BA Athletics Club News Digest 18th April 2016Events:
New members and potential members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at all of these events. The full diary of club featured events is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml. *Club Event Map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z31P-sSECWno.kIIgdFzUuZAo&usp=sharing Not for you, no longer interested? remove me please. Difficulty viewing this email? Read it off the website instead - http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml. Running related gossip and chat: Facebook "BA Runner" (link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/636199849751546/). Watersplash 10km, 5km results, 13th AprilThe date could down in history as more significant than we could have ever expected.
We should say thank you to Hillingdon and Hounslow councils for allowing us to use Cranford Park (for no charge) and re-surfacing some of the route we used this week. Not all councils support their runners so well. We had excellent conditions for the annual internal 10km race - mild, calm and dry. Our thanks to Paul Brandon and Brian Forester for timekeeping and to Paddy O'Shea and Harry Wild for marshalling in the park. The runners and officials enjoyed a fish pie at the Heston Venue after the event. As usual, runners were trying to run 10km in a shorter time (minutes) than their age in years. Most succeeded. Alice Banks kept ahead of Denis Foxley is a closely fought 5m race.
Steve Newell April Dream Mile results CorrectionNeil Frediani's time wasn't the nightmare reported of 08:26 but the more respectable 07:26, so his fastest time of the year, but he was still 52 seconds below his best so perhaps daydreaming at his marathon pace. And Derek's surname is Baker. Roderick Hoffman obo Paul Knechtl London Marathon THIS SundayAlthough the London Marathon hasn't featured very heavily in this publication this year [Ed: Apart from what I make up I can only publish what I am sent] be aware that this event is a huge operation and the club is heavily involved both running and marshalling. As usual we'll be providing 150 volunteers manning five pedestrian crossings in the last two miles of the course:
There is a Pre-London briefing this Thursday at the Heston Centre from 19:00. All volunteers don't have to be at it but make sure that you have been in touch with Steve Hillier or the leader of your marshalling point. The club also has at least twenty runners in the event - and there will be additional BA runners also: James Glover, Graham Taylor, Colin Haylock, David Duggan, Jagjit Singh, Caroline Cockram, Mark Turner, Kimberley Turner, Joe Nolan, Marzia Coltelli, Scott Davison, Jas Modaher, Tracey Mills, Rachael O'Bryan, Keith Haylock, Rina Vyas, Janine Mullett, Ian Cockram, Gary Andrews, Darryl Meek, Gary Rushmer Snr, Neil Frediani, Piers Keenleyside, Chris Kelly, Gary Rushmer Jnr. Roderick Hoffman obo Steve Hillier/Simon Turton Club parkrun results for Saturday 16th April 2016
The week began with some disturbing news about parish councillors at Little Stoke insisting that parkrun as an organisation should pay to use the park there. The spokesman was at pains to point out on BBC Breakfast television that the runners themselves could of course continue to run in the park on Saturdays or any other day for free. Indeed he even offered to arrange a grant for parkrun so the result would be revenue neutral. Confused? Well so am I. Anyway the run there was cancelled last Saturday and the future is still far from certain. I'm glad to learn that Ealing Council (Northala Fields and Gunnersbury) at least has a much "healthier" attitude and they will be assisting with the set-up of another junior parkrun shortly. The club completed the mission to run at 250 different parks with a sprint for the line reminiscent of the Saturday in April (only two years ago) when we rounded off the first 100. That means 150 extra parks in only 104 weeks, so an average of approximately 1.5 parks per week. The next parkrun style target will be 500 parks which may seem quite improbable right now but let's not rule anything out. There will be other matters to focus on in the meantime. As we did when we reached the 100 mark, all qualifying runs are included this week with no splitting of hairs or scrutinising time zones. The heroes are:
We are now up to 252 with a dozen more where new members ran before they joined (and may return to some time). Moving on from the travellers the majority of club parkrunners supported
regular parkruns:
Benita and John Scaife(29:32) joined Alan Anderson (31:10) and Piers Keenleyside (24:41) at Gunnersbury. The run at Maidenhead had been cancelled as non-parkrun travellers had invaded Braywick Park earlier in the week. Paul Watt(22:41) ran his best ever parkrun at Rushmoor but couldn't quite keep up with Julie Barclay (22:25). Former members I check up on from time to time included Linda Winning (37:35), now based in West Wales, who was at Frimley for a second week for her 99th parkun. The black vest beckons. David Tyas (20:16, run #399) is still tracking Alan Anderson (#406) as they head for a lifetime target of 500. A former sparring partner of Chris Brasher, John Hanscombe, ran his 489th run at Bushy Park. There is a possibility that he could reach 500 the same week as Ian Cunningham celebrates his 250. It could be quite a party. Good luck to all parkrunners taking on the London Marathon this coming weekend. parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt will be making a rare appearance in the event and aiming to raise loads of money for Alzheimer's Research. Steve Newell (steve-newell@blueyonder.co.uk) Updated parkrun stats: www.barunner.org.uk/results/ba_parkrun_park_totals.xls
Feltham Street-O Orienteering Event - Tuesday 12th April 2016Now, where do I start? Well, for the Street-O event you start at the pub, which is also where you finish, so that is two good points already! In between those two points I managed to accumulate a net total of 219 points which had me finishing the event in 36th place out of 47 runners, or more correctly perhaps "Orienteerers", if there is such a word. Simon Turton would have taken part also but he was nursing a strain from his previous orienteering event the previous weekend. "But what did the event entail?" you ask. As advised in this digest a couple of weeks earlier I had registered for the event simply by liking a post on Facebook. That meant they would be expecting me at the pub and would have a map printed for me and a "dipper" to lend me. I could then turn up at any time from about 18:30 to 19:30 - but I think that they actually started people off earlier and had some setting off later. I timed my arrival to take advantage of free parking from 18:30. I handed over £2 and they told me where to go and how to dip my dipper. Dipping the dipper starts the clock for me and that gave me exactly sixty minutes to run around the Feltham streets visiting as many control points as I could, in any order, and writing down a simple piece of information from each point. So for instance the Cafe at the Ten Pin Bowling Alley is the "Beach" cafe. Most checkpoints involved writing down numbers from fire hydrants or lampposts. What makes the event tricky is that you are given the map then and there and on it are marked the checkpoints and you have to work out the best route to take to navigate to as many checkpoints as you can "on the run". Reading a map, planning a route and running at the same time isn't as easy as it sounds - the body isn't used to prioritising oxygen for the brain as well as the legs. Checkpoints have different points values, generally the further away or the further down deadends the greater the points. Being a Street-O event also means that you have cars, pedestrians, inquisitive children and runners heading into you at blind turns. I was pleased with my performance - I wasn't expecting to make the top half but afterwards I could see how a slightly better route with slightly better map reading would have earned me another 100 points and 320 points would have had me in about 20th place. I was pleased that I made it all the way out to the front door of Feltham Young Offenders where the checkpoint answer was "do not ADVANCE until gate is fully open". That was the maximum earning 50 point checkpoint and the only reason I ended up with 21 time penalties is because I deviated on the run back to get a twenty point check, including an unnecessary delay whilst my brain tried to remember which way was right and which way left. The winner, incidentally, ended up with 500 points - in a different league though with 750 points available they still failed to reach 1/3 of them! The next Street-O event is on Wednesday 11th May at Notting Hill - check http://slow.org.uk/streeto/nottinghill2016/ for details. Roderick Hoffman Running ShortsThames Towpath Ten Sunday 17th April 2016
Now to taper for London and recover from a thigh injury - very tender spot in the middle like I was given a 'dead leg'. Piers Keenleyside Next Digest?Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at news@barunner.org.uk. Club website:
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