Backstop Land

Directly following the race, I felt much better than I have been doing after my three road marathons so I thought recovery after South Devon Ultra would be a fairly straightforward affair. That was before the DOMS (or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) hit me. Driving back along the south coast was fine but as soon as I got out of the car, it was utter misery. Stopping by at Lulworth Cove, I had some funny idea about hiking over to Durdle Door as a kind of recovery exercise but instead I found myself reading “Backstop Land” by Glenn Patterson at the inn, thinking that for all the fanfare, the fundamental dilemma of Brexit remains as unresolved as on the night of the referendum:

“We don know yet fthere’ll be
a clean Breggsit ra messy Breggsit
nur a hard Breggsit nur a saft Breggsit.
But mnot goin te build a hard boarder.
It’ll be a soft boarder, waitn see.
A sorta magic boarder that no-one can see.
We can hay a boarder that isny a boader.
One tay keep youse in, an everyone else oot.”