baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 13th February 2023
Events marked "#" are points scoring for the club's participation trophy - for the 2023 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 EventsPlease 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. Weekly Athletic Achievement (by Sunday evening) or use the Facebook group prompt:
NOW Event at Alice Holt Forest - ReportA good number of us made the trip to Alice Holt Forest for the club's latest NOW event, and mostly car sharing to spread the cost of the carpark as well as helping the environment. Julie and Paul had previously checked out the park 5k course which we followed - or at least 4.5km of it! There were no complaints about the cafe, and despite the month we enjoyed an outside table.
More NOW events will be set up after Easter. Men's and Ladies Cross Country at Morden Park - Results and Reports #Ladies Report
A fine end to the season saw four ladies on the start line of the undulating 2.5-lap 8K course, mostly on wide open grassland. There was mud, but far less than in January, and there were no technical sections. We finished the race in 25th place out of 45 teams, then were treated to Monica’s fabulous bread pudding, brought along in her absence by Helen Smith who came to support the men’s and ladies’ teams – great to see you Helen! Overall season’s standings placed us 29th out of 53 teams, with no injuries or incidents to report. In two of the matches (the first and fourth) we were disappointingly one runner short of a full ‘A’ team of 5; one more runner could have seen us jump a few places. There is also a ‘B’ team competition, and I am encouraging all ladies to come along – the more the merrier! Cross-country is famous for its team spirit and its post-run cakes. The 2023/24 season starts in October and I will publish dates when they are finalised. Come and join us! Amanda Coombs
Men's ReportOn a warm and much drier day in Morden the Men took part in the last Surrey League Cross Country match of the season. It's been challenging trying to get a team together and this fixture was no exception! 6 hardened competitors did take part and the team managed to finish in a credible 10th place on the day. Adam again led the team home in a 4th place overall finish. There was also some much needed support from Helen (and thanks Monica for the bread pudding), Janet and Ian (one day he may actually take part again). It was also great to catch up with ladies before their event. Paul Knechtl [Editor: The picture shows Helen handing out the bread pudding. I was also sent a picture including Graham, but without the pudding.] Overall, across the four matches, we appear to have finished in 11th place out of the 14 teams. Paul Knechtl ends the season as the leading V50 (and 5th overall) and Mark Taylor as the 3rd V60.
BAAC ChampionshipsThis isn't the end of the cross country season - we will be holding the BAAC Cross Country on Sunday 12th March at a new location for us - Minet Country Park in Hayes, which is the open space next to the Hillingdon Cycle Circuit. More details nearer the time but in the meantime please put this in your diary whatever your cross-country capability. Monthly Mile Results
Four results this month including from Emma whose previous submissions in 2020 and 2021 had averaged around the 7minute mark. Recent Activity Achievements21 club members and friends' achievements are listed below (plus others I could have included from the NOW event and the cross country matches). Your achievement not listed? It could be because you didn't submit it.
Photos:
Tim didn't make a submission but I took his photo from Facebook. I didn't report it as an achievement because his horse was doing all the work. Roderick Hoffman 10k Harrow Hill Race ResultsPiers Keenleyside and I ran in this year's Harrow Hill Race. With a six mile warm-up, and ahead of his six mile cool-down, Piers still managed the course with its 160m of ascent in 55:51. From a standing start it took me 63:08.
Other observations from the lines in the graph - I was very fit in 2014
(finishing in 57:20), in 2020 because of a flood on a public road they had to
divert the course and throw in an extra half climb of the hill in the 7th km,
they did alter the course from 2022 making the first km slower but getting you
up the hill sooner so that the second km became faster. Piers Keenleyside adds: "I finished in 55:51 and placed 132/225. I also ran to the start from my house in South Ealing and ran home afterwards. It was 6 miles each way so with the 10K I ended up doing over 18 miles. Elevation gain for the race was just over 500 feet - but according to Strava I managed to top that on my run to the start from Ealing going up Castlebar Hill, Horsenden Hill and finally Harrow Hill. Now tapering for the Seville Marathon next Sunday." parkrun Results for Saturday 11th February33 activities are recorded below. Please get in touch if your activity is missing.
parkrun review Saturday 11th February 2023Well, you were warned. parkrun these days is all about numbers but other forces besides must have been at work to draw an attendance two or three times bigger than in recent weeks to Wimbledon Common [1073 finishers]. The septuple “Nelson” event number 777 has been cited as the trigger. If you missed this one then Banstead Woods has just celebrated 750 runs and Richmond Park is only 8 weeks further back but the start is very narrow so ….. public warning number two. We were represented by Paul Watt (20:15), Julie Barclay (24:57), Harjit Jhooti (36:38) and Melanie Miller (40:53). Overall our numbers were down a little on the previous week but there were cross country fixtures later in the day (reports above). The notable performance this week came from Fiona Bishop (24:19, 82.11%) at Pymmes in North London, her fastest parkrun in over four years. The new local parkrun at Stockley Country Park is showing signs of maturity and all members are invited to run there or help out next Saturday (18th February). If you are unable to run at the moment, volunteers will be made most welcome. Let us make it a memorable club occasion. It will be event #6, neither a prime nor a Fibonacci number but don’t let that put you off! David Duggan (41:14) was our long-distance tourist this week at Brauhaus Afrika to the north and west of Johannesburg. His score edges up to 118 and the club total moves on to 704. Steve Newell Full club parkrun database - {read access to club parkrun database} - Download or save a copy, and explore at your leisure. Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] Letters to the EditorThe Middlesex Masters Cross Country Championships 2023 are being held on Sunday 26th March 2023 at Cassiobury Park, Watford. Eligibility is by birth, residence or previous participation. For details including how to register: Herts and Middx Vets Cross Country Championships, 26/03/2023 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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The reason I like to do this race each year is shown in the graph. Most races
one does you set off at the pace you hope that you can maintain and you either
succeed, perhaps even throwing in a fast km towards the end, or it doesn't go so
well and you tail off and get slower. An example of this is the black line on
the graph - my Km times at the Nepal 10k run on the relatively flat Northala
Fields. At the end of such a run you will be exhausted because you have been
running flat out throughout. All of the other lines in the graph are from the
Harrow Hill Race. There are steep uphill sections, there are flat sections,
there are undulating sections, there are down slopes. Throughout the distance
your pace will be changing and therefore the way that you are using the muscles
in your legs and body will be changing. The consequence of this at the end is
that you will not be as tired as you would have expected from the course because
of the changing styles of your running at the different paces - including, in my
case, the walking up the steeper bits. Everyone copes differently with ups and
downs so you'll also discover that you are being passing and then re-passing
other runners throughout the course.