Don't Sit on the Fence

On a much nicer evening than last week, 29 GG Yorkies gathered for a double task night!

We did some celebrating for brilliant PBs at the Sheffield Half Marathon and the Resolution Run yesterday; big cheers to Bev, Becky and Paul. We also need to cheer Rachel and Maddy who both ran brilliantly at the half marathon but couldn't make it to tonight's run. Not only that but run leader Paul casually won a 10k at Sutton Bank (even after going the wrong way), though he's too modest to big himself up.

Once we had done all that cheering, we did some more, for the new runners that had joined us - shout out to:

• Ali
• Sally
• Suzie
• Adam

Most of the group headed to Monk Stray for a task to put up chestnut paling fencing to cover up gaps in the hedgerow. Our new runners seemed a bit unsure about how good a job we would do but Bev reassured them that "rustic" is fine.

Two teams skirted the boundary, pulling out all the old bits of rotten wood from the previous fence, whilst three teams went around banging in stakes and stapling the new fencing in. It was running like clockwork. Helen and Suzie were into a good rhythm with the stakes, they'd managed to get one so far into the ground that it was significantly shorter than everything else around it.

We're getting stronger as we go, now I'm a machine! - Helen

Babs was on a demolition squad and was wondering why progress was slow. It was because she had been trying to saw with the smooth side of the blade which is definitely not very effective. With that problem solved, progress picked up!

In just 35 minutes, all the new fencing was up and a big pile of rotten wood was piled at the corner of the stray. We did a mini stray workout to get warmed up before the run back, and even snuck in a bit of core right at the end too.

Meanwhile, those six sensational GG Yorkies led by lovely Leanne headed to Ashton Park for some digging. We hadn't been there since the infamous nav-egg-ation incident of 2017. It turns out that it's quite easy to find when you use the main entrance rather than a hidden alleyway down a side street...

On arrival we were shown a 4 x 5m patch of grass, which we were to dig out ready for wildflowers to be planted.

The small but mighty team got stuck in straight away digging out patches of turf and piling them up around the edges for later use. Mitch ambitiously started digging at the opposite end of the patch to everyone else, confident in our abilities to join up by the end of the session. Unfortunately we didn't quite manage it in time and had to leave some of digging for another day.

After a quick game of meet and retreat around the edge of the playground, the group were rewarded with a chance to test their strength and agility with a climb around the obstacle course. Then it was a dash back to base for a cool down and a post workout pint.

Remember next week is the big one! We need all hands on deck for a brilliant task at Spark: York. Invite your friends and sign up using this link.