Introducing: Neil Heron
After experiencing two broken legs, a fractured jaw, a broken big toe, cracked ribs and a busted thumb, I reckoned it was time to hang up the old football boots, after all, I was in my early forties. I figured I’d gotten my fair share from the NHS and it was time to move on to a new sport where there was less risk of broken bones.
I’d always enjoyed running and had entered a few 10k races and half-marathons, so it was a natural transition from football to running. Having said that, and with no disrespect to the footballing fraternity, I soon discovered that the running community was an entirely different set of folk altogether. I couldn’t help but be impressed by the lovely sense of camaraderie, mutual support and friendship within the running community. There was and still is a wonderful spirit of togetherness in the running world, especially at events and races. I can’t think of another sport that unites young and old, male and female, mixed abilities, different ethnic and religious backgrounds with such harmony like running does.
It was very much that sense of community that led to the formation of our club Ballyhalbert Harriers, deep in the low country of the Ards peninsula, right on the most easterly point of Northern Ireland. In truth, it was really just a case of drawing in all those nameless fellow-runners who I had met on the country roads and turning that friendly passing nod, into a friend and club mate. And so in August 2019, after a meeting at the village community house, our club was born. Numbers fluctuated over the next couple of years and at times, especially on a rainy, wind-swept January night, with only three or four brave club mates for company, I questioned the logic of carrying on with the club. However, encouraged by fellow club leader Stevie Cunningham and founding member Hannah Foster, not to mention my long-suffering wife, we persevered. True to the adage, ‘build it and they will come’, we now have upwards on fifty members including around ten Junior Harriers and have firmly established ourselves on the peninsula.
It has been our emphasis on community, friendship, fun and fitness which we feel best defines our wee club. We realise we are unlikely to compete with the big boys and girls of the Northern Ireland running scene, but we like to think that we provide a means whereby local folk can get together and socialise around a sport that they love and maybe, for a short while, forget about some of their worries and pressures. To that end we have endeavoured to organise challenges and events throughout the past difficult twelve months of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our group really bought into our efforts and of course the lure of bling was a great motivator! From hill climbs, to 5k runs, runs to every harbour on the peninsula and Sunday beach runs, our members have embraced them all with great enthusiasm and a lovely sense of gratitude, in spite of the scary times we have lived through.
Going forward, it’s our hope to continue our growth as a club and perhaps go to the next level of full affiliation. For their part, our members are really eager for the races to start up again and to proudly wear their club colours among the established clubs, to chat, to laugh, to share and of course……to run.