An Uphill Battle

On my last night as the trainer of GG Barnsley it felt fitting to find a task at the lowest possible elevation in the entire area, because what goes down, must come up!

After a warm up and a quick drill on using arms for running, Grace led us down (and down some more) to Smithies Lane. There is a small car park here with trails that lead on to the canal; the area is looked after by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Unfortunately, this small, dark car park is frequented by fly tippers. The car park itself was heavily littered and a ditch at the back was rife with rubbish. We started with a ten minute purge on the car park, and then made our way down to the slope leading to the ditch.

Dan and Lou were first in, and the first thing they found was very peculiar.

It's like a hard jelly thing, in fluffy fairy liquid!

We had no idea what it was, or what it used to be, but we decided it was a biological hazard and left it well alone. There were plenty of other bits and bobs down there to keep us busy including rugs and bits of old furniture.

I was on poo watch and made sure that everyone stayed clear of the biggest pile of faeces any of us had ever seen. Nobody knew if they were human or animal, but if they were human, whoever had left them must have been balancing quite precariously on the edge of the ditch.

With the ditch cleared, we gathered our bags and items to the front of the car park ready for collection. Then we made the most of the height restriction barrier by doing a few pull ups and chin ups, an ideal warm up for a run back up that enormous hill.

You know what the best thing is to do after a run uphill? A bleep test!

This was especially for Lou as she wanted to know she could pass her police fitness test (spoiler: smashed it).

The lovely TOM will be the trainer in Barnsley from next week - I'll miss Team Barnsley and all the hills!