HPH Monthly Blog and HOTM for May

May really felt like the beginning of the season of running. Of course there was the King’s Coronation, which resulted in an additional long weekend, meaning a number of you made the most of the weather and time off work to get out running. We had the first of our off-road championships: Cookridge 10km, and a few HPH out at the hilly Bluebell 10. The highlight of the month for me (Amy) was the return of the Leeds marathon. There were 60 Hyde Park Harriers out running the full and the half marathon through our amazing city and out to Otley. I’m also really proud and thankful to the amazing HPH water station and the HPH who paced at this event – I think there were 10 of you! Fantastic work and well done to everyone on your running and volunteering on the day.

There were also a couple of fell races this month: Jack Bloor and Ilkley trail. First first of these was in our fell champs. There were also a couple of Harriers out at the Yorkshire Vets races this month – would be great to see more of you competing in these in the coming weeks.

Finally, whilst the AGM on the 9th May was a great event, it was certainly not the most important event of that day – we also celebrated the safe arrival of our newest member. Oliver Miles, son of our Tri Club Chairs Graeme and Naomi. We can’t wait to meet you and wish you the happiest start to life as a HPH.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Your HOTM winners for May are: Jonathan Pryor and Lou Gardham!

Lou Gardham was nominated for the Chair’s award for performance. Lou absolutely smashed her first marathon (that was actually 28 miles… with LOADS of hills) in tough conditions – well done Lou! You could have just stuck to Leeds Marathon!

Jonathan Pryor was nominated for both Chair’s and President’s award due to his performance, but also contribution to the community and the club. Jonathan has been such an inspiration running three marathons in a short space of time, raising over £3000 for the Rob Burrows MND centre. Jonathan represented the club at London marathon and also ran Manchester and Leeds – in the mean time he even volunteered pacing duties at parkrun! Jonathan, you’re an inspiration!

Our other nominees this month are:

• Lorraine Beavis: Lorraine has been a fantastic member of the committee and Club Secretary. Her contributions are always considered and valuable.
• Kay Jefferies: Kay showed tremendous resilience and bravery to complete the Leeds marathon on her late mother’s birthday (having passed away in February)
• Curtis Ledger: Curtis did a fantastic job of organising the huge HPH volunteer contingent at Leeds Marathon / Half Marathon in May. Behind the scenes Curtis liaised with Run For All to make sure we all got a great volunteering spot on the route, and communicated between RFA and HPH excellently. We truly showed Leeds what HPH is about on the day so thanks Curtis for putting it together!
• Adam Lomas: For stepping up and running 2 legs of Calderdale Way due to a last minute dropout
  For doing A LOT of driving around for Calderdale Way relay, getting runners where they needed to be, whilst also giving an extra lift to 2 stranded Sale Harriers
• Danni Bryant:
  • Organising the Calderdale Way relay team, including a last minute dropout
  • I’d like to nominate Danni for organising the Calderdale Way Relay. Danni put in a huge effort to put the teams together, do all the paperwork, organise transport on the day and make sure that we all knew what we were doing and where! It must have taken up a lot of her time. It was thanks to Danni that we all had a great day on the Calderdale Way.
• Lisa OL: Lisa ran a fantastic pb and her first sub 4hr Marathon at Edinburgh. Months of consistent running paying off. She dealt with life getting in the way during the taper and hit the start line not knowing what to expect. She surprised herself and performed brilliantly on the day. Massive Congrats.
• Richard Garratt: Rich always does crazy things, to the point that Garratting was termed by another HPH member for doing crazy back to back running related things. This means quite often it isn’t recognised how well he does, as it’s easy to view it as normal especially when he doesn’t really shout about it. This month he placed 9th at the Keswick Mountain Festival 25km race and then the following week ran the Isle of Jura fell race, also placing well in what is a tough race to get into in the first place. Amazing running Rich keep it going.
• Xeni Perry: After a break from club and running Xeni has come back into running and started leading groups and even entering races. It’s really positive and a great role model for people to see someone coming back from a break and starting to fall back in love with running again.
• Clare E and Danni Bryant: For their amazing support and help at Leeds Marathon/ half. They were not only part of the HPH volunteer squad, but came to my rescue when they saw me almost pass out at 20km of the half. Both walked with me for the rest of the course, and I probably wouldn’t have made it across the line without them!
• Ellie Shipp: An absolutely incredible effort at the Leeds Marathon. Not only her first marathon, but she managed to run all the way up “The Hill” and inadvertently paced a stranger up the hill with her! An amazing time of 4:40, we’re so proud of her.

Well done to all our nominees this month, as always, a great set of achievements and fabulous feats for HPH. Don’t forget to get your nominations in regularly for any HPH members who have contributed to the club that month, in any shape or form!

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 the 25th June at 6pm – make sure you send us anything for discussion before then, or if you need anything before , you know where to find us!