baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 12th November 2018Events:
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. Last updated: First week of October. * Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] (parkrun details updated 2nd week of October) / # Club Points event. 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. 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. On my travels again / Wednesdays this monthI'm travelling again for the next three Mondays so can't guarantee to get digests out on time or with memory-hungry pictures. But you can help by sending me prepared copy by the end of Sunday each week. We are not meeting at the Bedfont Club this Wednesday because of the earlier NOW run. We then have the Handicap event on 21st November and Steve Newell has the keys for the changing rooms. There will probably be a free run from the Bedfont Club on 28th November - to be confirmed nearer the time. Men's Surrey League Cross Country Fixture 2 at Epsom Downs 10th Nov 2018 - ResultEpsom as ever kept us guessing with its capricious weather, whilst other events not too far away suffered very heavy rain we survived with little or no rain during the race. Afterwards the heavens made up for it. We had an excellent turnout as always at this fixture but even better this time with Jonny Ashdown, Maarten Stenham and Finbarr Cotter making their debuts for us. Our lead two runners did well despite Adam having suffered a bad cold for the preceding 10 days and despite Paul having had little or no sleep due to being on active duty at a cub/scout camp. Thank you both for turning out. We packed well in the middle of the race with Ross Davies leading the way on his second run for us followed by our other 7 scorers within 2minutes. Adam Moquet (the Rocket??) is in equal second position of Div 4 individuals.
Thank you to all those who turned out and took us up a place and within sight of the next team who we outscored by 100 points this time. Next race is at Oxshott, near Esher on the 9th January 2019. Note to the newer runners: If you haven’t already got a pair of trail shoes/spikes then add them to your Christmas list for Oxshott and for Lloyd Park. Results are below:
Leading Individuals (Overall):
Team scores after 2 matches:
Neil Frediani PS Observations from the Epsom Cross Country raceThanks to modern technology (STRAVA) I was able to see instantly that my time at Epsom was my 3rd best in 3 years. In fact it was 2mins slower than last year and 3mins slower than the year before. The ground accounted for some of that but I am blaming the rest of my deteriorating performance on the aftereffects of the Beachy Head marathon but it got me to wondering how others did compared to previous years? 8 or 9 of us have run 2 of those 3 years and have got worse with age (as expected) but one person stands out, Ian Cunningham ran all 3 and has improved at each one, by 26secs each time! I think I’ll have what he is having, now how long can I use that Beachy Head excuse?? Neil Ladies XC match 2 - Nonsuch Park 10/11/18
298 finishers. Of the teams that took part the BA team came last...but
only just, had Trish been able to finish just ten seconds faster we'd have
finished ahead of the Horsham B team! Gunnersbury NOW run Wednesday 14th November 12 noon.There is a (free) car park at Gunnersbury Park with a rather narrow access from Popes Lane. We will meet at the café between the round pond and the large mansion. Toilets and cycle parking are both close by. After a run and a snack there will be an opportunity to visit the museum in the large mansion which has recently reopened after a £multimillion refurbishment. Nominations for a NOW run in February (the week after half term!) are now being invited. Please email Steve Newell and/or Roderick. In December the NOW run will replaced by the Retired Runners Lunch at One over the Ait by Kew Bridge on Thursday 6th and in January we will support the annual Round-the-Block run (Cranford/Heston). This event has possibly been going even longer than the club itself. Steve Newell World Airline Road Race 2019 7th September Amsterdam - reserve the dateHopefully everyone in the club who works for, or used to work for, British Airways will put Saturday 7th September 2019 into their diaries and keep the previous few days clear as well. It would also be nice for as many of our non-airline members to plan on attending this event also - a 5k and a 10k - since there are also non-airline trophies to be won and considerable fun to be had. The event is being hosted by KLM and will coincide with that airline's 100 year anniversary. My guess is that most of us will get there by train rather than plane. More details as they get arranged. Roderick Hoffman Runs from the Bedfont ClubAs we grow into our new home we are bound to adopt some new running routes as we did at the old Concorde Club (or was it the Speedbird Club?). We already have a 5 mile route being used for our handicap run (next run 21st November). A simple triangle using Hatton Road, Staines Road and Faggs Road is a staple short jog of about 3.5 miles and can be run clockwise or anticlockwise with no major road junctions to worry about. A flat mile course will be finalised and measured before our Christmas run on 19th December. A 10km course will evolve over the winter. Bedfont Lakes and possibly even the Feltham running track are well placed to be exploited once the light evenings return. The Stanwell Half Marathon course might even come into play if anyone can remember quite where that went! But finding a hill for a hill-work training session is going to be a challenge. Steve Newell Club parkrun results for Saturday 10th November 2018
This week was the second round of the Surrey League cross-country fixtures and the impact was slightly unexpected. There was a huge attendance of 766 at Nonsuch parkrun at 9 a.m. {just 12 short of the record, but on the day the third biggest in the country} before the cross-country fixture got underway at 11 a.m. Trish McCabe (31:57) was our only representative in both runs. On the whole our largest men's team for a while chose the afternoon cross-country fixture at Epsom with only Maarten Stenham (24:44) having a warm-up at Hazelwood in the morning. Maria Jovani (21:20) returned to Osterley to run the new 2-lap parkrun course under time trial conditions and lowered the female club record. The attendance was back down to a probably more typical 236. The replacement for Heartwood Forest which was terminated a few weeks ago to allow the trees to grow in peace achieved a low-key inaugural at Jersey Farm to the north and east of St Albans. As with Heartwood, a lack of convenient car parking is likely to keep this run on the small side (which is what the local villagers are hoping for!) Roderick Hoffman (29:25) and Sarah Gordon (33:22) visited the Severn Bridge (mk 1) parkrun for the first and probably only time. Roderick has now completed 250 different parkruns, Sarah 102. Roderick remains in the top 20 most prolific parkrun tourists but competition is fierce and it will require a concerted effort to maintain his status. {Roderick adds - this is demonstrated by the news that I was one of three parkrunners to make it to 250 different events that day - we are each in joint 17th place in the table. Becky Thurtell is in joint 20th place just two events behind}. Steve Newell (37:12) visited a muddy Greenwich parkrun (Avery Hill Park). He has now been to all 53 parkruns in London using only his bike and public transport. The same applies to eight of the nine others inside the M25 with Hazelwood being the exception. That one will have to wait until next summer. There is always another agenda. A reminder that the next cfp will be at Fulham Palace on 1st December (the hapless football team is away to Chelsea that day - Ed Away? I think that the grounds are all of 2.25km apart). Travel advice will be provided during the week before. The first cfp in 2019 will see us return to Black Park on pacing day at the beginning of February. Joe Nolan will allocate a pacer to every BA runner and also advise on how not to get too badly held up if the start seems overcrowded.
Updated parkrun stats - club parkrun stats Severn Bridge parkrunI highly recommend the Severn Bridge parkrun for anyone with half an excuse to be in that part of the world, just over on the Welsh side of the Severn River. But perhaps not in a gale. It is an unusual parkrun - for instance whereas parkruns like Northala Fields apologies because they have 100m of the course alongside a B road the Severn Bridge parkrun is special in part because it is 95% alongside a motorway! The course is dead-straight - apart from one u-turn, one right angle turn and one 10degree bend. It also has a net downhill of 15m. And finishes in a tunnel! Steve is probably correct in that I won't get the opportunity to run it again...but I just might. From Saturday 17th December it will be £5.60 cheaper to run the Severn Bridge parkrun for those from England - the bridge toll is being abolished. On Saturday, as well as achieving my 250th different parkrun, I also recorded my 25th volunteer occasion. My write-up for the Severn Bridge parkrun will be able to be found later on this week at: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/severnbridge/news/ Roderick Hoffman Running shorts...
Want to see someone else's performances here? Send them in... Next Digest - - - Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send them to the editor, Roderick Hoffman, at news@barunner.org.uk. Club website: www.barunner.org.uk.
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The stars and planets aligned in such a way that ALL of our BA serving staff
were either away on well earned holidays OR were on operating trips in equally
far flung locations around the world. It fell upon Trish to be the BA team
on Saturday - this is her report:
Steve Newell