baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 11th May 2020

Events - see below:

Inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk.

Solo Events Calendar

All side-by-side races are off until at least the end of June, but the club continues to operate with the Solo runs listed above - these ARE still permitted but see the Coronavirus footnote at the end of this digest.

* Please suggest formats for runs with the "tba" in the above table.

Roderick Hoffman

Legislation Update

There is no update. The law in England was reviewed last week but remains exactly the same as it was, although the government has issued a new guidance document on how the law could be interpreted. This confirms that in England we can exercise more than once and can drive to a place for exercise (provided that place isn't in Wales or Scotland).

Roderick Hoffman

Midweek Challenges

This week Steve Hillier is organising a Scrabble Scramble challenge:

Next week the midweek challenge will be a repeat of the Track-on-Field exercise. This is to conduct a single exercise occurrence to include each of 1500m, 800m, 400m, 200m and 100m and record each of the times. More details next Monday.

And the following week we'll celebrate what would have been the Vitality 10k week with a Virtility 5k race, that Steve Taylor will be organising. Expect details for this next week.

I've started to pencil in events for June also, but let's not worry about them yet.

Roderick Hoffman

Green Belt Relay (virtual) 16th / 17th May #

This weekend we are running the Virtual Green Belt Relay. We've got two teams with members running all of the GBR stages with the correct start times and distances. Runners will be conforming with the spirit as well as the letter of the current legislation hence will be running locally.

We have runners for a total of 38 stages but we still need runners to volunteer for the following stages:

We can accept anyone, including friends-of-friends and treadmill runners and walkers. The prime objective is to complete the distance, the secondary objective is to beat the cut-off time but being slower is no problem. This is a club points scoring event.

Roderick Hoffman (email me or use Facebook)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/636199849751546/permalink/3019997478038426/

Midweek SOLO Mile Results

24 of us posted mile results last week and that included 11 of us with improved times and only three with worse times. Fastest run was Mike Dennison with 5:45 and for the ladies Julie Barclay with a new event record of 6:51. Mike was just two seconds behind the time set by Paul Davis last month. Best improvement was by Barry Walters returning from injury.

We can anticipate having another solo mile event next month, scheduled for the week of June 1st. 

Roderick Hoffman

SOLO activity achievement weekend 8th to 11th May 2020

Interesting weekend for running. Some ran on Saturday when it was both hotter and parks and paths were more crowded. Others chose Sunday afternoon when it was cold and blustery but at least the parks and paths were emptier. From Wednesday we should expect to have more people sitting around in parks or passing footballs between them so we may have to adapt our courses.

Same again next weekend, unless you are doing one or two stages in the Virtual Green Belt Relay which I'll include as your achievement.  Submit your best exercise achievement of the weekend by filling in the following form and sending it to me OR replying to the message on Facebook (or any other messaging format to me).

Roderick Hoffman {submit by 5pm on Monday}

parkrun Update

parkruns may have been suspended but anniversary dates come and go regardless.  We shouldn't forget that the Earth is still relentlessly orbiting the sun even if our aircraft are grounded and our usual 5km circuits are just not happening at the moment.  This week we should have been celebrating at Bedfont Lakes (11 years), Curl Curl in Sydney (7 years) and Gorky Park (Moscow) (6 years).  With flour in short supply there might have a cake shortage.  The latest word from parkrun global is that any resumption is out of the question while governments recommend social distancing so it could be quite a while yet.

Steve Newell

Coronavirus Warning Footnote [one change - third bullet point]

In the UK exercise outside is still permitted because it will boost physical and mental health. The relevant law in England states, "No person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse...a reasonable excuse includes the need...to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household". The word "need" is not defined, and you could be challenged on your interpretation. In line with government guidance; whose purpose is your health, the health of those around you and reducing demand on NHS and other services; we advise you as follows:

• Do not conduct a solo run if you are unwell, particularly if you have symptoms of the coronavirus such as a fever, or if you share a house with someone who has these symptoms,
• Do not conduct a solo run if you consider yourself to be, or others consider you to be, vulnerable, such as being elderly OR with pre-existing health conditions,
• Do not travel unnecessarily far to a location for a run, use a local or nearby park or leisure route. Your judgment is needed on this point, for instance it could be that your nearest park is busy with other people, but you live a short drive away from empty open countryside, From Wednesday 13 May, you may drive to outdoor publicly accessible open spaces irrespective of distance, but should follow social distancing guidance whilst you are there,
• Do not meet up with others to conduct a solo run,
• As you run keep 2m away from all others - by default diverting around them (don't leave it up to them to avoid you),
• Do not push yourself too far, this may weaken your defences against the virus and/or increase the probability of requiring assistance. We all have different limits so you need to judge what would be too far for you. For club solo events we will not include running distances of more than 15mile length (25km),
• If government instructions are updated to limit or prevent exercising outside your homes please respect such instructions - we should be fighting the virus, not authority.

If you are unwell yourself, potentially with the virus:

• Put your needs first...
• but please let me (Roderick Hoffman) or Steve Hillier know of your condition/status, BUT we will keep it to ourselves UNLESS you ask us to pass information on.

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.

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