baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 5th February 2018Events:
New members and potential members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at all of these events. The full diary of club featured events is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml. *Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] 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. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BARunnerUK/ (formal "BARunner" page), BA Runner Facebook Group (ask to join) Inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk. Round-the-Block Tuesday 30th January Results and Report
Nine ran, and special thanks to Paul Brandon for driving into London for the starting and timekeeping of this event. Also Dave Barnard, the original organiser of the event around 35 years ago, sent his apologies for being unable to attend this year. £10 was collected for White Lodge. This year's Round-the-Block was for a full circuit of the block, measured at 5.49k or 3.41 miles. The start and finish was set up next to where I had found an empty parking place - although in truth there were plenty of spaces available along Cranford High Street. The course had been laid out with seven directional arrows, one for each of the left turns that you have to make to get back round to the start. Odd - one would think you'd need four since the course is broadly rectangular? But having put out seven arrows it was good that more than that number of competitors turned up. We last had more runners than nine back in 2014 when we had 10. The previous year to that we had 21, despite the event being postponed by two weeks due to snow and ice cover. It was back in 2012 that we only had three competitors. The weather had been good for us - dry and mild for the time of year. I looked up a previous result for Round-the-Block in the club "Round-the-Block" newsletter of February 1992. That year we had a record 221 competitors. So many in fact that only the top thirty finishers were listed! And the writer of the article, probably John Williams, had a complaint about the event. I quote, "One thing never remains the same: the position of the start line." Apparently the policeman who had been sent to support the event that year had asked us to move the start 150m further down Cranford Lane, away from the roundabout, due to safety considerations. So this year was no exception; with another new starting position. Next year? Well, we need to see who is still around then, but there are several potential starting points not yet used. Surrey Men Cross Country League - Match 4, February 10th 2018The final league fixture of the season is almost upon us at the delightful Lloyd Park in Croydon. We are one place off the bottom and have the potential to move up a couple of places with a good performance. Don’t forget your numbers if you have them. I know that Simon and Barry are unavailable due to injury. Who expects to be there? If you need a lift then let me know and I will see what can be arranged. Details can be found at: https://surreyleague.org/slm/match/86/ I have reproduced the relevant details of the race as below:
If you have any query, please let me know, Neil Frediani (neil.frediani@ba.com) February Dream Mile results
Times were slow because we were running into a strong headwind. Roderick Hoffman Club parkrun results for Saturday 3rd February 2018
"This reporter will keep counting until we reach 500 and then someone else can take over!" - it looks like the only one of us not to read Steve's last line last week was David Duggan since the rest of us behaved ourselves and only ran at parkruns that had already been run at by club members. David would also have needed access to the club map since only 2 of the 20 parkruns near Adelaide had been run before. So Murray Bridge makes it three. In case you were wondering the parkrun runs under the bridge, not over it.* Trish McCabe made an unusual achievement for a club member - running a PB at a non-UK course! Very few international parkruns have been run more than once by the same club member. Scanning the results it looks like sister Maureen was doing the packing while Trish ran this one. Dave Dixon slightly improved upon his best time this year at Hackney Marshes and doing his own research he reports "Adrian Haines is sitting 14th in the Run Britain Rankings for Parkrun 50-54 for the UK. And for what it's worth my 17.49 this morning might put the two of us in the top 20 or 30 http://www.runbritainrankings.com/rankings/rankinglist.aspx?event=parkrun&agegroup=V50&sex=M&year=2018" [update - Adrian has slipped to 15th and Dave is indeed in, in 20th place]. Adrian didn't parkrun this weekend - he is focused on the indoor track season (running 1500m in 4:22.21 today, following a 2:06.5 800m last week) - had he turned up at his regular Tilgate parkrun he would have found it crowded with a record 665 attendees at their #300th event. We had our usual couple of runners at the UK's largest event, Bushy, but not only is Bushy now smaller than many South African parkruns but for the first time more people have registered at one, "Botanical Garden", across its three years than at Bushy over its 13 years. As reported previously the inaugural at Cirencester parkrun means that there are now 500 parkruns active in the UK. It'll be a while until 500 parkruns are run on the same day due to planned and late cancellations. This week Northala Fields discovered on Friday morning that their course could not be safely run on and so issued a cancellation notice. Up to 150 runners either didn't get the message or decided to run there anyway and ran "freedom runs" - including our own Steve Taylor who reported "The path wasn't too bad but maybe 300 runners would have been a problem. I finished in 29:58 which is a marked improvement from last week as I return back to running." The Northala Team subsequently issued the following message "Ealing Council have promised us the path will be fully restored to a high standard in time for next week's run. For those disappointed by the cancellation, please remember to check the official parkrun UK cancellation page before you set off, especially if travelling a long way: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/cancellations/".
My guess is that Marion Woodhouse is intending to make next week's ladies cross country match and has warmed up at Rickmansworth parkrun where on her first visit she has recorded her fastest parkrun time for four and a half years. Petra (at March) and Piers (at Gunnersbury) both ran at relatively flat parkruns (OK, so Gunnersbury does have a slope - but it isn't really a hill). Next Sunday they have both entered the very hilly Harrow Hill 10k event, along with Roderick, so we'll see how they get on. Roderick Hoffman for Steve Newell (no drama - Steve's PC is in for repairs) Non-updated parkrun stats - club parkrun stats *Only joking - I'm sure that club members will be visiting new venues next week and beyond. 2018 Middlesex Masters Cross Country championships - 25th March (combined with Herts)AT Heath Sports Club, Baldock Road, Royston, Herts, SG8 5BW on SUNDAY 25th MARCH starting at 10.30am Details and entry form: Masters XC 2018 entry form.doc Back in February 1992 - Other snippets from that month's "Round the Block" newsletter...
WANTED - Situations VacantCopywriter to write a 100 word report on any running event each week (or month) for inclusion in the weekly digest. Apply with text and pictures to the editor by 19:00 any Monday. Running ShortsChichester 10k Results - 347 Tim Bellars 00:43:55, 1438 Janet Smith 01:10:16 Tuesday 13th Feb - Street-O event at Bloomsbury - http://londonorienteering.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/streeto_feb2018.pdf Next Digest?Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to the editor, Roderick Hoffman, at news@barunner.org.uk. Club website:
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Roderick ran at the very scenic Penrhyn parkrun, a venue already visited by
Piers. The event he was in the area for was actually nearer to Conway parkrun -
but that hadn't been done by a club member. It was a grey day but running laps
around the outside of the castle was still a wonderful experience - one wouldn't
want to drive to and from Anglesey in a weekend without taking in a run like
this one. The picture is on the course - twice you run to the left, twice to the
right and then you finish by running to the gate. The castle looks so good you'd
think it was a Walt Disney - in truth it is a mock castle rebuilt the way it is
between 1822 and 1837.