Chariots of Fire!

Sunday 18 September saw a team of six Britten Sinfonia staff (well 3 office staff, one person on maternity leave, one violinist and one fiancé) meet on a gloriously sunny morning at an unusually busy Queen’s Green in Cambridge. We are a sociable bunch but before 9am on a Sunday morning is a rare occurrence but it was for a good reason – the annual relay race, Chariots of Fire, through the city to raise much deserved funds for charity! The Cambridge race has been an annual event since 1992 and this year saw over 1800 participants run the 1.7 mile course to raise funds for the

BS team from L to R: David, Sophie, Miranda, Hannah T, Hannah P, Will

This year’s Britten Sinfonia team was made up of our Chief Executive, David Butcher, Orchestra Manager, Hannah Tucker and her fiancé Will Bates, Principal Second Violin Miranda Dale, our Creative Learning Director, Sophie Dunn, who’s currently on maternity leave and myself, Hannah Perks, Marketing and Development Assistant. Our Finance Director, Rebecca Walsh, was on hand to make sure we were all in the right place at the right time and to be principal cheer leader for the team after an injury meant she was unable to run this year.

I’ve not been running regularly for very long and am still a bit of a plodder rather than elite athlete but other members of our team have been enjoying the benefits of running for years. With our team t-shirts on and race number, 255, pinned into place found a good spot for the team to cheer on our runners from...

The atmosphere on Queen’s Green was very friendly and the warm up led over the loud speaker got everyone going ahead of the race. As 9.30am approached our first runner, Will, headed to the start line...he got us off to a flying start! He surprised us all, and we nearly missed him come past us on the final corner, as his time was a fantastic 9mins 40ish seconds! Hannah T took the baton and continued the great work on the second leg.

Sophie and Hannah T

Sophie was our third runner and was still smiling as she came up to pass the baton to me at the finish/start line! I then bumbled round the course; it was great to see Rebecca and her daughter outside King’s College cheering us on. This was the first race I’ve done and the encouragement of spectators, stewards and other runners was great! The course weaved its way along King’s parade, through the back of Trinity, Clare and King’s before crossing the river and heading back along to Queen’s Green. As I passed my team members cheering me on I gave a final push to pass the baton onto David who was waving frantically at the start/finish line!

David and myself, Hannah P

He picked up the pace again and achieved a good time. Miranda had been keeping herself psyched up throughout everyone else’s runs and was raring to go when David handed her the baton. She also achieved a good time and the team had an overall time of 1hour, 21mins and 34 seconds!

Miranda

Most of the team then enjoyed a well deserved bacon sandwich to finish the morning. Hopefully we’ll be back next year!Team BS with medals. From L to R: David, Sophie, Hannah P, Hannah T, Will, Miranda

Hannah Perks
Marketing and Development Assistant