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BA Athletics Club News Digest 2nd March 2020

Events:

• Wednesday 4th March - BAAC Annual Awards evening at the Bedfont Club from 20:00 (with food, and an ad hoc training run before). Facebook Event https://www.facebook.com/events/1233158283542353/
• Thursday 5th March - Parkland Mile 12:45 Harmondsworth Moor (see below)
• Wednesday 25th March - 5 Mile Handicap @ Bedfont Club from 18:00 #

Our next Bedfont Club meeting will be this Wednesday 4th (Awards evening) and 25th (Handicap). All members are welcome.

New members and potential members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at most of our events. The full diary of club featured events is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml. Last updated: 8th January.

* Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] (parkrun details updated 12th February 2020) / # Club Points event.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BARunnerUK/ (formal "front window" club page), BA Runner Facebook Group (informal "back office", ask to join).

Inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk.

BAAC Awards Evening Wednesday 4th March 2020

Ad hoc training run from 18:00 for which Steve Newell has a suggestion which follows this.

 Then from 19:30...

We are approaching the end of the membership year so I've asked Alan Friar (Membership Secretary) and Chris Kelly (Treasurer) to be on hand to collect membership fees for 2020-2021, £9 basic, +£16 for England Athletic registration. For those who are new to join here is a link to this year's membership form, please print this off and fill it in before the evening. More details of membership are on this website page: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Club_Membership.shtml 

Wednesday's ad hoc run suggestion

If anyone is looking for a challenge …?

There is a fairly traffic free circuit starting and finishing across the road, directly opposite the Bedfont Club entrance, (A) on the map.

• Going anticlockwise to avoid glaring headlights Hatton Road to the Red Pillar Box, turn left into Myrtle Avenue (B).
• At end take path across grass area to A30 footpath, turn left (C).
• Along A30 footpath (well away from the traffic) to junction with Cains Lane, turn left (D),
• Along Cains Lane to junction with Hatton Road, turn left (E),
• return to start (F) and (A).

Total Distance about 1275metres, so four laps is just over 5km or five laps for 4 miles.

The challenge - self timed

How many times can you go around with each lap being quicker than the one before?  Time limit one hour.  One minute pause between the end of one and start of next lap.

Steve Newell

Parkland Mile - Thursday 5th March from 12:45 on Harmondsworth Moor

The next Parkland Mile will be run on Thursday 5th March at 12:45.

• Start & finish near the main entrance to the Hawthorns.
• Start - at the post on the rise to the left
• Run - one lap of Hawthorns clockwise
• Finish - 20 yards from entrance

No registration - just turn up. This is a self-timed event so please do bring a watch / timing device.

For those based at Waterside meet outside the Gym @ 12:25 for a one-mile warm-up to the start.

Please do forward on to anyone else you think will be interested.

Ian Cunningham

STOPPRESS

BA Employees may run this event and count the mile run towards BA's Sport Relief challenge target. This is in addition to the run planned for the lunchtime of Tuesday March 10th. Do both, and clock-up additional miles!

Five Mile Handicap run 5 - 26th Feb 2020 #

Ten runners attended the fifth leg of the five mile winter handicap at the Bedfont Club on the last Wednesday in February.  Thanks to Roderick Hoffman (self-timed) who ran around the course one hour in advance of the others and then acted as timekeeper for the rest.  The Helen Avenue variation had been adopted for the rest of the series to avoid the railway bridge road works, although Neil Frediani preferred to battle through the old way and his time suffered accordingly.  John and Benita Scaife ** were unfamiliar with the variation (but clearly enjoyed it) and were retrospectively awarded a one minute allowance.  The majority of the runners enjoyed a meal at the Duke of Wellington on the other side of Hatton Road afterwards.

Results and points awarded:

League table after five runs:

"<" shows the lowest of four scores for those with four scores. This is the score that could be dropped by a good result in the final run.

The sixth and final run will be on Wednesday 25th March with all runners aiming for a 7 p.m. finish.

Steve Newell

 Big Half - Marshalling # and Running...

Thanks for several people's contributions, these will be held over until next week 'cos I need to get the presses to roll before midnight.

Roderick Hoffman

parkrun Review Saturday 29th February 2020

For the first time ever people were able to do a parkrun on February 29th and some courses were run in reverse, some marshals leaped to the occasion and there were a few proposals. However the bad weather continued with Storm Jorge (named by our Iberian colleagues) dumping Ellen before she could make any impression.

Attendances were down with Bushy Park barely attracting 1000 runners.  Maybe single male runners didn’t want the embarrassment of a parkrun finish line proposal from a fast lady on the first ever leap-day parkrun Saturday.  Have a look at the Woking parkrun website – Tom Rowley was caught on camera with not one but two different women and he didn’t look unhappy.

Paul Davis (21:15) squelched his way round Hanworth (attendance 22) to record a memorable first place finish.  If the time doesn’t look brilliant, he was three minutes ahead of the runner up!  David Duggan (35:13) bravely visited South Oxhey which attracted a better than average crowd because nearby Rickmansworth and Watford parkruns had fallen foul of the weather.  It is difficult enough even when its dry (which isn’t very often!)  Steve Newell (59:32) recorded his slowest ever time as tail-walker at Bedfont Lakes even though he was hard on the heels of the last “competitor” (who heartbreakingly hadn’t got her barcode with her and will forever remain anonymous!)  The puddles were up to scratch but probably shallower than at Harrow where they were reported to be ankle deep.

Roderick Hoffman (31:03) travelled to Goffert parkrun near Nijmegen in Holland for the inaugural.  It looks like our Dutch cousins are going to enjoy parkrun in large numbers.  Six inaugurals were held on the same day with a total of 813 finishers as well as 76 volunteers. 410 of the runners had brand new barcodes and 150 of the others also looked as if they were locals.  The Amsterdam parkrun (not far from where WARR 2019 was held) will start this Saturday.  Trish McCabe (29:00) was our other runner to add a new parkrun to the club collection this week.  She ran at Con Smith parkrun (start time 09:30) in Cavan in Eire which started in early January. Cavan is one of those counties in the ancient province of Ulster which opted not to be included in Northern Ireland.

The best age-grade% recorded by a member this week was by Kay Trinder (21:25, 82.33%) on her 100th appearance at Woking.  Alphabet chasers Paul Watt (23:14) and Julie Barclay (23:30) made a first visit to California Country Park in Berkshire.  The frustration to land a “Y” continued with Yeovil Montacute and York both cancelled again this week!  It is a very character-building game – whatever that is meant to mean.

Steve Newell / Roderick Hoffman

Steve's parkrun stats - club parkrun stats

Full club parkrun database - {read access to new club parkrun database} - Download and explore.

Roderick Hoffman

Tilgate

Marathon Update - Neither Piers or Ian!

So, where is Piers?

"Just back from a long weekend in Benidorm where I ran their half marathon - that and a 10K was the only distance they offer - no marathon unfortunately! Stayed at the Sol Pelicanos-Ocas where the Benidorm TV series filmed all their poolside scenes at the "Solana Hotel". Benidorm was much better than I expected - very clean, fantastic beach with the road in front of it pedestrianised so no traffic fumes and traffic noise.

Cheap beer and food - main downside was the lack of decent Spanish food although we did find some.

The race was on one of the best half marathon courses that I've ever run! Two laps along the seafront with a sporting steep little hill to negotiate a couple of times. It started at 6:30pm just as it was getting dark and when we got to the hill they were playing "Highway to Hell" very loudly over speakers with 100's of flashing lights on either side of the course! Shame I did such a crap time - 2:06:37! Started right at the back and found it difficult to overtake and run the pace I wanted for the first 2 or 3 miles. My official chip and gun time were the same at 2:08:something so it would seem my chip did not register when I crossed the start line - got times from all the other timing mats along the route so the chip was working."

Piers Keenleyside

Running Shorts

• Dear Ed: first jog since end Oct and medically cleared. 2.2 miles-32m 18s. Pleased, thus far. Andy Rayner.
• The Active Training World entry for the Speedbird Ladies is now set up at: www.activetrainingworld.co.uk/events/2020/05/06/speedbird_ladies_5k

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

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