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CUH&H Roman Road Run
Saturday 14th March 2020
Alex Downie
With apologies, once more, to the Great McGonagall. (And Widdecombe Fair.)
Huge thanks to CUHH.
'Twas in the year of Twenty-twenty,
When there was much to talk about and problems a-plenty;
And a strange, deadly plague did stalk the land,
Leading to the cancellation of all that was planned.
But before all that had started to happen, was the Roman Road Race,
And on Saturday, March the 14 th, it duly took place.
Aeons before the outbreak of Covid-19, a coronavirus,
The Romans had built a superhighway for themselves (and now for us.)
Soldiers stomped along it, being put through their paces,
But, sadly, now it's only fit for cross-country races.
So, at Horseheath, near Linton, behold a motley crew,
Of CUHH - the 'Hareys'; a barefoot runner too.
And what about C+C? Well, there were a few:-
Rob Moir, Charlie Ritchie
Tim Long, Mandy Lass'ter
Andy Irvine, Carm'l Mc'Neiry
Glyn Smith, Is'Belle 'Masson
Mike Brentnall,
Ol' Uncle Al Downie 'n' all.
No laps, no out'n'back, the course is that rarity,
A challenge to struggle from point A to point B.
To make it even more interesting, there's a system of handicaps,
Which should result in us all finishing together, just perhaps.
So, 5 groups set off, 5 minutes apart,
To attempt 9 hills in 9 miles, as measured from the start,
From where the coach dumped us to the famous Worts Causeway,
Lying just outside Cambridge, so very far away.
Over hard hills and down doomy dales, the rough track thrusts onwards;
Relentlessly Roman, it just keeps on rolling northwards.......northwards.
It takes the poor runner through bog and through mire.
I'd be tempted to add through thorn and through briar,
But that would be an untruth, and I a liar.
So let us just say, we all emerged fairly unscathed
And boarded the coach to get us towards home where we bathed.
Ah, but how COULD I forget? We first of all got off the coach at Wilberforce Road,
There to enjoy the tea and the cakes - oh how the tables groaned!
(Or was that the runners?......I think we should be told.)
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