On Tuesday we tackled the challenge to complete a 1.5mile long footpath by applying tons and tons of dust to the path surface to give it a smooth finish. We converted the path around the nature reserve to-be temporarily into a wheelbarrow speedway. The week before I intended to make adjustments to my vehicle (i.e. barrow) to optimise its behaviour by adjusting the front tyre selection (there was only a front tyre). By doing so I was hoping to reduce the bounciness of the vehicle and increase the performance according to the road conditions including the road holding. Unfortunately for several (rather boring) technical reasons the mission was unsuccessful and I had to just stick to my barrow as it was. I tried hard to keep up with the guys but unfortunately my racing barrow just didn’t seem to have the same speed capacity. We did all pretty well though and were flying along, but underestimated the steepness of a hill we eventually had to climb over and over again (Sisyphus sent his regards!!). The hill looked totally innocent but once you had the wheelbarrow filled with dust it just seemed to get maliciously steeper and steeper. But despite this hurdle in the racing course we managed to nearly finish the paths. We definitely had winners in the categories wheelbarrow speed, determination and persistence, maximum wheelbarrow volume capacity (some volunteers COMPACTED the dust in the barrows so they could get more in!!) and most creative ways of identifying opportunities for pit stops. We also have winners in the category behind the scenes as without the shovelers and rakers the racing group could have possibly not got as far. There was many a race on these paths throughout the last year and I think that, whoever put down the last barrow yesterday, must have felt like super(wo)man. After all this I think we should reward ourselves with homemade triple chocolate cake next week!!