baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 7th August 2017

Events:

• Monday 21st August, Track&Field Grand Prix, Uxbridge/Hillingdon Track - 400m, Hammer, Long Jump from 18:00*
• Wednesday 23rd August, Club-In-house-Event, BBQ on Harmondsworth Moor from 18:00* (see below)
• Tuesday 5th September, Run-of-the-Month, Round-the-Park at Harmondsworth Moor at 12:30*

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. Updated July 17th.

*Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

Not for you, no longer interested?  remove me please.

Difficulty viewing this email?  Read it off the website instead - http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml. 

Club Facebook Page "BARunner" https://www.facebook.com/BARunnerUK/

Wednesday 23rd August, Club-In-house-Event, BBQ on Harmondsworth Moor from 18:00

We are going to repeat our successful BBQ event of last year.  This is on Harmondsworth Moor, but not in the usual place - we'll use an area just north of Moor Lane - it is shown on the club map and has easy parking in Moor Lane available from 16:30.  We'll have a fun relay event which is likely to involve running, jumping and throwing from 18:00, then the BBQ from about 19:15.  Neil Frediani and Joe Nolan will plan the fun relay, Clara is mastering the BBQ.  Food and drink will be provided for all who tell us to expect them - please bring "potential members" (however unlikely they are to actually join the club) but please tell us in advance so that we can better guess numbers.

Roderick Hoffman obo Neil, Joe and Clara

Start training for...

• Round-the-Park at Harmondsworth Moor on Tuesday lunchtime 5th September.
• Orienteering on Saturday 9th September at the Barbican - for details see slow.org.uk/events/cityrace2017/ but expect the course to require navigation across three dimensions!
• The Equinox 5k 20th September using the Heston Venue changing rooms and the Queen's Head for chat, food and drink afterwards.

Roderick Hoffman (team captain, roderick@rhoff.org.uk)

August Dream Mile - 3rd August 2017 result

Chris Kelly	00:06:23
Matthew Stratful	00:06:24
Toby Houghton	00:06:44
Roderick Hoffman	00:08:04
Simon Ashford	00:08:06

Fighting a strong SW sidewind which tended to hit us head-on on the unsheltered stretches of the Bath Road course.  It was good to welcome back Toby Houghton running for the first time for 364 days - he didn't do his best time, nor his worst.

The next Dream Mile will be on September 7th.

Roderick Hoffman obo Neil Frediani

Uxbridge Grand Prix, 31st July

The latest event in this summer's hard fought Track & Field Grand Prix series took place on Monday.  Simon rolled back the years with a sub-3 minute 800m run, including a negative split and a battle with a lively headwind to the tape.  The runners were cheered to the line by a group of sixty boot camp participants, preparing to go into action.

The BAAC competitors then moved to the throwing cage for a bit of plate spinning.  This time Steve held sway, with a season's best in the discus competition.  The boot campers were by this time groaning their way though press ups, so the cheering had subsided.

Results:

You are welcome to join us for training on the next two Mondays, prior to our next Grand Prix (400m, Hammer and Long Jump) on August 21st.

Regards,

Steve Hillier

Club parkrun results for Saturday 5th August

* Ed: Runners having completed the 5k course faster than Mo Farah had completed the 10,000m the previous evening. Our parkrun challenge for next Saturday is to run quicker than Mo over his two 5,000m runs combined.

The first parkrun “run of the month” at Black Park was a great success and more fully covered below.  If in reality the club members have shifted their prime activity from Wednesday evenings to Saturday mornings then there could be more gatherings like this in the future.  Paul Knechtl(17:54) was first home and set a new club record.  He was literally out of sight of the next runner towards the end.  Paul Watt (20:49) was next in and has qualified for his “50” vest.  Next came Julie Barclay (21:33) to set a new club record for our ladies and places her 8th out of a staggering 692 in her age group at Black Park (Ed: see: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/blackpark/results/agecategorytable/?ageCat=VW50-54. Her 81.83% also puts here in 74th place in the Black Park "age graded" league - although Brian Bennett remains higher at 56th with 82.57% ).

Elsewhere the Benita and John Scaife continued their tour of the Sydney area both finishing in 28:49 at Dolls Point.  Four of Benita’s best five runs have been in Australia.  Five Scaifes went round the course - see below. That was the 349th park our members have visited.  Ian (25:12) and Caroline Cockram (28:14) made it 350 with a run at South Norwood Country Park which has been going now for 5 weeks.  One of two in South London which started up recently and the least hilly of the runs on offer in the Croydon borough.  Only a little  further eastwards and in Bromley Borough is the possibly aptly named Hoblingwell which is now four weeks old and so far not too crowded.  There is the odd contour line on the course map!

Another family turnout - Piers Keenleyside(27:36) was one of five Keenleysides at Evesham this week,  Piers has now run there five times.  It could be a tricky sequence to maintain but with Piers you can’t rule anything out!

Richard Ruffell (22:14) equaled his club record at Gadebridge (Hemel Hempstead) but improved his WAVA score slightly having had a birthday or two since his previous visit.

Steve Newell

Updated club parkrun stats

August ‘Run-of-the-Month’ - Black Park parkrun 5th August - report

What a great morning at the World Athletics Championship's satellite support event at Black Park last Saturday (5 August) -  'Super Saturday' parkrun and BA club Run-of-the-Month. Black Park is an amazingly scenic one lap woodland trail course, alongside Pinewood Film Studios where often we run through film scene zones !

We had every generation of runner taking part amongst the 668 attendance and got a great group picture showing the age range that included our Tom, Alice and Alan A amongst the local parkrunners.

We had a tremendous turnout with at least twenty members involved. Some missing the official team photo before the start but caught in other snapshots and certainly on route by the course photographer George Mardall.  Left to right in this picture - Joe, John, SteveN, Trish, Chris, Julie, PaulW, Kevin, Alice, PaulK, Tom, David, Roderick, SteveT, Janet.

See all the day's pictures here (all freely downloadable):

www.flickr.com/photos/gmardall/albums/72157684538972254

And, what's more and real icing on the cake, we had first place finishers male and female with Paul Knechtl (17m 54s) and Julie Barclay (21m 33s - also celebrating her 100th parkrun). Paul Watts celebrated his 50 parkrun as well. They both brought lovely cake for us all too ! PK [pictured] was a phenomenal two minutes ahead of the second place runner Ciaran Crean who is the 'Active Slough' Communities Officer who also were promoting a health, fitness and wellbeing initiatives by participating in sporting activities.

I headed off with Tom, who after 100m he asked where the finish line was, so I pointed to the left, so he said we'll shortcut to the end now, a secret trick he taught me years ago so in fact we were the 'real first finishers' and then cheered in everyone else !

As a BAAC promotion we supplied a bottle of water and a banana to every finisher which was very well appreciated by everyone there helping towards a fantastic atmosphere for the day.

Mustn't forget to mention that being first Saturday of the month it was my pacer squad day who did their job with precision as ever, helping a few of our members to new PBs as well !

I'd like to remark that I have parkran Black Park 267 times, and have attended/volunteered many times there as well, but last Saturday was my proudest day there welcoming so many of our members to see where 'I live' although I may of forgotten to point out which tree !! Many thanks to everyone.

Job done - cheers all - Joe Nolan

Joe Nolan {thejoenolan@gmail.com}

BA staff Fun Run

The official photographs are now available at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ANFy1aZ3JIQ9jvP73

There is a good one of me and Trish together but incase her partner reads this I'll post this one of the start of the Little Legs race instead.

As an aside you may be interested to learn that the photos enabled us to prove that one of the 10k Medalists could not have run the full second lap hence we've had to disqualify him.

Without corporate funding the Fun Run has still raised over £15,000 for Cancer Research UK.  There is also a silent auction underway - visit https://www.facebook.com/BAFunRun?hc_ref=ARQUcz4dgOaVhweCEsIs2G-QkntTtrf1DDH8Xn9aVs6S1ExZoJ-UUszdd6jrvIaJ5hg&fref=nf&pnref=story on Facebook but do so quickly 'cos it is due to end at 12:00 on Wednesday. Lots include, taking one at random, a tour for four of the Fullers Brewery.

Roderick Hoffman

34th International Airport Race in Hamburg 3rd September 2017 - free entry!

If anyone is interested then please contact Clara Halket or if you know Ralph contact him directly.

Ride London 2017

We fielded a team of sixteen marshals in Whitehall this year to man a crossing close to the Cenotaph.  As well as seasoned crossing team members, several new volunteers joined us to make the day a success.  Thank you to all of our marshals.  Here's some feedback from the London Marathon events team:

Let's not forget the performances of our riders in completing 100 grueling miles during the day.  

Thanks again, and well done,

Steve Hillier

From Facebook

I was at the Gloucester City Marathon yesterday. A nice reasonably flat course starting and finishing at the Quays. There were some issues with the organisation - not enough toilets (as usual for most!) and some water stations ran out of water. Some people also complained that the mile markers were wrong - I had no idea as I left my Garmin in Ealing! I was 2nd in my age group finishing in 3:42:23

Piers Keenleyside

Next Digest?

Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to the editor, Roderick Hoffman, at news@barunner.org.uk.

Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.