Dead Runners society race report
Cambridge University
H&H boundary run - sunday 8th march 1998.
One week after Bury I had another
chance to run a long way with the "kiddies" around the northern edge of
Cambridge in the traditional end of term "boundary run". I was feeling
tired from Bury but it was going to be good marathon training and I didn't have
far to travel for this race.
Hello folks
It's nearly end of term here at ye
olde university of Cambridge, yesterday we had the first of the three "end of
term" events, the "Boundary Run". The course of this race follows the boundary
of the city of Cambridge, well some of it does anyway. In days of old the race
went all the way
round the city but now we just do the northern half of the
city to make a 14 mile race. I organised this race last year and I changed the
course to get the runners away from busy roads, having run round the course many
times in training it was good to be able to actually race the thing.
I
was driven to the start by "the beautiful Shelley", we arrived at the university
athletic track about 40 minutes before the start and waited for people to turn
up. Eventually the race organiser arrived from marking the course. I paid my
entry fee and did 2 laps of the university track to warm
up, lots of members
of the university athletic club were there getting ready to do whatever track
people do for training, for some reason none of them were too keen on a 14 mile
race! 23 runners lined up and we started only 15 minutes late (this is pretty
good timekeeping for Cambridge
University Hare and Hounds!)
Off we
went down the footpath to Coton, after I had got past the "joggers" who had gone
off too fast I was in joint 7th place with my friend Amites (who I beat last
week at the Bury 20), ran very hard for the first mile and we caught the bunch
ahead, this put us joint 4th with Andrew (another
one of my Bury scalps),
Carl, a good runner and an unknown runner with ginger hair. Ginger appeared to
be working hard to stay with us and I thought he'd not last long. We ran
together out to Madingley, at about 2.5 miles off the road and across a muddy
and slippery field and I dropped
right off the back of the bunch. Then one of
the really fast runners, Dan, came jogging past, he was in the race but was just
out for an easy run. He soon left me standing though!
Slogged away across
the fields eventually emerging on dry land again near Girton, speeded up on the
road and pulled back a bit of the gap on Amites. Passed Andrew and Dan at the
first drinks station, I ran straight past and they had stopped for a chat, what
a pair of wimps :-) Dan soon came past and zoomed away. Kept pushing hard into
the wind, feeling tired by now and I hadn't even got to halfway yet. On the road
through Histon to Impington, as I crossed the road I noticed an "unknown" runner
behind me. If he's unknown he can't be a real runner therefore I can't let him
pass me. There were very approximate mile markers on the course, passed the 7
mile point in 47.03 with Mr unknown audibly closing on me. Amites was about 100m
ahead, not going away but not getting closer. Pushed on really hard on the
country roads out to Milton and I pulled away from Mr unknown and gained a few
metres on Amites. Very tired by 9 miles as I reached the A10
footbridge,
crossed the bridge and into my home village of Milton. Straight past the 2nd
drinks stop cunningly situated at the end of my street, Shelley was there
dishing out drinks but I had no time to stop and chat, this was a
race.
Along the very familiar roads through the village and out to
the river Cam. Dan was now running with Amites and pulling him away and Mr
unknown was coming back :-( Onto the Cam towpath and after 10 miles of battling
the wind we finally got the wind behind, I was really tired by
now.
Slogged away along the very wet and muddy towpath, at 11 miles Mr
unknown went past. I managed to hang onto him for a couple of minutes telling
myself if I could hang on along the towpath I could get away along the road at
the end. Mr unknown wasn't going to be so charitable and
eventually got away
before the towpath. Really hurting by now but I kept it going in along the road
at the end and onto Midsummer common and the end was in sight. Along the
riverside path to the finish at the "Fort St. George" pub, crossed the
line in 1h33.44 finishing 9th. Really tired on
finishing, a good run although
I think i went out too fast. I congratulated Mr unknown who was called Graham
and a member of the university staff, he really forced me to run fast in the
middle of the race. My time was 15 seconds faster than my run in the 96 Boundary
Run
when we ran on a 13.5 mile course, another encouraging run for
Boston.
The underfoot conditions
didn't help on the off-road bits, I'm a pretty bad off-road runner, if it hadn't
rained constantly the previous week I think I could have got 5th. There were prizes for the first
4, the organiser wanted to give me the vets prize but I'm only 35. Anyway a real
vet, the club president Dr Mike Turner, was running so he got the prize. Mike
was an international runner in the 1960s.
Shelley arrived at the finish
to take me home, if it hadn't been for her we might not have got a race today.
She ran a drinks station and transported all the runners kit bags and all the
post-race food and drink from the start to the finish. These Shelley's are
wonderful, everyone should have one :-)
ORN 1 slow lap of the park this
morning in perfect running conditions, cold, sunny and still but my legs weren't
too keen on running fast.
bye
tony....
tony bell ageing
student and marathon runner
cambridge university department of
chemistry
amtb2@cus.cam.ac.uk
Tony@shells.demon.co.uk
http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
**"Nobody
expects the Spanish Inquisition"**
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