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BA Athletics Club News Digest 18th December 2023
Events marked "#" are points scoring for the club's participation trophy - for the 2023 title. Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] [parkrun run by club members updated 4th October 2023] For future weeks: inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk. Results for Next Week - Please submit by 5pm on SUNDAY - I'll be sending the Christmas digest out that eveningPlease 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. Monthly Mile (please submit your December Mile performance by the end of the month for publication in the 1st or 8th January digests):Run one mile and send me your time or add the details to the prompt in Facebook. The mile can be somebody else's formal event or even one mile within a longer run. I'll then produce a fancy graph showing your time this month compared to those of other people and previous runs over the last year: [no need to submit if your best mile is run at this week's Xmas event].
Weekly Athletic Achievement (by Sunday evening) or use the Facebook group prompt:
# Handicap Run Round 3 - Wednesday 13th December 2023The third leg of the winter five-mile handicap was held at the Bedfont Orchard club HQ on Wednesday 13th December. It was a rather damp evening but not as windy or cold as it can be at this time of year. Steve Newell was not available, so we are grateful for Paul Watt (injured - self assessed) who stepped into the breach to act as timekeeper. Most runners were fairly close to their target times. The next round is scheduled for the last Wednesday in January but watch this space - it could be postponed by a week. Results:
Points table after three events:
Stephen Taylor is one of three runners who have been ever present so far and has taken an early lead. Only the best four scores out of the possible six will count towards the individual totals at the end of the series so those who have only completed one or two runs so far could still rise to the top. Steve Newell # KLM Road Runners Championship / Beach RaceBA had two representatives in this year's event, myself in the 10k and Christine Munden in the 6k. KLM Road Runners have held this event for donkey's years, perhaps 25. The course has (almost) always been the same - you run down the back of the dunes for 3k, then cut across to the beach and return to the start, then for the 10k runners you have a second shorter lap with 2k down the back of the dunes before cutting across to the beach. The event only needs two directional marshals - one at the 3k point to stop runners heading for Norway, and one at the 2k point to direct the 10k runners to the beach on their second lap. Sadly, this year the idiom "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" applied. The marshal at the 2k point had misunderstood the race briefing and directed the 6k runners on the short loop. Christine had studied the map diligently and knew that a mistake was being made and attempted to convince the marshal but he wasn't understanding so she had to follow all of the 6k runners on the 4k loop. When they got to the finish there was a dilemma. Some runners did a second short lap (so 8k in total), some run out for 1k and then returned to make their run approximately 6k and some having run 4k were glad to be out of the cold and wind and headed for the bar. The 6k tail-walker was Ralph Behrens (from Lufthansa systems at Hamburg, who some of us know well from ASCA, WARR and more recently parkrun). He also told the marshal of the error, and whilst Ralph's northern German was probably only as effective as Christine's Yorkshire English, Ralph had a yellow jacket and a job to perform - to go round THE course and ensure that no one had had a problem ON the course. So that is what Ralph did, and so, technically, the winner of the 6k was the tail-walker Ralph, the only person to do the correct course!
The 10k? Oh yes, that went without incident. Though each year I do it, the dune path gets rougher and sandier, and the North Sea wind is always against you on the beach. I wasn't last - finishing in 1:10:11 with I think one competitor behind me and then the tail-runner was Marcia Dubbelaar (a WARR and parkrun friend). At the start Marcia had stressed to me that she was a tail-runner, not a tail-walker, so I kept looking over my shoulder in case she was catching me but she ended up a small way back. She admitted to me later that she had done a parkrun PB that morning (Schoterbos 29:09) whereas I'd taken it easy on mine (Kagerzoom 29:25). The KLM beach race is always a great experience, though I agree that 4k is too short, and KLM make us feel so welcome - with free entry including a drink and snacks and lifts to and from the location. Roderick Hoffman New eventsFollowing suggestions from Julie Barclay we've added a NOW event in Farnborough in March and mentioned the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month run at the end of January. Julie also says: "Some members may be interested to know that Polseden Lacey, a National Trust property in Effingham, Surrey, hosts a free 10k trail run on the fourth Sunday of every month. These events are free but are not races. They are described as ‘informal, friendly and for all abilities’. " The next few are on Boxing Day, January 28th, February 25th and March 24th. More details Trust 10K run | National Trust . Let Julie or the editor know if you could be interested in a club featured run on one of these dates. Booking is not required and the events are free - although non-NT members may need to pay £5 for parking. The events are neither timed nor marshalled. Suggestions for new club featured events are always welcome.
parkrun Results for Saturday 16th December35 activities are recorded below. Please get in touch if your activity is missing.
parkrun Review 16th December 2023We will return to the county scene again after the Christmas and New Year double feature weekends and look at Essex, Kent and Hampshire as these are all visited by some of our members fairly regularly. The M25 motorway is a prominent feature around London and there is a group of 14 parkruns inside the infamous ring road while at the same time being outside the London boroughs. For those Londoners who become “Londone” the group provides an additional challenge within striking distance. Indeed, many of the parkruns can be reached using London Transport. The parkruns up the north are in the “East of England” region while all those south of the Thames are in South East region. There are five in Hertfordshire (Aldenham, Cassiobury, Leavesden Country, South Oxhey and Rickmansworth) which we described last week. There are two in Essex – Gunpowder (Enfield) and Roding Valley (Loughton). Both are in a fairly rural setting with no serious hills to worry about. The three parkruns in Kent are Dartford, Dartford Heath and Swanley. The Dartford parkrun has a typical attendance of 150, uses the town’s Central Park and is based near the Dartford Harriers clubhouse and a 400m track. Dartford Heath parkrun is out in the country, with a small car park and no facilities whatever. It is hardly ever crowded and attendances over 100 are rare. Swanley parkrun is better equipped using the town park with a café, toilets and car parks nearby, Swanley is a post Covid-19 parkrun which recently celebrated its 100th run, attendances are usually in the 50-70 range. It is not far from the A20/M25 motorway junction. A group of four, all (now) in Surrey are Hazelwood (flat), Nonsuch (flat), Brooklands (flat) and Banstead Woods (not at all flat but finishes at a lower altitude than the start). This week we added a new parkrun to the club collection for the first time in a while. David Cowell (20:20) visited Carlisle Park parkrun in Morpeth (not be to be confused with Carlisle parkrun (in Carlisle). Roderick Hoffman (29:25) was at Kagerzoom in Holland for the weekend but Melanie Miller beat him to that one last year. Having been denied a visit to Chipping Norton School last week by the weather Melanie Miller (41:32) and Harjit Jhooti (37:50) got there this week. Maria Jovani (22:06) took the club female record from Julie Barclay on her visit to Hogmoor Inclosure. For anyone planning to make a visit to Wormwood Scrubs before the end of the year there is good (?) news. The mud has got so bad that there won’t be another parkrun there now until 2024. The weather is mostly to blame but HS2 has been mentioned at some stage as well. Two 500 volunteer appearances to mention this week. Emma Morton (23:13) was helping at Bedfont Lakes and running quicker than any other female. Ealing Eagle Kelvin Walker (54:50), a stalwart at Gunnersbury and a driving force behind the Ealing Half Marathon was enthusiastically encouraging a group of parkwalkers. I wish all digest readers a merry Christmas with a reminder that Poland has loads of parkruns and many stage an extra run on Boxing Day! Just in case you were thinking of taking it easy, I’ll pass on advice from Alan Anderson, our most experienced parkrunner who has done 50 UK parkruns already this year – don’t stop! Steve Newell Matters Arising - Non London inner M25 parkrunsThere is a total of 14 of these. No one in the club has done all 14. Steve Newell has done 13, only needing Swanley to complete the set. Roderick is one behind Steve and as well as Swanley needs Dartford Heath. On 12 is Trish McCabe - short of the same pair and also Roding Valley. No one else has done more than 8. 62 club members have done at least one of these parkruns with the most popular being Brooklands with 33 different club members (121 runs) and then Hazelwood with 28 (234 runs), then Rickmansworth with 27 (148 runs). Steve Newell is the only club runner to have run at Dartford Heath, though he has done so three times. Roding Valley and Dartford have also been run three times, though each once each by three different club members. Swanley hasn't been run by Steve, Roderick or Trish but six different club members have run there. Some large numbers worth noting - John Coffey has run at Hazelwood 123 times, Tony Hird ran at Gunpowder 78 times whilst a member of the club, Kevin Holland at Brooklands 33 times, John Taylor at Rickmansworth 32 times, Elise Lawrenson has run at Nonsuch 16 times (Ian Cunningham lives nearby but has only run at Nonsuch 14 times vs Bushy Park 422 times). How low can you parkrun / how high can you parkrun?Saturday's parkrun in Holland, Kagerzoom, was at an average elevation of minus 2.5metres, so below sea level. There are probably other parkruns in Holland at around the same height. Zandvlei in South Africa is also said to average about -2 metres. My previous lowest was run on the beach at Portrush in Northern Ireland. The tide was out so the course was between 1m and 2m below normal sea level. The highest parkrun I've run at is probably South Boulder Creek in Colorado at around 1,600m altitude but others are much higher - Dullstroom in South Africa is at 2,018m and the highest is Aspen in Colorado at 2,438m. Millennium in the Canadian Rockies is not as high, at about 1,400m. These do take your breath away. Roderick Hoffman
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] Roderick Hoffman 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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