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HPH Chair’s Update and Harrier of the Month for November
November was the month we were all waiting for because it involved the return of our favourite muddy fun: PECO! Our captains Laura, Anne and Mike spent the month geeing us up, even getting some of you out on a rainy Sunday morning in the woods for practice! When the day came, we had 102 Hyde Park Harriers out racing in red and white and we certainly showed the teams of Leeds what we are about. Our pom pom tunnels and cake were second to our fantastic cheers and the support showed clearly in the results with the Men’s team coming first, the Ladies team coming in 4th and the Vets team coming in 4th place. Well done everyone, we can’t wait to see what we achieve on the 5th December at Temple Newsam.
Elsewhere this month we had the restart of the HPH Triathlon Zwift league, which is now in full swing. If you’re interested in joining us for Zwift or any other triathlon-related activity, find HPH Triathlon on Facebook or email them at triathlon@hydeparkharriers.co.uk. Also in multi-sport racing, Amy Ramsden-Young represented HPH and Great Britain at the World Duathlon Championships in Aviles in Spain – coming 2nd in her age category and 6th overall!
Back to running and there were several races this month. Well done to everyone who raced in the Lincoln and Doncaster 10kms, in the Tadcaster 10 mile, in the York 5km and anything else we’ve forgotten!
More socially, we had a couple of pub trips this month, too. It was great to see people out for a beer and some food following PECO.
In December we look forward to 2 more cross country mud-fests (one that includes a water jump!), some volunteering at PECO in Middleton (bring your pom poms!) and, of course, our Christmas party at Head of Steam on Park Row on 11th Dec. If you haven’t got a ticket for food, you can still join us from 6pm on the night, just get there early in case the bar reaches capacity.
At our last committee meeting, we decided we needed to rid ourselves of gender-focus when it comes to Harrier of the Month. Instead, we will have two Harriers of the Month, selected on their own merit regardless of how they identify. Our harriers of the month for December are: Clare Evans and Amy Ramsden-Young.
Clare Evans was nominated for working tirelessly to get all these new members signed up in time for PECO. She has been really busy getting everyone signed up with England Athletics and into their vests, resulting in 102 HPH racing at PECO #1 at Middleton. She’s done it all with a smile on her face, and feedback from new members around the process has been great. Thank you, Clare, on behalf of us all, for a record year of membership – the first time we’ve ever exceeded 280 members – and we are well above this now, at over 300 members.
The next part is written by Naomi Adkins – thanks Naomi!
The other Harrier of the month for November is our club chair, Amy Ramsden-Young! Nominated for her recently affirmed (but long known) status (as one nominator succinctly put it) of “Duathon Legend”, Amy has returned from the World Duathlon Championships having placed 6th overall in the rankings. With the fastest run times of the day, and paired with a strong bike section, our Harrier of the Month took the silver in her age group. A huge congratulations to Amy, we’re very proud of your successes – personally, as part of our triathlon club, and in repping Team GB. It has to also be acknowledged that Amy works hard to make all the above happen whilst she’s busy keeping the cogs turning behind the scenes for our club – something for which, I think I can speak for all of us, we are all very grateful.
Amy (and some other Youngs) repping Team GB in Spain.
Our other nominees this month were:
- Amy Ramsden-Young and Adam Lomas: True Team Players! Both finished the ABC with podium places but rather than attending the prize giving the chose to stand in the cold cheering their team mates on until the last HPH crossed the finish line.
- Anne Akers: Well, for being Anne! For always smiling and encouraging others, for being the force of nature that she is. No idea where she gets her seemingly endless positive energy from, but its infectious. For organising events like Light Night and PECO training. She embodies the friendly nature of HPH.
- Mike Vargas: For leading the men’s team to success at PECO #1
- Honor Baldry: Phenomenal performance at the Liverpool Marathon. After a solid year of training, Honor set herself a really ambitious goal for the marathon and executed a brave and impressive race resulting in a huge 17min PB and 9th lady
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 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. We don’t meet in December, so our next meeting is January 9th at 6pm – make sure you send us anything for discussion before then.
Don’t forget you can submit any future HPH of the Month nominations at this link.