Easter 2002

The Ladies' Captain Speaks

Hi everyone, Im Karen Ellison the new ladies captain. Firstly hello to anybody who doesnt know me yet and thank you to Emily and last years committee for all the great work they did. As a result of their hard work we now have a good strong base of girls to build on for a really successful season.

We've got loads to look forward to, all kicking off with the training camp in Wales in September. This promises to be a great time for training and building team spirit that will see us through the wet, muddy winter sessions (you know you all love them really) and with a bit of luck on to a successful Varsity match. We didnt quite manage victory this year, although we did have three impressive individual winners in all the ladies races. The Blues and II-Vths matches are usually the highlight of the season but theres lots of other earlier races which are great whether youre an experienced runner looking for that winning edge or just fancy trying something a bit different. Then theres also BUSA and Relais Centrale Paris when we get to prove to the rest of the countrys and Europes universitys that theres more to Cambridge than work.

So whether youve been running for years or have just started out it would be great to see you all down training or at the team socials. Theres always lots of different sessions happening so no matter what your ability youve got no excuse for not coming along. Its now time to forget about any exam stress and get ready for a great Michaelmas term of important things such as training, racing and partying like only Hare and Hounds know how!

Luv Karen

Relais Centrale Paris

To round off the 2001-02 Cross-Country season a few intrepid members of the Hare and Hounds crossed the Channel for the Eurobang party at the Ecole Centrale in Paris, preceded by the Relais Centrale, conveniently timed and located to coincide wth the main event.

The whole shebang is like the Hyde park relays with knobs on. The race takes place around the grounds of the Chateau de Sceaux, in the outskirts of Paris, meandering its way around large ornamental lakes, tree lined avenues, the Chateau itself, and of course, deaf tourists. The important things meanwhile happen at the adjacent Ecole, a superb example of why the sixties was not a great architectural period.

Concerned about the negative effects of cramped travelling conditions on subsequent race performance, and not wanting to be seen in anything so crude as a bus (see article on Athletics Varsity...), most of the team travelled first class on Eurostar ("CUH&H: almost as good as we think we are"). Not wanting to waste any valuable drinking time, through charm, cunning or possibly just good fortune, Daz procured an unlimited supply of pink Champagne, and we arrived in Gare du Nord nicely warmed up for the rest of the weekend.

Having met up with the pitiful, pathetic, and inadequately small Oxford team at the Ecole, failed to find sustenance in the complementary spaghetti and baby food (liquid apple for pudding), and defeated all-comers in a boat race, people retired to bed. While the transport was extravagant, the accommodation was definitely budget. We were fortunate that the gym floor was not needed this year, but were instead packed into rooms with as many people as could fit without overlapping.

The following morning, while most people slept in, an adventurous few made it into the city centre, and Andy Parker attempted to do Paris in the space of 2 hours (ultimately thwarted by his decision to descend the Eiffel Tower in the fastest possible way...).

The sun was out for the race, as was a brass band with a large chicken for a trumpeter. As teams consisted of 4 men and 2 ladies and we had nine men but only two ladies (in the form of Karen Ellison and Leah Walland), rather than adopting the transvestite tactic employed by another team, these lucky two got to run for both Cambridge teams, while Napier, being one man too many was charitably donated to the Oxford team, who were sorely in need.

One person who most surely hang the head in shame though is a certain ex-captain implicated in a potato throwing incident at the dinner afterwards - not the best way of expressing disapproval at the food/waitress hit. Shame on you! Opinion is divided about the dinner, depending on quite how many puddings and extra wine one acquired (lets just say I was very happy with it). The highlight of the party afterwards was surely Napiers dancing, impressive as much as anything because he never hit anybody. Cambridge proved to be the party animals on the dance floor and at least one lady got her Wish.

Not phased by the international field, Cambridge decided to make the best of the good weather, and by the end of the 90 minute race had a 3 and a half minute lead over second placed Nottingham. Leah began with a top-ten time, and then Rowan Hooper followed by new Captain Ed Green took Cambridge into first place, both with 2nd equal fastest individual times in the race. Karen Ellison, Darren Talbot and Jimbo Mason then each added to the lead, putting over half a mile between Cambridge and the opposition. The Cambridge B team also beat many A teams to finish 12th out of 48, and not far behind our Dark Blue rivals (pa!).

The team stayed sober just long enough to collect their trophies, then set out to give the Brits abroad a bad name. Having invented a drinking game at which it was simply impossible to stay sober (I never did own up to having the card of death...), even managing to consume some of Robbos ultra-sexy Panache (the poor boy was duped into buying lemonade in a Kronenburg bottle), we headed down to the prestigious Eurobang.

At the party Cambridge were as dominant on the dance floor as they were at the race. Various members of the team did their bit for Cambridge-Oxford and Anglo-Soviet relations, until the 2am call came for the first track event of the year, le Relais Sans Vêtements. Napier and Theo needed no encouragement to get their kit off in public, running the first leg together, followed by Jose. My third leg put us in the lead, and Rowan finished the job to give Cambridge our second international victory of the day. Thankfully (especially for the Nottingham ladies team) there is no photographic record of the event.

While some of us have been turning into poncey track puffs, a faithful few have carried on running decent distances at venues all around Europe. These are their stories:

loosely based on an original by Napier Fuller

The Marathon and the Human Race

Around 4 millions years ago, in east central Africa, a new species started to emerge as the most successful animal ever to exist on this planet. Several characteristics made humans unique, for example the development of an amazing brain and speech (who knows which came first). Another characteristic was that they could run, and this was the first outstanding step in human evolution.

We are the only animal with sweat pores, whose number can increase dramatically with training. We are also bipeds, another very exclusive characteristic. This allows the leg's muscles to be far from the vital organs so that the heat generated during running does not affect them and cause heat stroke, which could be fatal. Being bipeds and sweating allows us run longer distances without stopping and no other animal can do that. Now, millions of years after our first steps as humans, we run marathons. We do it just because we can.

The 2002 Marathon in London was probably the most spectacular marathon ever run. The best of the best where there. Khannouchi beat his own world record, a time that was almost a requirement to finish ahead of Tergat and Gebrselassie, the Gods of long distance running. But no less impressive was the performance of Paula Radcliffe, running on her own the last half marathon and even though, finishing almost in world record time. She was beaten by only few elite male athletes, showing to the world that it is only a question of time before women can run long distances as well as men (something that I am very aware of every training session).

Some of the CUHH runners were there sharing that amazing race among thousands of other average runners. But we are certainly not average people, considering that only a tiny percentage of the humans on this planet can run a marathon? And that percentage really goes down to ridiculous figures if we consider all the animals able to run, because none of them but humans can run 26'2 miles in one go. Thinking like that really makes you feel special and not average.

I know that lots of people might say that feeling so proud is just a way of justifying all the madness of killing yourself by running such a long distance. Others might think that killing yourself is instead not facing any challenge, sitting in front of the TV instead of going for a jog and feeling a part of nature. Maybe we die a bit every time we avoid the progress or every time we sleep more than we should. Certainly we die every time the fear of facing problems, the fear of freedom or the fear of change, prevents us from moving forward.

Despite all the physical pain and the feeling of crying that took over me when I finished, I felt more alive then than when I am going through a sedentary period of my life. I wanted to believe that the marathon could describe your attitude to life: when you are willing to finish something, no matter how great the pain, you do it.

Comparing your life with running is not that crazy. We should not forget that running makes us more human, as much as thinking, speaking or even loving, because whatever the reason was, we were built to run long distances.

Results:

José L. Prieto

Chen v. Miwa: The Big Fight in Sweden

Satomi and I had the privilege of running the 24th Stockholm Marathon on 8 June 2002. For the entire week, the Swedish capital had been celebrating its 750th anniversary with street festivities all around. The Marathon was scheduled to be the grand finale of these festivities.

The day began for me not with frantic marathon preparations but with rather frantic shopping in the city centre. It was only at lunch that it finally sunk in; I was going to be undergoing through the whole marathon ordeal again! Acting like an experienced veteran, I went back to my hotel, took a shower and started taping up parts of my anatomy that were most likely to be blistered and chafed.

45 minutes later, I found myself in the middle of a gladiator ring, with no shade at all from the blazing sun and with grime and dust in the air. This was unfortunately the waiting area where so much energy had to be used up just by staying out there.

Finally at 1400 hrs, the horn sounded and I was ready to get moving. I found myself some way behind the 5:00 hr pacemaker and I knew that a fast time was not going to be the order of the day. It took me 50 minutes to finish my first 10 km and a good 1:45 hour to reach the half-way point. I was enjoying myself, even stopping excessively for a 1-1.5 minutes break at all 13 water stations along the whole course.

However, what came next was, in the words of Turvey, altogether a different kettle of fish. Sure, I made sure I avoided hitting the wall by taking in as much energy drink as I can swallow, but physical exhaustion is still physical exhaustion. Muscles are not made to be in such constant motion for long periods of time. By the 27-km mark, I realised even with the slow pace, I was not suffering any less than previous speedier marathons. I was torn between trying to finish the race as chop-chop as possible and slackening further my already leisurely pace to ensure a less painful end for the rest of the way. With sporadic bursts of speed spurred on by the roaring crowds and the sounds of Livin La Vida Loca and Its Raining Men from loud speakers, I finally made it to the end in the 1912 Olympic Stadium with the spectators cheering all around.

The biggest lesson I learnt from this experience is that the time taken is not important, the determination and the physical exertion from running the distance is what the marathon is all about.

Brief note: Satomi came in 37th woman, vomited along the route from the sports drink and was put on an intravenous drip at the end. Dangerous play but congratulations are in order for her efforts.

Results:

The Hitman

The Paris Marathon

On the day after the RCP race, Paris saw another good performance by CUH&H - this time, in a marathon. The weather was crystal clear, and there was a good atmosphere for the race, with lots of public support (even from the Parisians!) for some 6,000 foreign runners (20 % of all the entrants). The race course itself was a grand tour of Paris. Starting and finishing at the Arc De Triomphe, it included running along the Avenue des Champs Elysees, passing by the Musée du Louvre, Notre-Dame, and the Eiffel Tower. It was spectacular, spectacular.. (to quote Moulin Rouge) - in fact, it must have been this whole air which brought Satomi a miracle, to finish in an unexpected time (3:01) followed by Andrew Carter (3:11) and Clair Warner (3:26). Although it was a bit undulating and had some rough surfaces en-route, this race was highly enjoyable as a whole. It is a good alternative to London, for those who couldnt get in.

Meanwhile a couple of Hairies attempted the ROTTERDAM MARATHON

Results:

Satomi Miwa

Hares hit the track

Sometime during February, following our successful showing at BUSA cross-country, minds start to drift to thoughts of the track. A place where mud, hills and ridiculously long spikes are not an issue; where grace and form returns to running (well perhaps not in Jimbo Mason's case), where the weather is warm and sunny (Wilberforce Road??!), where running is a true time issue and personal bests are paramount. Ah, happy days are here again.

It was stated last year that CUH&H propping up CUAC since 1857 and in many ways we continued to be that prop. In all fairness, we werent totally responsible for CUACs success this year; alas a certain delectable duo, Mssrs. Steve Green and Adrian Hemrey, did rather well in the propping up stakes. But once again, CUH&H, or more politically correctly the CUAC middle-distance squad, delivered the goods. The 2002 middle-distance track season saw some good performance, some great performances and quite frankly some f***ing awesome performances, so where to begin.

I guess the very first showing from the middle-distance stable, came in February, at BUSA indoors. Now the indoor track is even more ludicrous, in so much as it is just 200m long and resembles a scalectrix track with steep sides, it seems midgets with uneven leg length seem to prosper particularly well in this arena. However solid performances form Claire Willer, Andy Brown and in particular Daz Talbot [midgets with uneven legs? Ed.] gave a firm indication of the success to follow. It wasnt until VFEAR just one week later that the true potential started to sneak out.

Now dont let CUAC hear this, but I just cant take an outdoor track meeting that seriously when it takes place at the beginning of March in the freezing cold. Still, we turned out en masse and launched our outdoor season in a most satisfactory way. Perhaps most entertaining was the sheer look of terror on Chris Bentleys face when he realised he was up against Talbot, the fatter Oxford version, on his leg of the 4x1500m relay. My heart went out to Chris along with some Kleenex as at first it seemed that, like Oli Mytton at 2nds-5ths, we might see more running down Chriss legs than on the track itself (if you dont understand this reference, you dont want to). Luckily for us, the Kleenex was redundant and instead running scared helped Chris to a new personal best over the distance (A PB which has since been destroyed at Varsity).

Following VFEAR, the track bug really began to take hold and even the most ardent mud-monsters succumbed to its lure. Training sessions became rowdy affairs, rarely (OK never) starting on time and at its peak having over 25 middle distance athletes punishing themselves on the tartan. Sessions became more fun, old faces re-emerged; the leg speed dampened by cross-country slowly began to return. A few keenies made pilgrimages to Watford, which witnessed a fine blues standard 1500m run by Julia Bleasdale (4:37.7), a conveyor belt of sub 4 minute 1500ms from Baddeley, Brown, Green and Talbot as well as a Gebreselassie vs Tergat like last lap duel in the 3K from Bas Van Aken and Dave Barker as they burnt round in a stunning 76s each.

The pinnacle of the MD-squads season came in early May at Bedford, the BUSA champs. We had a huge entry and anticipation of success was high. We were not to be disappointed this is where the f***ing awesome performances were witnessed. The middle-distance squad had no fewer than 7 athletes qualify for BUSA finals and of that Ellen Leggate ran brilliantly to become 1500m gold medallist and Andy Baddeley came away with 1500m silver. Andys performance was particularly amazing as not only did he run a truly gut-wrenching 3:45.96, but also earned a place on the GB Students team, in the prestigious Loughborough meeting in 2 weeks time. This was from a man, who just one year ago, was a physical disaster area!!! Other fine performances at Bedford came from Francis Malone-Lee in the 3K steeplechase, Andy Brown in the 800m, Julia Bleasdale who yet again ran blues time in the 1500m and the other members of the 1500m tag team Ed Green and Darren Talbot. Well done to you all.

A week later came the County Champs at Peterborough, a low-key affair inundated with annoying little kids and the final hunting ground for Varsity team spots. An impressive turnout ensured an entertaining afternoon of athletics kicking off with total domination in the mens 800m care of Brown and Louis Dale. Louis secured his Varsity place by a brave, PB smashing, performance. Louis is probably the gutsiest 800m runner I have ever seen, his race tactic is eyeballs out from the gun and hang on. Perhaps not the prettiest way to run an 800m but effective nonetheless. Next up was the 3K steeplechase, with Dave Barker and Napier Fuller sporting Cambridge vests and finishing in creditable times of 10.16 and 10.51 respectively. The interesting thing about Dave (well not the most interesting, but you certainly dont want to go there!), is that his performance at Peterborough was only 17.5 secs slower than his early season 3K flat race at Watford now that is some differential!! Other solid races came from Phil Scard, Leah Walland and Anna Guthrie.

All in all, the middle distance squad were brilliant, a superb bunch of athletes to both train with and coach. Success will continue for many, in particular the likes of Leah, Claire, Ed and Chris who are continuing to go from strength to strength. Also, best of luck to Ellen, Andy Brown and Andy Baddeley in their quest for Commonwealth Games places and more besides. It has been a pleasure to work with you and remember after a great track season follows an even greater cross-country season success is yours, seize it.

Nicky McDougal

The Athletics Varsity Match

Back in the middle of May a number of members of Hare and Hounds put on their CUAC hats to go and race Oxford round a small loop of red rubber on their home territory. This was no Shotover with its mud and hills, this was athletics, and we were awesome.

For many people, even though it takes place so early in the track season, Varsity marks the high point of their competition (in my case it was probably also the end of the season...) and a number of excellent performances were prepared for the occasion.

Ellen Leggate added insult to injury by beating Oxfords best in both the 800m and 1500m, with Leah Walland likewise achieving a double pb (by considerable margins) to win both for the Alligators. Anna Guthrie also achieved a pb in the 800m and Emily Ferenzi ran blues time in the 5k. For the men, Chris Bentley also smashed his 1500m personal best against strong competition, and all four 5000m men achieved personal bests (not actually surprising since it was their first attempt).

Aside from personal records, it is strong performances throughout the teams that produce the match result. Particularly satisfying was a 1,2 victory in the blues 1500m by Ed Green and Darren Talbot, and 1st and 3rd in the 800m by Andy Drown and Louis Dale, which continued a dominance over Oxford in these events shown throughout the season (Billy Whizz simply hasnt been cutting ice this year). Francis Malone-Lee was robbed of the result he deserved in the steeplechase by an intervening barrier, but nevertheless ran strongly to finish in 2nd place (sadly not allowed by the referees), and Matt Robinson ran well to finish 2nd for the Alverstones. Claire Willer and Beth Kreling also did their stuff in the 1500 and 800 respectively and there were good performances in the ladies 5k [possibly also all pbs like the men?]. Grace Sim bravely entered the realm of sprinters to record a good 400m - it wont be long before Daz gets his wish and CUAC need Hairies to run the 200m!

The crucial role of the Hairies in saving CUACs ass is shown by doing some fiddling with the results. Considering all competitions, Oxford won all but the ladies 2nds team competition; however, when only middle distance results are taken into account, Cambridge win both the 1st and 2nd ladies teams decisively (revenge for Cross-Country Varsity!), drew the Mens 1st team, and were thrashed only in the mens 2nd team [partly my fault I guess!]. We can certainly hold our heads up high knowing that we did our bit for Cambridge that day.

Philip Scard

Last modified: Monday May 04 2009 16:27:32