RUNNERS made a flying start to the new year in 5k parkruns near and far.
Despite Ross-on-Wye’s own New Year’s Day parkrun falling victim to the weather, MonRoss Trailblazers’ Faye Johnson finished first woman and 10th out of 158 in Monmouth’s Chippenham Fields event, crossing in 21 minutes 5 seconds, 31 seconds up on Alison Stuart.
Club mate Gary Griffiths came home in 25.27, 15 seconds ahead of Tony Davies, with Trailblazers’ trio Emma Davies, Neil Harper and Catherine Finlay crossing together in 27.29, and Rosie Davies and Ross Vidler also taking part.
Over-60 runner Pip Cottrell ran the Woodgate Valley course in 26.20, while Emma Humphries did the Hereford parkrun in 26.46, and Rachael Aitkin the Portobello parkrun in Edinburgh in 27.01.
Although most sport was frozen off on Saturday, MonRoss runners attended no fewer than seven runs, including one in Poland.
Toby Dickens started the year with a 17.45 PB finishing second in Brighton’s Preston Park run.
Will Mynott also finished third in 18.25 at Hereford, where Emma Humphries ran a PB 25.04 running alongside club mates Catherine Finlay and Lowri Turner.
Martin Turner also started the year with a 21.08 PB at Mallards Pike in the Forest, where Emma Davies was fourth woman in 24.02 running alongside Matt Webb, with club mates Tony Davies and Adam Gray coming home in 25.20 and 29.52 respectively.
At Lydney, Faye Johnson was first woman again and fourth overall, finishing her 99th parkrun in 21.35.
Dan Sandford was fifth at the Five Acres Forest parkrun, crossing in 21.14.
And much further afield, Gavin Jones took a big step in completing the parkrun alphabet challenge, travelling to Poland and ticking off 'Z' by running Zielony Jar parkrun in snowy conditions in 29.12.
To join a free parkrun, which usually take place at 9am on Saturdays, where you can run, jog or walk a 5k course, see www.parkrun.org.uk