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BA Athletics Club News Digest 12th November 2018

Events:

  • Wednesday 14th November - Non-Office Workers run at Gunnersbury Park from 12:00 (see below).
  • Wednesday 21st November - Five Mile Handicap # followed by the annual Club Quiz - at the Bedfont Club at 18:00 and 19:30 respectively.
  • Saturday 1st December Club Featured parkrun at Fulham Palace at 09:00 #.

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 month

I'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.

Roderick Hoffman


Men's Surrey League Cross Country Fixture 2 at Epsom Downs 10th Nov 2018 - Result

Epsom 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.

Mens Cross Country Team

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:

5 302 Adam Moquet SEN BAW 29:49
16 320 Paul Knechtl V45 BAW 31:23
73 312 Ross Davies V40 BAW 35:35
74 319 Colin Haylock V45 BAW 35:47
83 309 Mark Taylor V55 BAW 36:14
84 313 Paul Davis V35 BAW 36:14
86 305 Richard Ruffell V55 BAW 36:16
95 329 Jonny Ashdown SEN BAW 37:10
96 311 Ian Cunningham V55 BAW 37:13
102 310 Maarten Stenham V40 BAW 37:37
106 322 Gary Rushmer V55 BAW 37:57
117 303 Simon Turton V50 BAW 38:49
155 317 Neil Frediani V60 BAW 44:43
158 306 Finbarr Cotter (2nd claim) V60 BAW 47:51
163 330 Steve Hillier V60 BAW 54:21

Leading Individuals (Overall):

Name Club Total Positions
Paul O'Callaghan (V40) TAD 3 [2, 1]
Robert Lloyd Smith (V45) SUR 8 [4, 4]
Adam Moquet BAW 8 [3, 5]

Team scores after 2 matches:

Match TAD SUR ELM LIN TRI HOR HOL BAW WIN BAR VAC EPO
Match 1 323 341 415 551 463 497 629 793 616 906 807 919
Match 2 276 433 429 370 504 638 773 677 859 600 850 851
Points 599 774 844 921 967 1135 1402 1470 1475 1506 1657 1770
Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Neil Frediani

PS Observations from the Epsom Cross Country race

Thanks 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

Ladies Cross Country TeamThe 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:

The overnight rain made our 2nd match of the season seem more like a XC event as it was a muddy 2 lap course. The weather conditions however were good. It stayed dry and temperature was not at all cold. It was team solo with just me running this time. I so missed my fellow team mates but as always it was great to see and speak with Tom Rowley. 

Until our next match ladies and hopefully more of us will be able to attend. 

Trish McCabe

223 1010 Trish McCabe V40 BAW 37:12

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 date

Hopefully 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 Club

As 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

10th Novemberparkrunner Time parkrun Comment Age Grade
Michael Ball 25:42 Woking run #137, 129th at Woking 60%
Bob Bannister 23:53 Bedfont Lakes run #333,278th at Bedfont 68%
Anne Bannister 30:04 Bedfont Lakes run #178 65%
Julie Barclay 22:39 Frimley Lodge run #143, 28th at Frimley Lodge 79%
Tony Barnwell 40:54 Northala Fields run #180, 12th at Northala 47%
Bill Byrne 22:04 Old Deer Park run #122, 27th at Old Deer Park 71%
Ben Chaytow 33:05 Crane Park run #210 63%
Ian Cockram 23:59 Bedfont Lakes run #453 62%
John Coffey 28:54 Hazelwood run #304, 29th at Hazelwood 67%
Scott Davison 24:18 Bedfont Lakes run #275 59%
David Duggan 27:37 Bedfont Lakes run #277 57%
Joan Foxley 40:47 Rickmansworth run #119 54%
Alan Friar 33:35 Reading run #261, 172nd at Reading 55%
Eddie Giles 27:49 Salisbury run #106, 29th at Salisbury 63%
Sarah Gordon 33:22 Severn Bridge run #209, park #102 58%
Roderick Hoffman 29:25 Severn Bridge run #321, park #250, BApark #451 53%
Kevin Holland 42:15 Woking run #99, 57th at Woking 42%
Maria Jovani 21:20 Osterley Park F-2, course pb, club rec(F), run #248 73%
Piers Keenleyside 26:23 Gunnersbury 143rd run at Gunnersbury 61%
Chris Kelly 21:02 Reading run #405, 316th at Reading 72%
John Lennon 30:05 Bedfont Lakes run #279 52%
Trish McCabe 31:57 Nonsuch Park 4th run at Nonsuch 48%
Steve Newell 37:12 Greenwich 2nd run at Greenwich (Avery Hill Park) 50%
Petra Otto 42:45 March 50th run at March 49%
Jain Reid 30:27 Richmond Park run #35, 34th at Richmond 56%
Benita Scaife 32:17 Gladstone Park 5th run at Gladstone Park 62%
John Scaife 32:25 Gladstone Park 6th run at Gladstone Park 51%
James Shoulder 20:34 Bedfont Lakes run #32, 23rd at Bedfont 63%
Maarten Stenham 24:44 Hazelwood run #159 56%
Steve Taylor 25:14 Northala Fields run #103, 68th at Northala 61%
Paul Watt 24:04 Frimley Lodge run #90, 20th at Frimley Lodge 63%
Gill Westbrook 30:37 Bedfont Lakes run #95 64%
Caroline Yarnell 23:30 Curl Curl run #54, 47th at Curl Curl 79%
Denis Foxley volunteer Harrow run director
Caroline Cockram volunteer Bedfont Lakes run director
Zoe Ostley volunteer Bedfont Lakes finish tokens

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.

Severn Bridge parkrun startSteve Newell

Updated parkrun stats - club parkrun stats

Severn Bridge parkrun

I 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...

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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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