HPH Chair’s Blog and HOTM for March

March was a great month, where we closed out our PECO season, and started to see some of that fantastic marathon training paying off. It feels like loads of you were out racing all over the country this month – great job on all your achievements.

Happy Easter to you all. Hope there’s plenty of running fuelled by lamb, hot cross buns and chocolate!

As we come to the end of the EA year, we will be looking at all nominations from May 2022 onwards for winners of our Chair’s, Presidents and Ain’t No Barriers awards, as well as giving out prizes for our silly story award, and photography award. We hope to see you at the Awards Do on 14th April. Check your email for more details on how to pay and where to go.

Also, don’t forget you can nominate yourself for a committee position (voting will be at our AGM on May 9th) at this link.

Our winners for this month are: John Pratt, and the winning PECO team, The Tempranillo Muchahos.

John was nominated in the Chair’s category this month, for his fantastic achievements in Triathlon. Not content with being great at running, JP also learnt to swim, and has made incredible progress on his bike over the past few years. This month, that culminated in him earning a very well-deserved place in the Team GB Age Group Squad. Here are John’s nominations:

• The most incredible progress over running, cycling and swimming! I remember the days when JP would be having his swimming lessons at Bramley baths, as I had lessons there too. And now he’s qualified for GfA for triathlon. Absolutely amazing and inspirational. JP still always has time to help others, give them advice and support and he’s regularly found scanning barcodes at parkrun after his own run as he’s so speedy! A true asset to the club and everything that HPH stands for.
• JP is a such a flippin inspiration – he quit smoking and drinking, got swimming lessons to literally learn how to swim, and now he’s a GB age group athlete and I believe he was one of the top HPH vets at PECO. On top of this, JP is always there to support fellow runners – he is more than happy to coach other runners, no matter the level, to help them reach their goals. He leads lots of sessions for HPH Tri, and he’s a great listener to anyone who needs a bit of emotional support too. We’re super lucky to have JP in our community ❤️
• Outstanding individual achievement in becoming a GB age graded tri athlete. This is a culmination of a long period of hard work by John and he fully deserves it

The The Tempranillo Muchahos PECO Relay team certainly showed us what’s what out there at Bramley Fall Park. It was tight all the way through the legs, with Danny putting in a great leg 1, Adam smashing along in leg 2, and George running 14:46 for the last leg – winning the victory on the last corner! Fantastic work to you all.

• Mike Vargas: for a great escape room social, with incredibly detailed planning.
• Ives Solo: Ives is always so supportive of fellow runners and is always such a good listener! He regularly backmarks and helps groups stick together – and even loops back on the hills session to check on us at the back! Your support doesn’t go unnoticed Ives and we’re lucky to have you in HPH!
• Pete Noren: Pete has been grafting since the start of the year to a training plan which paid off at Frankfurt Half Marathon when he clocked 1:26:24. Pete moved to Germany but has remained engaged with the club, attending the club trip last year and offering encouragement for PECO. “
• Ruth Draisey:
  • Ruth ran a fantastic time at Wakefield 10k and her dedication to marathon training is really showing. Finishing as the 7th placed female.
  • A brilliant run at Wakefield 10K – especially impressive given Ruth had done the Leeds marathon recce to Otley the day before!
• Coralie Bell: For setting a new 20 mile club record. Absolutely phenomenal performance! Well done Coralie.
• Oli Dighton: For an outstanding performance at Roundhay peco, which helped secure the mens title. This was also on the back of a super impressive 16.27 at the Brownlee centre. Oli is making some great progress
• Danny Marquina:
  • has been injured a long time. He has worked hard to get himself back into group 8 and doesn’t look out of place there. He has improved throughout the peco campaign, which culminated in his relay teams win. Well done Danny
  • Danny has made it quite known Peco isn’t necessarily his favourite running event in view of the cold, mud and wet. Perhaps this is attributable to his Spanish roots. But for this Peco year, Danny really stepped it up a notch and completed all five Peco races. Furthermore he captained (plus the wearing of red socks) the HPH Men Team ‘The Tempranillo Muchachos’ to a fantastic victory at the Peco Relays. Danny has had his fair share of injuries in the past year or two but has hopefully put this behind him and is now very much a regular of Group 8.
• Flick Burton: For smashing the club half marathon record
• Jonah Kennedy: A storming sub2:50 performance at Brighton marathon!
• Ciaran Tracey: A ten minute PB, clocking in at 1:16, at Reading Half Marathon… Insane.

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.

Our next committee meeting is on Sunday 16th April 2023 – make sure you send us anything for discussion before then, or if you need anything before then, you know where to find us!