WHILE many were recovering from New Year’s Eve celebrations, more than 30 Haslemere Border athletes started the year off with the customary New Year’s Day parkrun.

Taking part at the local venues of Broadwater Park, Hogmoor inclosure and Alice Holt, all those taking part had decided to start the new year as they hoped to continue.

For others, their first parkrun of 2022 had to wait until January 14.

The scene was set at Alice Holt for Maisie to participate in her first parkrun with her owner Karen Sinclair.

Maisie, a Staffy, had received several practise and training cairn cross training sessions, but this was her first event and once her initial excitement had passed, she settled into a comfortable rhythm. Saturday mornings will never be the same for Maisie.

While Maisie was enjoying her first run, seasoned club athlete Steve King was about to embark on his first race in more than a year, having only recently recovered from injury.

Steve had chosen The Tadworth ten-mile race to make his comeback.

Starting at the Epsom racecourse, the ten-mile course is a scenic and challenging two-lap course on 50 per cent road and 50 per cent track and grass.

Steve completed the course in a time of 1:42:39 and was extremely pleased to be back competing again – and, importantly, with no side-effects.

With many looking to start the year with a new resolution – and for others the opportunity to join and complete the Haslemere Borders’ popular Get Up And Run course – saw a group of 18 people sign up for the ten-week course.

Led by HBAC member and LIRF coach Anna Alexandar, the group meet twice a week, as they gradually build up their running distance and confidence, before completing the course and a 5k run.

January also saw the first club 5k time trial – an ideal opportunity to set down a marker time at the start of the year and a goal to aim for and surpass at future time trials.

The first event saw 56 runners take part – a record number for the time trial. The event had the feel of a handicap race and saw some excellent times and PBs.

On Sunday, January 23, Alton Runners hosted the fourth race of the Southern Cross-Country League in the beautiful surroundings of Chawton House that once belonged to Jane Austen.

And Haslemere Borders were there en masse as 39 eager athletes pitched up to take part in the much-anticipated five-mile race.

Among the team were some ‘first timers’, notably Julian Smith, Ersilla Harris, Zoe Davies, Suzy O’ Rourke and Cheryl Statford-Jones, who were eager to enjoy the experience of a cross-country club mud fest!

Actually, it wasn’t as muddy as some of the previous races, but there were plenty of challenges along the way, such as roots, hills and livestock.

First home for the cub was James Turner, followed by Paul Seymour and Steve Taylor was third.

In the ladies’ team, Sarah Owen was first to reach the finish line, with Tania Corrigan in second place closely followed by Philomel Bennett.

There were some fantastic individual performances, and as this was a team event, there were plenty of cheers from fellow runners wooing in their team mates as they crossed the finish line – and bringing up the rear in her fourth consecutive XC race was Jane Squire with a beaming smile.

The final race of the season is on Sunday, March 13 at Alice Holt.

Earlier in the day, eight HBAC runners took part in the ever-popular Farnborough Half-Marathon which, being early in the year, gives runners a chance to set a benchmark for themselves for the coming year, as well as perhaps run out the last of the festive indulgences!

Four of the club’s fastest men ran a superb race, and first home was Dave Jarrett in an amazing time of 1:11:21 and was seventh male overall.

He was followed by Jon Fairs in 1:17:07 (second in his age group), Luke Shearring (1:20:41) and Tom Milns (1:24:13).

All four are currently training for the Manchester Marathon in April and certainly seem to be well on track.

Also running the race was Sarah Smith, who smashed her half-marathon time with a personal best of 1:37:24 and was 13th lady overall.

Sarah has consistently been at training sessions and her hard work definitely paid off.

Claire Pearson also achieved a personal best with a race time of 1:58:12 closely followed by Andy Wise in 2:02:18 – both had trained hard prior to the event.

There was an overall contingent of around 300 runners taking part and Team HBAC put in some excellent performances.

By Ann Varnes