Polly Keen
Saturday 30th January 2010: Cambridge awakes to a light blanket of snow. The first challenge of the day is to get to the course. Icy roads saw Polly Keen skid and fall off her bike several times on the way to the station and Sam Ashcroft had to literally sprint to catch the train. However, despite these few mishaps, we all successfully made it to Parliament Hill, this year’s home to the South of England Cross Country Championships.
First up to tackle the rollercoaster of a course were Naomi Taschimowitz and Rachel Heard in the Junior Women’s race. Flying up and down the hills and floating over the mud, Naomi had a brilliant race, giving the announcers serious issues at the pronunciation of her surname as she went, eventually finishing in the silver medal position. Rachel also had an excellent race, finishing 12th. Miss Taschimowitz’s first comment on finishing expressed her disappointment at not being awarded a Saucony voucher as the medallists in the younger age groups had. Life gets tough as you get older, I’m afraid, Naomi!
Next up were the Junior Men. Travelling to the course, Will Mackay had mentioned how still being an Under 20 was sometimes irritating when boys a foot shorter than him beat him. Sam Ashcroft decisively acted on this comment to be first the Hare & Hound home in a very respectable 29th position. Will, meanwhile, finished in 46th, and described his performance as *insert expletive here*.
When Lauren Barklie went to collect her number for the Senior Women’s race, she couldn’t believe her ears when she found out that there had been a mistake and she hadn’t been entered so couldn’t run. Ridiculously frustrated, Lauren took advantage of the terrain Cambridge lacks and did a hills session while Amanda Scott and Polly Keen raced. Amanda, shocked by the style of the course in comparison the American cross-countries she’s used to, finished a solid 29th despite enjoying very little of the race, and Polly was 41st.
The final race of the day was the Senior Men who had a 15km slog through the churned up course to endure. James Kelly, despite a fall at the top of the final downhill stretch (which frustratingly let Varsity Champion Bruce of Oxford past), came home in an impressive 25th and claimed a trophy for 1st Belgrave man home. Next Cantab home was James Chettle in 153rd who risked being disqualified by wearing his white Spartans vest as opposed to the official light blue Cambridge number – tut tut! Chettle, however, was obviously sufficiently satisfied with his run to treat himself to a super-sized Burger King on the way home. Andy Collier finished well skilfully dipping into the top 200 (199th) finishing looking very fetching with muddy handprints on his pecks and Liam Richardson placed 261st.
And so, off we went back to Cambridge, very proud to be travelling with a South of England silver medallist, though probably none looking as proud as CUH&H WAG (or male equivalent), Matt Grant. And with Parliament Hill’s mud encrusted under our toenails for days to come, more “fond” memories of the infamous course will undoubtedly stick with us for quite a while…