Perhaps more steady running than sprinting to be fair, but GoodGym were certainly shower dodgers last night. After a day of what can only be described as truly miserable conditions, the wind, rain, hail, sleet and snow briefly subsided to give us a window in which to get our Tuesday task done.

It was the weather that had put a stop to our original job last night. The plan had been to visit Little Deer Wood for our ongoing challenge to clear a space for their new equipment shed. Unfortunately Sunday’s Storm Kiara had left the Mirfield site under some 625,000 litres of water, so any work there is necessarily on hold for the time being. Although I have promised that GoodGym will return to help with the clear up once the flood has subsided.

The wild weather definitely also had an impact on attendance last night, with just three of us meeting at the Stadium. Although Kati Law, Ben Godfrey and myself were well prepared for the conditions, it still took a bit of an effort to get out of the door at the nice warm stadium and running. Fortunately by the time we did the worst of the weather had temporarily abated, and whilst it remained windy and cold there seemed to be little in the way of wet.

Our target was Red Doles Lane, a location near the Stadium we often run by on our way to other tasks. Over the last twelve months or so I had noticed the area becoming the increasingly littered and as such was a good candidate for some GoodGym attention. But first we had a bit of a run to get there, along Bradford Road and the Birkby Bradley Cycleway.

The more you look the more you find with litter picking tasks, and that was certainly the case last night. Although to be honest it didn’t take much looking, from the canal bridge onwards Red Doles Lane was simply strewn with rubbish. Bottles and cans seemed to be in the majority on this occasion, but we also collected plenty of crisp packets and sweet wrappers.

I wouldn’t say we got the job entirely done, but after 40 minutes of litter picking the three of us had made a dent in what is to be fair a monumental task. We ran back to the Stadium thanking our good fortune that we had remained reasonably warm and dry. As if to prove the point literally five minutes following our post run stretch, the sleety snow started again....we had definitely done well to dodge the worst of the wintry weather.

Thanks again to Ben and Kati for their support.