baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 9th March 2020Events:
Our next Bedfont Club meeting will be on Wednesday 25th (Handicap). All members are welcome. New members and potential members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at most of our events. The full diary of club featured events is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml. Last updated: 8th January. * Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] (parkrun details updated 12th February 2020) / # Club Points event. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BARunnerUK/ (formal "front window" club page), BA Runner Facebook Group (informal "back office", ask to join). Inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk. BAAC 2019 Awards as presented on 4th March 2020
Photos Paul Brandon, with a background from Roderick Hoffman (I'm sure that we can agree an improvement from the Bedfont Club firedoors). The original photographs are available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/636199849751546/permalink/2900974013274107/ ). The awards presented on the evening, from left to right, were: The chairman's award this year is to Joe Nolan. Joe lives a busy life and has had health challenges over the last year but still finds time to attend club events and take on coaching responsibilities, and always with a smile (or well disguised grimace). Across 2019 there were 51 club points scoring events and 1089 points were shared by 275 individuals (including non-members). 24 members achieved ten points or more and particular credit has to go to Steve Hillier who scored a total of 44 points in 35 of the club's 51 events. However Roderick Hoffman finished at the top of the club points table with 48 points from 26 events to win the Round-the-Block Trophy. In Men's Track and Field Steve Hillier accumulated points in a range of events, with his best results achieved in the throwing cage. John Williams, the club's president, presented most of the awards. In the Ladies Track and Field Julie Barclay tackled every distance on the track from 100m to 3000m. She always finished first or second in her own age group, and she was always prepared to compete in the younger age groups, if necessary, to collect good points for the team. The parkrun award also goes to Julie Barclay for her dedication to parkrun, and for flying the BA flag around the world. She is approaching run number 200, and consistently achieving an 80% performance at hilly, tight and congested courses alike. She’s a tourist as well, with a recent ladies first finish at a course new to BA, in Poland. Across the 2018/19 Men's Cross-Country season Mark Taylor represented BA in the most Surrey League events, was never out of the top six BA runners, and led the team home at both Sandhurst and the BA Championships. Most improved this year is Mike Ball. He has come late to competitive running, but has been determined to improve each week. He mixes road running, gym work and track intervals with a busy family schedule, and this winter he has been out on the muddy hills representing the club in league cross-country events. His first love is sprinting, and he has steadily lowered his times while tackling races from 100m up to 800m. This has proved an important factor in our track team’s performances in 2019. Female Athlete of the year is Christine Munden who has involved herself in all aspects of the club. She has been a regular contributor to our cross-country success, and is a regular Track & Field competitor, prepared to fill in if a three-kilometre walker or a shot putter is needed. She is a regular at our Wednesday events, exploring the streets of Bedfont and providing ideas for future events. Another string to her bow is Orienteering, joining our Street-O squad to explore West London’s byways. Male Athlete of the Year is Ian Cunningham who has been trudging around the Surrey hills picking up points for our Cross-Country team. As a current employee of BA, he’s been busy at Waterside, cajoling fellow staff members for lunchtime runs. He has now taken on the project of transferring the monthly Bath Road Dream Mile event to the Parkland in Waterside. Individual highlights include four marathons, all sub-four hours, with the best in Berlin clocked at 3:37. He conquered the 54 mile Comrades Marathon in under ten hours. This year's Veterans award goes to Mike Dennison who has passed his 60th birthday, but is giving the thirty-somethings a run for their money. He has had great success in parkrun, with 5K times consistently dipping under twenty minutes, and an age ranking of over 80%. His times have improved significantly in the past decade, giving us all hope. Not satisfied with the short stuff, our winner finished in the top ten in the Vitality 10K, completed half-marathons in 1:33, and the Seville marathon in 3:34. He also performs for the club in the Surrey League Cross-Countries and helps us with marshalling at the big events. Other awards were also presented in the evening and these will be covered next week. Some award recipients were unable to attend last week and their award details will be held over until there has been an opportunity to present their awards to them. Details of the awards given out can be found on the website page: http://www.barunner.org.uk/News_Trophies.shtml Words Steve Hillier / Roderick Hoffman Parkland Mile - Thursday 5th March on Harmondsworth Moor
Big Half - Marshalling # and Running...I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who came out to help today in Greenwich. It was cold, windy, and we had a couple of angry customers to deal with, but the operation went brilliantly. A special thank you to Eddie Ketterick for keeping us so well organised. I hope you all got home safely. As ever, if you have any comments or feedback, do send them to me. Steve Hillier As well as Eddie and Steve the following scored valuable club points, and had a great time, by marshalling for us at the Big Half: David Duggan, Gary Rushmer, Graham Taylor, Alice Banks, John Banks, Mike Thorn, Zara Thorn, Peter Dollman, Melanie Miller, Harjit Jhooti, Tejinder Singh Modaher, Sukhdev Singh Modaher, John Wright, Tracey Mills. And we also had some runners:
Held Over...Bumper issue this week, so I've had to hold over news on this year's Track&Field events and a WARR (World Airline Road Race) update until next week. Space permitting! Roderick Hoffman parkrun Review Saturday 7th March 2020
International Women's Day had a great deal of publicity ahead of Saturday's runs. How did our ladies get on? Focus first on Jain Reid who managed to break into Downview, a ladies' prison near Sutton, and take part in their parkrun. She wasn't the only visitor and between them and the locals they smashed the attendance record. Jain achieved her quickest ever parkrun time (by 36 seconds) and her highest ever place and set the course VW50-54 record. Her age-grade would also have been the best ever at the event if it wasn't for that of Jacqueline Millett who finished just behind her but 15 years older. Jain also wasn't the most experienced parkrunner at the event - Darren Wood came in behind her to complete his 765th parkrun.
IWD wasn't just for women to run - it was also for women to take charge and Caroline Cockram was one of several of our ladies enabling others to run - being Run Director at Bedfont Lakes. Hearing that Julie and Paul would be running at my local parkrun Northala Fields I decided to join them and my club shirt attracted Kathryn Marshall to join us for the photograph. We may see her again - though as she is yet to repeat a parkrun its anyone's guess as to where. Julie and Paul ran well - see below. Julie achieved the day's best age-grade by any club member. Amongst the men Mike Dennison was perhaps inspired by picking up our Veteran's award on Wednesday to run just a whisker behind his all-time age-grade at Bushy. Steve Newell's computer is having an overhaul this week but he was able to submit a late result from last week, 29th Feb. At Gunnersbury former member Jane DAVIES finished in 86th in a time of 23:40 but, as a VM70-74, this set the all-time age-grade record to 95.63%. Top grade by a current club member at Gunnersbury is Brian Bennett's 81.2% set in December 2011. Steve Newell / Roderick Hoffman Steve's parkrun stats - club parkrun stats [not updated this week] Full club parkrun database - {read access to new club parkrun database} - Download and explore. Trust your training - SurreyHalf/Woking 5k
Hillingdon 20 Result
I’m planning to run two more 20 milers in the run up to London. Results:
http://results.eventchiptiming.com/results.aspx?CId=16202&RId=8201
Photos by Joe Nolan. Harry Wild was spotted on marshalling duty. NEW! HOTLINE ACCESS FOR BA CLUBS MEMBERSThose of you who are BA Clubs members may be interested in the following. And those who are not BA Clubs members also, because you can join BA Clubs! I've just checked a random route - Heathrow to Washington and the BA Hotline fare is £547 (return, in normal economy, with a bag in the hold). The equivalent fare from the main BA website would cost over £1,000 (though other websites may offer this for less). If you've never travelled much - there could be some great opportunities to do so over the next few months!
Running Shorts
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. Difficulty viewing this? Read it from the website:- http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml. Club website: www.barunner.org.uk.
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Three
of us did venture out last Thursday for the second Parkland Mile whereas many
others found convenient excuses to be absent. Conditions were atrocious both
above and below our feet - as shown in the photograph from another part of the
moorland. Times were correspondingly slower than at the inaugural event in
February.
Downview
was obviously a new parkrun for the club and Alice Banks added another new
parkrun with Seaton in East Devon. Club members have now run at 572 different
parkruns.
I
ran the Hillingdon 20 (originally called the Finchley 20 but now more suitable
named to reflect its location) on Sunday, it was very much a training run so
there was no finish time in mind, which was just as well as a trip to the
portaloo on lap two was needed. I ran with a couple of friends who I have been
marathon training with for the first few miles as we ended up running at
different paces as the run went on. It was a mild morning and mostly dry with a
bit of a downpour for the last two miles, which was not enough to dampen the
enjoyment. The organisation was good with a different start location and route
from the last time I ran it. Having the club house to stay warm in before the
event is always welcome. It was good to see Harry at the club house and Joe
Nolan popped up around the course to give the runners some support, Jas was
running too so two BA vests in the field.