baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 4th July 2022

Events marked "#" are points scoring for the club's participation trophy - for the 2022 title.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

For future weeks: inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk.

This Week's Events

Please 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.

Monthly Mile (submit by 8pm Sunday 17th July):

Run one mile and send me your time or add the details to the Facebook prompt. The mile can be somebody else's formal event or even one mile within a longer run. I'll then produce a fancy graph showing your time this month compared to those of other people and previous runs over the last year.

Weekly Athletic Achievement (by late Sunday) or use the Facebook group prompt:

AGM This Week - Reminder

BAAC will be holding its Annual General Meeting at the Bedfont Club next week, on Wednesday 6th July at 20:00.  Please make all efforts to attend – we will hear reports on the club’s successes in 2021/2, elect a new committee, and discuss subscriptions for future years and any other burning issues. The bar will be open and the club will be providing food - sandwiches this time.

See you there!

Steve Hillier (Hon Sec BAAC)

AGM Mile Event - this Wednesday at the Bedfont Club #

Maintaining a decades long tradition the AGM on Wednesday 6th July 2022 will be preceded by a locally based one mile time trial.

Course

The start will be on the opposite side of Hatton Road to the Bedfont Football Club at the junction of Wellington Road. Runners will head
South Eastwards, facing any traffic, and should keep to the footpath, crossing the Cains Lane junction (take care) and continuing to the next junction (Orchard Avenue).

Turn right into Orchard Avenue which curves round to the right and then cross to the other side of the road when it is safe to do so.  At the end of Orchard Avenue turn left into Cains Lane and very soon turn right onto the footpath up the A30, running now (NE) towards Hatton Cross.  The path is narrow but separated from the roadway by a broad grass verge.  Although not a designated cycle route it is known to be used occasionally by cyclists so runners should keep a look out for other path users.  The course continues along the A30 until a path through an open grassed area on the right meets the route.  Runners turn right and head along Myrtle Avenue and the finish which is marked by a red pillar box in the pavement at the junction with Hatton Road.  Runners must take care not to run onto the road after finishing.

To avoid overcrowding on the narrow paths, runners will be started at 10 second intervals.

The first runners will be started at 6.20 p.m.

At any stage overtaking runners are responsible for ensuring that passing is completed safely and with respect for the slower athlete.

Runners wishing to run together (max 2) can request a joint starting slot.

Any members wishing to help should contact Steve Newell.

> Steve Newell

Track & Field 2022 – results week 3 – Vets at Battersea #

Our third Vets match saw fewer BA members competing, as we were hit by injuries and work commitments.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed a successful evening at Battersea, cheered on by Julie Barclay.

Fiona Bishop tackled two events at the opposite end of the track spectrum, with a 100m sprint and 2000m walk.  She won the latter event, and was the quickest lady on the night in any age group.  We had two men running in the 1500m.  Paul Watt took on the V50s, while Ian Haylock stepped up from his age group to compete with the V35s.  Both ran strong times.

Subject to ratification, both of Fiona’s runs appear to be new club records, while Paul missed out on improving his own record by half a second.

Vets League Track & Field, Battersea 27th June 2022

Next fixtures:

• Vets League, Perivale, Wednesday 13th July,
• Rosenheim League, Walton, Wednesday 13th July.

Our final matches of the summer take place on July 13th.  Unfortunately the Rosenheim and Vets Leagues clash that day.  Please let me know which event(s) you would like to take part in, and at which venue.

The Vets League features the following events: 200m, 800m, 3000m, Hammer, Javelin, High Jump, Long Jump and 4 x 100m.

The Rosenheim League will feature: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m, Steeplechase, Pole Vault, Long Jump, Shot, Hammer and
4 x 200m.

> Steve Hillier

Recent Activity Achievements

I picked up on 16 club members and friends reporting recent activity achievements this week.

Ed: If I had had more time I would have edited in a huge crowd cheering Jacqui on - but we do have the AGM on Wednesday.

Roderick Hoffman

parkrun Results for Saturday 2nd July 2022

37 activities are recorded this week. Please get in touch if your activity is missing. If [*] appears in the comment then please ensure that you have paid your subs and let me know.

The club featured parkrun at Church Mead (Old Amersham) attracted six members and friends who took on what is definitely one of the toughest parkrun tests in the greater Heathrow catchment area {see below}.  It was run #13 which attracted many visitors with over 50% of the runners being Church Mead first timers

Many other regulars were attracted to Bedfont Lakes for the 600th edition there.

Piers Keenleyside (34:06) celebrated his 300th run with his and our first visit to Shepton Mallet.

The cancellation at Osterley parkrun, which will continue for at least two more weeks while major filming continues, didn’t deter Alan Anderson (52:47) from giving wheelchair assistance over the much more undulating course at Gunnersbury where he remains a legend.  Next week even Gunnersbury is cancelled to make way for a festival so life isn’t getting any easier.

Jain Reid (30:00) finished in exactly half an hour at Richmond for the second time this summer.  She is now on 98 runs – 92 of them have been at Richmond Park.

Harjit Jhooti (30:55) chose the right weekend to reach York by train and nailed the last letter(“Y”) she needed to complete the alphabet challenge.  Anyone trying this little simple game finds some letters on their doorstep and other miles away.  Harjit has a surplus of “B’s” in her collection of 157 scanned barcode completed parkruns but her letters with just one economical parkrun are Albert (Melbourne), Dinton Pastures, Eastleigh, Fulham Palace, Ifield Mill Pond, Jersey Farm, Kingston, Llyn Lech Owain, Queen Elizabeth, Tonbridge, Valentines, York and Zuiderpark.

Paul Watt (20:15) and Julie Barclay (27:13) visited Canons Park and set new club records.  Fibonacci badge aspirants were attracted to run #233.  Paul and Julie are due at Clapham Common next week where Julie will write the official parkrun run report whereas Paul has offered to stand in and write the club parkrun report for the digest.

Trish McCabe (28:54) was the first female club member to run at Wanstead Flats and was caught on camera posing with parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt.  Trish now needs just 10 more parks to achieve “Londone” including others North of the Thames and East of the Lee Navigation such as Harrow Lodge (Hornchurch), Walthamstow and Raphael (Romford).

The gradual integration of integration of club membership, bank accounts and parkrun will make life easier for archivists in the future and remove mystery and uncertainty.  But right now in early July we have the perfect storm situation.  Renewing members are given a maximum of three months grace (starting 1 April) to pay the annual club membership so that has now expired.  This week we would have added two new parkruns to our list but …. you can fill in the rest.  A cash payment ahead of voting at the upcoming AGM might just solve this little problem amicably.  Details withheld to protect the innocent.

Steve Newell

Is Church Mead the hilliest parkrun?

I've done 330 different parkrun venues and for most of them I've used Garmin watches to record the elevation climbed over the 5k distance. For Church Mead my watch recorded 129metres. GPS recording can be inaccurate - and this can be shown by the fact that for the same run the "descent" was recorded as 136metres although the start and finish are alongside the same body of water. But, how does the ascent of at least 129metres compare with other parkruns I've done? The only similar recording I've got has been for Lullingstone (129m). Other high recordings are Queen's Glasgow (126m, but on tarmac throughout) and Lyme Park (124m). Others are significantly less - Wendover Woods (105), Queen Elizabeth (101), Tring and Ashton Court (100). I haven't run the new Durlston Country Park parkrun nor the longer established Whinlatter parkrun - I expect them both to have greater ascent than Church Mead...but perhaps not by much. [My research has found figures of 140m, 193m and 199m for Whinlatter, and 199m and 209m for Durlston CP].

Don't Forget your Barcode...but in case you do...

I've continued to investigate whether it is possible to have a parkrun barcode lookup function for club members. It isn't that straightforward since the barcodes work by displaying a code based on your "A" number using a character font that has to be installed on the device this is done on, or embedded in some code on that device. I've come up with something which might work. If you go to the barunner home page (e.g. you would ask another finisher, who has a connected smart phone, to load "barunner.org.uk") then click on the "Member barcodes" option in the table and then click on your name and it will load your barcode which can then be scanned by the parkrun scanners to record your parkrun result.

It would be useful if someone could test this and say how feasible/usable they think it would be - before I generate and load everyone's barcodes (I've done about twenty so far). Test and let me know.

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

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

> Roderick Hoffman

Canalathon

Help keep me off the streets...I usually just run for myself or to get a fancy medal or parkrun achievement but over the month of July I will be doing a high mileage to raise funds for the Canal and Rivers Trust, who maintain much of the paths I (and we) run on. My target is to do at least 52.4 different towpaths and riverbank miles over the month. Please consider sponsoring me to encourage me to do additional mileage: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/roderick-hoffman. If you are unable to use the online sponsorship options then please email me to arrange an alternative. You can also help by inviting me to join you on your stretch of canal or riverbank - either for a run or a walk.

Thank you to those who have already picked up on this on Facebook and sponsored me already.

> Roderick Hoffman

5k Training Plan, following long injury break

Hi everyone,

As some of you may know, I have been suffering with injuries and fitness since November last year and although I had a few weeks where I could run, it was short-lived and almost never without pain. It has been a slow recovery process but now I am ready to move on and start some serious training. I attempted some tried and tested training sessions but floundered a little, especially as some sessions were the same as Tom’s and had not been tried since the sad loss of Tom last July. This injury is not new to me and I thought I knew how to deal with it!!

Clearly not! It was not until May that I finally conceded and enlisted the help of a physio; although very expensive I have eventually turned a corner and apparently it is about doing the right exercises and not just a lot of random exercises that I have read about on Youtube!

I finally managed to run a full parkrun on 7th May and have been building up the distance slowly and what I have been very surprised, and disappointed about, is how slowly fitness and speed return!

Well……3 weeks ago I started following a 5k training program. I found it on Youtube and it is by a young lady named Philly Bowden, a very good elite runner. The program is for someone who wants to improve their 5k time, so not for a novice runner. The plan is over 8 weeks and is easy to follow as you don’t need anything other than a watch; not a Garmin or other such gadgets that I don’t possess but just a watch! It emphasises rest and strength but the really hard bit is that you run 5 days out of 7.

I am now at the end of week 3. I have run every session but not always in the correct order as Saturdays are always supposed to be rest days….and that cannot be. I am definitely feeling stronger and my general running feels easier. What has yet to return is speed, but as I said, it is an 8 week plan and patience is also put to the test.

I have entered a race on 8th August which falls at the end of the program and am hoping that the hard work pays off. I am not expecting a PB but would like to see an improvement in my 5k times.

If anyone would like a copy of this plan then let me know, alternatively you will find it on Youtube by searching ‘Philly Bowden 5k pb training plan’. Let me know if you embark on this plan as it may be interesting to compare notes.

> Julie Barclay

Letters to the Editor

Races to enter:

We have just launched our charities first ever live running event. The Tommy 10K is due to take place on 16th October at Eridge Park Estate, Tunbridge Wells. There’s an option to choose from 5K or 10K and entries are online: https://rbli.co.uk/rbli-events/tommy-10k/ . All chip timed with categories and prizes of course. Eridge Park is one of the oldest deer parks and is usually closed to the public, so it’s a really special opportunity to see the grounds.

Rachel Park

Senior Community Fundraising Manager

RBLI - Royal British Legion Industries

The entry fee is £25 but there is a £5 discount code available - ask me > Roderick

Also...

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.

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