Woodchip Wonderland

Whilst a crew of GG Yorkies went to be fundraising elves in Woodthorpe, 26 of us ran to beautify Danesmead Wood!

We welcomed along one new runner to the GG Yorkie crew, give Jeff a massive cheer!

With Becky as our back marker, we ran along the river to the edge of the wood, where we met Carl armed with 5 wheelbarrows with tools. We took the wheelbarrows along to the other end of the woods where we met Jude and an enormous pile of woodchip. You know where this is going.

The path needed to be about a wheelbarrow wide and around 3 inches deep. I set a 40-minute challenge but suggested if we managed it in 35 minutes then there'd be time for the sausage rolls, mince pies and mulled wine which Jude had brought along.

Why are we still talking?! - everybody

A smaller crew headed off into the darkness for the secondary task which was to finish decorating the woods with donated Christmas decorations. I came along to a puzzled team pondering how to affix a miniature bauble chain to a tree.

Do you know any knots? Maddy

Just as the last bauble was hung - or so we thought - Maddy Poppins started pulling all sorts of extras out of her teeny rucksack and then another whole box of baubles was found!

Over at the big steaming pile, new runner Jeff was getting stuck right in. There were slightly too few spades, shovels, rakes and wheelbarrows to keep everyone entertained so we started a mini hill rep challenge where you had to run up the path, touch the fence and run back down before switching places with somebody. Some runners were reluctant to give up their spades whereas others were loving running around to keep warm.

I can't work with this tool! - Leanne, we don't know who she was talking about

Helen emerged from the end of the path muttering something about a hill rep. She genuinely thought it was a joke and meant you had to help with the giant pile, she was absolutely gutted you had to actually run up a hill.

Can running to look at the decorations count as a job? - Leanne

People took it in turns to run down and check out the festive woodland and Jude was in a constant state of amazement at the speed the woodchip was flying down. Within 40 minutes, we were done and there was plenty of time to enjoy a swig of mulled wine.

We ran back along our newly chipped path and through the woods to enjoy the decorations for one last time before heading back to base.