't be a problem with a charged smartphone and Google Maps, but on this fateful Wednesday though, it was. My phone was running on 4% battery a couple of hours before setting off to meet for the run so I reasoned that I'd take a charging cable with me to remedy this on the commute and whilst waiting in Glasshouse. Lo and behold though I'd picked up the wrong charging cable, so I rushed to open up maps on my phone with ever-dwindling battery and quickly plan a route. I managed to jot down a literal handful of rudimentary directions on the back of my hand just before the lights went out (see photo). Luckily, one of the cables did fit my light, so at least we'd have some decent illumination on our travels. This battery mishap also meant that our camera for the evening was to be Daniel's , cheers for that!

We made our way from Townend Roundabout along the West Way A-road to Alahambra Roundabout. From here we plodded up Doncaster Road, looking out for Applehurst Bank, a short distance after which we needed to head down a gennel (jennel, jitty, snicket etc depending on where you're from). We located the gennel and proceeded through the slushy woodland ground it wound through. From here we turned right onto Yews lane, left onto Thornton Road, and right at the T-junction onto Birk Avenue, finally arriving at our destination of Hunningley Lane.

We didn't 'waste' any time, and got stuck into the task straight away. We worked along one side of the main road, picking litter from the grass bank and hedge behind, all whilst trying not to become 'trash test dummies' for the speeding cars on the main road behind us. We managed to each pick up 2 full bags of litter in a relatively short space of time, such was the amount available for us to pick, and had a friendly local dog walker commend us for our activities too, which was warmly welcomed.

No prior experience needed, just pick it up as you go!

After fulfilling our goal of filling full our four bags of litter, we endeavored to locate a roadside bin where we could leave them for collection. Luckily we didn't have to lug them too far as one was spotted 50 meters down the road! Phew!

Unladen, we set off on the long journey back. There would be no fitness activity tonight, as the run was a whopping 9.75 km in total, with some serious hills on the route too!! We did however use the long run to practice good running technique- using our arms, bent at right angles, to propel us forward, and imagining a balloon attached to our heads pulling them up for proper posture.

Upon our arrival back at Glasshouse from our mammoth trek, we headed inside the stairwell to stretch off, before parting ways.