In Cambridge for the first time since 2008, to attend the Cambridge Greek Play, and staying in a hotel opposite the house where I spent my childhood, I had the chance to reproduce nearly exactly the TAG route, that is to say, Trumpington and Grantchester, a family tradition. The word tag thus came to stand for any sort of strenuous physical activity and, in our family argot, spawned an antonym, untag, used, for example, to mock anyone showing cowardice when asked to swim in cold water.
This run certainly was tag. I started before dawn, dressed in only a running t-shirt and vest, and it was cold. My hands froze and never thawed out for the duration. Across Coe Fen, down Barton Road, then out to Grantchester I went, then past Byron's Pool and to Trumpington, back past the prep school I attended and beside the Botanic Garden. Unlike my usual runs, I see that there was an elevation gain of 90ft.
