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

February saw another lockdown challenge, where 4 teams got together to fight it out for 4 weeks in a row. It was so close. We had 87 runners take part and we covered 1347km in total (839 miles!). It was clear from week 2 that teams 1 and 4 (led by myself and Paul Ramsden – so you can imagine how tense it got) were going to be very competitive. In the end it came down to within 2.3km (1.5 miles)…

The winners, with 372.95km, were Team 4. Followed closely by Team 1 with 370.65km. Teams 2 and 3 were close behind with 307km and 292km respectively. Well done to everyone that took part. Thanks for the great competition. Special thanks go to Amy Young, Debbie Brown, Paul Sawyer and Paul Ramsden for their excellent captaincies.

21 Minute Challenge Results

In March, we will get to run together as a club again with sessions hopefully starting back up from the 30th March. Make sure you’ve paid up for your 2021/2022 membership, and that you’re all signed on to the Spond App, then look out for sessions as they get released the Friday before.

Lots to look forward to in the coming months, as we also have our annual HPH Awards Do, the second ever held virtually. This will be held on the 10th April at 7pm via zoom and will include a number of our regular awards such as the Rolf Neugebauer Photography Award, the Sue Smith Silly story award as well as the awards for Chair’s and Presidents awards, for performance and contribution to the club. You can still get your votes in for winners of the Chair’s, Presidents and Ain’t No Barriers awards in at this link – votes for Sue and Rolf’s awards can be submitted to the committee or via the form shared on Facebook

Without further ado, here are your winners of HOTM for February: Naomi Adkins and Richard Garratt! Well done to you both, fantastic to see you all out there supporting the club and running so brilliantly.

Richard Garratt is well known for his running ability and (much to Laura’s contempt) for his ‘run streak’, where he has committed to running 5km a day for as long as he can. This month, Richard passed a monumental milestone of 1000 days in a row running. Absolutely mental, and fantastic. Well done Rich, we know this takes such amazing dedication and logistical planning, so even more deserved. Now you won HOTM will you take a day off?

A sweaty Richard, with his baton of a tube of Carmex from the relay last year!

January’s female winner is our incredible and much-valued committee member: Naomi Adkins. Most of you won’t have even noticed, but Naomi has pretty much rebuilt the HPH Website in the space of about 7 days. It looks absolutely fantastic, and is now totally future-proof and will be much easier for us to maintain. Take a look yourself at https://www.hydeparkharriers.co.uk/ and let us know any feedback or enhancements you might want to see. 

Naomi, on the hills, being a legend as usual.

We’d love to give a special mention to all of this month’s nominations as below:

– Leigh Schelvis for vEveresting: cycling the height of Everest in one sitting. What. A. Legend. Well done Leigh.

– Adam Lomas was nominated by Naomi for all his website help

– Naomi Kellett for keeping up amazingly consistent training through the year in the face of adversity and encouraging others to do the same

– Richard Edwards for checking in with our members and making sure they’re okay, encouraging them to run

– Teejay Jones for her amazing deviated come back to training and encouraging others as part of her journey

– Matt Armstrong for his brilliant achievement running loads of miles in 7 days

– Chris Worfolk for not only consistent training but for all he does for the Tri club including his yoga for triathletes sessions

Finally, as always, keep an eye out on the weekly bulletin emails and in the Facebook group for more information about virtual races, competitions and quizzes to keep us all busy until we can see one another for a run again. If you have any ideas for a quiz or challenge, 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 on the 7th March and then the 11th April – make sure you get in touch with any agenda points.

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