Just before seven on a bitter Tuesday night in February, a
troubled supermarket delivery driver brings his van to a shuddering stop in
Bath University’s desolate East car park. Chin on the steering wheel, he sits there now,
peering out at the windswept night. A metal barrier in the construction site
flexes and concedes and is sent grinding across the tundra to play skittles
with the others. The windscreen wipers quiver a little ripple of applause. The
van’s panels are shuddering with a more urgent warning that the curious cargo
of Value Vodka, Pringles and cucumber will soon become the most unwholesome
cocktail imaginable. He checks his timesheet for the third time and despairs at
the impossibility of his task.
Into this scene, sidestepping through the rain and slicing
through the mist with high knees and cartwheeling arms comes our hero now.
George Frost is triumphant from his latest conquest in January’s time trial and
dressed only in a skimpy vest top and barely regulation length shorts, he
completes his warm up ritual. Others too start to appear. Some of them more
conservatively dressed but all with the same wild grin and excited look in
their eyes. They know it makes no sense but it has been a whole month since New
Year and they are eager to see how their resolution honed physiques will fair.
Even on a night such as this.
The runners go off like firecrackers. Alex Carter is in the
field and so each runner falls in behind with the sure knowledge that 2nd
place is the only prize for mortals tonight. There is a glimmer of hope right
at the start though as Alex takes a wrong turn before being called back on
track. After this he quickly disappears into the night, not to be seen again.
South-Westerly’s provide crossfire along the northern end of campus as the
other runners jostle for position in Carter’s wake. Matt Maynard leads the
indomitable Allister Sheffield, closely followed by the chasing group of Ewin, Steve
Curtis and Luke Sturgess-Durden.
By the end of the first lap the rain and wind seem to relent
just slightly. Despite the sodden conditions there seems to be a great fire
burning in the race as runners blast past the Sports Centre in splits that
leave the marshals checking their watches. Allister is in second now, Matt is
trying to hang on behind and Steve and Luke have ten yards on Ewin who is
running heavy with cold. The others come through in quick succession. It’s
certainly going to be a fast one.
Over the next lap Alex Carter opens his lead to almost a
minute. This young man sold his soul a long time ago for legs that are invulnerable
to wind, or pain or incline. With these he strides out to victory while the
others continue to battle it out behind. Allister Sheffield and Matt Maynard run
head to head along the length of North Road. Meanwhile Ewin has put a spurt on
Steve and Luke to which Steve responds and goes off with him.
Passing the Sports Centre for the last time, Allister wins
the battle for second place with a surge so strong that the other runner is
left feeling like he has been beaten by the wind itself. Steve Curtis returns
to his excellent winning form of 2013 to set a new PB and claim fourth place,
closely followed by Ewin and then Luke who also sets a new very promising PB.
As runners continued to cross the line, steeling themselves
courageously against the wild racing conditions, the bedraggled delivery driver
makes his unsteady way back across campus. He sees the same scantily dressed
people of half an hour ago. They had previously struck him as such uncertain
and purposeless figures, when stood there, huddled together, attentively in
rows. But they seem different now. And
indeed for a moment he does wonder to
himself what it would feel like to be
amongst those smiling people, shaking hands, steaming away, like wild horses in
the rain.
