Hornsea Harriers Fun Run

–  Get out, Get Fit, Get involved , Fun for all –

The Fun run in the park has been a long standing Carnvial Traditon, and has always been run by Hornsea Harriers, and is always held on the Sunday AM before the final day, its open to all ages.

It’s a great excuse to get out, get involved and do something fun before we all have an amazing last day of Carnvial.

No need to Sign up, just turn up and run

Harriers Retrospective No 1 – Formation date and first club run.

As you might guess, Hornsea Harriers was formed by people living in the Hornsea Area who liked to run and wanted to have their own local club and all the benefits that could potentially bring. We were a real mixed bag, some were running for other clubs such as East Hull Harriers and Bridlington Road Runners, others just doing their own privateer thing or keen to get fit/fitter and give this increasingly popular running lark a proper go. Attached is a photo of a quickly pulled together handmade poster (Pre internet/social media) copies of which were put up around Hornsea and the villages to attract interest. They did their job and led to the first club meeting and very first club run on Sunday 27th April 1986. Whilst registration and affiliation to the Amateur Athletics Association came at a later date; in my mind, this first get together and collective run is the birthdate of the club. At the time we hadn’t decided on a name for the club although Hornsea Harriers or Hornsea Road Runners were the initial favourites. The club is 36 years old this year and only 4 years off its Ruby anniversary.

Harriers Retrospective No 2 – Stepping it up!

It was during the first club run on 27th April 1986, following the club formation meeting, that we collectively decided on the name “Hornsea Harriers”. After all, it had a better ring to it than the other favourite “Hornsea Road Runners” and would fit better with participation in road and non-road events such as track, cross country and trail running. Hornsea Harriers was then officially registered with the AAA around May/June 1986. In addition to registration, there was a tonne of other stuff to get on with so a management committee and broader support structure was formed, meetings arranged and a big to do list created. One of the first items on the list was getting the Harriers name out there. Attached are a few press cuttings reflecting the first bits of club promotion including a piece about the club’s objectives and the desire to hold our first set of external club races. Something which we considered really important given that the only Hornsea hosted races at that time were the Round Table New Year fun run and the Hornsea NSPCC half marathon both of which had been a catalyst to us disparate runners coming together as a club. I’ll aim to cover more on these races and our first club race in subsequent posts.

Harriers Retrospective No 3  – Club kit

Every club needs a kit and to start off with Harriers attire was a motley collection of existing members’ club colours and a mixture of that unmistakable 80s look of Nike, Asics, Ron Hill and View from brands (My daughters tell me that fashion is trendy again!)

We needed a club look and a club logo that would be consistent and stand out. Samples were sent for and designs played around with. As a colour scheme blue and white felt right – EHH were red, Brid yellow and City of Hull purple; so, blue (preferably royal blue) and white is what we went for. The first iteration of kit and badges was just the name “Hornsea” or “Hornsea Harriers” printed onto everything. After a while we thought we could do better and whilst we got suggestions from lots of members one of the Hornsea Pottery designers who ran with us Julian (last name I can’t remember – sorry Julian, if you ever read this!) came up with the winning design, a variation of which still seems to be in use today.