6th March
As has become traditional this was organised and run by the 148th. Akela Tuesday with helper did the food and drink and Akela Wednesday did the course marking and his helpers acted as flag attendants to ensure the Cubs ran the correct route and to repair any Cubs that broke down.
The morning of the race was crisp and sunny, the going was firm to soft with some areas being very soft. There were a few detail changes in the route to avoid contra-flow in one area. The Cubs were expected to run around the course twice as this gave the Leaders a chance to return to the Scutt and be prepared for the finish, and regain their breath before the fittest Cubs reached the finish.
The same scoring system was used as last year where the first four Cubs home from each Pack were awarded points, this was achieved by having two finishing lines one for everybody and one, the scoring line where points were awarded.
The Cubs were given a brief talk by Simon (ADC Cubs) and the route explained by Akela (Wed). This gave the marshals time to get out on the course and make themselves ready. The Cubs were taken to the start line and released. By the time the leading runners were got to Hathi, at the far end of the course they were fairly well spread out, our fastest Cub Shaun was running well and was in a close second place as he disappeared over the horizon. The rest of our team were jogging round gossiping together. On this lap all the Cubs followed the marker flags and with the cheerful cries of see you in a minute from the marshals all disappeared out of the field.
Several minutes later the leading runners were with us again. With Shaun still strongly in contention, he even lead for a short distance, once the first half dozen Cubs had passed the main pack arrived and were not taking much notice of the flags, the course proving too taxing for their poor bodies. There were a couple of Cubs who were not natural athletes but who kept going and completed their two laps, showing a great deal of resolution and guts. A true Cub Scout effort.
After the seven "fun runners" had dashed past us the marshals collected the flags and made their way to the Scutt and the promise of a hot-dog, sadly the last one had been sold just before we got there but there was a plate of fried onions. This was not to our liking and was disposed of.
Shaun managed to come third in the individual race but we came nowhere in the team race as there were some irregularities in the route taken by some of the Cubs.
Other than that the Cubs seemed glad that it was over for another year, it hadn't rained, the sun god had done his normal thing and some people were actually seen taking one layer of clothing off.
Thanks to Simon and Cyril for turning up and awarding the certificates, for the Cubs that turned up and ran, to the marshals who had not expected to be stood in a field while thirty Cubs ran past. Finally thanks to 'our' Akelas for organising it.