RUNNING TO PICK CIDER APPLES – NOW THAT SOUNDS APPEALING

12 hard-core Good Gym runners and cyclists, not a bad apple among them, met at Regather to enjoy a fruitful run, picking apples at various locations around the city – the apples to be made into cider.

We were divided into two teams – The Spartans – led by run organiser Kat and - The Rusty Coats - led by the apple of her eye, Ash.

Before we started our run, there was a quick exercise session – working on our core – with squats led by Kim.

The two teams then headed off from Regather, peeling off in different directions to their allocated locations. We started off at a steady pace as we didn’t want to russet.

Various techniques were employed by the pickers trying to get the highest apples, including tree shaking and climbing. With the Spartans even branching out and using their ladder to hit apples off the tree. Kat, ever Health & Safety conscious, was b-cider self with worry and told them to leaf it alone.

The two teams finally linked up at Meersbrook Allotments where we were joined by the lovey Ron and Yvonne (great idea to have a partner whose name rhymes with yours) who gave us some delicious red apples to eat.

By the time we’d finished we had collected between 150-200kg of apples, with both teams claiming that they’d pipped the other at the post and collected the most. Either way, it was a tree-mendous effort by all involved. And we'd run over 5 miles!

We got back to Regather juiced in time – they’d pressed some fresh apple juice for us. And Ash had made a fabulous apple cake (with apples from another Community Mission – the Alexander Road Community Garden).

With Gareth’s thanks ringing in our ears – and an invite to their party in Spring to drink the fruits of our labour - we headed off to the Beer Engine for more post-run refreshment – cider of course (paid for with Apple Pay) and sat in the beer garden tannin ourselves in the late September sun. Great food – just a pity they didn’t have any apple run-ble on the menu.

Anyway, I’m hard pressed to think up any more apple puns without really scraping the barrel, so I really should stop now - orchard I ...