baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 1st March 2021

 For future weeks: inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk.

Unrestricted races are currently off so the club continues to operate with Solo and Shared runs as listed above - for restrictions and advice see the Coronavirus footnote at the end of this digest.  Due to the Tier 4 lockdown all shared runs are off the agenda until at least 29th March. Hopefully shared runs will restart then, including with the Winter Handicap run on Wednesday 31st March.

But even before then we will be active - including on Wednesday 24th March when Steve Hillier will be hosting another Zoom Quiz from 8pm. Full details next week.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

Roderick Hoffman

This Week's Events

Please help me by sending in your results, for instance by filling in the tables below and forwarding to News@barunner.org.uk. Some events, such as the weekend achievement, will have "Prompts" set up in Facebook. These allow the posting of a single image and some text and make it easy to flip through everyone's entries.

Ross Barkley 5k (all those since early February will be reported on next Monday):

Weekend Achievement (by 5pm on the Monday) or use the Facebook prompt that will be added on Friday:

Roderick Hoffman

And also...

This Week's Midweek Challenge - Street Suffixes - To be run by the end of Sunday 7th March

The next "Street-O" variant is Street Suffixes. This is simple (unless you make it complex):

• Study a map of your neighbourhood,
• Make a note of the different suffixes of thoroughfares in the area - "Street", "Avenue", "Crescent" and so on,
• Run or walk from your home to one example of each, returning home after the last one,
• Submit your time and the distance covered.

 For a more detailed description and examples, including what constitutes a "Suffix", see the webpage: British Airways Athletics Club Street Suffixes Instructions (barunner.org.uk).

There is no time limit and no target number of different suffixes to collect. Leave it to me to work out who has done the best but you are allowed two entries so you might like to do one sprint around just a few nearby, and a second much longer run to collect some rarer suffixes. For example I can get five by just running around B&Q (the outside of, that is) but if I go further afield I can collect 18 different one - the furthest one being the only "Street" anywhere near my house, which is a mile away as the crow flies.

Roderick Hoffman

Membership renewal date - 1st April 2021.

Subs remain at £9 - we should review this at this year's AGM - as we have been unable to provide supported socials since last year, we may find that we are overfunded.  We hope that we will be able to recommence more events to sustain and justify members subscriptions - in addition to the remarkable digest output which we all enjoy.

Members wishing to maintain their England Athletics affiliation/support should also include the £15 fee, unchanged since 2017.

Our England Athletics club affiliation is due in April, so the 1st April renewal date is highlighted so that we can detect and include as many of our athletes as possible in that payment.

Chris Kelly, Club Treasurer (Treasurer@barunner.org.uk)

Contact Chris for details of how to renew or enroll, including bank details, or use the following links:

Membership details page: British Airways Athletics Club Membership Information (barunner.org.uk) .

Membership form: http://www.barunner.org.uk/attachments/BAAC%20Membership%20Form%20Apr2020%20to%20Mar2021.docx (valid for 2021/22).

Ed: So, just £9 for a year's support and encouragement. That is both the Club's support and encouragement of you maintaining your fitness AND your support and encouragement of the Club to keep going including setting up events.

Track-on-Field February Results

Six participants over the last month and Michael and Chris made particularly good adjustments as they went down the distances - though more spectacularly in Michael's case. Others had other problems - I blamed a sore Achilles, the Steve's had their common problem getting up to speed on the 100m (come back tartan tracks and starting blocks).

Green Belt Relay - 15/16th May

The organisers of the Green Belt Relay looked seriously at setting up a real version of this event for this year but in the end decided that it couldn't be made to fit with the dates of the recovery roadmap.  Last year the club organised a virtual version that was good in the circumstances, and in a way better, as we managed to have twice as many runners as usual, so I suggest we repeat that.

Could interested runners let Chris Kelly (ChrisK@barunner.org.uk) know. Reminder - ideally we'd like people who would be prepared to run locally on each of the Saturday and Sunday with the average run length being ten miles (so twenty in total). The event will be run across the daylight hours of the weekend with WhatsApp being used to track progress. Last year we managed two whole teams.

Chris & Roderick

BA Athletics Club Records - The Mile

The table below shows the club records held for each age group for one mile events. To qualify as a record the event has to be competitive and timed and the runner has to be a paid-up member of the club and running in a club vest (or in an in-house organised event). Members for whom BA is a second claim club may need permission from their first claim club for them to run in a BA vest and claim the record (so the same performance cannot be claimed by two different clubs). Note the two records by Adrian in the list below - one for a mile on the track and another as an indoor mile, though wearing a national vest rather than the club vest. John Williams retains the "Road" record for this age group. There would appear to be some gaps in this list - MV55, MV75, FV55 and upwards.

If you know better, or suspect that you may have broken one of these records, please send us your claim - we want to get these in the best shape possible. New records or questions: Stats@barunner.org.uk .

Roderick Hoffman

* Di Smith achieved her record in race 2 of the Parkway Mile on Wednesday 26th June 1996. Conditions were said to be good for running - warm and only a light breeze and a few spots of rain as an added incentive to finish. Race 1 had already cleared the course, Harry was probably in position at the turnaround point (the Round-the-Block report doesn't say this, but he has been there most years). Graham Taylor acted as pacemaker for the heat and Di was led out by George Crossan (finishing in 07:13) and then a tight battle between Charles Hawkshaw-Burn and Brian Bennett who were both given the finish time of 07:20. Obviously, just behind them, Di couldn't help but be dragged to a record time of 07:32. That isn't the only record that Di holds but the other is for the somewhat longer Marathon distance at a pace of 10minute miles.

** Tim Brennan set the Open Mile record on the Parkway Mile in June 1993. A marvellous evening for running (apart from the carbon monoxide due to the recently opened Hayes Bypass) saw 22 new PBs set. Tim (4:37) thought that he could have run the course a few seconds faster had he been pushed! I'm not sure what Paul Toms (4:34), Mark Taylor (4:35) or John Taylor (4:36) thought of that, though Tom's time still stands for the MV40s. John Williams also achieved a MV50 record on that evening that still stands. 59 different runners took part and the slowest of them, Bill Buckley, completed the mile in 09:18.

Coronavirus Warning Footnote [changes from last week underlined or struck-through]

In the UK exercise outside is permitted because it will boost physical and mental health and because the risk of catching Coronavirus outdoors is very low provided social distancing advice is kept to.

• Do not exercise outside the house if you have been asked to isolate or you are unwell, particularly if you have symptoms of the coronavirus such as a fever, or if you share a house with someone who has these symptoms, or if you consider yourself to be vulnerable, such as being elderly or with pre-existing health conditions,
• You may drive to outdoor publicly accessible open spaces but you are advised to stay 'local' (defined as "in the village, town, or part of the city where you live."), you are also advised to minimise the amount of time spent outside your home and you should follow social distancing guidance whilst you are out. Further advice is to reduce public transport and shared car journeys and if reinstated do not cross the "Tier 3" boundary (in either direction).
• Current rules only allow you to exercise on your own, with people in your linked household (bubble), as part of child-care or with one other person. You are advised to exercise just once per day and to minimise the variety of people you meet over the weeks of lockdown. Exercising your pet is allowed in addition, but only on your own. The "Rule of Six" will be reinstated on 29th March so from then on informal groups of up to six (or two households) are allowed to meet outside and exercise together.
• As you exercise, keep 2m away from all others including those you run with as well as those you meet on the run, by default diverting around those you meet (don't leave it up to them to avoid you),
• Do not push yourself too far, this may weaken your defences against the virus and/or increase the probability of requiring assistance. We all have different limits so you need to judge what would be too far for you,
• If government instructions are updated to limit or prevent exercising outside your homes, or to meet with fewer people, please respect such instructions - we should be fighting the virus, not authority.

If you are unwell yourself, especially if you have symptoms of the virus:

• Put your needs first...
• but please let me (Roderick Hoffman) or Steve Hillier know of your condition/status, but we will keep it to ourselves unless you ask us to pass information on.

Shared club activities are not permitted until 29th March.  From then any club member may be permitted to organise a shared activity. We recommend the social distancing gap of 2metres although "1meter+" can be followed during the activity itself.  Until everyone has had the opportunity to be protected by the vaccine all participants should continue to follow the social distancing rules. To legitimize a run with more than six participants:

• The chairman (Roderick) or the secretary (Steve Hillier) must be notified in advance that the event is taking place,
• One of the participants must be a paid-up member of the BA Athletics Club and must be prepared to perform the duties of a "Covid-19 Coordinator", if more than six attend we recommend that that member wears a BAAC top or distinctive clothing,
• If the tiers are reintroduced then participants, and the activity, should not cross the "Tier 3" boundary or the "Tier 4" boundary (in either directions).
• A risk assessment has to be raised based on this template,
• The considerations within the risk assessment must be followed,
• After the activity perform a review of the risk assessment and log and pass on any issues or lessons learned.

Next Digest - Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send them to the editor, Roderick Hoffman, at news@barunner.org.uk.

Not for you, no longer interested? remove me please.

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