baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 7th November 2016

Events:

• Wednesday 9th November - Club Charity Quiz - Heston Venue from 19:45 (see below)*
• Saturday 12th November - Men's Surrey League, Epsom Downs, 15:00 (see below)*
• Wednesday 30th November - Winter 5 mile handicap from 18:00 at Heston Venue*

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 November 4th]

*Club Event Map: [long Google-map hyperlink you would not type in]

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. 

Running related gossip and chat: Facebook "BA Runner" (see below).

Wednesday 9th November - Club Charity Quiz - Heston Venue from 19:45 - Reminder

We look forward to seeing you from 19:45 on Wednesday 9th November for an evening of puzzlement at the Heston Venue (Concorde Centre).   You can either turn up as ready made teams of four or more OR fit yourself into a team on the night. The quiz is a fund raiser for our nominated charity, White Lodge.  First prize is to have your team name and members published in this news digest. We expect a minimum donation of £2 per person but, since the club is providing food, we would hope that the average donation is at least £5. There is a normal bar and note that non-members are no longer being charged to enter the Heston Venue.

There will be the usual Wednesday evening training runs from 18:00 - nothing formally arranged but we can see who turns up and what distance / speed they want to do. Don't run too far because the Quiz starts at 19:45.

Please come, and if you can tell us to expect you, particularly if you are coming with a ready made team, then we'll be ready.

Steve Hillier (SteveHillier@msn.com)

New Facebook Page

I've started setting up a new Facebook Page for the club. There already is a Facebook Group called BARunner.  The Page is something different although I'd hope for it to be able to take over from the Group.  Where I'm trying to get to is to have a club social page that all members can post to and correspond with AND where non-members can find out what we are doing - but cannot join in without being enrolled.  This would enable us to post details of events like the Speedbird Ladies Race and the Concorde Five. Sadly Facebook doesn't allow quite that arrangement so a compromise is required...

• Group: The BARunner group is closed so you can only see the content once you have been allowed to join the group. Once you are a member you can post and contribute freely.
• Open Group: If we changed BARunner to be an open group then anyone could join it and post to it with minimal controls.
• Page: Anyone can view the page and respond to posts, and anyone can create new posts but these have to be approved by an admin before appearing for all to see.

The new Page is called https://www.facebook.com/BARunnerUK/

This digest will continue to be generated and circulated to the email distribution list and via the website since not all members are able and/or willing to use Facebook.  We will also cater for members who have no computer access but communications to them will be more by word of mouth at regular events.

Roderick Hoffman

Feedback or ideas? email me at roderick@rhoff.org.uk or comment to the Facebook Group or Page.

November Dream Mile Results

	Previous Best Time	Recent time	03-Nov-16	Difference	Best Time
Dave Dixon	00:05:06		00:05:16	-12 seconds	00:05:06
Neil Frediani	00:06:34	00:06:58	00:06:54	-04 seconds	00:06:34
Steve Taylor	00:06:45	00:07:24	00:07:24	-00 seconds	00:06:45
Vaneeta Cro	00:11:38	00:12:12	00:12:14	+02 seconds	00:11:38
Roderick Hoffman	00:07:08	00:07:42	00:07:46	+04 seconds	00:07:08
Paul Knechtl	00:04:56	00:05:20	00:05:26	+06 seconds	00:04:56
Chris Kelly	00:05:42	00:06:19	00:06:24	+27 seconds	00:05:42

Paul Knechtl

Green Belt Relay team for 2017?

We would like to decide whether to enter the Green Belt Relay next year – 20-21 May 2017 – so we need to check we can get a team together.

For those who haven’t done it before, it’s a challenging though rewarding event, involving 11 runners, covering 220 miles over two days, in staged races, starting Saturday morning at Hampton Court, staying in a Motel in Essex Saturday night, and continuing Sunday finishing with a BBQ/Awards ceremony Sunday evening near Kingston. Along the way you run from point to point, from village to village, through the rolling Shires, mainly on paths not roads, averaging about 10 miles each per day, with varying distances (and amount of hills!) available...

Since Brian Bennett first roped me in in 2006, I think its become my favourite event of the year, so much so that in 2015 I did my two runs in addition to attending a friend's 50th Birthday party in Anglesey on the Saturday night...

So we are looking for runners, and volunteer drivers, and we also have to staff a few marshalling points along the way.  Please let me know if you are (even slightly) interested – either running, or as a reserve - as there are always some tweaks due to injuries - or for more info. Look forward to hearing from you.

Rgds, Chris Kelly  christkelly@yahoo.com

Surrey League - Men at Epsom Downs on Saturday 14th November from 15:00

The second fixture of this years men’s cross country league takes place on Saturday at 3pm on Epsom Downs.

New runners are welcome, please let me know in advance (name and date of birth) if you might plan to come and I will add your details into the list of possibles. This is not a particularly muddy course and takes place on and around parts of the horse racing track.  Please bring your numbers if you already have them from fixture 1. If anyone needs a lift, let me know and I will see if I can arrange a lift for you.

My number is : 07882 655864 and email: neil.frediani@ba.com. Full details can be found at : www.surreyleague.org

Cross Country Surrey League- Men Div 3/4 (match 2) Epsom Downs (5miles), organised by 26.2 RRC and assisted by Epsom Oddballs

Start time: 3pm

Location & Travel: Start and Finish is Epsom Downs @ Tattenham Corner (nearest postcode KT18 5PP).

Cars: Epsom Downs is just a few minutes from Epsom Town Centre on the B290 Epsom Downs Road or alternatively just off junction 9 of the M25. attenham Corner is about half a mile past the entrance to the Grandstand with the racecourse on your right.

Public Transport: Epsom Station is connected by both South West Trains and Southern Trains. Metrobus operates a 460, 480 and 406F service which runs from Epsom Town Centre to Tattenham Corner Station. 

• Tattenham Corner Station: Approximately 1/3 mile walk to the start.
• Epsom Downs Station: Approximately 1 mile walk to the racecourse. 

Course: The course is 5 miles over 2 laps. The terrain is mainly grass and gravel but can also have soft sand and stones, it is suitable for spikes but long spikes are not advised.  The course is generally quite fast but has large sections of steady incline and a few sharp turns.  Please watch out for other downs users, especially on the intersections where cyclists and horse riders frequently use these paths. Please also watch out for tree roots and any other hazards.

Facilities

• There is public parking at Tattenham Corner but we recommend sharing as this is a popular car park for visitors to the downs.
• Public toilets are located to the west of the Tea Hut, there are no changing facilities.
• The only public facility on the Downs for refreshments is the Tea Hut at Tattenham Corner (opposite the car park).
• First Aid will be provided locally by 26.2 RRC and available onsite.

Neil Frediani

Club parkrun results for Saturday 5th November

A rare first (it is believed) as we were the best represented club at a parkrun with no fewer than ten runners at Homewood Park in Chertsey this week.  Runnymede Runners and Woking AC are the other clubs there with significant numbers in over the first four weeks.  Barry Walters (20:50)was our fastest and indeed he has captured the MV60-64 age category record for the time being.  It is a pleasant undulating 3-lap clockwise parkland course through the grounds of a country mansion and probably best for us runners if it doesn't get too popular as the paths are quite narrow and the (free) car park not enormous.  If you haven't been yet, give it a try over the winter.  Good clean toilets for all genders now open.  The White Lodge, our pet charity for over a quarter of a century, is close by.
 
Elsewhere Steve Dodsworth (22:20) achieved a parkrun pb at Sunderland while Daniela Mayerova (29:34) ran a course pb at Tilgate and Tony Barnwell (32:52) had his best run at Black Park all year.
 
There was a failed attempt on Alan Anderson's MV80-84 age category record (31:56) at Black Park by serial volunteer Fred Ashford (32:23) (see below).  This week, Alan ran a 31:29 at Gunnersbury where the all hard surface "winter" course was re-introduced.  Perhaps Joe Nolan will be more involved with the next attempt at Black Park! {Ed: Remember, it isn't a race, but it can be a time trial, and if you can use someone else's performance to pull you to a better time then great}.
 
Benita and John Scaife (both 32:06) were back at their home run at Maidenhead after three weeks and three parkruns in New South Wales.  Alice Banks (26:58) also put in a rare appearance.
 
On the ground-breaking tourism front Janet Smith (32:23) put in our first appearance at Portsmouth Lakeside which is fairly flat and Sarah Gordon (38:53) at Kettering which also features a lake but has hills too, not to mention crossing a railway line.  I'm getting flashbacks of the World Corporate Games at Thorpe Park!  As a club we have now passed the 300 mark but there are plenty more out there if you look hard enough and one or two new parkruns start up nearly every week.
 
Roderick Hoffman (27:20) was part of a record turnout of 194 at Gunpowder Park.  Roderick's record of running his first 50 parkruns over different courses is now part of parkrun folklore.  He must therefore have a special affection for Gunpowder Park, just over the River Lee from Enfield, outside London but inside the M25.  He has now run there seven times but never on 5th November before {see below}. 

Updated parkrun stats: www.barunner.org.uk/results/ba_parkrun_park_totals.xls

Steve Newell

The International parkrun Tourism Table

The table below is derived from the parkrun Most Events table: http://www.parkrun.com/results/mostevents .  Runners appear on this table once they have had results at 30 different parkrun events worldwide.  There are currently nine club members on the table, included below.  There is also a UK "Most Events" table which only counts runners who have done twenty or more UK parkruns - other club members such as Neil Frediani (25 UK Events) and David Duggan (23 UK Events) appear on that list: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/results/mostevents/.

By running at Gunpowder on Saturday, a repeat run, on the International Table I slipped down one place from 20th to 21st. So it is very competitive towards the top - I had previously done eight consecutive "new" events in nine weeks but repeating for one week and down I go. I was at Gunpowder to celebrate Morgan Daniels making it to 100 events in 100 parkruns, the second person to do so after Gregory Bailey who was also at Gunpowder. I had also joined Gregory when he beat my 52 in 52 record (at Lyme Park) and when he did his 100 in 100 (Fulham Palace - a repeat for me). Also joining us at Gunpowder were Antonio Gomes da Costa and Nigel Harding both of whom are also members of the XinX club.  The members of what I'm calling the XinX club call themselves the Hoffmanites after the first person to do 50 in 50! 

Roderick Hoffman

Milocarians Cross Country Saturday 29th October

Saturday 29th October saw the running of the Milocarians cross country at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. This six mile event challenges more than 100 army cadets against around 80 club runners. The pre-race briefing by a Staff Sergeant was entertaining. He pointed out that this group of soldiers in the peak of physical condition (laughter from the troops) were about to compete against a group of professional athletes (lots of puzzled looks from BAAC, Runneymede etc). The course would involve no hills, only inclines. There would be some points where a short cut could be taken, but the honesty of all is expected (Yes Staff!). Is everything understood? (Yes Staff!), Have you tied your shoelaces? (Yes Staff!), Any questions? (No Staff!).

The course was mostly dry, sandy and stony, but there were inclines (*** steep ones). The ups were tough, the downs scary (I was scared anyway). With a temperature in the high teens, we were soon sweating. Our lead BA runners (Mark, Barry, Gary, Simon and Graham) were competing well in the middle of the pack, and our scoring team of six took 7th place among the nine “professional” teams. The Turner family enjoyed some marathon preparation, tucked in very close behind the team. Meanwhile, a little way behind, Denis, new runners Abigail, Andrea and I had a chance meeting with a herd of very docile cows. They had been left to roam through the tail-enders. We did get back in time to enjoy some of the magnificent spread of food laid on by the Milocarians.

Left to right: standing - Barry, Steve, Simon, Andrea, Graham, Mark, Kimberley;  Front - Gary, Mark, Abigail

Thanks for the vocal support given by coordinator Neil Frediani and Lorraine Rushmer, and the generous hosting of the Milocarians .

Steve Hillier

Neil adds "I attended the XC but didn’t run as my left ankle was playing up, I had the dog, had to leave early (no time for cakes L) and wanted to save myself for..."

River Thames Half Marathon - 30th October 2016

There were 5 runners from BA AC at the River Thames Half Marathon which was held in Walton on Thames on the 30th October. It was a cool and highly humid morning but not raining. I am familiar with the route but hadn’t run this particular race before and was slightly worried having heard that it was really crowded in 2015 with 1200 or so runners and there were over 2500 registered this time! I don’t know if the 2 starts were an innovation this year, there was one for sub 2 hour runners and one for over 2 hours.  Most of us from BA  were on the sub 2 hour start and there were no crowding issues as far as I could see from that one. This route ran along the roads for most of the first few miles before following the towpath back to the start/finish area at Walton Bridge and on for what seemed like ever, down to Weybridge, during which time the leading runners passed over the top of us on 2 road bridges to Desborough Island. The road joining these bridges made up the last mile or two of the race against the flow of 1 way traffic.

• Natalie Ruffell (running for Clapham Chasers RC) 1:29:31 (chip time 1:29:27) - 6th lady.
• Deborah Helsdon led the BA team home in 1:41:27 (chip time 1:40:20) , 313th out of 1758 (so greater than 25% were no shows or failed to finish)
• Ian Cunningham in 1:42:04 (1:40:57)
• Neil Frediani in  1:52:27 (1:51:18)  30 year pb
• Monica Alonso in 2:04:30 (2:03:22)
• Trish McCabe in 2:05:46 (2:02:09) pb

Well done again to Trish who seems to set a pb on most runs at the moment.

Neil Frediani 

Observation and recognition test

This is a photo from last week's parkrun newsletter showing a ghoulish crowd on November 5th.  Can you recognise two club members in the shot?

Next Digest?

Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at news@barunner.org.uk.

Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.