Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo)"

On this glorious sunshiney evening, 3+2 Goodgymmers headed to the Trans Pennine Trail on the edge of town to do a spot of pl-alking

What a wonderful evening it was to get together with the GoodGym Barnsley crew to clear up some of the litter along the Trans Pennine Trail. The trail is a huge network that runs from the west coast right the way across to the east. It's great for cyclists, walkers and runners to enjoy!

The little section in the centre of Barnsley links the town centre to the main part of the trail. It isn't managed by any groups of volunteers, so we decided to take some ownership for it, and start to make it look a little more appealing! Tonight we were armed with the huge scissor like pickers and rubbish bags and worked really well together to fill them with everything we could find! There was a XS condom wrapper, parts of a motorbike, bits of duct tape attached to trees, poo poo poo and loooots of plastic and glass bottles!

We went quite far down the trail to take a look up at the view across Barnsley, before heading back to the start, armed with 4 full bags of litter! Nice job team! We finished with a quick test of balance, doing 'hop hop sticks' - it was a bit of a laugh and funny to watch everyone - but why did I ask everyone to do this!?

Here's why: "Balance is extremely important in running, and balance is easy to take for granted as a runner. When you run you’re either airborne or have just one foot on the ground at all times, and your center of gravity, or balance point, is continuously moving forward. Only half of the energy your body uses during running actually goes toward forward propulsion. The other half goes toward preventing yourself from falling down." - Podiumrunner. There are some more balance and strengthening exercises you can try here.

After a steady jog back followed by a quick cool down and stretch, we said our farewells! It was another pleasant evening with great company, lovely weather and a worthwhile task - thanks all!