Possible Clues:

• Hare and hounds barking, perhaps? Ace
• Get secretary to sit up on a stool at first, gaining energy for bureaucratic nightmare
• Trail-following cross-country race
• It meant folk had to run after those who littered the countryside
• Race through bureaucratic procedure
• Cross-country race following trail
• Computer housing copier includes key for sheet-handling process
• Complex investigation involving father, fish and choppy sea
• 1973 movie set at Harvard, with 'The'
• Charles embraced by two fathers in "Hare and Hounds"