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BA Athletics Club News Digest 4th March 2013

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Forthcoming Events

Don't forget the following priority club events:

  • Wednesday 13th March - Club In-house Event - event details dependant on road works! - Concorde Centre 18:00
  • Sunday 24th March - Track&Field Championships and Family Fun Day - Eton from 12:00
  • Wednesday 10th April - "Watersplash" 10k followed by social with food - Concorde Centre 18:00

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.


Major BAAC Events Approaching

The following three club hosted events are really important for the future of the club.  Please do all that you can to publicise these events to attract additional participants.

Date Time Event Location More Info Details Publicity
Sun 24th March   12:00-17:30   T&F Championship & Family Fun Day   Eton Eddie Giles Webpage Poster
Wed 8th May 19:00 Speedbird Ladies 5k Harmondsworth Clara Halket Webpage Entry Form
Sun 9th June 10:30 Concorde Five Mile + kids 0.5k Cranford Roderick Hoffman Webpage Entry Form

The British Airways Athletics Club Annual Awards for 2012

The following awards have been presented to BAAC members for their achievements over 2012:

Award Presented For 2012
Male Athlete of the Year This guy has become a legend in our running team. After twenty years of trying to break the bonds, he remains the young man of the team, and the person to be relied upon to pull out an excellent performance when most needed.

As an organiser, he has managed the Concorde 10K for many years, helping it grow to a hugely popular event. He is part of the team working to make its replacement, the Concorde Five, another great success. He is one of the club’s fastest performers over just about every distance, and produced a three hour marathon in 2012.

Paul Knechtl
Female Athlete of the Year This year’s winner had is a constant presence in the ladies cross country team, and a regular competitor at our in house events and runs of the month. She continues to produce great times, she encourages everyone around her to take part, and she always has a smile on her face. Marion Woodhouse
Brian Forrester 10K Trophy Special mention should go to Joe Nolan, Steve Newell and Brian Bennett for their competitive times, but they will not be going home with the trophy this time.

Our winner competed on hot days, and on wet days, on flat courses, and on tough courses. As usual, he gave the races his maximum effort.

Tony Barnwell
Most Improved Athlete For some exceptional five mile running last year, and with our good wishes for 2013 Simon Turton
Veteran’s Trophy This year’s winner has continued to provide evergreen performances. He monitors our performances in the popular Saturday morning 5k runs, as well as showing good improvement in his own times. He is the driving force behind our major quarterly in house races. He also ensures that we have angels and wise men running a mile at Christmas. He organises a swim in the Thames which attracts competitors from far and wide. What’s more, he continues to adjudicate in major Triathlon events. Steve Newell
Chairman’s:  Presented by the Chairman to the club member whose efforts have done most to progress the club.  Tom Rowley has been supporting the club for many years including the reliable marking for hosted cross countries and the Speedbird Ladies race. Tom Rowley
Men’s T&F Grand Prix:   Presented to the male club member who has contributed most to the club's track&field events over the year.

Our winner posted strong performances in 13 disciplines through the summer. He won several Grand Prix events, and was ever present at inter club competitions.

Once again, he led the small team to qualify for the final of the Rosenheim League at Tooting Bec. He looks forward to leading the team to more success in the Veterans League in 2013.

Eddie Giles
Round The Block Trophy:    Presented to the club member who has devised, marshalled and taken part in most BAAC events throughout the year.  This is worked out using a complex league table based on participation at club featured events. Steve Newell
Men’s XC Trophy: This trophy is presented to the man who had most success last year with our cross country team. We had a tough winter, but twenty-two athletes turned out to run for BA in really testing conditions.

The calculation of the award winner takes account of age, appearances and placings, with this year’s result being the closest ever.

Despite the best efforts of Gary, Denis, John and Mark, the 2011 champion showed his consistency to retain his trophy.

Barry Walters
Ladies XC Trophy: There are rumours that being a member of our ladies cross country team is all about wine tasting, eating sweet treats and enjoying yourself. Nothing could be further from the truth. This dedicated bunch of athletes have spent the winter months representing BA in the cold and wind on the Surrey hills, cheered on by Tom Rowley.

As with the men, there was a very close battle in the ladies competition, although this was for second place. There was one, clear winner.

Helen Smith

Photographs from the awards evening: Awards Evening

To see the previous years' results visit the website: News_Trophies.shtml

Roderick Hoffman


Winter Handicap Update

Over the winter months there are a series of "handicap" runs from the Concorde Centre. The course is that of the "Concorde Five" (actually about 4.8 miles or 7.7 km) run clockwise and the event is designed so that we start spaced out but finish together.

Last Wednesday February 27th was the February heat.  Fifteen of us took part and the results are listed below in the order of closeness to their target times:

27-Feb-13   Handicap run time Time gap Month Points Total points Next Handicap
Eddie Giles 38:30 38:26 00:04 15 52 38:30
Gary Rushmer 31:30 31:23 00:07 14 36.5 31:30
Paul Knechtl 30:00 30:13 00:13 13 13 30:00
Steve Newell 49:00 49:19 00:19 12 51.5 49:30
Richard Ruffell 33:00 33:23 00:23 11 37 33:30
John Scaife 38:00 37:04 00:56 10 10 37:00
Paul Goldsmith 49:00 47:56 01:04 9 9 48:00
Roderick Hoffman 47:30 48:35 01:05 8 23 48:30
Denis Foxley 37:30 38:53 01:23 7 13 39:00
Steve Hillier 51:30 49:24 02:06 6 11 49:30
Joe Nolan 44:00 40:56 03:04 5 21.5 41:00
Barry Walters 31:30 34:52 03:22 4 25 35:00
Alan Anderson 48:00 44:26 03:34 3 14.5 44:30
Neil Frediani 47:30 42:40 04:50 2 2 42:30
Helen Smith 52:00 dnf   1 1  

Clearly Eddie delivered a masterfully timed finish and managed to get a very significant two other runners between himself and Steve Newell.  In the middle field it was great to see Paul Goldsmith taking part - even if he did beat me by just one second.  Alan Anderson had an unusually slow run last time out but recovered this time hence resulting in two bad handicap finishes in a row - the yo-yo effect.  He should do better next time. Neil, running the event for the first time, allowed himself time to get lost on the course but didn't whereas Helen did...but still managed to get a point and thereby take the lead amongst the Ladies this year.

This is how the totals stack up with just one heat left:

  Total Points
Eddie Giles 52
Steve Newell 51.5
Richard Ruffell 37
Gary Rushmer 36.5
Graham Taylor 26.5
Barry Walters 25
Roderick Hoffman 23
Simon Turton 22
Joe Nolan 21.5
Colin Haylock 17
Steve Taylor 17
Chris Kelly 15.5
Alan Anderson 14.5
Denis Foxley 13
Paul Knechtl 13
Steve Waite 12.5
Matthew Stratful 12
Steve Hillier 11
John Scaife 10
Paul Goldsmith 9
Jeremy Short 4.5
Neil Frediani 2
Alan Friar 1
Piers Keenleyside  1
Helen Smith 1

So you can expect to see some very competitive behaviours on the final handicap heat on 25th March!  This is because just half a point separates Eddie and Steve for first place and also Richard and Gary for third. There is then the potential for a close finish for fifth place with any one from Graham through to Joe able to win it depending on other finishes.  Don't be surprised if there are some tactical dead-heats over the last few yards of the course!

Roderick Hoffman for Paul Brandon


parkrun Update for 2nd March 2013

There were two notable club achievements at parkruns on 2nd March.

Brian Bennett, running at Nonsuch, finished in a time of 22:50 to achieve the VM70-74 age category record and thus may simultaneously hold that record at ten different parkruns.  Steve will need to ratify that status and speculate as to its uniqueness.

Roderick Hoffman achieved his unique record of completing 50 different parkruns in his first 50 parkruns.  He was featured in the parkrun Newsletter issued on February 28th (http://www.parkrun.org.uk/news/2013/02/27/weekly-newsletter-27th-february-2013/ ).  His 50th run was an the familiarly named Concord parkrun in Sheffield. There is a picture from each parkrun on his facebook page https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3800364006149.2168190.1188765022&type=3 and, given time, he may produce a write-up featuring the most memorable of the 50.

Of more immediate use note that Roderick has arranged to be handed his "50" shirt at Bedfont Lakes parkrun on Saturday 23rd March on which occasion he will run at that parkrun for a second time.  Other BA runners are invited to provide support that day - Roderick's first parkrun was on 25th June 2011 which was the first BAAC featured parkrun run.

Roderick Hoffman

PS Alan Friar is still on 99. Ian Cunningham is catching him and now has 95.


Running Thoughts

Think about this the next time you line up in a race you think you can't win. Scientists believe that there is a finite possibility that upon the starter's pistol firing all of the atoms in your body could simultaneously jump to a new location 99 metres down the track enabling you to break the world 100 metres record. True, it's unlikely, and if it were to occur you might fond that ratification of the new record would take considerably longer...but it is possible.

Perhaps it's time someone sent in some more running jokes?


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, stores - send it to us at news@barunner.org,uk.


Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.


 

      

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