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BA Athletics Club News Digest 12th September 2022

Events marked "#" are points scoring for the club's participation trophy - for the 2022 title.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

For future weeks: inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk.

This Week's Events

Please help me by sending in your results, for instance by filling in the tables below and forwarding to News@barunner.org.uk. Some events will have "Prompts" set up in Facebook. These allow the posting of a single image and some text and make it easy to flip through everyone's entries.

Monthly Mile (submit by 8pm Sunday 18th September):

Run one mile and send me your time or add the details to the Facebook prompt. The mile can be somebody else's formal event or even one mile within a longer run. I'll then produce a fancy graph showing your time this month compared to those of other people and previous runs over the last year.

Weekly Athletic Achievement (by 5pm Monday) or use the Facebook group prompt:

London Marathon Helpers for 2nd October?

This is a last call for helpers for the London Marathon on the 2nd Oct. I’ve currently got 120+, which is a great response, but can always squeeze in a couple more, although I’ll need to submit names midweek so don’t hang around if interested. 

> Simon Turton

Runners?

We have a number of people running in the Marathon on the 2nd. I've just received an update from Andy Leung on how well his training is going which I'll publish in next week's digest. Please let me know how your training is going and I'll include that as well.

>Roderick Hoffman

Monthly Mile Results Wanted

Every month I collate club members best mile results from the previous four weeks. We used to have an actual monthly mile at Waterside in the first week of the month and for that reason the recording "month" ends in the middle of the calendar month. You can either time one of your own training runs or submit a time recorded by someone else perhaps at a mile event. Use a GPS device to measure the mile (1.609 meters) or a measured distance - most tracks have a mile start line 9 meters before the finish line. One event some have used over the summer is the Arethusa Mile in Bushy Park. The last Arethusa Mile of this year will take place this Wednesday with a start time of 19:15 from near the fountain near the parkrun start (the fountain is by non-coincidence a statue of Arethusa, a nymph and daughter of the Greek sea-god Nereus). Please note that the park is completely closed to vehicles in the evening so if driving you have to park near the outskirts of the park and make your way in in time to register for the start. Registration is achieved simply by giving your name to the starter, Rodney McCulloch. There is no cost. This photo is from last week's penultimate run of the year (#199 in total). Look closely and you'll spot Mike Dennison in his luminous green Perivale 5 shirt (5:39 on the night). I'm at the back but I've got both of my hands up so that you can see where I am (8:33, identical to my time from two week's earlier). The guy on the left with one hand up is Tom Palmer, a former BA work colleague of mine, who I failed to ever get to join the club (6:21). Some will also recognise Danny Norman on the far right, the original organiser of this event.

Submit your mile results before next Monday.

Roderick Hoffman

Equinox 5k Bedfont Lakes Wednesday 21st September Reminder

The annual Equinox 5km will be held at Bedfont Lakes on Wednesday 21st September. The course will be two anticlockwise laps starting and finishing by the Motte. We will be using the Bedfont Road car park (no toilets). Some may choose to do a warm-up/down run from the Bedfont Club house.

The changing rooms and toilets at the Bedfont FC in Hatton Road will be available before and after the run.

We will start in small groups from 6pm onwards.  Runners should select a start time which will allow them to finish by 6.45 pm.  Sunset can be expected at 7pm. Whilst we still haven't had confirmation of the exact park closing time we are confident that it won't be earlier than 7pm.

We will provide food at the Bedfont Club afterwards but please tell us to expect you - for the run and/or the food afterwards. It will be good to see you.

> Steve Newell

Recent Activity Achievements

I picked up on 26 club members and friends reporting recent activity achievements this week (more than any week since May last year).

Roderick Hoffman

This time it is parkrun for my achievement of the week - we visited Somerdale Pavilion this week, as a second choice, after Chippenham was cancelled, to celebrate my daughter Zoe's 500th parkrun. It's a unique course, with a 'curly-wurly' spiral, which you run 3 times, and you see the other runners lots of times on the 2 and bit lap course. Zoe had been and run there before, but it was new for the rest of us - the four of us in the picture (me, my wife Sue and daughters Sarah and Zoe) have now run 1488 parkruns between us (and have a total of 527 volunteer days, too). Zoe is probably the youngest woman to get to 500 runs, probably the first under age 30, she is 25, and started just before she was 14, in 2011.

I finished 7th, and was surprised to find it was a time of 19:42, rather faster than I'd expected, and also a course record for my age group, VM60-64.

Mike Dennison

Great City Race Thanks

It's getting late and this digest should be published by now - but a quick thank you to all involved in marshalling last Tuesday's Great City Race, including Simon Turton who thanked us all - "Thank you for your support last night at the Standard Chartered Great City Race. As you know, the event was re-scheduled from July due high temperatures and we had the threat of the opposite last night with thundery showers predicted but these thankfully held off. A shorter 4km course due road works and a later start made for some interesting challenges but as ever you rose to these, used your initiative and got on with the job in hand. Talking with Corinna and Jodie (LME Volunteer Workforce Team) they were very complimentary of the volunteers (more so than the paid stewards!), so give yourselves a pat on the back. Yes there were challenges and I will reflect your comments and feedback to the LME team but I think ultimately the several thousand competitors, whether they were running, jogging or walking got to enjoy a relatively traffic free route around the streets of the City of London; well done."

Our team didn't have such a traffic free experience since we had to intercept about 100 speeding cyclists - and in the darkening evening without safety tabards. Feedback has already been sent!

Photo from Melanie Miller.

parkrun Results for Saturday 10th September 2022

30 activities are recorded this week. Please get in touch if your activity is missing.

parkrun Review Saturday 10th September 2022

Scores of parkruns were cancelled in recognition of the state period of mourning for HM Queen Elizabeth II and there will be further cancellations next weekend as well, but many parkruns were held with the minimum of fuss and preceded by a minute’s silence.  Long Live the King. [see below]

In parkrun terms completing the Fibonacci sequence means completing the 5km course at just 14 events with event numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610 and in due course 987. A number in the sequence is always the sum of the previous two.  Melanie Miller (58:42, tailwalker at  seaside Seaton parkrun in Devon which starts and finishes on a pebble beach) has been hard at it this last year or so and her now collection looks like this –

• Great Salterns #1, 22Jan22;      
• Southall #2, 15Jan22;      
• Bartley Park #3, 1Jan22;      
• Dallas Burston Polo Club #5, 13Nov21;      
• Bury Field #8, 8Jan22;      
• Broadwater #13, 11Dec21;      
• Church Mead #21, 27Aug22;    
• Kagerzoom #34, 23Apr22;      
• Chasewater #55, 5Mar22;      
• Hazelwood #89, 7Dec19;      
• Seaton #233, 10Sep22;      
• Alice Holt #377, 13Oct21.

Melanie still needs a #144 and a #610.  (Hint – Clapham Common will be up to #144 next week and Bedfont Lakes to #610 the week after. [Ed: "the life of a tourist" - Melanie had been planning a second attempt to run 'Z' for Zuiderpark in The Netherlands next Saturday but their run has been cancelled so she is replanning]).  [see below for other club member's progress].

Dave Dixon (18:37, 84.69%) shaved 7 seconds off his time at Hackney Marshes last week – the first time in over four years that he has run a parkrun on consecutive Saturdays – maybe he should do it more often!

Two new parkruns were added to the club collection this week.  Benita and John Scaife were ‘Down Under’ and ran at Cronulla in New South Wales – a challenging sand dune run near Botany Bay.  Paul Watt (21:41) achieved Cowell Club membership (100 different parkrun venues) at Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire.  Most analysts and even government departments include Herefordshire in the West Midlands region.  The splendid strideandtested.com (5000m dashboard) website certainly does and shows Sarah Gordon as having run more than half (25 of 42) of the parkruns in the region.  parkrun HQ has it under the administration of its SW England ambassadors – if regions are important to you be aware of the anomaly.

There is a “club featured parkrun” this coming Saturday at Black Park.  Please wear a club vest if attending.  Car parking is £2.70 for two hours as long as you pay in advance before 9 a.m.  After that it is more expensive. Aim for "SL3 6DS" and then follow signage.

Steve Newell

Matters Arising:

1 Cancellations for the Queen

There were around 81 cancellations last Saturday due to the passing of the Queen. parkrun HQ hadn't requested the cancellation of parkrun events. Some other organisations did make such a request including Hounslow Council (closing Bedfont Lakes, Crane Park and Hanwell but not Gunnersbury) and the National Trust (closing Osterley and many others countrywide). Of 770 parkruns currently listed for the UK 669 of them were held last Saturday hence a total 101 were cancelled. 55 of those cancellations referenced the Queen in their cancellation reason. Such reasons were mainly "As a mark of respect for..." but others referenced landowner requests and a small number that a part of their course was being used as a location for tributes to the Queen. There were a further 26 parkruns closed due to landowner requests, presumably all down to the Queen. Some other parkruns were already closed due to other events happening in their parks but, obviously, might have been cancelled due to the Queen's death had those other events not been planned.

2: Club Fibonacci Series Achievements

Of the first 14 Fibonacci series numbers (up to 610 but ignoring the initial "1", the series being "1,1,2,3,5 and so on"):

Chris Kelly and Julie Barclay has the first 13 so just need the 14th (an event number 610).

John Coffey has the 610 but just needs the 377.

Melanie Miller has 12 and needs 144 and 610.

 The following four colleagues have 11, numbers needed shown in brackets: Roderick Hoffman (144, 377, 610), Steve Newell (233, 377, 610), David Duggan (55, 377, 610) and Paul Watt (21, 144, 610)

Alice Banks (21, 233, 377, 610) and Trish McCabe (55, 89, 377, 610) are on 10.

I've put a tab in the Club parkrun database summarising everyone else.

Lists are maintained as to when parkruns are due to be at specific event numbers, but these go out of date whenever there are cancellations.

3: Ferry Meadows

Janet Smith is our only member to run the Ferry Meadows parkrun. My sister, Sarah Gordon, points out that she has run there but it was back in 2014, probably before it was renamed from Peterborough parkrun and before she joined the BA club. Also, inspired by Janet Smith having run there, I routed my return from Leicester yesterday to fit in a freedom run of the course - and very nice it is to, all on tarmac, almost flat throughout and gently winding with views. A single lap but one of those courses with a contraflow section so that you can see some of those well ahead or well behind you on the course (though not on a freedom run, though you do get to see the train instead!)

Full club parkrun database - {read access to club parkrun database} - Download and explore.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

> Roderick Hoffman

parkrun Challenge

Owing to the fact that we now have far more spare time than we did pre-retirement, parkrun has taken a very tight grip of our time. Wilson Index may well have a bearing on where we run and of course, Londone and each English county will eventually be crossed off the list. Even holidays are planned around these runs but I confess that WARR this year has beaten us as 15Oct will be a blank Saturday this year!

People parkrun-tour for many reasons from Alphabeteering, Wilson Index, date bingo to simply enjoying the delights of new parts of the country or even the world but are there enough targets to strive for? Since becoming a paying ‘supporter’ of the 5K app, it has become very apparent that people want more targets and because of this, we would like to propose one to you here.

This is not based on your number of parkruns but it is a point system that factors in the alphabet and different places run.

The scoring system is as follows,

• 5 points - for running the first parkrun of any letter
• 1 point - each additional parkrun of that same letter
• (Zero points for repeating a parkrun)
• 10 bonus points - running five parkruns of the same letter
• 25 bonus points - running ten parkruns of the same letter
• 30 bonus points - for completing the alphabet (for the 25 letters available)
• 10 points - for each UK county
• 30 bonus points - running all events in a county (Rutland and Medina are valuable)
• 25 points - for each country (UK counts as one country)

Based on this system I total 774 points whereas Julie has streaked ahead with 843.

This week we will be at Ross-on-Wye and will earn us 11 points each….1 for another R and 10 for a new county. Another example of the scoring is if I were to run at Medina I would accrue, M =1, fifth M = 10bonus, new county =10, all in the county =30 totalling 51 points….worth visiting.

This is obviously not a kudos exercise or an opportunity to brag but it could be interesting if touring is what you like. If this seems feasible then I may propose this for inclusion into the 5K app.

I am sure that some of you may be able to overtake Julie but whether you can or can’t, why not have a look and send your points tally in to the digest.

Any feedback is also welcome and other considerations could be made such as including volunteer points or for running all events of a given letter which globally is impossible but in the UK, York would feature regularly.

It is only a bit of fun and in time may give you different goals to target.

> Paul and Julie

Cronulla parkrun, Sydney

Picture on the left - "We’re smiling now but we weren’t at the finish of this parkrun. Sand dunes are hard work. No wonder only 37 people turned out, and that was on a perfect morning for running. Friendly bunch though." John Scaife

Picture on the right - I ran this parkrun as a Freedom run on a stormy day and I think that I had it tougher - note the lengths of standing water! Roderick

To the Editor

On Facebook Simon Turton included the link to the report on Laura Muir and Jake Wightman winning the 5th Avenue Mile in New York on Sunday.
Laura Muir and Jake Wightman win 5th Avenue Mile in New York - AW (athleticsweekly.com)

Laura won in the fastest time ever at this event (4:14.8). This was Jake's third win at the event. They are both reported to now be going on well earned holidays.

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.