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

It’s November, Harriers, and the start of a bit of a weird month by all accounts. We have cancelled all of our sessions until at least December, and will keep ourselves up to date with the latest guidance with a view to getting back to safely running together as soon as possible. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled on facebook and on email for details of challenges, quizzes and other things to keep you entertained. 

To lift our spirits, I thought I’d do a bit of a summary of what’s happened since sessions started back up in August, and how many of you have been to a session of one kind or another.

Here are some facts and figures:

• since we started back to running in August, we’ve had 38 new members join HPH. Welcome all!
• since August 4th, we’ve hosted 130 different sessions
• the total attendance is 670 
• we reckon we’ve run at least 3500km in these sessions (which is the same as from Leeds to St John’s in Newfoundland. Looks amazing – let’s go!)
• 18 leaders have led at least one of these sessions – thanks to each and every one of you
• We’ve run at 8 different locations almost every week
• The most sessions held in a week was 14, with a total attendance of 65!

Anyway, onto the bit you’re all here for: Harrier of the Month. So many of the past few month’s Harrier of the Month winners and nominees have been for contributions to leading, organising challenges or general contribution to club events. This month, for a change, we thought we’d recognise some of you for something else… ACTUALLY RUNNING!!! In most normal years, training for something in such a dedicated way, sticking to a plan and doing all the right things is hard. 2020 has added a whole extra layer of complexity to this: adding challenges such as childcare, health, limiting exercise and removing (mostly) the ability to run with friends or race. That’s why this months winners are so deserving of this crown.

The winners for this month are: Lizzie Coombes, Bart Lewandowski, Alison Hargreaves, Diane Aykroyd and Curtis Ledger. Sorry, we couldn’t just pick two!

In October, 2 HPH completed our very first ‘Couch to 5 Kay’ programme (named after our very own president Kay Jeffries!), attending sessions 3 times per week and sticking to the plan perfectly. Their awesome leader, John, nominated them for their determination, their juggling home life with their running goals and for generally being a great group to run with. Well done both of you. Now, just to keep it up ready for a certain free, weekly, timed 5km to return safely to our lives.

We also had a few HPH members plodding the streets (and fields/paths/bogs) of Leeds in their virtual attempt at the Virgin Money London Marathon and the York marathon the week after. Lizzie, Bart and Alison have all also been sticking to ridgid training plans, despite what life has thrown at them this year. All three Harriers achieved brilliant marathon times despite the obvious lack of crowds and atmosphere and evident and unwanted addition of Yorkshire’s hills. All of that will surely make the VMLM feel all the much easier when you finally get to do it, hey? Great job to you all! Well done also to Lydia Green who also completed the VMLM this year in the HPH name!

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As usual, just a reminder that the date of the next HPH Committee meeting is November 15th at 6pm where (once again!) we will talk through what we can do to keep us all running, chatting and happy through such a weird time, as well as how we can get back to running safely (following Government and EA guidelines) as soon as possible. Our piece of strategy work is also progressing… look out for more on this over the next few months. Don’t forget to get in touch ahead of this date if you have anything for discussion.

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 over the next month or so. 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.