The task tonight was to clear some of the streets and playing areas in Barnsley of rubbish. This was to aid the Barnsley Litter Pickers (BLP) in their ongoing rumble against the rubbish. This evening we were happily met once again by Scott from Twiggs. We were hoping to be joined on our run by a new member too, but something came up and they were unable to make it. Nevermind, we run every week, so plenty more opportunities to get involved in future!

We set off from Glasshouse after a brief introductory talk about the task ahead... and possible fitness activities afterwards. It was an uphill run to our meeting point and we are now so speedy at hills that we arrived early! As we came prepared with pickers and purple bags we decided to get a head start on the task before Scott met us. We slowly meandered our way up the street keeping an eye out for our contact. It didn't take long for us to spot him, and we all joined forces to work our way up Stock's Lane. This street is generally fairly clear as our other litterpicking contact who we go out with from time to time lives in this area.

It's all uphill from here!

We made our way up the street, people on both sides, making sure that no wrapper was left unturned. Not over-reaching ourselves, we reached over walls to retrieve litter that was well hidden. We crossed road, bridge, and puddle on our 'trashy' quest to gather the garbage. The bushes, as always, were the treasure troves holding the trash, with cars too concealing clutter. Thankfully our litterpickers enabled us to delve into these depths with relative ease. Our bags by now brimming, we sealed them up and left them by a street bin. 3 bags down, 3 to go.

Moving onwards into the trees, we found ever-more unwanted items in the undergrowth. Coming to the end of our route, and with a little time left, we unanimously decided to head down to sparrow park (our summertime stretching and exercise spot) where there has been vandalism and drug use recently. Here we gathered up drug paraphernalia from the bushes and contents from a broken bin. We then left the purple bags near a bin on the roundabout, said our thankyous and goodbyes to Scott, and headed off for some fitnessy fun!

Our fitness this week was to be in the stairwell of Glasshouse. Up each flight of stairs we alternated a different exercise. One flight was squats with raised arms, the next box-jumps. On our way up we were spurred onwards by a stairwell spectator curious about our upward endeavors. Upon reaching the top, having not stopped (a la S-Club-7), we dived straight into some indoor stretches. We did our usual set of stretches with some added forearm work because of the squeezing motion of the pickers throughout the evening.