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BA Athletics Club News Digest 2nd December 2013

Forthcoming Events:

• Thursday 5th December - Magic Mile - Bath Road/Newport Road from 12:45
• Saturday 7th December - Ladies Cross Country (see below)
• Wednesday 11th December - 5 mile Handicap - Concorde Centre from 18:00 (see below)

New members and non-members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at all of these events.

The full events diary is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml.

This news digest is being sent to you because you are on the BA Athletics Club email list.  To be removed please email us at news@barunner.org.uk. Difficulty viewing this email? Read it off the website instead - http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml. 

Ladies Cross Country Saturday 7th December Farthing Downs, Coulsdon - for 12:00 start.

Changing facilities and refreshments are in SLH’s Clubhouse at 194a Brighton Road, Coulsdon, CR5 2NF (side of the Comrades Club). The nearest railway station to the Race HQ is Coulsdon Town on the Tattenham Corner line, although Coulsdon South station is nearer the course on the Redhill/Gatwick line.  For those coming by train to Coulsdon South leave the station on the downside, i.e. gong southwards,  turn left,  go and past Fairdene Road then turn right into Marlpit Lane and right again into Downs Road.   Anyone going to the Clubhouse should allow 15 minute walk to the course and 10 minute walk from Coulsdon South to the course. Also please note the A23 Brighton Road is a red route so you cannot park there and you cannot park on the road (Ditches Lane) which runs through the Downs, nor on the grass verges of that road.  Some people use Ullswater Business Park in Ullwater Crescent CR5 2HR off Marlpit Lane to park cars.

More Details and Course Map.   PS Spectators welcome to cheer the ladies on.

Clara Halket

Beddington 10k Results from 24th November

Julie and Janice are both BA staff and being coached by Tom Rowley.  Tom describes the course as flat and good for comparing lap times - four laps mostly on paths.

Handicap Run 27th November - Results

It was a mild evening, at least at the start, timekeepers extremities were getting chilly by the end, on Wednesday 27th Nov 2013, and the second of the 2013/2014 winter series handicap took place. 15 participants signed up including 1 being timed on his power walk round the 4 mile course, he's over 80, that's years old not minutes round the course, so we're more than happy to see him included. The first runner to return was over 3 minutes faster than their handicap/start time, slightly unusual for the second run of the season, and of the 15 runners 9 were within 1 minute of their expected time, some quicker some not. Afterwards, most, including the timekeepers headed for the 'QPR' room for a portion of chicken and chips, and gossip.

The next 5M handicap is on Wednesday 11th December with a target of a 19:00 finish - note updated start times ahead of 19:00 listed above.

Paul Brandon

Perivale Five Sunday 1st December Results

There was a rumour that only three BAAC runners had entered this race before it closed with a full 400 entry book. The rumours turned out to be untrue with eight runners from the club. As I crossed the finishing line I heard one of the finishing officials shout out "7-2-8".  I glanced down...and then turned round and corrected them with "7-2-9".  So sorry Steve Hillier - I deprived you of an impressive PB!  I was very pleased with my time - I predicted, accurately, that I couldn't break 40 minutes but hadn't expected to be so close and a full 9 minutes and 24 seconds faster than I had done last year.  Gary also reported this to be his best five mile result - beating his 2011 time by 1 minute 22.

Roderick Hoffman

Perivale Five - Steve Hillier, Steve Newell, Jasvir Singh, Steve Taylor, Roderick "Movember" Hoffman. Photograph by Marion Taylor.  Also running that day was the aptly named Sir Not Appearing in this Shot, Gary Rushmer, Joe Nolan and Kerstin Luksch.

Black Park parkrun - Steve Newell, Richard Ruffell, Neil "where's my shirt" Frediani, Roderick Hoffman, Barry Walters, Joe Nolan and Janet Smith (volunteer) - photo by John Tipping.

Club Featured parkrun Saturday 30th November Black Park Results

Despite the fact that Helena Bonham Carter and Cate Blanchett couldn’t take part this week as the Cinderella film set was being dismantled we still had BAAC represented by Barry, Richard, Neil, Roderick, Steve and Joe with Janet acting scanning volunteer.  Rumours that the Taylor brothers would be appearing were ill founded and BP regular Tony Barnwell was down in Devon.  A dry week meant excellent underfoot conditions for the 378 runners at this very popular and scenic venue.
Barry led the BA vests home in 18th place with a time of 20m03s with Richard not far behind, Joe/Neil/Rod were in close formation with Steve just a little way behind them.
Afterwards, Barry went for a warm-down run and was never seen again (!*), Richard had to rush off to collect his dog, Neil had to go shopping in Kingston, so it was left to Rod/Steve/Janet/Joe to carry out the post race analysis over a coffee and plan strategy for the next day Perivale 5 !  Steve had also recollected his last visit to Black Park 40 years ago as part of the sub-aqua club, having to ‘blind swim underwater’ across the lake to a specified target – thus owning up to ‘course knowledge’ for today’s event !

Joe Nolan

* This is not strictly true - a runner dressed like Barry is to be seen in some of the later photographs of the day albeit running in the wrong direction.

Club family parkrun results and stats for 30th November 2013

parkrun Highlights  

Ray Hampton continues the good work Up North with a run at Wythenshawe.  8 BA Family remain in chase-the-place out of 4863 nationally.

Steve Newell

Steve's parkrun stats

Singapore Marathon result

It was overcast and drizzling slightly when I arrived in Singapore the Thursday before the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore, so I was hopeful marathon day would not be as hot as last year. I didn't get the chance to go out for a practice run because of visiting relatives and shopping (for food)! That was my excuse anyway.  I did manage to meet up with Piers for dinner on a wet Saturday evening.
 
My hotel was located about 100m away from the start point. I set up 2 alarms to be sure of getting up at 3am for some food before the 5am marathon start.  I needn't have bothered as I was awaken by the loud speakers blaring at 1am on Orchard Road as the marathon organisers and volunteers started to set up for the event. The start point right outside the Mandarin Orchard Hotel was brightly lit with Christmas lights and the chirpings of 100s of starlings in the trees adding to the lively atmosphere.
 
It rained in the night and so it felt cool temperature wise for most of the morning although humidity was still high. I decided to keep to an easy pace all the way and managed to stay the course without actually walking apart from at water stations, counting down the miles rather than the kilometers. Psychologically 26.2 miles seem 'shorter' than 42.2 km! The cooler temperature probably helped me slashed 28 minutes off my last year's time even though I was more than an hour behind Piers!

Clara Halket

Piers Keenleyside reports that he completed Sunday's Singapore Marathon in 3:55:11 finishing in 439th place out of 12,000.

News for the next BAAC News Digest?

Please let us have your ideas for how club communications can be improved and please send us items for inclusion in the next Digest.  Results, news, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at news@barunner.org,uk.  You can copy Paul Brandon and Roderick Hoffman in BUT the news@ address is the one that we use when the digest is compiled.

Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.