baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 13th April 2020

Events - see below:

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

Solo Events Calendar

All face-to-face events are off until at least the end of May, 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

Midweek SOLO Track on Field! RESULTS

This was the first event of this type and I wondered how many would take it up at short notice (which is why I allowed entrants up until Sunday). Therefore I've been delighted to have had ten entrants.

The results are shown in the table above and also in the graph - with the plot being of speed for each of the five events. Most of us managed to improve our speed as the events got shorter but there were a small number of exceptions. Some of these could be put down to difficulties in measuring the various course distances - I found this much harder than I had expected.

You will note that even Usain Bolt could only run the 100m at a fractionally faster speed than the 200m.

There will be another Track-on-Field event in the week of 18th May, probably with an identical format. I don't think that it is feasible to have a Field-on-Track with throwing or jumping events - but you are welcome to suggest something.

Roderick Hoffman

This week's Midweek Challenge - the Northumberland 10k equivalent...#

Wednesday was the date when we were planning to run the Northumberland 10k with the shorter option of the Longford 5k. These events replaced the Watersplash 10k we used to run from Heston. So this week's Midweek Challenge is to run either a 10k or a 5k as your daily exercise. Please also choose a single word name for your event - based on a road, river or location you run by or near, of the standard of "Northumberland" or "Watersplash".

Note that this IS a club points scoring event as the April Club In-house Event (literally, for anyone using the treadmill). Anyone who submits a 5k or 10k result will be awarded club points. It was suggested that that would not be fair on those who need to self-isolate at this time. Whilst I have sympathy for them I also have sympathy for all those unable to compete in CIE/ROM due to injury or work shifts or (at other times) on holiday - and I don't think we should cancel the efforts of others for the unfortunate few.

Send me the results, for instance by filling in this table and forwarding to mailto:News@barunner.org.uk:

Runner Name	Date	Grand Event Name	Distance (e.g. 5k or 10k)	Time	Comment

Please submit by the end of Friday.

Roderick Hoffman

BAAC 2020 Virtual Relay Marathon – Sunday 26th April - More details #

Even though many of us are managing to keep fit and our minds positive in the current situation I am in touch with quite a lot of runners (including some of our marathon squad) who are finding motivation difficult. I mentioned this event to a number of them and it has certainly sparked great interest and they have put their running shoes on again and are out training. To mark the original 2020 London Marathon day I am organising a number of teams to run a ‘live’ virtual relay marathon, preferring teams to comprise 26 members each running 1 mile.

It is free entry ! This is not to be confused with our weekly reported ‘solo’ events which have comprised all sorts of formats and distances, but your 1 mile stint can of course be part of any other run that you may be doing. I hope that we can muster at least 2 teams ourselves, and adding more from other local clubs and parkrunners. I am aiming for about 5 teams. It would lose the spirit of this as a standalone event to have mixed longer legs or legs being run at other times. Runners can request an approximate start time after 8am, each start time being managed within a live WhatsApp group, or otherwise means if any runner does not have that facility. Your runs would be local to you, can even be on a treadmill, and of course we can have participants worldwide!  I already have small groups in Scotland and Berlin onboard!  Again, just to be clear, you can still do your longer runs but just report in your mile stint being completed and in what time, to hand over the ‘virtual baton’ to the next runner. I will be able to make up full teams if any are short.

There have been a few enquiries from runners who are Key Workers and cannot run on the Sunday morning, together with some who have said they are interested on Facebook, but will have to be at a different time – I am prepared to have one ‘out of time’ group who can do individual stints the day before, and then we will put their team result in against the live teams when everyone has crossed the finish line to see which team wins!  Please register your interest by email to me a.s.a.p., and let me know whether you use WhatsApp.  I will then supply more information.  Please do not openly publicise this as in some quarters it may be misunderstood as being some sort of crowd gathering event. I will be ‘blind copying contact information’ to preserve data protection.

There will be a special certificate issued to all competing, and we will be able to look back in the happier times to come that we ‘proudly, but safely, ran London 2020 despite Corona!'). Please email me directly to confirm your interest – I cannot take entries via the Facebook group.

Joe Nolan

Ed: Note also that we are making this the run-of-the-month for April. We've got 15 colleagues signed up, so we just need another 11 to make up a full team (and more for a second). Let Joe Nolan know that you are in (or probably so) by emailing him at: JoeN@barunner.org.uk

SOLO activity achievement Easter Weekend 10th to 13th April 2020

Fourth solo weekend activity and 35 participants - more than ever before. The good Easter Weekend weather meant that many of us had to set-off early and/or avoid the popular parks and paths.

When I did my Midweek Challenge Solo Mile I posted the picture on the left on Facebook, taken whilst jogging back alongside my chosen course (the A40 alongside RAF Northolt). This week Simon has posted the right-hand photograph taken during his Weekend Solo Achievement. Clearly we are both looking back to when the country was previously under such a challenge as the current one. Simon says that he is in front of a Hurricane. I believe that the RAF Northolt gate guardian is a model Spitfire. Anyone who knows otherwise can keep it to themselves!

Feel free to send in photographs from your courses BUT don't dally taking photographs since we are expected to minimise the amount of time that we spend out of our homes.

Same again next weekend? Submit your best performance 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}

Your-Street-O planned for Midweek 22nd April

The map on the right is a street orienteering map of the area within one mile of my home. My home is in the pink triangle towards the middle of the map, and the green circle across some corners of the map indicates one mile away from that point. My 14.7km run last Sunday is shown with the red line. I traversed this anti-clockwise and my choice of route was to visit all of the numbered controls points marked with pink circles. So having left home the first I visited was "20", then "24" and then "7". I visited the fifteenth control "1" just before my watch reached one hour. In total the run took me 1:50:31 and covered just under 15km.

Incidentally all of the controls on this map were bright red post-boxes, other than "6" and "11" where the control was the former site of such a post box (although I don't believe that myself for "6").

This shows that for those of us who live in urban or semi-urban areas it is possible to run a long and quite diverse route within a mile of one's house and without running laps of popular parks or crowded paths. All you need is the right map.

The plan for the week of Wednesday 22nd April is for the Midweek Challenge to be a "Your-Street-O" event - with the objective of visiting as many of the controls on your map within ONE hour. You will need to pre-enter this so that I have enough time to prepare the maps needed. These take me about ten minutes each and I can find the time to do any number of these provided each recipient is prepared to give this event a go. I'll send you the map as a PDF and recommend that you print it off on A4 and carry it round but you may find you can use it on a phone.

So, let me know that you will seriously consider doing this for the week after this one. And don't forget to include a post code.

Roderick Hoffman

Gunnersbury Park and Thames Towpath

NEW Colours Quiz

Here's the promised follow-up to the numbers quiz.  For those people who have an aversion to numerical problems and who prefer to visualise the issue, try this one!  Some clues are obvious, some are tough, and it's just a bit of fun!  Enjoy.

Colours Quiz

Steve & Linda Hillier

Ed: Later on this week I'll again post the 30 questions on Facebook so that we can share how well we have answered the quiz, though without initially giving the answers away.

Coronavirus Warning Footnote

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,
• 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 relays events we will not include distances of more than half marathon length (21km),
• 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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