baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 20th April 2020

Events - see below:

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

Solo Events Calendar

All face-to-face events are off until at least the end of May, 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

2020 BAAC Solo Exercise Survey

What are you up to during this period of solo exercising? And is the club doing the right things to support you?

I've set up a survey to ask those sorts of question and to give us some responses to help us review what we are doing. The survey is here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FBQRXTW and is open to all digest readers whether you are members of the club or not. Please open the survey and answer at least the first few questions to give us feedback and confidence. I'll summarise the responses and include them in next week's digest. Thank you.

Any concerns or queries - email me: Roderick Hoffman

Midweek SOLO Named 10k and 5k results #

23 runners took part in this week's midweek challenge - either a 10k or a 5k course. Some participants had difficulty with the distance so the results below are based on speed for those doing 10k or longer, and those doing between 5k and under 10k. I've adjusted some of the run names to avoid clashes with established events (such as the Boston 10k). You will note two pairs of runners achieving the same speed over their runs - again we can only imagine the sprint finishes we would have had, had we been cheering them on!

10k Results

5k Results

Roderick Hoffman

This week's Midweek Challenge - Your-Street-O

The Midweek Challenge this week is a "Your-Street-O" event - with the objective of visiting as many of the controls on your map within ONE hour (90 minutes if walking). You will need to pre-enter this so that I have enough time to prepare the maps needed. I sent out twenty maps yesterday to those I knew were interested. I could prepare some additional maps tomorrow (Tuesday) so if you want to give this a go between Wednesday and Friday let me know your postcode ASAP please.

For those who have entered - send me the results, for instance by filling in this table and forwarding to mailto:News@barunner.org.uk:

Runner Name	Date	Run or Walk?	Time (max... run 60m, walk 90m)	Number of Controls Visited	+Home within the limit?	Comment (please list controls visited, in order, or attach GPS trail)

Please submit by the end of Friday to enable me to correlate the results.

Roderick Hoffman

Next week's Midweek challenge will probably be based on the What 3 Word locations...I just need to think about how this would work. If you don't know what I mean about "what 3 words" then check out where I live on this map: https://what3words.com/transit.envy.wacky . Yes, living at "transit envy wacky" is obviously saying something about me...but what three word locations do I run to? And how can we form that into a running challenge? We'll find out next week.

BAAC 2020 Virtual Relay Marathon – Sunday 26th April - Reminder #

Joe's organised event is THIS Sunday. The last update from him spoke of there being five complete teams of 26 runners including one of BAAC members & associates (though I think we were still two short). reminder - each team member will be running one mile in sequence with start and finishes being communicated via WhatsApp or other electronic means.

Let Joe know by the end of tomorrow (Tuesday) if you want to be included in this event (and remember that it is a club points scoring event).

Joe Says:

"Even though many of us are managing to keep fit and our minds positive in the current situation I am in touch with quite a lot of runners (including some of our marathon squad) who are finding motivation difficult. I mentioned this event to a number of them and it has certainly sparked great interest and they have put their running shoes on again and are out training. To mark the original 2020 London Marathon day I am organising a number of teams to run a ‘live’ virtual relay marathon, preferring teams to comprise 26 members each running 1 mile.

It is free entry ! Runners can request an approximate start time after 8am. Your runs would be local to you, can even be on a treadmill, and of course we can have participants worldwide!  I already have small groups in Scotland and Berlin onboard!  Again, just to be clear, you can still do your longer runs but just report in your mile stint being completed and in what time, to hand over the ‘virtual baton’ to the next runner.

If you cannot run on the Sunday morning then contact me nevertheless because I am allowing some ‘out of time’ runners who can do individual stints the day before. 

There will be a special certificate issued to all competing, and we will be able to look back in the happier times to come that we ‘proudly, but safely, ran London 2020 despite Corona!'). Please email me directly to confirm your interest – I cannot take entries via the Facebook group."

Joe Nolan JoeN@barunner.org.uk

PLUS - This is a Charity Fundraising Opportunity

Charities are being hit hard because of the postponement of the London Marathon and other fundraising opportunities.

Next Sunday a team of BAAC runners will be running in the 2020 Virtual Relay Marathon in place of the London Marathon. There will be 26 of us in the team and we'll each be running one mile, as solo runs but in sequence as a virtual relay. This is a good opportunity to raise funds for one of the charities that won't be earning their usual contributions from events such as the London Marathon. I've set up the following JustGiving page for the BAAC team. This is through the "2.6 Challenge" scheme and for "White Lodge", one of the club's preferred charities. Please sponsor us and encourage your friends and relatives to do the same.

You are of course welcome to contribute to a different charity through a different mechanism - if you let me know through a private message I can keep track of the total contribution we will be making on Sunday. I doubt it will hit the £20million mark but every little helps!

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/2020-baac-virtual-relay-london-marathon

Roderick Hoffman

SOLO activity achievement weekend 17th to 20th April 2020

Mixed weather over the weekend with some having rain on Saturday, then cold on Sunday morning but really nice conditions on Sunday afternoon. Some of us are keeping good form - look at the 5k times of Maria and Paul. Maria didn't post a time for the Midweek Challenge but it looks like she'd have been well in front had she done so.

Slightly fewer of us posted me about their weekend achievements (unless I missed a batch). There were still 30 of us in the above table and between us we ran or walked a total of 222km (plus the cycling, rowing and other exercises).

Same again next weekend? Submit your best performance 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

NEW Colours Quiz

Here is Linda Hillier's numbers quiz.  For those people who have an aversion to numerical problems and who prefer to visualise the issue, try this one!  Some clues are obvious, some are tough, and it's just a bit of fun!  Enjoy.

Colours Quiz

On Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/636199849751546/permalink/2981530825218425/) ten of us have had a go but none of us have managed to get the following four. Have you? Let us know. The Facebook item will have our answers added later on this week.

7: Green F; P S I
14: Crimson = S L in ‘S W’
20: White and Blue N M at K
24: Blue R M in V

Roderick Hoffman

Coronavirus Warning Footnote

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,
• Do not travel unnecessarily far to a location for a run - use a local or nearby park or leisure route. Your judgment is needed on this point, for instance it could be that your nearest park is busy with other people, but you live a short drive away from empty open countryside,
• 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 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. For club solo relays events we will not include distances of more than half marathon length (21km),
• 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.

Not for you, no longer interested? remove me please.

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