BA Athletics Club News Digest 16th December 2013
Forthcoming Events:
-
Wednesday 18th December - 'Parkway Mile' races and Club Christmas
Social - see below
-
January 2014 - Magic Mile Thursday lunchtime 9th / Surrey Leagues
Ladies and Men on Saturday 11th / Club In-House event 15th / Round-the-Block
annual lunchtime race Tuesday 28th / 5 Mile handicap on Wednesday 29th.
New members and non-members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome
at all of these events.
The full events diary is on the club website at:
http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml.
This news digest is being sent to you because you are on the BA Athletics Club email
list. To be removed please email us at
news@barunner.org.uk. Difficulty
viewing this email? Read it off the website instead -
http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml.
Reminder: New facebook "BA Runner" Group
Up to 16 members but many more of you have facebook accounts so please join
the group and use it to exchange information. To find it search for "BA Runner" in the facebook search box (with the space
between BA and Runner) or follow this link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/636199849751546/.
Roderick Hoffman,
Club Communications Secretary
Reminder: Parkway Mile and Club Christmas Social - Wednesday 18th December from 18:00
via the Concorde Centre, Heston.
The parkway mile races will be run as a team event though some lucky
individuals may get the chance to run more than one leg. Please email
Steve Newell by close of Tuesday with your anticipated mile time. Children from 11 to 17 are
welcome to run if accompanied.
The Club Christmas Social afterwards will feature free catering for all
attending members. This will include Sandwiches (Turkey or Vegetarian) and
Mince Pies. There will be a Santa's Sack where you may contribute a wrapped present of
value about £3:50. Everyone contributing to the sack will also be able to
receive a present from the sack.
KLM Roadrunners Beach Race Saturday 14th December
First runner home wearing a BA shirt was the 2nd lady in the 6(and a bit)k
race in 34:55, Patricia Leroux of Air France. Helen Smith and I had given
Patricia one of our shirts at the Stellenbosch WARR. First BA home was Ruman
Kirilov in around 45 minutes, then Daniela Mayerova in 45:31. Roderick
Hoffman finished the longer 10k race in 1:05:16. If anyone thinks that
that is slow they should come out and do the event next year! The winners
time in the 10k was 40:40. There were 107 runners in all and although most were
from KLM there was also a large team from Lufthansa and smaller teams or
individual representatives from BA, Air France, El Al, SAS, Aero Mexico, Delta,
Ryan Air, American and Alaska Airlines.
This really is a great event - ignoring the low temperature, soft sand, and gale force
wind - with free entry, courtesy transportation to and from the airport, free
drinks, free gifts for all competitors and a €30 buffet for €15. Better
value and less effort than a 100 mile ultrarun.
Roderick Hoffman
Ladies XC 2nd Match Results
Apologies for the delayed report. The host sent out a pre-results and
indicated there would be a final copy but there was none, so here goes:
It was a cold but dry day when we gathered at Farthing Downs for the 2nd Ladies
XC match. As usual, I arrived early so that I could have a nice spot for our
team stuff. Not sure what the guys do; we usually have hot and cold drinks, a
tad of alcohol even at times, and of course, plenty of snacks and cake. On this
occasion, Monica provided yummy home-made fruit cake. I did forget the
club banner (again!); I think I should keep one at home for the XC season!
We had 4 runners on this occasion - Helen, Deby, Natalie and Monica who had just
flown in from New York the same morning. I opted out due to some toe nails
threatening to depart should I put more pressure on them. Richard, Melanie, her
daughter and baby came to provide much needed support. It was a one-lap 6k
course with some devilish hills I was told. Not sure if I heard it correctly,
but Natalie was telling her dad that she had to walk up a bit of a particularly
long hill en route. That must have been a toughie if she had to slow down!
The results:
BAAC 'A' Team 15th out of 18 (this match), 14th
out of 18 (after 2 matches)
Position 90 793 Natalie
Ruffell 28:37
143
782 Deby Helsdon 30:21
265 787 Monica
Alonso 36:32
276
792 Helen Smith
37:38
Thank you to everyone who turned up for this match. Our next
match is on 11 January at Wimbledon Common. I look forward to seeing many
runners there. As I'm working most evenings up to the New Year I probably
won't be able to see any of you before Christmas, so I wish you all a Lovely
Christmas and Wonderful New Year!
Clara Halkit
BAAC 5 Mile Handicap 11th December 2013 Results
| Runner |
Handicap |
Actual start |
Clock at finish |
run time |
Time gap from handicap |
Points this month |
Total points |
Next Start time |
| Matthew Stratful |
32:30 |
32:30 |
00:00 |
32:30 |
00:00 |
13 |
13 |
32:30 |
| Piers Keenleyside |
33:44 |
33:30 |
59:59 |
33:31 |
00:13 |
12 |
18 |
33:30 |
| Graham Taylor |
35:55 |
36:00 |
59:36 |
36:24 |
00:29 |
11 |
18 |
36:30 |
| Richard Ruffell |
33:53 |
34:00 |
00:40 |
33:20 |
00:33 |
10 |
35 |
33:30 |
| Alan Friar |
45:49 |
46:00 |
00:51 |
45:09 |
00:40 |
9 |
22 |
45:00 |
| Gary Rushmer |
31:13 |
31:00 |
58:59 |
32:01 |
00:48 |
8 |
27 |
32:00 |
| Chris Kelly |
33:08 |
33:00 |
00:57 |
32:03 |
01:05 |
7 |
9 |
32:00 |
| Barry Walters |
33:10 |
33:00 |
01:05 |
31:55 |
01:15 |
6 |
21 |
32:00 |
| Steve Newell |
48:09 |
48:00 |
58:29 |
49:31 |
01:22 |
5 |
25 |
49:30 |
| Tony Barnwell |
50:26 |
50:30 |
58:24 |
52:06 |
01:40 |
4 |
9 |
52:00 |
| Roderick Hoffman |
39:38 |
39:30 |
57:14 |
42:16 |
02:38 |
3 |
15 |
42:30 |
| Jeremy Short |
32:00 |
32:00 |
52:48 |
39:12 |
07:12 |
2 |
2 |
39:00 |
| Harry Wild |
59:13 |
37:00 |
05:13 |
31:47 |
27:26 |
1 |
10 |
32:00 |
It was a foggy Wednesday evening in December. The 3rd of 6 5 mile handicap
runs took place with 12+1 participants. The +1 did his power walk, and we also
had 1 runner took a wrong turning meaning he got back several minutes after the
expected 19:00 finish time. The timekeepers managed to arrange the clock so
they could see it from inside the building and were thus able to keep warm after
the last starter and before the first runner made it back, almost 30 minutes. 6
runners were within 1 minute of their handicap, with one in a hotly contested
sprint finish passing the clock as ticked over to 1:00:00 meaning (I think for
the first time for anyone) a finish exactly on the handicap time.
After
3 runs we have a clear leader on 35 points (Richard Ruffell) with Gray Rushmer
and Steve Newell 8 and 10 points behind in second and third place. Not too
surprising the first 4 positions have all completed the 3 runs so far. Can
anyone close that gap on Richard? Will he make the rest of the handicap runs to
maintain first place?
N.B points are calculated based upon actual
handicap times (i.e. previous finish time) not from the allocated Start Time
which is rounded to the nearest 30 second boundary.
Join us Jan 29th 2014 for the next installment of the winter series 5M
handicap. Paul Brandon
Club family parkrun results and stats for 14th December 2013
| BA Family |
parkrunner |
Time |
parkrun |
Commentary |
WAVA |
Chase The Place |
| Piers |
Keenleyside |
20:12 |
Gunnersbury |
parkrun pb |
77% |
| John |
Coffey |
23:45 |
Bushy Park |
2013 pb |
75% |
| Brian |
Bennett |
24:34 |
Guildford |
|
75% |
| Richard |
Ruffell |
20:44 |
Southwick |
BA park #84 |
72% |
week8 |
| Chris |
Kelly |
20:32 |
Reading(v) |
|
71% |
| Ian |
Cunningham |
21:47 |
Bushy Park |
|
68% |
week8 |
| Clair |
Byrne |
25:19 |
Gunnersbury |
|
66% |
| Alan |
Anderson |
30:48 |
Gunnersbury |
|
65% |
| Alan |
Friar |
26:50 |
Woodley |
|
65% |
| Tim |
Hawkes |
20:09 |
Upton Court |
|
64% |
week8 |
| Joe |
Nolan |
24:34 |
Black Park |
|
64% |
week8 |
| Tony |
Hird |
24:06 |
Gunpowder |
47th parkrun |
61% |
week8 |
| Neil |
Frediani |
26:11 |
Bedfont Lakes |
90th parkrun |
59% |
| Kerstin |
Luksch |
25:27 |
Gunnersbury |
|
58% |
| Steve |
Newell |
29:51 |
Gunnersbury |
|
58% |
week8 |
| Marion |
Woodhouse |
32:25 |
Bedfont Lakes |
19th parkrun |
52% |
parkrun Highlights
The fall off in the last week of Chase the Place was a lot less than we all
expected and 4021 people now have the chance to apply for a London Marathon
place - but 6 of those are BA family runners. The member whose prediction was nearest to the final figure will be announced
at the social after the Parkway Mile relay on Wednesday.
The highlight this week was a parkrun pb of 20:12 (76.73%) by Piers
Keenleyside at Gunnersbury where the course is now a few metres longer than it
used to be and going on the grassy bits is getting a bit soft.
Brian Bennett made his debut at Guildford but his 24:34 was only good enough
to put him second on the all time list for the VM70-74 age group. Maybe he
will go back when we have a club featured parkrun there in 2014.
Alastair Heslop will be timekeeping next Saturday.
Richard Ruffell
extended his tour with a visit to Southwick Country Park in Wiltshire and
recorded the club's 84th different venue as we race towards the target of 100.
Steve's parkrun stats
|
Did you see the "Get Inspired" section on the BBC website last weekend?
This is the latest initiative to get more people into sport - an
objective linked to the Olympics. These initiatives have been criticised for
being ineffective with low increases in participation. I
had a look at the latest offering asking myself the question - if I just
wanted to get fit by running what would I be offered? I expected
the answer to include "parkrun". Not so. There is a section
on "Athletics" which focuses on Track and Field and pushes you onto the
England Athletics site which itself makes no mention of parkrun, there
is a local events "activities tracker" that hasn't heard of any parkrun
and there are sections on Orienteering and Triathlon. So if you are
already a serious athlete you can find stuff here. But if you just
want to get started with a run round a park with some locals - little
hope for you. Since the Olympics the number of runners doing UK
parkruns every week has more than doubled from 15,000 to 35,000 - a huge
success story with little publicity or investment. So it looks to
me that the official scheme will continue to fall short because they are
too busy looking for the next Usain Bolt rather than trying to get the
average Brit into sport. But is that a problem? Perhaps not
- parkrun clearly doesn't need the publicity or funding! But on
the other hand if you are a tax payer then it is your money that is
funding the uninspiring inactivity. Roderick Hoffman
|
Shorts
We got a thank you letter from the British Heart Foundation for the £100
donated from this year's Concorde Mile. Hopefully a larger field next year
will allow us to make a larger donation. Next year's race will be on
Sunday June 15th.
News for the next BAAC News Digest?
Please send items for inclusion in the
next Digest. Results, news, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at
news@barunner.org,uk. You can
copy Paul Brandon and Roderick Hoffman in BUT the news@ address is the one that
we use when the digest is compiled.
Club website:
www.barunner.org.uk.
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