baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 18th May 2020

Events - see below:

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

Solo Events Calendar

All side-by-side races are off until at least the end of June, 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 Challenges

This week we have our Track-on-Field challenge and this is the Club In-house Event # for May:

Today, Monday, we had planned to hold a club Track&Field evening with various running, jumping and throwing events. Due to the Coronavirus we've thrown out the idea of the jumps and we've had to take a high jump to the throws but we can still do the runs. So this week's "Midweek Challenge" are the shorter distances - 1,500m, 800m, 400m, 200m, and 100m runs. And notice the use of the word "and" in that sentence, rather the word "or". In one exercise session see how many of these five events you can do, at speed and with the objective of better than halving your time from one to the next (so if you run an 8 minute 1,500m, try to do under 4 minutes for the 800m, well under 2 minutes for the 400m, perhaps 50s for the 200m, and 20s or less for the 100m).  You don't have to do all of the events, you can do those you do in any order and you can do them on any day up to and including Friday BUT all the ones recorded need to be done in the same exercise session (you can't do some one day, and the rest the next). This event is called "Track on Field" because it may be that your local parks and paths are too busy to contemplate doing short sprints hence you may have to find a quieter field for them. You will need a watch and you may be able to visit a quiet but open stadium (like Feltham's) or use a park with a path with 100m posts or you will need to have a GPS watch measuring in meters - some watches may have useful "auto-lap" capabilities. Treadmills are allowed, but you must be running or walking. Send me the results, for instance by filling in the table below and forwarding to News@barunner.org.uk?Track_on_Field:

Name	Date	1500m time	800m time	400m time	200m time	100m time	Comment:

  Submit by the end of FRIDAY please, so that I can tabulate the results over the weekend.

Then next week:

Roderick Hoffman

Green Belt Relay (virtual) 16th / 17th May # Results & Report

It has to be said that that was a wonderful weekend and a great achievement to boot (or running shoe). In total 25 of us ran stages of a virtual Green Belt Relay with 18 of us doing two stages. Most of us were running in the Thames Valley, mainly in planned routes of the right length around our homes but a few of us engineered to run close to the actual stages of the Green Belt Relay. The London weather was hot and got hotter throughout the weekend. But we also included Kas running in Wallsend near Newcastle which on the Sunday was chilly and Duncan Wright running in the glorious South-of-France where it rained throughout his two runs.

The Regulars team ("R" in the table) managed to get round in a total time of 28hours, 46minutes and 49seconds. The Irregulars team ("I", and including some regulars) made it in 31hours 47:05. Gary's stage 7 run counted for both teams and a couple of the runners have been given GBR cut-off times for their performances.

We are aware that the Ranelagh club organised something similar for their GBR regulars but those of us who did run on actual GBR stages each reported no one appearing to be running the stage.

Now, although we were all running solo, this was a very communal run with a great deal of chatter and picture sharing on the WhatsApp group from before the off to well after the finish, and then many of us joined in a Zoom video meeting as we recuperated afterwards (or in Neil's case, as he cooked potatoes).

We can only speculate on whether we'll have enough demand next year to supply two Green Belt Relay teams, or discover that the concept of virtual runs has caught on so much we can't even muster one.

Roderick Hoffman

Midweek Challenge Scrabble Scramble 2020 - Results

Odd shift patterns, injuries and last-minute interest led to a real mix of competition for last week’s challenge.  The concept called for a pair of runners to each travel as far as possible in forty minutes, to earn themselves a Scrabble tile for each kilometre completed.  The pair then had to come up with the highest scoring combination of words on a Scrabble board.  Simple!

To involve as many as possible, the event was extended to include walkers (more time allowed), rowers and cyclists (less time allowed).  Late entries meant we had a trio and a singleton (all suitably handicapped).  On Wednesday the socially distanced results started to roll in, with the first announced at 9am and the last run completed shortly before midnight. 

Mike Dennison had the best run, completing 9.1 km in forty minutes, just ahead of Gary Rushmer’s 8.9km.  Jacqui Musselwhite was the leading lady runner with 8km.  As well as the runners, we also had one cyclist, one turbo cyclist, one rower and two walkers.

For those of you who enjoy Scrabble, seven letters constitute a normal portion size.  Imagine dealing with a feast of up to 16 letters, aiming to get the best out of every double word or triple letter square.  Word length was capped at seven, with no blank tiles and no penalties for unused letters. 

During Wednesday evening, sets of random letters were e-handed out to the pairs.  The ancient rules of the game began to be explored, with the unusual option of a “double double word score” being chased.  Words had to be found in a dictionary, but what is a standard dictionary?
Throughout Thursday, the pairs puzzled away by phone, email or videolink.  Many combinations were shared and rejected as new inspiration emerged.  In the end, mental exhaustion took over as phrases like, “I can’t stare at this board any more”, “What am I supposed to do with ten vowels” and “Can I have a U for my Q?” became common.

I had expected a score of 70 to be very competitive, so when three 90+ scores rolled in, I was surprised.  Perhaps it was a mistake giving the runners a night’s rest before tackling the letters, because soon after, three 110+ scores emerged.  Before you ask, all words used are in the dictionary, have a meaning and aren’t names or abbreviations…it’s just that we don’t use them very much.  The top three results were:

• 3rd, Steve Taylor, 114 points
• 2nd, Chris, Sarah and Becca Kelly, 122 points
• 1st, Jain Reid and Gary Rushmer, 126 points

Full results [note that the "words in a sentence" was an optional follow-on proposed by Roderick on Facebook]

Steve Hillier

SOLO activity achievement weekend 15th to 18th May 2020

Obviously fewer this week registered a "weekend achievement" because of the 25 of us doing the virtual Green Belt Relay. Between the two events we had a record number of 37 recording weekend achievements.

Same again next weekend.  Submit your best exercise achievement 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}

parkrun Update

Steve Newell has heard from Alan Anderson and can confirm that he is out and about most days, including going for walks with Anne. By this time next week he'll be in a new parkrun age group - 85 to 89 - so upon parkrun's return he'll be aiming to set a new set of records.

Coronavirus Warning Footnote [no change from last week]

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,
• You may drive to outdoor publicly accessible open spaces irrespective of distance, but should follow social distancing guidance whilst you are there,
• 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 defenses 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 events we will not include running distances of more than 15mile length (25km),
• 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.

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