baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 15th February 2021

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

Unrestricted races are currently off so the club continues to operate with Solo and Shared runs as listed above - for restrictions and advice see the Coronavirus footnote at the end of this digest.  Due to the Tier 4 lockdown all shared runs are off the agenda until March or April.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

Roderick Hoffman

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, such as the weekend achievement, 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.

Weekend Achievement (by 5pm on the Monday) or use the Facebook prompt that will be added on Friday:

Roderick Hoffman

This Week's Midweek Challenge - Streets A to Z

The objective is for each participant to run or walk and collect a set of letters from local street-signs as a sequence through the alphabet - the winners being judged on the number of letters collected and the time or distance covered.

The full details are on the web page: British Airways Athletics Club Street AtoZ Instructions (barunner.org.uk)

Summary: The letters are to be collected during a single exercise activity. You need to start and finish at either an entrance to your property or place of work OR the nearest street-sign to that entrance. The duration of the activity and/or the distance covered are unconstrained but should be recorded and submitted with the letters collected. Letters are collected by visiting the street name signs of local streets. Bus stops that are named with a particular street are also permitted signs and you can also include a traffic light pedestrian crossing as an "X" and a zebra crossing as a "Z". You do not have to start with "A", nor with the letter of the street you start in. You can start with any letter and precede through the alphabet skipping letters as you wish. You do not have to finish with "Z". There are no letters beyond "Z" (e.g. the alphabet doesn't repeat). You need to include at least five letters.

So, you have until 5pm next Monday to do your activity and accumulate a set of letters. Email your entry to me including the activity type (run or walk), the distance covered, the time taken and the list of streets claimed.  I may ask for evidence such as the GPS map or photographs of the street name signs.  Towards the end of the period participants are encouraged to post on Facebook photographs, GPS maps of their route and comments on the letters collected. But please note that it is considered unsporting to post a good result early in the event period.

Any questions? Contact the organiser: Roderick Hoffman

February Mile Results

This month it is Ben Cooper who came into the cold to finish ahead of Amanda at the front, after she had narrowly edged in front of Michael and Stephen. Towards the back of the pack most of our runners posted slower than normal times - a mile is a long way to run fast on a cold day. It'll probably be warmer come March so times should pick up.

Meet the Committee - Steve Hillier

This is the first in a series of spots enabling you to get more familiar with those of us who invest our time and effort in club organisation.

BAAC 2021 Virtual Relay London Marathon – 14th March – live running, start 8am

Joe tells me that he already has 83 entrants, and with the likely addition of over 100 more. However, at the moment only 13 of those are from or linked to BAAC - so only enough for a half marathon. Please let Joe know that you'll pledge to run a mile on the 14th March so that we can be confident of fielding a whole team => 2021VirtualRelayLM@gmail.com. Whilst we expect you to take the mile run seriously and start it as the previous person finishes their leg and communicate that you have finished at the end of your mile - you can of course plan on doing a longer run from thereafter.

SOLO Activity Achievements, Valentine's Weekend 12th to 15th February 2021

25 members and friends reported activities for this week, slightly down on the recent average but this might be because of the cold and because of Valentine's Day - though at least two colleagues were accompanied by their partners in what they did do.  Please try to make future submissions by Monday 5pm, or 6pm at the latest, either by email to me or using the "Prompt" in Facebook, and I'll try to include them all.

This is what Mike has been up to over five runs:

Roderick Hoffman

Local Quiz Question Answers

Thank you to the six of you that had a go at this. Kelly also suggested a couple of answers but not the complete set.

I said that you could use Google to get your answers, but that I'd take the "Round-the-Block" answer as definitive. I have done that in the marking of the answers above. If you want to challenge any of the Round-the-Block answers then please address a complaint to the editor, Mr. John Williams.

So the best set of answers was by the one of us currently furthest away - Jane. But I'd like to also credit Amanda since she is the only one of the six not to have experienced that era of the club and also Chris because I detected that he used Google the least.

I did do some Google analysis myself. Don't believe everything you read on the internet - one source of Concorde flight numbers and departure times I found would suggest that Concorde landed at Heathrow at 3am - unlikely even in those noisy days. BA001 was the main flight to New York and this returned as the BA002 and was the one reported in Round-the-Block as landing at around 18:00, although I can't find schedule information to confirm this. '003 and '004 also did a round trip to New York in busier seasons, timed later in the day. Where and when '007 flew is still subject to the official secrets act. 

20mph zones had been permitted from December 1990 although the Secretary of State had to consent. The one in Heston was introduced in 1993 including the signs, now gone, showing the area's aircraft building heritage.

British Airways PLC was established in 1974. The British Airways in question 7 was a predecessor to the current company. 

The "Green Parrots" were spotted during a club hash run. I'm impressed that two people got this spot on and a third just one year out - I would have guessed that the parakeets arrived up to a decade later.

Roderick Hoffman

BA Athletics Club Records

I'm holding over starting this until next week. Some of our records have been standing for over thirty years so they can wait a little longer before being further promoted.

Roderick Hoffman

Stolen from Facebook - Caroline in Australia

Caroline Yarnell has demonstrated that there will be life after the worst of this pandemic is over...

Coronavirus Warning Footnote [changes from last week underlined or struck-through] (no changes)

In the UK exercise outside is permitted because it will boost physical and mental health and because the risk of catching Coronavirus outdoors is very low provided social distancing advice is kept to.

• Do not exercise outside the house if you have been asked to isolate or 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, or if you consider yourself to be vulnerable, such as being elderly or with pre-existing health conditions,
• You may drive to outdoor publicly accessible open spaces but you are advised to stay 'local' (defined as "in the village, town, or part of the city where you live."), you are also advised to minimise the amount of time spent outside your home and you should follow social distancing guidance whilst you are out. Further advice is to reduce public transport and shared car journeys and do not cross the "Tier 3" boundary (in either direction).
• Tier 4 rules only allow you to exercise on your own, with people in your linked household (bubble), as part of child-care or with one other person. You are advised to exercise just once per day and to minimise the variety of people you meet over the weeks of lockdown. Exercising your pet is allowed in addition, but only on your own.
• As you exercise, keep 2m away from all others including those you run with as well as those you meet on the run, by default diverting around those you meet (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,
• If government instructions are updated to limit or prevent exercising outside your homes, or to meet with fewer people, please respect such instructions - we should be fighting the virus, not authority.

If you are unwell yourself, especially if you have symptoms of 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.

Shared club activities are not permitted in Tier 4.  For when the situation changes any club member may be permitted to organise a shared activity. We recommend the social distancing gap of 2metres although "1meter+" can be followed during the activity itself.  To legitimize a run with more than six participants:

• The chairman (Roderick) or the secretary (Steve Hillier) must be notified in advance that the event is taking place,
• One of the participants must be a paid-up member of the BA Athletics Club and must be prepared to perform the duties of a "Covid-19 Coordinator", if more than six attend we recommend that that member wears a BAAC top or distinctive clothing,
• Participants, and the activity, should not cross the "Tier 3" boundary or the "Tier 4" boundary (in either directions).
• A risk assessment has to be raised based on this template,
• The considerations within the risk assessment must be followed,
• After the activity perform a review of the risk assessment and log and pass on any issues or lessons learned.

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.