HPH Chair’s Update and Harrier of the Month for August

August was the month that Hyde Park Harriers hit a record number of members, prepared to get back to The Edge, and races and volunteering opportunities galore were upon us. It was absolutely fantastic to see so many of you out in your HPH vest all over the country (and sometimes further afield!). Some of you even ran to (and back from) these far-flung places. In the HOTM blog for August, we celebrate our amazing ultra-running community.

In August, HPH hit 243 members for the first time in its history as a club. Welcome to all of you, old and new.

We also had a couple of social events this month, with a number of Harriers turning out at our beloved Woodhouse Moor for a picnic and a few laps of the park. 8 Harriers managed to run 36 miles over 12 hours. Some Harriers managed to eat 36 brownies. I’ll let you decide who was the winner, there! Thanks go to Toby Adkins for a fantastic idea and, as always, even more fantastically implemented!

Another great event organised by Toby in August was the HPH festival of parkrun. Typically (in a non-covid world) this is an event where HPH members and friends do a ‘freedom run’ of all the Leeds parkruns in a day: starting at Woodhouse Moor parkrun and finishing in a pub or a picnic. Due to Covid, we’ve run it differently the last 2 years, encouraging members to get out and do freedom runs of parkrun courses wherever they are! Well done to everyone that took part.

Hyde Park Harriers went to the pub this month, too. 50 of you turned out at Springwell (amazing what people will do for a free beer!) to have a night on the tiles. Great to see everyone in their glad rags and thanks to all that came and especially those that also helped out at the parkrun takeover of Woodhouse Moor the following morning. There were some sore heads, I’m sure, but, thanks to our awesome Run Director Curtis Ledger, we had a fantastic morning and met many a new and potential HPH. If you’re interested in helping out at the next one, get in touch – it’s October 9th.

Having nearly forgotten that we are a run club, not a sociable bunch of people, there was also some racing this month! Well done to everyone that raced in August. Highlights included the Run For All Festival of running, Leeds 5km series, York 10km and many others. 

Onto more running… Without further ado, here are your ultra-marathon running winners of HOTM for August: Chloe Brooks and Phil Hammond!

Chloe was nominated for her amazing 127 mile ultra marathon on the August bank holiday, where she ran all the way from Liverpool to Leeds along the canal. She also won! What an amazing achievement Chloe – you’re incredible. All that hard work has really paid off.

Phil was nominated for his absolutely amazing 5 week, 1200 mile challenge where he ran from Leeds to Land’s End, to Carlisle and then back to Leeds. Accompanied by mini Phil, both dressed in red and white, Phil overcame significant challenges and issues along the way (thanks for the foot photos, Phil!) to successfully achieve his goal, arriving back in Leeds on Sept 4th having raised over 12,000. What an achievement, well done Phil.

This month, our other nominations went to:

• Ally Fellows – for running not only his first ultra-marathon around Woodhouse Moor, but also his first 20 miler, and first marathon all in the same attempt!
• Toby Adkins – for organising the amazing Round the Park, Round the Clock, and the HPH Festival of parkrun
• Curtis Broadhead – for organising and facilitating the final LiRF assessment for 3 HPH qualified leaders
• Danni Bryant – for an awesome PB a the York 10km!

Finally, I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of our awesome volunteers out and about this month at various events, and to our leaders for the awesome small group sessions we’ve been running since July last year. I can’t wait to see everyone back at The Edge in September.

As always, keep an eye out on the weekly bulletin emails and in the Facebook group for more information about races, 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 hello@hydeparkharriers.co.uk or messaging one of us directly on facebook. You know who we are. But if you don’t, you can find out here. Our next meeting is the 19th September at 6pm. – make sure you get in touch with any agenda points before then.

Don’t forget you can submit any future HPH of the Month nominations at this link.