baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 4th May 2020Events - see below:Inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk. Solo Events Calendar
This week was the week for the Speedbird Ladies race. The reason we are not holding a solo 5k race this week is because the Speedbird Ladies is not cancelled, just postponed. We remain optimistic that we will be able to safely and officially operate the event before the end of August. All face-to-face events are off until at least the end of May and probably June, but the club continues to operate with the Solo runs listed above - these ARE still permitted but see the Coronavirus footnote at the end of this digest. * Please suggest formats for runs with the "tba" in the above table. Midweek ChallengesThis week the challenge is simple - just run one mile and submit your time, for instance by filling in the table below and forwarding to News@barunner.org.uk, by the end of Friday. The mile could be measured by GPS on your watch or by your phone and ideally should be a a straight or circular route rather than an out and back due to recording issues at the turnaround point. Run on tarmac unless you'd prefer a different surface or live close enough to an underused track.
Next week Steve Hillier is organising a Scrabble Scramble challenge:
Then on 18th May we will repeat the Track-on-Field exercise and the following week we'll celebrate what would have been the Vitality 10k week with a Virtility 5k race, that Steve Taylor will be organising. Expect details for this next week. I've started to pencil in events for June also, but let's not worry about them yet. Green Belt Relay (virtual) 16th / 17th May #
Chris is our team captain and was firming up our team for this year's event which was due to be held over the weekend of 16th and 17th of May. Obviously that is now cancelled but we would still like to take it on as a virtual team challenge [but "challenge" is the right word to use]. It will be the Club Run-of-the-Month. Normally we are a team of 11 and each member runs once on the Saturday and once on the Sunday. Between us we cover a 220 mile circumference of Greater London (usually just outside the M25, on country lanes and paths). That means that the average leg is 10 miles long and start times are from 08:30 on the Saturday to 17:07 on the Sunday - they are FIXED start times and daytime only. This year in the virtual event we would like to do all of the legs with the correct start times and distances but, obviously, around the local area of each team member. The priority would be to complete the 22 stages, how long it takes us isn't important. We'll miss out on the varied terrain, the driving logistics and the constant company but we can't have everything. I've already raised this in Facebook and I've already had enough interest to guarantee the first full team and we are not far off being able to field a second - and I'll be happy to include walkers (but not cyclists or rowers). Everyone will be given two runs (other than those only available on one of the days). So, are you in? Please select ONE of the following and if you have time constraints please indicate that in a comment (e.g. "I can't do Sunday until 12:00").
Please let me know by the end of Tuesday because on Wednesday I'd like to put names to stages so that everyone has ten days to make any swaps needed and to plan routes of the right length for each of their two runs. I'll also set up the appropriate WhatsApp group. Roderick Hoffman (email me or use Facebook) https://www.facebook.com/groups/636199849751546/permalink/3019997478038426/ Midweek SOLO what3words ResultsWell, that was an interesting diversion from serious running. But 24 of us had sufficient computing skills to look up the what3word codes for three of the locations on our midweek run and put together a new three-word phase from the nine total words. (see www.what3words.com )
Now I had announced that the winner would be the person who posted the most apt or amusing three-word phase. Trish McCabe almost jumped the start, and posted "nurses.turned.legend" which was clearly going to be almost impossible to beat and so it proved so Trish is the first winner of this event. Julie's "sadly.rarely.racing" was judged second best followed by the almost as apt "runner.moves.miles" (Amanda) and "activities.slower.fattening" (the Scaifes). HOWEVER, I announced that there would be another winner, and in truth I always intended this, which would be to the individual who's new three-word phase was for a location the furthest distance away. The table is ordered by this so the second winner is Julie Barclay since her "sadly.rarely.racing" is a location in Los Angelis, California, roughly 5440 miles from Woking. Now, I expected that these locations would be scattered around the world but it is obvious that they aren't - most of our locations are in the USA. It is obvious from this that the distribution of words in the what3words algorithm concentrates certain words to regions including the USA and the UK as one such region. Quite how Simon Turton escaped to India I haven't worked out! You'll notice that the one person who knew the criteria for this second winner failed to exploit his knowledge - with my "suffer.chimp.chase" being just 25 miles from where I live. I note in retrospect that "chase.chimp.suffer" is 4980 miles away near Albuquerque in New Mexico. For those pining for parkrun's return I found that "park.runs.return" is on the apron of Louisville International Airport in Kentucky, USA, less than a parkrun distance away from Joe Creason parkrun which would have had its second birthday last Saturday. Hopefully we'll all be back there (and elsewhere) soon. If it starts to rain you can spend hours on the what3word website - for instance the reception desk at my mum's assisted living apartments is at inspector.visit.hurray! Roderick Hoffman Round-the-Block Table updateLast month's two club points scoring events have now been processed in our annual Round-the-Block table and I can announce that the first four club members to exceed ten points in the table are Steve Hillier, Gary Rushmer, Steve Newell and myself. Well done and thank you to all four of them/us. Steve Hillier has got points from taking part in 11 of the 13 points scoring events we have held so far this year - and the only two he skipped were the ladies cross-country events where he was elsewhere, running in the men's. 77 of us are listed in the table so expect many more of us to get the ten points needed for recognition. The next two events are the Run-of-the-Month Green Belt Relay (virtual) and the Solo Track-on-Field (Club In-house Event) on 20th May. Roderick Hoffman SOLO activity achievement weekend 1st to 4th May 2020We are back up to 33 attendees and those of us who ran or walked did a total of 248km (and that is only counting 6miles of Denis' 26).
Same again next weekend. Submit your best performance of the weekend by filling in the following form and sending it to me OR replying to the message on Facebook (or any other messaging format to me).
Roderick Hoffman {submit by 5pm on Monday} parkrun UpdateSeveral new parkruns have also been announced since the worldwide lockdown started. I think I've added about 40 to my map, https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RsYfKv3kzSsH4jDk6NSIzZDxRT1LbwsA&usp=sharing showing parkrun by region, including five in the UK. Roderick Hoffman
Running Shorts
Triathlon News - Tokyo OlympicsThe Games of the XXXII Olympiad (or maybe 699th for Ancient Greeks) have been rescheduled to take place in Tokyo from 23rd July to 8th August 2021. According to the original timetable we would probably have known by now which triathletes we could expect to see lining up on the starting pontoon but everything is on hold due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. We are probably all familiar with the way Track & Field athletes gain Olympic selection with three slots being available for each country in each event subject to individuals meeting a minimum standard (e.g. for the Marathon 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women). To encourage everyone, each country may often be able to enter one athlete even if the qualifying standard hasn't been reached. As with the Marathon, the Olympic triathlon competitions are straight finals and numbers are limited to the width of the pontoon used for the dive in start for the swim. The men's and women's individual races (1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run),are held separately but in Tokyo there will also be, for the first time, a mixed team relay with two males and two females each completing a swim (300m), bike (8km) and run (2km) before handing over to the next teammate. Triathlon will also feature in the Paralympics with races over 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. The bike and run sections will feature handcycles and wheelchairs for some categories. The open water swim will be held in the Odaiba Marine Park for all the events. The 55 slots in the individual events are eagerly sought after and the max
three per country rule still applies. There is no qualification time as
such as each course is unique so the system relies on world ranking positions on
the close off date (now moved, we don't know for how long). Some athletes
qualified by doing well in a test event held in Japan in 2019. Generally
you need to be the world top 140 to stand a chance of being considered.
Possibly the top 180 because the Olympic movement falls over backwards to be as
inclusive as possible and would like to see at least one competitor from each
continent. As usual, anyone failing a dope test, in or out of
competition, can forget about it. Alistair Brownlee (GB) won the triathlon in London (2012) and Rio de Janeiro (2016) and was certainly considering trying to achieve the hat trick. He has ambitions to win the Ironman in Hawaii as well and has already qualified for the 2020 race scheduled for mid October, just a couple of weeks before WARR (not on the same island). I wonder how the Yorkshire police treat him. It must be difficult to differentiate between cycling to work and cycling at work. Steve Newell Wings for Life (virtual race)So on Sunday I had entered the annual Wings for Life race. This is the one where David Coulthard gives the runners a thirty-minute head start before chasing after them in a racing car, initially at a slow speed but building up to 30km/h. The event takes place at dozens of venues around the world all starting at 12:00 UK time and raising money for research into spinal injuries.
In the overall event there were 77,103 registered of which at least 66,239 achieved times. These came from 104 different countries and ran 924,960km between them and raised at least 2.8 million euro for the spinal cord injuries research. The leading lady ran 54.2k before being caught, the leading man was Ultra Runner Michael Taylor running near Cambridge who ran 69.9km in 4hrs 11minutes. DilemmaThere is a dilemma here in that I've previously suggested that nobody should be running to extremes and that the most I'd be willing to report on by a club runner would be 15 miles, and 69.9km is clearly in excess of this. Now, I've got no problem with a club member doing a once a week four hour walk around the more sparsely frequented areas of Windsor Great Park (i.e. Chris). That puts the NHS under less pressure than a lockdown breaker visiting a friend's home for five minutes. But running for four hours, with tripping hazards and crossing roads when tired, is a much higher risk. I've also previously hinted at a concern over cyclists over two hours' walk away from home - but I'm happy to include them in our weekend exercise list on the unchecked assumption that they do have a contingency rescue plan from within their household. Hopefully the lockdown will start to be relaxed before the end of May and any apparent contradictions can be put aside. Roderick Hoffman Coronavirus Warning FootnoteIn the UK exercise outside is still permitted because it will boost physical and mental health. The relevant law in England states, "No person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse...a reasonable excuse includes the need...to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household". The word "need" is not defined, and you could be challenged on your interpretation. In line with government guidance; whose purpose is your health, the health of those around you and reducing demand on NHS and other services; we advise you as follows:
If you are unwell yourself, potentially with the virus:
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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The
photograph shows the start of stage 20 of the Green Belt Relay in 2014.
Paul Sinton-Hewett can be seen in the blue in center.
The GBR organisers say, "...a bit of a GBR legend having not only run every
race since 2006 but frequently doubled up on stages too, so he's run 30 stages,
and the gruesome stage 4 eight times. Ooof.", not of PSH but of Chris Kelly
our runner to the right of Paul.
Obviously
this year the physical races were cancelled, all around the world, but the event
was still held but as a virtual event. I worked out that if I pushed myself I
was capable of achieving 13km before being caught but, clearly, I needed a
course that would be relatively clear of family groups and dog walkers. I
planned to start across the far side of the retail estate I live by and head out
to the A40 at the Polish War Memorial (over a hill to get to it) and then have the
flat length of the A40 alongside RAF Northolt. This would take me about 6k out,
I could then spend 1k in a convenient loop around North Hillingdon (but give the
CoOp a wide berth) and have the 6k home to
make up the 13k. This worked perfectly and I achieved the 13k with the APP on my
phone announcing that I had been caught just after I'd passed my starting post.
The only pedestrian congestion I'd encountered was at that finish point where
there were two family groups passing as I approached but I did manage to avoid
them. I was encouraged on the A40 by the sight, a literal mile away, of a bright
yellow shirt identical to my own coming towards me. It was clearly someone who
lived in Uxbridge who was doing the same event but in the opposite direction to
me. We were able to exchange waves both on the way out and on the way back - and
I've been able to find him on LinkedIn and send him the photo of himself as he
approached me. It is really good when things like that work out.