HPH Chairs Blog and HOTM for December

Well, December was cool wasn’t it? PECO, a race where everyone dressed as Santa, a trail 10km, our Christmas tree run, a couple of socials, the Chevin Chase, loads of extra parkruns and of course other other celebrations that come alongside a little break. We also had the lovely Prusts: Jane and Steve, hosting a loop of the Roundhay Rudolph followed by tea and cake at their gaff.

The annual Christmas tree run

Oh, and we hired an ENTIRE BREWERY for our Christmas party. That was a bit cool, wasn’t it? We hope you all enjoyed it.

HPH Christmas party crew.

This month’s HOTM nominations weren’t all Christmas party related but they sure were impressive. So much so, we had one clear winner then 3 runners up. Our winner this month, chief Christmas party organiser himself: Paul Sawyer. I think it goes without saying that Paul put in an immense amount of effort to deliver the most amazing Christmas party. Thanks so much Paul, what a fun night.

Mr Christmas magic himself: Paul

Your runners up this month were Cara, Coralie and Kat!

Cara Gates:

  • Delivered a brilliant DJ set for the HPH Christmas party (with glamorous assistant Mig) – loved it, and really great to see a Harrier showcasing non-running talents!
  • Serving the club an absolutely banging set of tunes ALL EVENING at the Christmas party, what a talent and selfless skill share!

Coralie Bell: Coralie got the 4th fastest U23 UK marathon in 2023. Absolutely incredible!!!

Kat Griffiths: Just for her positivity and determination. As a newbie (only started a couch to 5k) she’s got involved in run around the clock, Tuesday club nights and PECO. Also for always encouraging others and a being kind.

Our other nominees were:

  • Tom Moulding: Tom has smashed out two fantastic PBs in November. 56:32 at Preston 10 Mile and 16:42 at Leeds 5k, both of which were in tough conditions. Tom has been consistent with his training this year and continues to improve every month. He’s also incredibly humble about all of his achievements. What a nice b*****d.
  • Jaz Bangerh: Jaz is brilliant at supporting others at PECO, at parkrun, group sessions … everywhere. This month she has also been smashing it on her own personal performance with moving up through the Tuesday night groups, getting her best parkrun times for several years and also an all-time age grade PB.
  • Lee Taylor: Lee has worked really hard, managing any injury flare-ups, getting stuck in at the Gym and showing loads of discipline with running easy when he needed to do as to be in the perfect place to smash a huge PB at Doncaster 10k. Kudos
  • Nick Shak: Nick ran brilliantly at Valencia Marathon, comfortably achieving a sub3 – a real testament to his training and commitment
  • Frazer: A brilliant run at Valencia Marathon, resulting in a huge PB!
  • Jonny Spain: Jonny does absolutely tonnes of work for the club, but I wanted to specifically nominate Jonny for his work on the group re-formatting. With the club getting bigger every year, and more groups popping up, I think the new 12 group format is a great solution and Jonny put a lot of work into devising this. Thanks Jonny!
  • Vicky Houghton: For quietly picking up PB after PB with amazing runs at Chevin Chase and Ribble Valley 10k.
  • Toby Adkins:
    • – There are a couple of reasons why I’d like to ninate Tobi. Firstly for all his statistical wrangling. This is always prevalent as the year comes to a close when he provides some insight into Tuesday and Thursday participation tends. His diligence in collating weekly participation and group pace details have been integral in deriving a guide for January’s new Group trial.
    • – I’d like to nominate him for his patience. For someone who has in the past seemingly run through injury he’s shown frantastic resolve in resisting that impulse to run and taken the time needed to rehab and return to running in a managed way. Here’s hoping this leads to many miles/kilometres of enjoyable and pain free running!
  • David G: For long service, being a top guy and leading the inaugural T9 group to perfection.Naomi and Toby: For giving up their mornings on Christmas and New Year’s Day to RD WHM park runs.
  • Sharron N and Chrissy D: For bolstering the women’s vets team with their first ever Peco XCs in 2023

Well done to everyone nominated. Don’t forget you can make nominations whenever you want at this link – we review every month.