January Five Mile handicap results #

The January leg of the winter five mile handicap was held on a chilly calm evening starting and finishing at the Bedfont & Feltham Football Club.  Temperatures were close to freezing and some runners were deterred but some of those who ran found the conditions conducive to improved times. 

Gary Rushmer (35:23) ran for the first time this winter and achieved the best time recorded for the circuit from the football club.  Trish McCabe (47:00) ran her fastest and Roderick Hoffman (47:42) grabbed a pb by 1:18 to pick up the trophy in the bar afterwards.  Further trophies will also be raced for in February and March (limited to one trophy per runner over the winter).

With four events completed Maarten Stenham heads the points table but there is a lot still to run for.  The next run will be on Wednesday 27th February starting from 6 p.m.

Steve Newell

Cross-countries this coming Saturday

It is a big day for the club this Saturday with the last of the four winter Cross-Country matches for the men and the third of the women's matches.

Note that the men's match is due to set-off at 12:30 NOT 14:00 as previously advertised. Neil Frediani (neil.frediani@ba.com)

The women's match is at Richmond Park. Clara can't be there as she is working that day but she is hopeful of a reasonable turnout - but there is plenty of space in the team for anyone new! If you can make it but can't run for whatever reason, the hosts would really appreciate volunteers to help out on the day. Please contact the hosts direct if you could help.  More details of the event.  Clara Halket (clarapn@aol.com)

NOW run at Northala Fields on 20th February from 12:00

There will be a NOW (Non-office workers) run on Wednesday 20th February 2019 instead of our usual club evening (though if anyone does want to use the showers at The Bedfont Club that evening please contact me to borrow the keys). Park at either of the two free car parks at Northala Fields (see club map) and meet at the cross-paths near the loos and cafe (i.e. where the parkrun meets up). Then the plan is...

• Meet by 12:00,
• Run on a variant of the parkrun course for 5k (with an easy opt out of the last km),
• Drinks, food and chats at the Cafe (San Remo cafe),
• Optional climb up the spiral mound and admire the views of London and Heathrow.

Let me know to expect you, or just turn up anyway:

Roderick Hoffman

London Marathon; Call for Volunteers

Some of you will already being getting the miles in for this year’s run on SUNDAY 28 APRIL and I’ve started to build the marshalling list with circa. 70 of the 150 I need already signed up to cover the 5 crossing points that BAAC supports.

Building on 2018, the London Marathon will be issuing PHOTO ACCREDITED course passes, which will require you to enter details on line and supply a photo. I will email the details in the coming weeks to those that sign up but for now, if you’d like to help can you please supply the following:

• NAME
• E-MAIL
• PERSONAL CONTACT NUMBER

Please send details to Simon.Turton@ba.com

Regards,

Simon Turton 

Cancellations

There were roughly 260 UK parkruns cancelled on Saturday plus two out of three anticipated new events failed to have their first runs. That still meant that 350 UK events went ahead. The map shows where parkruns cancelled last weekend - this map was maintained manually on Friday evening and Saturday morning via the Facebook UK parkrun Tourist group but following this was no guarantee of success - the map still shows "Richmond" as on.

It is interesting looking at the pattern of cancellations - a huge band from north of Cardiff across to North London; with the Midlands OK and then another batch of cancellations around Liverpool and Manchester.  The event I attended at Sutton Park was never in danger of being cancelled but there were some ice patches and an ambulance had to be summoned for someone who had fallen on the course. She was on her feet by the time three ambulances arrived but was taken to hospital for an X-ray and the team haven't heard any more - including whether ice featured in the reason for her fall.

Some of the parkruns that were held had record attendances - including South Oxhey where on run #212 they finally exceeded the number of runners they had had on #1. Stephen Norris was first home in a field of 159 (he is a frequent first finisher there). The word "Field" is appropriate for South Oxhey, although "Sloping-mud" is sometimes a more accurate description of the course - but nearby Cassiobury ("fast, flat, tarmac paths") was off due to the treacherous conditions that also led to the cancellation of the Watford Half Marathon.  The briefing at South Oxhey warned about half melted snowmen on the course but over at Bradford the cancellation was said to be because there were Polar Bears on the course.

Roderick Hoffman

Who is leading in Germany?

With the launch of Rheinaue in Bonn last Saturday there are now 15 parkruns in Germany and there will shortly be two more.  The leader in the most events table for Germany is club friend Ralph Behrens of Lufthansa SV with 13 of the 15 run. Ralph has also done all eight of the existing Danish parkruns and one in Poland and one in Ireland. Ralph has now run at 23 different events at his first 24 runs (and he is cross with me for not telling him about "The Hoffman Club" before he had done his repeat). The picture is from the Chrome Running Challenges extension.

Roderick