This wonderfully wintery Wednesday, team GoodGym Barnsley were off to help the Hope in Community charity shop sort through donations. It's a fairly short run to Peel Square, where the shop is located, so we 'hoped to it', got up and running, and it didn't take us long to get there. We managed to scoop Daniel up on our way out of the car park, cutting it 'clothes' as always :D

The three of us methodically worked our way through at least 8 sacks stuffed full of clothing and other miscellaneous items, all under the watchful eye of Small Peter (a colleague of Tall Peter's). We set up crates on tables to sort the different items of clothing and other bits into. We had a mens crate, womens crate, a childrens crate, socks and gloves crate and a blanket bag. There were some 'clothes encounters of the third kind'... the three of us found spooky gothic costumes 'witch' livened up our sorting shenanigans somewhat. We also came across some other costumes during our sorting, the main one that springs to mind being the superhero muscle suit; although we in GG Barnsley don't need a special suit, we're already good deeding super-heroes (we have been known to wear capes on the odd occasion though)!

'Clothes but no cigar' -Kirsty

There were rather a lot of bras in one of the bags we opened, and while the shop appreciates the 'support' they can't sell them in the shop. What they do with them is sell them to a rag and bone man (minus the bone) who makes use of the material. There were some very boldly coloured brasseries in the collection- hot pink anyone? We almost lost our rag at times but managed to keep our spool.

The time flew by and before we knew it it was time to finish up, then hit the road. All of the sorted crates and bags were stored away, their contents ready for displaying in the shop at a later date. We gathered up our belongings, said thanks and goodbye to Peter, who 'clothed up' the shop, and went on our merry way... to do the fitness session in the multistorey car park.

The fun fitness session of the evening consisted of lunging up the ramps and sprinting along the flats of the car park until we reached the highest level. Everyone gave it their all, p-lunging feet first into the leveling up challenge! Upon reaching the top level we headed into our usual end-of-session stairwell location, where we stretched off and parted ways until next week.

The task at hand this evening was to leaflet for Hope in Community. They are opening a new charity shop in a matter of days and want to get the word out about what they do The leaflets we were to distribute were picked up from Peter before the run, instead of picking up mid run as previously planned, so as to save time. We had around 400 leaflets to deliver with two different ones to be posted through each door. Thinking that this would amount to around 100 leaflets each, however the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and we ended up with more attendees than expected; not that this is a bad thing mind, quite the opposite! It simply meant that we would finish a wee bit earlier than expected.

Don't flyer too close to the sun!

The ironic adage (pun) of 'don't flyer too close to the sun' sprang to mind, though there wasn't much chance of this happening tonight! When did we last even see the sun up here in the north?!

I had planned a route to cover the streets just north of Locke Park, so we started our delivery run with a long uphill effort climbing Racecommon Road; never the easiest start so good job running up this straight out of the gates everyone! We paused at Longcar Lane where the leaflets were handed out to each goodgymer, along with a map of the planned route. Our first dwellings to deliver to were in Blenheim Gardens, just off of Longcar Lane. We split into to teams of 'high-flyers', each taking a different side of the road, and made our way around the crescent to rejoin Longcar further along it's route. We then carried on along Longcar Ln until Blenheim Rd which we worked our way up, turning left at the top and posting along the A6133 before turning left down Locke Ave; we then turned right back onto Longcar Ln and right again onto Park Grove, posting to all houses we passed. We delivered down Spencer St, turning left onto St John's Rd, left along Park St, down Charles St, left again onto St John's Rd, right onto Nursery St and right again onto Castle St before running out of leaflets.

Thinking outside the letterbox

Some houses this evening, as usual, presented challenges. They either didn't have letterboxes (which forced us to think outside of the letterbox) or we had to avoid door-guarding dogs snapping at our fingertips! Though, for the most part, I suspect that their barks are worse than their bites... says the 7-fingered man!

Upon completing our route the gang were given a choice of fitness activities, and a choice of two locations within which to do them. The choices included timed wall-sits, the 'Sally Up' challenge doing tricep dips, press-ups/planks or squats. We could do these in Locke Park, mid-run, or back near Glasshouse in Sparrow Park. The wall-sits were quickly vetoed and it was agreed to be preferable to do the exercise session near the finish in a blaze of glory! Sally's sparrow dips were now on the menu/agenda.

On reaching Sparrow Park we scouted out a couple of benches to tricep-dip on (or press-up if you're called James!) and fired up 'Bring Sally Up' on the mini-boombox. We completed the 3 minutes and 30 seconds of 'fun' then, upon finishing the challenge, we immediately got back into the stress positions to pose for photographs... sorry guys!

After this pump-session it was unanimously decided to stretch off in the park. Celine led a couple of stretches to start with, utilizing the shelter to get some raised leg work in. James then took over for the usual array of running stretches- shoulders, triceps, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, hip flexors, iliotibial bands, piriformis, glutes and adductors.

Thanks to everyone for attending and to Celine for back-marking us splendidly!

Also, why not take a leaflet out of my book and visit the Hope in Community website? www.hopeincommunity.co.uk We'll be back with them next month for an alternative task.

Keep racking up the miles and deeds for the January Challenge everyone, and I'll see you for more fun running next week!