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6 runners headed over to the YMCA to help clear out an old office space.

The YMCA Barnsley are in the process of clearing an office to make room for a new community group joining the premises, and we were happy to help.

What we thought was just a small job of a few planks of wood in one room, turned into a great skip-filling endeavour, not just rubble but a whole host of hidden treasures. The space at one point was used by the community radio, and we came across: old log books of radio call-ins, knitted figures, homemade CDs, old school video tapes and even a Christmas tree.

We had a good throwback to 90s and early 00s video games and TV shows. Member Jason even took a few items of memorabilia to donate to the Barnsley Museums.

We managed to fill an entire skip and were all delighted to get the whole space done in the time we had. Great work team! 💪

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4 GoodGymmers ran to the BCDP Drop-In to help sort donations for those in need.

We enjoyed a brief half-mile run to the task with some added interest thrown in, including high knees and side-stepping for sections of the run 👟👟

Meeting with Peter again, we set about our task of sorting the last of the donations made over the festive period. The four of us separated and categorised over 30 boxes of goods such as stationary, gloves, toiletries, food, drinks, and more. There was even a dog-specific donation with a big bag of dog food! 🐶

Peter chatted with us about how the donations are handed out; different categories of items get handed out each week to people in need in Barnsley, for example one Monday would be toothbrushes and toothpaste, and the next would be hats and gloves.

It was super satisfying to finish off the last of the boxes - there were hundreds originally donated! - and we were all pleased with a task well done.

On our run back, we chatted about Emily's plan to do the Great North Run and her training programme, to raise money for the Stroke Association. Great job on your training so far Emily.

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Well that was different!

Come and have a run at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park they said.

Unless, like Courageous Celine, Kryptonite Kat, Daring Dana, Amazing Ash and Lionhearted Lilli you decide to run from Sheffield ... a mere 30k!

Joined by Marvelous Michelle and Capable Caroline at a train station 10k from the park.

For the mere mortals amongst us it was great to meet in the shelter of the foyer as the wind started to reach epic speeds and half of the park was closed to visitors because of the risk of falling trees.

Special shout out to the Excellent Emily, who joined us from Good Gym Barnsley, and our very own Curley Cat for hosting the very first Bring Your Parents To Good Gym Day.

And so, when we were all gathered, we ventured out into the whipping wind for a bit of art, a bit of running when the rain started falling, and a bit of art & running when we ran the art installation "71 steps" - must make it a Strava segment next time.

Soaked and muddy we recovered in the cafe - planning a future trip when it is warm and sunny ...

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7 runners made their way to the BCDP to continue sorting out donations made over the festive period.

Tonight's team included a handful of regulars along with Sheffield tourist Rachel, last week's newcomer Emily, and this week's newcomer Lucy. A nice 'introductory' jog back to the BCDP saw us continuing our work sorting out donations made over the festive period.

Once again we hustled through a hefty amount of boxes and sorted all the items into categorised crates, including: women's toiletries, toothbrushes and toothpaste, stationary, men's and women's accessories, miscellaneous, and a variety of different foods. Some crates were even overflowing with the huge amount of donated items; the biscuit crate even saw a few crumbly casualties as a result of the overflowing piles!

Everyone worked well as a team and the group chat made the time just fly past. Before we knew it we were thanking Peter and bidding farewell for another week. Time was pressing on so we took a brisk and brief run back to base - but not without a good push up the Fitzwilliam Street hill segment again to get that heart rate up! It was a crate effort all round 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

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