Harriers of the Month and Chair’s Blog – January 2026

Welcome to the first chair’s blog of 2026! Weather-wise, January was a pretty awful month but there was lots of red- (and white-)hot running from Hyde Park Harriers! Read on below, but firstly congratulations to our…

HARRIERS OF THE MONTH – JANUARY 2026

  • Charlotte Corner (multiple nominations):
    • An insanely good performance at the LCW ultra.
    • Charlotte absolutely smashed the Great Owl LCW Ultra Weekend – finishing as overall winner across both days! To take on the full Leeds Country Way route in a single weekend is an incredible achievement in itself, never mind at serious pace… Massive well done!
    • An overall win at the LCW weekend!
  • Alys Griffiths (multiple nominations):
    • A great PB at the Brass Monkey Half – great to see, especially as Alys has had bad luck with entering the race in recent years! Congrats!
    • A ten minute half marathon PB at Brass Monkey after not being able to run it last year, well done!

Well done to all our nominees, copied below:

  • Adam Lomas (multiple nominations):
    • The only Harrier at Stanbury Splash? No bother, just casually win the damn thing… All in a day’s work for an HPH legend.
    • A podium finish at PECO at Temple Newsam deserves to be celebrated!
  • Ben Douglas – Really great to see Ben coming back strong after a few setbacks – finishing fourth at Temple Newsam PECO!
  • Coralie Bell (multiple nominations):
    • Coralie ran a frankly bonkers sub80 at Brass Monkey, setting an incredible new club record for the half marathon – amazing stuff!
    • A Woodhouse Moor PB and Brass Monkey HM record in one month!
  • Emma Knowles – Emma has run incredibly well at PECO this season – great to see!
  • Lucas Johnstone – Great performances in PECO, leading group sessions and having an epic fall at Temple Newsam PECO!
  • Paul Milligan – His stupendously fine calves (Editor’s note: HPH does not condone the objectification of runners, but we have confirmed with Paul that he is comfortable with, and justifiably proud of, his very fine calves…)
  • PECO Bakers – So much baking at Temple Newsam!
  • Sam Townson – Sam is an incredible runner and proved it again at Brass Monkey with an amazing 1:13 time for the half. Can’t wait to see what he does next!

THANK YOU!

A huge thank you to all our leaders this month – Adam L, Alice H, Ally F, Andy B, Bethan M, Caite B, Cara G, Cat M, Clare E, Daisy W, Ellie W, George A, Hannah L, Helen N, Honor B, Jonathan S, Josh S, Kevin L, Lisa B, Lucas J, Lucy B, Lucy R, Naomi A, Olly H, Pablo D, Richard G and Will D!

If you’d like to give leading a go, speak to any of our existing leaders or committee members and we’ll give you all the support and help you need.

HIGHLIGHTS OF JANUARY 2026

  • As part of our 20th anniversary celebrations, we’re undertaking a club-wide year long relay! As of the end of this month, the baton has travelled 212 km and has been carried by Kevin, Richard, Naomi, Olly, Helen, Jonathan, Megan, Sam, Euan, Amaia, Josh, Amy and your humble scribe! If you’d like to get involved, there’s a specific chat in the club’s WhatsApp community to co-ordinate handovers.
  • A trio of hardcore fell-loving Harriers took on the Aonach Mor Uphill race in Lochaber – three kilometres with 600m of ascent! It makes the Ilkley Incline look tame by comparison – well done team!
  • Kev L spent a freezing morning getting deliberately lost in Yorkshire as part of the Drop race – participants are blindfolded, driven to an unknown location somewhere in the rough vicinity of Leeds and then have to orient themselves and make their way back to town as quickly as they can! The incredibly cold conditions stopped Kev at Dewsbury, but still a cracking effort!
  • We had a huge turnout for the third PECO race of the season at West Park and some incredible performances with both the men’s and women’s teams emerging victorious! The ground was frozen hard and the course was brutal as ever, but Harriers are a hardy bunch – nice work folks!
  • Everyone knows HPH loves the Leeds Country Way relay race. Charlotte C took this even further by completing the full course across a single weekend – more than 100km in orbit around Leeds. Not only did she complete it, she was the overall champion of Great Owl’s event!
  • Nigel and Olly took on the Harewood House Trail Half Marathon – looked like a pretty steep and brutal course, well done chaps!
  • The club was out in force for the ever-popular Temple Newsam Ten despite distinctly unpleasant conditions! The slush, ice and freezing rain didn’t stop our runners having some (Type 2) fun, with Mike V finishing in the top 20 (despite wayward signposting…). Kudos to everyone who braved the weather!
  • Thanks to everyone who helped out with our volunteering takeover at Woodhouse Moor parkrun this month – January is always a really busy month for our local parkrun, so it was really appreciated by the core team to have a big squad of reliable volunteers! Shout out to Kate S as our fearless leader and run director!
  • Phil H continued his quest towards 300 ultras with the Green Gateways – roughly 35 miles completed in just over 10 hours, and followed it up with the 32 miles of the Wilmot Wander.
  • The Brass Monkey Half Marathon lived up to its name – absolutely filthy January conditions! It didn’t stop the club storming it though – loads of brilliant runs, including a whole raft of PBs! Congratulations everyone!
  • Adam L made a big Splash in Stanbury by winning the eponymous race – incredible stuff as ever!
  • Kudos to Mike V, Rich E and Vicky H for taking on the Calverley Cutter, the latest race in our Winter League (and to Chris H, who ran the Kirkstall Bridge 10K on the same day)!
  • Steve W took on the Arc 25 – an amazing coastal (not quite) marathon in Cornwall. A stunning, if brutal, route!
  • It was the muddiest PECO most of us could remember at Temple Newsam this year – rumours of whales being spotted in the water jump have yet to be substantiated, but it was incredibly soggy! The weather was foul and some of us spent quite a lot of the race just trying to stay upright, but we still had a brilliant event, with unbelievable performances across the board (both men’s and women’s teams coming first by huge margins) and wonderful support, particularly from our captains Anne and Ciaran.

Well done to everyone for lighting up a dark and soggy month with some incredible and inspiring runs and activities; very proud to be HPH!