HPH Chair’s Blog and HOTM for August

What a month! August has been another busy one. With the culmination of our summer intervals series; a full day of parkrunning; ultra marathons galore; another international triathlon appearance (actually, two!) and loads of 10km and 5km races as well as Sunday long runs, it’s been a hot month for HPH achievements. I’ve loved reading about all your adventures over the summer, please make sure to keep the stories coming – and if you’d like to write about them for out website, please send any blogs to hello@hydeparkharriers.co.uk – include pictures too!

Our winner this month, because good things come in threes (and we couldn’t pick between them!), are John Pratt, Paul Ramsden and Paul Milligan!

Paul and Paul (the ‘Pauls’ as they’ve been formally named) were nominated a number of times this month for their incredible journey, which culminated in them running 170km around the Mont Blanc Massive this month at UTMB (Ultra Tour of Mont Blanc). They’ve been in the process of qualifying for this race since 2017; running regular ultra marathons, including 2 100 mile races. They finally got their place in this year’s race and smashed the 170km race in 45ish hours with only a couple of little naps in a Swiss bus stop and on a mattress in a church. Nevertheless, they finished the race, beers in hand and ready for a swift nap in Chamonix town square. Well done Pauls, absolutely amazing work to see the HPH vest running in one of the world’s most prestigious trail races.

John was nominated for his continued efforts not only running the Thursday interval sessions, but making them a fun and inclusive session for everyone and offering his expert advice. His leadership and guidance through 10k intervals session has had a lot of effect on all of us in some way, shape or form, and John is an incredible member of our club, always going above and beyond to help us reach our goals.

• Naomi Miles – An absolutely storming performance at The European Championships representing Team GB in Age Group Triathlon. If qualification for the GB squad alone wasn’t tough enough she produced a performance worthy of all the time she’s put into her training to finish 10th in age group in the whole of Europe. It’s a very special achievement.
• Chris Worfolk – Smashing a ridiculous achievement in Copenhagen Ironman, Chris has a brilliant attitude to boot and it’s great to see him doing so well.
• Dan Coffey – Dan’s put in some crazy mileage over the last couple of months and reaped the benefits with some massive PBs in both 5 and 10k. Well done Dan! Dan’s insanely dedicated to his training and had some impressive PBs over the summer. He’s also an incredibly friendly, supportive team mate – an all-round great person.
• Toby Adkins – Organising the brilliant Festival of Parkrun and being a hugely positive source of motivation at the event itself, as well as smashing it himself!
• Chloe Brooks – Yet another crazy achievement for Chloe finishing the Liverpool to Leeds race in 6th place overall, 130 miles total! Amazing work. Another insane canal ultra and finally completing the slam! I saw the route when she posted it and then I also saw how she absolutely smashed the whole canal and that was very inspiring, hence I think she deserves to be Harrier of the Month. Chloe has written about it here: https://www.hydeparkharriers.co.uk/canalslam/
• Flick Burton – Really impressive 5k time at the Leeds series (almost a club record)
• Oliver Clarkin – An excellent run at the Grand Tour of Skiddaw
• Steve Brown, Paul Sawyer and Chris Hassall – For selflessly giving up their bank holiday to support an idiot running down a canal. They ran all through the night, at someone else’s pace with a smelly runner to help them achieve their goals.
• Grace Roberts – For organising a fantastic 10k time trial.
• Danni Bryant – A brilliant job co-ordinating and organising the LCW relay teams!
  

As always, keep an eye out on the weekly bulletin emails and in the Facebook group for more information about races, discounts, sessions and club activity. If you have any ideas for sessions, any feedback or want to organise a social or event, please get in touch with the committee by emailing us at hello@hydeparkharriers.co.uk or messaging one of us directly on Facebook – hopefully you know who we are! If you don’t, you can find out here.

We are having a break over the summer, so there’s no meeting in August! Our next meeting is on Sunday 23rd October 2022 – make sure you send us anything for discussion before then.

Don’t forget you can submit any future HPH of the Month nominations as well as nominations for other successes for next year’s Awards Do at any time of the month/year at this link.