If you start and make the bridge
feeling like a mighty ridge
we’ll put £5 in the pot.
Now then, give it all you’ve got,
what’s it worth
to reach 82nd and 4th ?
Another fiver I suggest
and I hope you’re feeling at your best.
Nine miles takes you to Lafayette and Classon;
get there - it doesn’t matter in what fashion.
When you reach Bedford and Manhattan
I bet you wish you’d passed the baton;
how long it takes, I know not when
but I think it’s worth another ten.
Get as far as 95th and 1st
and you’ll think you’re just about over the worst.
But I’ve already backed you for twenty
and, well, I guess that’s plenty.
You’ve run 21 miles if you get to 137 and 5
and you’ll congratulate yourself if you are still alive.
Central Park is near,
there’s not much left to fear
as it will be a triumph no one can diminish
and I’ll raise you to 50 if you make the finish!
For Sophie Malim on the occasion of her sponsored walk in the New York Marathon.