HPH Chair’s Blog and HOTM for April

April was a bumper month for awards, marathons and other races… and, as a result, a bumper month for HOTM nominations. Congratulations to everyone who was nominated. The entire coachload of you!

Our winners this month were Abdu Ahmed and Ruth Draisey. Well done to both of you. Here’s why:

Abdu was nominated because he absolutely stormed his first marathon at Manchester resulting in a 2:44 marathon time after a month or two of challenging training – incredible running!

Abdu rocking the HPH colours.

Ruth was nominated for a smashing April. First, she annihilated the hills and heat at Boston Marathon, which she got into using her prized age group qualifying time. 6 days and a plane ride later, Ruth popped her trainers back on and smashed out an absolutely brilliant result at London Marathon. Rumour has it she also run another marathon today, too. Wow. Amazing job Ruth.

  • Paul Sawyer: A huge thanks for all the hard work in organising the Awards Evening – cheers Paul!
  • Ciaran Tracey: Ciaran’s run at Reading Half was brilliant – 1:13:16; who manages to take three and a half minutes of their PB?!
  • Joseph Elmes: Despite a tough few months battling injury, Joseph ran really well at Manchester Marathon, coming in with a new PB!
  • Kev Longmate: Kev was bonkers enough to enter and train for a 100 mile race. Although it may not have gone to plan on the day, his run was still unbelievable – he should be proud of himself for getting so far, and we’re all very proud of him!
  • Phil Hammond: Phil completed the Punk Panther Skipton Skedaddle and finished as first MV60 male – great work Phil!
  • Sophie Studholme: Sophie smashed Manchester Marathon with a new sub4 PB – well done Sophie!
  • Jonah Kennedy: Jonah ran a brilliant new PB at London – fantastic running!
  • Jonny Spain: Congratulations to Jonny on an excellent London Marathon – he’s not had the easiest couple of months with injuries, but he still ran a brilliant race!
  • Muyang Hu: Amazing to see Muyang run the London Marathon, and end up comfortably sub5 – well done!
  • Matty Barton: Congratulations to Matt on completing the Blackpool Marathon, especially given his injury issues in recent months – well done sir!
  • Tom Moulding: Tom ran a brilliant sub35 at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park 10K to finish second – very impressive on a tricky and mixed-surface course!
  • Eliza Taswell-Fryer: A brilliant London marathon performance, despite perhaps going a touch fast at mile 19!
  • Will Dow: Completing Brighton marathon, despite only recently having recovered from bronchitis
    A brilliant London marathon in 3.40
  • Danny Laycock: Danny trained really well for Manchester marathon using a Runna plan and was brilliantly rewarded with a 40.06 10km in the build-up and a 3.25 on the day. Well done Danny
  • Clare Evans: Congratulations to Clare on setting a new 5K PB – great to see her hard work pay off!
  • Chris Kemp: Chris ran a fantastic time at the Yorkshire Three Peaks race – can’t wait to see what he does next!
  • Steve Worthington: Huge congratulations to Steve for a brilliant performance at the Yorkshire Three Peaks – great to see!
  • Richard Cartwright: Rich did incredibly well to complete the Fellsman 2024 – nearly 100km with terrifying amounts of elevation! Huge congratulations!
  • Paul Ramsden: for a great run at the Yorkshire 3 Peaks this year, equalling his time from previous but on a longer course – beating some demons from years past, too. Great job Paul.