Harey Updates from Lockdown and Post-Lockdown Life

Thomas Christie | Tuesday, August 18th, 2020

It’s been four months since the majority of Hareys parted ways after annual dinner and the subsequent run to Ely. Since then, life, and the miles that come with it, has continued despite the goings-on in the world. We have been fortunate to have many virtual events taking place, keeping both the running core of the club and the supportive social atmosphere of the Hareys alive. As such, we’d like to take this opportunity to recap what has been going on with the club since Iain gave his farewell speech.

Joe’s weekly captain’s email has been an important guiding light during these times. Despite the lack of an animal of the week, providing everyone with model sessions to incorporate into to their training has been particularly useful. A new inclusion has been the addition of a “training ladder” which provides athletes running at all speeds and mileages with a modified training schedule. James and Nancy (our welfare officers) have also been sending great emails, complete with tips to stay both injury-free and mentally aware. Make sure you sign up to our training email list if you haven’t already, so you can get all this useful information.

One of the great successes to come out of the pandemic has been the thrice-weekly strength sessions, led by our women’s captain Phoebe, welfare officer James, and a host of others. Club members have been introduced to many new exercises of ever-increasing difficulty, targeted at improving their running and preventing injury. Another great aspect of these sessions has been the possibility for seeing other Hareys on a regular basis, almost akin to regular training in Cambridge.

Joe and Phoebe have been particularly great in recruiting some of the best athletes and coaches in Britain and across the world to give virtual talks to the club. Hareys have been able to listen to the likes of Jess Judd, Dena Evans, and many more top athletes. These talks were unique opportunities to listen to speakers unlikely to ever come to Cambridge, and have been of extensive use for people looking to adapt their training to the pandemic.

Even through the pandemic, Hareys have been running faster than ever. Several students and recent alumni have set unofficial pandemic pb’s, including Emily Bradley running 18:47, Jacob Brockman running 15:32, Tom Goulding running 16:06, and Paul Aste running 67:31. Rob Waddy ran a very impressive 43:07 vertical kilometer in Italy. With the return of races and the start of the cross country season coming soon, we hope to see many more strong performances across the board.

The social life of the club has been kept alive and thriving as well. Our social secretaries, Tom, Helene, and Lydia have been arranging fun socials during and after term time. Virtual swaps and even a HareyBall 2.0 was organized. These have been a great opportunity to be able to regularly catch up with the going-ons of club members around the world, and to use this as a motivation to keep training.

 

Two recent creations from our CUHH lockdown baking society

 

While most of us wish we could be doing all this training back in Cambridge alongside other Hareys, we’ve been fortunate to be able to both keep our training and our connections with other Hareys alive. As the sport of running has exploded during the pandemic, we hope to be able to further recruit these new runners to be future Hareys. As always, if you have any question about the current going-ons of the club or future plans, please email either of our captains Joe Massingham at jtm44@cam.ac.uk or Phoebe Barker at prab2@cam.ac.uk.