Hundreds still halfing after all these years

It started at the height of the jogging boom and is still going strong. On the eve of the 25th event, sports editor Rob Batiste talks to

two Father's Day half-marathon stalwarts. 'I DID it on the 21st. Did you?'

That was what approaching 300 islanders were claiming after completing the first Father's Day half-marathon on Sunday 21 June 1981.

This weekend a similar number will tackle the 25th anniversary event and, like then, among them will be Paul Ingrouille, one of the island's leading distance runners for much of the intervening period, and ex-Hash House Harriers regular Pete Burnard.

Now a veteran, Ingrouille, twice a winner of the 13.1-mile race, no longer has pretensions about repeating that.

He will leave that to youngsters such as Steve Dawes, who is the clear favourite.

But, like many other 'Half' traditionalists, Ingrouille and Burnard have many memories of an event which for 20 years was organised by the Hash before GIAAC took it on.

Ingrouille placed eighth in the inaugural event in 1-21.44, a race that was won by Aldershot's Ian Logan in 1-12.09.

'I remember in the run-up to the first event, a small group of us semi-serious runners used to meet regularly for a cliff path run from Petit Bot.

'In those days a good field was 25, but John 'Pinta' Cleal enthusiastically suggested the Hash House Harriers might even get 100. In the event, they got 300.

'My own memories of the first aren't that clear, but it wasn't warm and there was a headwind for the opening 10 miles or so.

'I ran most of it suffering from a stitch, but picked up a few places in the final few miles.'

In 1985, an unknown Portuguese runner smashed the course record and Ingrouille loves the story of how the mythical 'Eagle Has Landed' story came about.

'Mick Perrio put together a series of fine performances in the opening three or four races, but was always beaten by an Aldershot runner.

'I think he managed to pip Logan one year only to have John Hood win the race.

'By 1985, perhaps injured, he had given up hope, but the story goes that he went into one of his regular drinking holes brandishing a number and taking bets that ?this number? would win the Hash Half.

'He had, somehow, got in contact with a certain Jose Freias, who was based in Jersey at the time and apparently working as a waiter.

'I was sitting on the wall outside the ?Imp? when a little buzz went round that the ?Eagle Has Landed? and Freias, rumoured to be a training partner of then Olympic marathon champion Carlos Lopes, had made it over.'

Freias duly slaughtered the record.

'To this day, I'm not sure how much of that story is true but nonetheless I guess the establishment got their own back on the 10th running of the event with Nick Rose breaking Freias' record in a race with far fewer surprises and less romance.'

By 1992, the race had switched from the Pleinmont to Bulwer Avenue route to the KGV inland course and Ingrouille came close to winning for the first time.

'I can vividly remember many stages of the '92 race held over the less-popular KGV course. There was a slow start with shelter against a north-easterly wind, hitting Bordeaux and then having a gentle tailwind all the way to Vazon.

'I was in a bit of a tussle with Jerseyman Errol O'Driscoll and I think I got near my 10k PB in those middle miles.

'But Errol was too strong and dropped me on the 11 mile mark just before the horrendous climb up to Delisles. Those last two miles seemed to be the longest I have ever raced and the second place was the first of what must be a record number for the event - four or five.'

Burnard's best half-marathon was his first - finishing 17th in an event that was inspired by that March's inaugural London marathon and on a course that he devised.

He completed all 20 Hash races before the event passed to the GIAAC, his times varying from 1-25 to 2-35, and is still wondering whether even entering this year was a good idea.

'I'll be carrying a Camelbak to counter dehydration and a mobile phone in case of disaster.

'And I might have a fellow struggler in the shape of one of the Hart Road Runners who is not as fit as he used to be but keen to do the 25th.'

Around 20 runners are expected from the club that is based at Fleet Leisure Centre near Aldershot.

Burnard will certainly be setting off a lot more slowly than he did in 1981.

'Steve Smith, from Aldershot, Farnham and District, one of the country's top clubs, had been over that Easter and we told him we had the Half coming up,' he said.

'That is how Logan, Hood and Co. came to run our event although I think Perrio thought we'd brought them over just to beat him.'

The Aldershot and Farnham boys set off at a cracking pace, dragging the rest of the field off too fast, too.

'At the Cup and Saucer I realised that the pace was too quick and slowed down,' said Burnard.

'A nipper went flying past - there was no age restriction then - and I told him to slow down, too. ''Eff off mister,'' he said. ''You just want to beat me''.

'I never did find out what happened to him but I didn't see him again.'

Hardly surprising. Burnard, aiming to run around 6-30 to 6-45 pace, still went through the first mile in 5-59, despite slowing down after 800 metres or so.

His other memories of 1981?

Passing nephew Steve Waters at Bordeaux and Waters' mother's surprise when Burnard arrived first at the water station she was manning at the finish.

And dehydration.

'I could perspire for England. My number was off by Perelle, new safety pins rusted on the run and stained my vest and I drank Perrier, tea, shandy and beer from late morning until teatime before I spent a penny.'

He was not the only sufferer.

'Heat was a major problem for most of our 10 years,' he recalled.

'You'd have a hot headwind for almost 10 miles then around Bordeaux it would be airless and the roadside walls seemed to radiate heat.

'We had one guy who was so far gone he came down North Side and tried to turn right along Vale Avenue although you can see runners ahead of you going up South Side towards the finish. I'm told he worked at the Guernsey Press and was on autopilot back to Braye Road.

'We used to warn everyone, put out water every two miles and pull out anybody whose condition was a concern but we still had people having to go on drips at the finish.'

Entries swelled through the 80s as the jogging boom crossed the Atlantic and for a time the Hash Half was the island's biggest sporting event.

'It was great down at the start, seeing the field stretching from the Imperial bus terminus to Portelet slipway and thinking that we had done that.'

The 'we' was the Hash committee of, predominantly, Burnard, Roger Martin, Geoff Rowe and Barry Marley.

'But we had a lot of help from our sponsor, the Dairy, the Hash and everyone else - tanks for the water stations from Norman Piette, scaffolding from Duquemin, buses from the finish to the start, tables from the North Show, the Dairy tanker filling up the tanks at the drinks station, St John Ambulance, amateur radio enthusiasts who kept us in touch in pre-mobile era, the police and all the volunteers who timekept, manned the drinks stations and marshalled the junctions.'

After 10 years, the committee decided to hand the event on and were delighted when the 1980 world cross-country champion, Nick Rose, set a new course record on their final run.

The Roses and Burnards remain in touch.

'One of the nicest runners you could ever meet - no side, no attitude - unlike some local runners I've had to deal with.'

A new Hash committee took the event on and promptly changed the course.

'Fair enough, it was their baby but it was a surprise,' said Burnard, 'and our many visiting runners loved the coastal scenery.'

The early Hash Halfs were (in)famous for their afternoon alfresco prizegivings, initially on Sam Marsh's lawn then boosting the coffers at the Rugby and later the Sylvans Clubs.

The new committee decided on basing everything, start, finish and presentation, at the KGV with a course up St George's, down La Houguette to Vazon, around the coast to Bordeaux then along Braye Road and Camp du Roi back to the KGV.

With the strung-out field coming through Crossways and Camp du Roi lights as people were leaving church or trying to get to the golf club, there was chaos.

'I said that course would only work the other way around,' said Burnard.

'But as a heavy runner, that climb from La Mare up to the top of Delisles was a killer. You could never make up on the downhill mile to the finish what you had lost on the uphill mile from the coast.'

For their valedictory 20th running in millennium year, the Hash put the event back on the coast where it has remained.

'It's where it belongs,' said Burnard.

'Running on the sea side of the coast road keeps traffic hazards to a minimum.

'Had I known how big it was going to get, I would have taken them around the back of Vale Church rather than coming out at Pont Allaire, but it's still a safe route.'

So why is the under-trained 17-stone 57-year-old even contemplating putting his running shoes back on after finishing a distant last in May's Sark 5k - a quarter of the distance.

'Memories,' he said, 'of the officials and runners who are no longer with us - especially Ian Logan who died of cancer.

'And friendships - with the mates who used to organise and run in it, with visiting runners past and present - and the banter with the crowds who came out to watch.

'I hope the spectators turn out again tomorrow. Some of us need all the help we can get.'