Lock, Stock and Too (Many) Steaming Barrows

A fabulous group of runners came to St Nicks to clear a huge pile of wood-chip and transform a muddy path into a really nice one!

It was great to see four new runners come along and get involved, let's give some cheers to:

• Amber
• Lucy
• Lynne
• Austin

Before we even begun the task, Norb was showing some signs of distress.

I ate three packs of Oreos and now I feel sick - Norb

Despite generally feeling nauseated, Norb and several others were on wheelbarrow duty and were running wheelbarrows of wood-chip back and forth as quickly (and safely) as possible. In fact, the wheelbarrowers were moving so quickly between the pile of wood-chip and the new path that the spading team were barely getting a rest. After 30 minutes, a huge dent had been made and we'd laid the first layer of wood-chip all the way down the path.

30 minutes? Is that all we've done?! - Amber

It was tough graft and people were swapping between 'barrowing, raking and digging to try to stay fresh. Well, most people were. Tim, Becky, Lizzie and Norb were the 'barrowing elite, they were completing their very own wheelbarrowing endurance challenge and Becky was totally gutted she wasn't recording her efforts on Strava as Tim proudly said:

I've done 5km, with a wheelbarrow.

Norb was less ecstatic about the amazing distance stats as he was really starting to regret those Oreos.

Now I have two stitches.

Back over at the wood-chip pile, Payton and Austin were matching the pace of the wheelbarrowers by doing some speed spading. We did a few time trials to see the average time to fill a wheelbarrow with wood-chip. It was 14 seconds - very impressive.

Finally the path was complete and the pile of wood-chip was gone. After putting all the tools and wheelbarrows away, we completed a few conditioning and balancing exercises before having a really good stretch out to ease those tired backs and shoulders.