I was a Hare!

  Today was the Swanbourne Chase, a nation known, inter-school cross-country race for junior and senior Prep school students. Each year, they ask a couple of staff members to be the ‘Hare’ who leads the runners around the course. 2013 was our turn. Jem, Patrick, Sam and I sported out best bright clothing and braved the cold, leading the 310 runners around the school grounds.  

 

When initially asked if I was a runner, my reply was “Ah… I like sport.” This resulted in my name being crossed off the list of possible hares. Much to my disgust, Grahame, our head of sport, spotted me bounding down the driveway after games one day, decided my running technique was good enough and put me down anyway. For the next week, all Swanbourne pupils continually informed me how fast all the competitors were and how embarrassing it would be if I were to be ‘caught’. This resulted in extreme worry and lack in self-confidence from Jem and I. We were not amused.

Yesterday, Patrick showed me the section of the course I would be running. It was hardly anything, about 200m down a hill and half way around the bottom field. However, over night, this small distance quadrupled in size (in my head), to the extent where I was sure I would be over-taken by all the children and be doomed for the rest of the year – not cool.

Race day came – class as normal, apart from every staff member asking if I had started to warm up yet. One fluoro hat and fluoro singlet later and we were taking the course. Fortunately, I quickly realised what I had imagined to be a small marathon, was purely just a wee downhill sprint and a rugby field. But, nothing could have prepared me for the pace of the leading junior boy. All out on his own, he came around the corner and by the time I swapped to hare role to Sam, what had been a 50m head start and become about 10 paces. It was very exciting to see Kitty up front leading with two boys; she won the junior girls section!

After the racing, we were rounded up and thrown into the hall to serve afternoon tea to the swarms of parents who had come to watch. Normally we have to dress formally and have our hair neatly tied back to serve tea. However, the circumstances force this standard to be altered slightly, with Jem and I serving in our running outfits and sporting awful hat hair.

It was all worth it in the end though as we got a shout out from the Headmaster in his official thank you speech – oh to be a hare!