baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 1st May 2023
Events marked "#" are points scoring for the club's participation trophy - for the 2023 title. Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] For future weeks: inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk. Results for Next WeekPlease help me by sending in your results, for instance by filling in the tables below and forwarding to News@barunner.org.uk. Some events 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. Weekly Athletic Achievement (by Sunday evening) or use the Facebook group prompt:
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The London marathon was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Its memories will stay with me forever. I enjoyed every moment and relished in the infamous landmarks. I had to dig deep during the last 7/8 miles, but I was not going to be defeated. No words can describe this event, you can only tell by experiencing it yourself. A huge thank you to the BA volunteers for all their hard work and support. A special thanks to Nikki Crawford for the much needed-hug and encouragement on the last leg home. Kindest regards, Maureen McCabe (6:18:11)
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The London Marathon was such a momentous achievement and there’s a reason why not many people do it… 16 weeks ago I started my journey and learnt a lot. The support for family and friends as I set off on my long training runs (20 miles+!) helped power me through. On the day the crowd were amazing, some highlights included Tower Bridge and Cutty Sark but there wasn’t a quiet part, the rain really didn’t stop the crowds. There was nothing quite like seeing a friendly face along the course, despite the mental battles (especially through tunnels) whenever there was live music or a cheer, it helped carry me through. The stretch down The Embankment felt never-ending but turning the corner and seeing the finish the line was a feeling that’s hard to describe. I can’t quite put into words how amazing and challenging it was and couldn’t be more grateful for the amazing support on my marathon journey. Thanks, Jenny Buffler (5:40:21) |
Set off slightly earlier to the start than needed so was very damp even before the 26.2 miles ahead of me! I was in one of the last waves to go, it was great to have pacers in the groups; although slightly confusing passing pacers that were ahead of me but definitely hours behind the time I wanted to achieve!
I really enjoyed the first half, the support was fantastic and a euphoric feeling going over tower bridge. I hit a bit of a low around 17 miles, I had yet to see my supporters as they had got stuck in Greenwich, but finally caught up with them at Canary Wharf and a huge hug from my daughter re-energised my slow legs for a few more miles. However, by mile 22 my slow run had turned to walking unfortunately and I was disheartened to see the six hour pacers make their way past (I would have loved to have done it in under six).
When I realised that I was at the BA marshalling points I willed myself on and managed to run again. It was emotional seeing my family at 800meters to go and knowing there was just one more corner and I would be finished - it was a mix of elation and exhaustion! I remember as child at the marathon eagerly awaiting with excitement for my dad to run by (running past with ease I must add!) and today I hope my daughter is just as proud of me as I am of him!
I am so pleased I was lucky enough to participate in a second London marathon and chuffed I knocked 30mins off my first time 10 years ago! A fellow runner said to me after all the hard work and slog of the training for it the marathon is the lap of honour…and it really was.
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and dare I say it even the training! I have missed running this week as my blistered toes recover and I never thought I would say this but I’m planning a gentle 5k this weekend!
Leigh-ann Ketterick (6:18:04)
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Running the London Marathon has been something I’ve wanted to do for years and I was so excited to finally have the opportunity. This was my first ever marathon, so I was a mix of excitement and nerves on the start line. I wasn’t aiming for a specific time, but I knew I had run 20miles in training at a 9:20 min/mile, so I was aiming for around a 9minute mile. It was very tempting at the start to go off faster, but I kept having to remind myself that I had to sustain it for 26miles. I was happy with how my race nutrition went. I used Veloforte gel cubes which I had practised with in training. I had two cubes every 20mins, so it felt a bit like a running picnic. I used a running jacket, so I had water and electrolyte without needing to stop. I got through these by halfway and so I used the water stations for the second half of the course. I had trained in the kit I was planning to wear on race day and all was very comfortable. However, as the weather on Sunday was quite rainy, my feet ended up soaked. I’m sure I don’t need to go into detail about the state of my wet feet by the end of the race… Family and friends were dotted along the course. Despite the best laid plans, it was busier than they expected, even relatively early on in the course (Cutty Sark) and so plans changed on the fly. I still saw someone I knew every 3-4miles which was such a boost. I was surprised by how quickly the miles ticked by and how the course was lined with people cheering right from the start. At no point did I find the marathon boring, as there were incredible costumes and signs to keep my brain occupied. I started running next to an Avatar, I overtook a run-a-saurus and four men carrying a giant crown. Not things you’d usually except to see running the streets of London…! A few things I found helpful:
I’ve been on a runner's high ever since Sunday. Whilst training over winter was miserable at times, all of the miles I did in training paid off. I’ve definitely got the bug and this week I’ve been researching other UK marathons, the Abbott Six Stars this week and am planning to join a local running club. Kirsten Whitmarsh (née Owens) (3:58:24, to be confirmed) |
With the marathon done and dusted, focus now moves to the next LME supported
event on Sunday 28 May – Ride London. Steve Hillier (stevehillier@msn.com)
is organising this one for BAAC and currently has the following 13 volunteers
signed up:
Kim Barrett, Paul Brandon, Alexandra Foster, Echo Foster, Margaret
Hankin, Neil Harper, Steve Hillier, Sukhdev Singh Modaher, Jasvir Modaher, Neelam
Kaur Modaher, Jain Reid, Linda Stickland, Graham Taylor.
Another 17 volunteers are required. It’s a full day but not as manic as the marathon. There’s a T-shirt, jacket, cap and lunch pack for all helpers and they’ll be a coach from the Bedfont Club. If you can help please email Steve (stevehillier@msn.com) direct as soon as possible as he needs to finalise the list.
Thank you.
Regards,
Simon Turton
18 members communicated their achievements to me or found on Facebook. Your achievement not listed? It could be because you didn't submit it.
| Colleague | Activity | Distance | Course | When | Duration | Comments |
| Andy Rayner | Fast walk | XC Course | Thur | 01:08:50 | As a Monarchist I celebrate all the coming days. Three activities: Tues 25 April Quick cycle 11m 6s. / Wed 26 April-cycle Ockwells/Cox Green 17m 30s then 12m 18s. / Thurs 27 April XC 68m 50s fast as poss in muddy conditions. Fast walk apart from jog last 400m. | |
| Barry Walters | Running | 8km | Bracknell | Tue am | 00:57:40 | 3k warm-up over to Swinley Forest and then 2 sets of 6x50 secs strides with 30 secs recovery and 2 minutes between sets. Finished off with an easy 3k warm-down. And evening one-hour body conditioning at my local leisure centre. |
| Benita Scaife | Walking | 8miles | Marlow and back via Bisham Woods | Bluebells present but will be fully open in 1 or 2 more weeks. 4 miles each way with coffee and toasted tea cake in between. | ||
| John Scaife | Walking | 8miles | Marlow and back via Bisham Woods | As Benita | ||
| Clara Halket | Fast walk | 5.26km | local to Gatwick or home? | Sat am | 00:51:01 | Busy Saturday morning; dropped daughter off at Gatwick for her flight home to Antigua and spent some 'me' time in the local woods. |
| Emma Moreton | parkrun | 5km | Brooklands | Sat am | 00:21:40 | Brooklands parkrun 21:40 (new overall parkrun PB) |
| Harjit Jhooti | parkrun | 5km | Sunny Hill | Sat am | "Sunny and Hilly" | |
| Julie Barclay | Race | 5km | Manchester Media City 5k | Thur | 00:23:20 | Pleased with my time as this was my first competitive 5k since injuring my calf at the BA cross-country six weeks ago. |
| Paul Watt | Race | 5km | Manchester Media City 5k | Thur | 00:20:18 | On a wet and windy evening I ran across the river from Old Trafford as Spurs entertained Man. Utd in London…I got that the wrong way round! Pleased with the time as first V55 and a type of Groundhog event as the same time as my Morecambe parkrun the weekend before. |
| Melanie Miller | parkrun | 5km | Guernsey | Sat am | "Fantastic 1st day on the Island of Guernsey starting very early for Parkrun and then 7 hours later for a 5 mile coastal walk dodging the fast spreading mist. Otherwise beautiful weather and a great group of people made it a most memorable day" | |
| Michael Ball | Running | 3.2miles | North Newquay | Wed | 00:45:57 | Jog around the beach to the headland North Newquay |
| Mike Dennison | Running | 9km | Hanworth | Wed | 00:41:39 | A 9k local loop for me, last Wednesday, in 41:39. Weather was fine, and I set off faster than I meant to, but managed to stick with it… |
| Piers Keenleyside | Race | 5km | Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5k | Fri | 00:24:15 | My time was 24:15 which is my fastest race pace since the Perivale 5 in December 2017. Beginning to think that I might even get back to doing sub 3:30 marathons. |
| Roderick Hoffman | Running | 14.32km | Chipperfield to St Albans | Wed | 01:46:20 | In the Two Brewers, Chipperfield, refuelling after a practice of my first Green Belt Relay leg. 10 to 15 minutes too long, beyond the "cut-off" time for the leg. Too much dithering about the right way to go and taking photographs. |
| Stephen Taylor | Cycling | 50miles | Box Hill and back | 03:57:00 | A bike ride to Box Hill on a warm afternoon. 50 miles. 3hrs57. | |
| Steve Hillier | Track-on-Field | Local streets | Times are a bit slower, but here they are: 1500m 9:15, 800m 5:02, 400m 2:08, 200m 0:47, 100m 0:27. [See also above] | |||
| Steve Newell | Indoor Rowing | 5000m | Virgin Active Balcony | 24:11.6 | ||
| Trish McCabe | Cycling | 63miles | Twyford and back | 63 miles cycle to Twyford and back! |
Barry also reports "No parkrun for me this weekend, instead I met up with Graham, John and Mark Taylor, and Paul K, and did an undulating 7k run in 47:29 around Windsor Great Park. Weather conditions were perfect and our course went past the Copper Horse and the Long Walk. I enjoyed the run but struggled on the hills."
Ed: I do have an aerial photograph of the Long Walk, taken on Monday morning, showing lots of building work going on at the Windsor Castle end. Perhaps they've got some sort of event coming up?
Other Photos:
[other
recently submitted pictures excluded because I'm putting the digest together in Norway, without my
photo editing software]
Roderick Hoffman
34 activities are recorded below. Please get in touch if your activity is missing.
| Club parkrunner | parkrun | Run# | Pos | Time | Age Grade | Comment |
| Joe NOLAN | Black Park | 657 | 355 | 0:34:38 | 49.81% | |
| Paul WATT | Bramhall Park | 685 | 32 | 0:21:36 | 72.99% | run #236, park #134, Chris Kelly retains the club records. |
| Julie BARCLAY | Bramhall Park | 685 | 112 | 0:25:58 | 72.66% | run #288, park #138, New BA ladies record (from Janet) |
| Emma Moreton | Brooklands | 142 | 43 | 0:21:40 | 71.54% | 6th PB of the year! This time by 4:05 on 4th run at Brooklands. |
| Ian Haylock | Bushy Park | 928 | 127 | 0:20:59 | 71.41% | |
| Ian CUNNINGHAM | Bushy Park | 928 | 1119 | 0:35:53 | 44.68% | |
| Paul TIMMS | Cirencester | 192 | 26 | 0:23:08 | 68.73% | |
| Melanie Miller | Guernsey | 316 | 132 | 0:42:18 | 42.24% | run #138, park #132, First BA lady at Guernsey. |
| Alastair HESLOP | Guildford | 472 | Funnel Manager at Guildford | |||
| Denis FOXLEY | Harrow | 345 | Timekeeping at Harrow | |||
| Joan FOXLEY | Harrow | 345 | Finish Tokens at Harrow | |||
| Scott DAVISON | Hazelwood | 184 | 47 | 0:30:01 | 49.53% | |
| Benita SCAIFE | Maidenhead | 353 | 247 | 0:34:43 | 62.07% | |
| John SCAIFE | Maidenhead | 353 | 248 | 0:34:43 | 50.22% | |
| Petra OTTO | March | 297 | 102 | 0:48:20 | 46.07% | Fresh from the London Marathon, first parkrun since November, and fastest since July. |
| Sarah GORDON | Market Bosworth Country Park | 18 | 164 | 0:43:26 | 48.12% | run #328, park #138, New BA parkrun - #723. |
| Murray Hogge | Mile End | 512 | 89 | 0:23:17 | 70.08% | ninth run at Mile End. P-Index is 4 |
| Steve NEWELL | Mole Valley | 203 | 233 | 0:49:47 | 41.25% | It must be the wine. Vines suffering from a late Spring. |
| Stephen K TAYLOR | Northala Fields | 392 | 124 | 0:27:08 | 59.09% | run #149, 98th at Northala Fields |
| Mike DENNISON | Osterley | 421 | 11 | 0:20:04 | 83.55% | run #501 |
| Maria JOVANI | Osterley | 421 | 34 | 0:22:35 | 71.73% | run #399 |
| Bob BANNISTER | Osterley | 421 | 81 | 0:25:23 | 66.71% | run #456 |
| Alan ANDERSON | Osterley | 421 | 294 | 0:48:33 | 53.86% | run #655, 294th position for second successive week |
| Neil FREDIANI | Prudhoe Riverside | 256 | 89 | 0:29:59 | 56.48% | |
| Fiona Bishop | Pymmes | 555 | 53 | 0:24:22 | 81.94% | 9th run at Pymmes, P-Index is 5 |
| Ben Kelly | Reading | 591 | 45 | 0:23:28 | 55.04% | |
| Christopher T KELLY | Reading | 591 | 55 | 0:24:30 | 63.81% | |
| Steve Waite | Riddlesdown | 569 | 92 | 0:34:35 | 53.06% | |
| David Cowell | Southsea | 431 | 2 | 0:17:40 | 80.28% | New BA men's record (from Paul W). Julie retains the Age Grade record. |
| Roderick HOFFMAN | Stockley Country | 16 | Timekeeper at Stockley Country | |||
| Harjit Jhooti | Sunny Hill | 141 | 54 | 0:39:53 | 44.80% | run #194, park #79 |
| Trish MCCABE | Westmill | 233 | 48 | 0:27:55 | 57.43% | Trish explores West, still needs an 'East'. Run #413, park #120 |
| Piers KEENLEYSIDE | Wolford Wood | 10 | 44 | 0:34:15 | 49.44% | run #329, park #62, New BA parkrun - #722. |
| David DUGGAN | Wormwood Scrubs | 542 | 104 | 0:38:49 | 42.42% | first run at Wormwood Scrubs, run #457, park #126 |
parkrun may be a time-trial and not a race but the race to be the 500th runner to achieve 500 runs reached a conclusion this week with David Anthony Morgan (25:46, 62.23%) crossing the line at Black Park where he had also completed all of his earlier 499 parkruns. He ran his first parkrun on 14th November 2009 and his pb of 22:32 on 8th November 2014. He has 34 volunteer credits spread across a variety of roles but not including pacing. Our own Black Park loyalist, Joe Nolan (34:38) started a few weeks later on 16th January 2010 and achieved his pb (22:47) on 1st October 2011. Joe has run 374 of his 419 parkruns at Black Park. Joe has long held a passion for pacing and has coordinated his squad and performed the pacing role round the Black Park course on scores of occasions.
Meanwhile there was also a notable milestone achieved this week by the parkrunners of the tourist persuasion with Mark Long becoming the 100th parkrunner to run at 250 different parkruns and becoming eligible for membership of the Freyne club. Roderick Hoffman is our only member of that club.
Two new UK parkruns were added to the club collection on Saturday pushing the
total up to 723. Piers Keenleyside (34:15) was at run #10 of Wolford Wood
parkrun in The Cotswolds while Sarah Gordon (43:26) went to run #18 at Market
Bosworth Country Park in Leicestershire.
David Cowell (17:40) had a good run
on the fast flat course at Southsea to better the club course record previously
held by Paul Watt. The rejuvenated Emma Moreton (21:40) continued to blaze a pb
busting trail with a sixth personal best time of the year, this week it was at
Brooklands.
Harjit Jhooti (39:53) became the latest member to take on the challenge of the Sunny Hill parkrun in Hendon something every ’Londone’ aspirant has to face up to at some stage! Former member and Upton Court regular Sreeram Sethuraman (33:46), now with Datchet Dashers, was there too (for the 37th time).
In UK, extra parkruns are organized locally on 25th December and 1st January. Many countries opt for a different day instead of Christmas and around this time of year we have South Africa (27th April), Denmark (Constitution Day, 5th June), Japan (Greenery Day, 4th May), Netherlands (Whit Monday, 29th May), Norway (Labour Day, 1st May) [see below], Sweden (National Day, 6th June), Finland (Ascension Day, 18th May but check locally).
Steve Newell
Piers adds "Did a new(ish) parkrun near Moreton-in-Marsh this morning at Wolford Wood in 34:15 - exactly 10 minutes slower than yesterday's LFTOM 5K. Too wet, muddy and slippery to go fast. A three lap course with a big loop around a water/mud meadow and an out-and-back on a rough track through the wood. I don't think I will go back until later in the summer when things have dried out a bit!"
A quick addition to last week's volunteer report. The following table shows counts of volunteer tasks all time, by those parkrunners who were BAAC members in the first quarter of this year. Some tasks are now retired - such as Backup Timer. As a team we've set-up twice as often as we've closed-down. We've paced more than we've tailed. We've handed out Finish Tokens more than we've sorted them afterwards. Most events need many more Marshals than Timekeepers yet we've covered the Timekeeper task more often. It all proves something...but what I'm not entirely sure.
| Task | Count | Task | Count | Task | Count |
| Volunteer Co-ordinator | 330 | First Timers Welcome | 34 | Other | 15 |
| Report Writer | 128 | Equipment Storage and Delivery | 32 | Warm Up Leader (junior events only) | 8 |
| Communications Person | 77 | Run Director | 31 | Funnel Manager | 7 |
| Pre-event Setup | 67 | Finish Tokens | 27 | Car Park Marshal | 7 |
| Timekeeper | 66 | Pacer (5k only) | 24 | parkwalker | 4 |
| Marshal | 65 | Token Sorting | 23 | Finish Token Support | 3 |
| Barcode Scanning | 43 | Tail Walker | 23 | Number Checker | 3 |
| Event Day Course Check | 42 | Post-event Close Down | 20 | Backup Timer | 3 |
| Results Processor | 35 | Photographer | 16 | VI Guide | 1 |
At least four club members beat the "Saturday only" rule and ran the extra parkrun in Norway on their national day, Monday 1st May. These will be reported on next week.
Full club parkrun database - {read access to club parkrun database} - Download or save a copy, and explore at your leisure.
Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]
Roderick Hoffman
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.
Difficulty viewing this? Read it from the website:- http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml. Club website: www.barunner.org.uk.
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2023 Speedbird Ladies - Wednesday 21st June (now confirmed)
Hope
you are well. Firstly, a huge heartfelt thank you to all for your kind
donations to Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis. A charity very close to my
heart.