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BA Athletics Club News Digest 20th July 2015

Events:

  • Thursday 23rd July - BA Fun Run and Little Legs at Harmondsworth Moor from 16:00.
  • Wednesday 29th July - Ruffell Runaround Run-of-the-Month - Heston Venue from 18:00
  • Thursday 6th August - Magic Mile, Bath Road at 12:45

New members and non-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 (updated 5th July).  Running related gossip and chat: Facebook "BA Runner" (link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/636199849751546/).

No longer interested?  To be removed from the BA Athletics Club mailing list 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


New Club Promotional Poster

There is a new promotional poster with references to events over the next four months. Please download a copy and print for your local notice board or forward to friends and colleagues.

http://www.barunner.org.uk/attachments/PosterJul2015.pdf

Roderick Hoffman


Results of the Parkway Mile - 1st July 2015

Name Prediction Actual Time diff
Eddie Giles 07:30 07:25 00:05
Chris Kelly 06:00 06:10 00:10
Richard Ruffell 06:45 06:23 00:22
Steve Hillier 09:00 09:24 00:24
Roderick Hoffman 07:30 07:59 00:29
Dennis Foxley 08:15 07:38 00:37
Alan Anderson 09:00 10:07 01:07

So closest to their predication - Eddie Giles, and fastest on the day - Chris Kelly.

Paul Brandon


Results of the 4th and final Vets league match of the 2015 season at Perivale, Monday 13th July

Janet Smith Hammer – 41.94m Javelin :-  17.93m    
Steve Hillier:- Hammer – 19.49m Javelin – 19.83m 200m – 35.0  
Eddie Giles     200m – 34.5 800m – 3.06.6

Just 3 of us at Perivale for the last vets league match of the season. Janet won her age related Hammer event with a great 41.94m throw and 2nd in her age for the Javelin.

Steve was also 2nd in his age cat event.

Hope to see you all next year in the vets league.

Eddie Giles


Club parkrun results for Saturday 18th July 2015

18th July 2015 Family, Friends,+ Time parkrun Comment Grade
Steve Newell 32:23 Aldenham park #64, BA park #188 55%
Becky Thurtell 23:58 Beckton run #311, park #123 74%
Roderick Hoffman 25:30 Beckton club course rec, park #117 60%
Scott Davison 23:28 Bedfont Lakes run #123 60%
Caroline Cockram 25:44 Bedfont Lakes run #189 62%
David Duggan 27:03 Bedfont Lakes run #108 57%
Gill Westbrook 29:10 Bedfont Lakes run #35 65%
Joe Nolan 30:39 Black Park run #228 52%
Colin Haylock 19:50 Bushy Park run #57 72%
Ian Cunningham 21:49 Bushy Park run #204 69%
John Scaife 24:10 Catton run #19 67%
Ben Chaytow 22:55 Crane Park run #108 62%
Caroline Yarnell 23:13 Ellesmere Port age cat rec 77%
Matt Gardner 21:49 Fulham Palace run #20 59%
James Glover 23:56 Guildford parkrun pb 62%
Alastair Heslop volunteer Guildford marshal
Kerstin Luksch 20:58 Gunnersbury pb (as usual) 71%
Piers Keenleyside 24:22 Gunnersbury run #106 65%
Alan Anderson 28:36 Gunnersbury run #369 73%
Joan Foxley 36:07 Harrow run #2 58%
Chris Cowell 36:07 Harrow 1st run at Harrow, park #150 48%
Denis Foxley 36:08 Harrow run #10 47%
Steve Taylor 23:49 Northala Fields run #34 63%
Richard Ruffell 21:37 Pomfrey Hill park #42, BA park #186 70%
Kevin Holland 28:57 Poole run #17 59%
Alan Friar 25:50 Reading run #167 68%
Chris Kelly 28:03 Reading run #245 53%
Janet Smith 31:52 Southampton park #11, BA park #187 53%
Sreeram Sethuraman volunteer Upton Court backup timer
Tom Rowley volunteer Woking marshal

This was a week for parkrun tourism with three new parkruns added to the club list and lots of other stories to tell as well.

Richard Ruffell was in Bristol and was the first club member to run at Pomfrey Hill (21:37).  That was park number 42 for Richard. Ten minutes later Janet Smith crossed the finish line at Southampton (31:52) with her best time this year.  Janet was 474th out of 584, the attendances at Southampton are often over 600 these days.  Janet has now run at eleven different parkruns.

Steve Newell (32:23) was one of a mere 42 runners at Aldenham which only started a few weeks ago and has yet to attract a strong local following.  A feature of Aldenham, where the course is basically two laps through the woods round a reservoir, is the £4.50 (all day) charge for the car park.  In his usual style Steve used his freedom pass to travel to Elstree and Borehamwood station and then cycled and walked along part of the London Loop through a delightful field of ripening broad beans to reach the start. That takes Steve up to 64 parks and the club total moves on to 188.   Embarrassingly Steve was overtaken by a racewalker from New Zealand, Richard McChesney, towards the end of the 5km.  Richard was completing his 96th different parkrun and plans to complete his century in New Zealand next month. 

In the reverse direction and coming up from Down Under for her first parkrun on home soil, former club member Caroline Yarnell who has settled in Sydney, visited Ellesmere Port for her first parkrun outside Australia.  She has lost little of her speed over the years and set a new age category record of 23:13.  Far be it from me to reveal which age group she has now joined, you wouldn't believe it anyway. 

Roderick Hoffman was at the Royal Docks, familiar territory for those involved in WARR 2010, to support his sister at the Great Swim (London).  He took the opportunity to try Beckton parkrun for the first time and set a new club record there (25:30*).  That took his tally up to 117 parkruns.

Over at Harrow where Denis Foxley is now becoming a regular parkrunner, Joan Foxley made her second appearance and they ran round the three laps course with Chris Cowell who was completing his 150th different parkrun.  Chris Cowell has made a bit of a career out of parkrun tourism and was the first to complete 100 different parks, almost all of them in UK.  He has also run 116 times at Basingstoke.   

Our fastest runner this week was Colin Haylock with 19:50 at Bushy Park.  Kerstin Luksch continues to improve and dipped under 21 minutes for the first time at Gunnersbury (20:58).  James Glover ran a parkrun pb at Guildford (23:58).

Updated club parkrun stats: www.barunner.org.uk/results/ba_parkrun_park_totals.xls 

Steve Newell

* There has been a tendency for Roderick to follow Steve N around the country and take club records off him, Richard to take them off Roderick and Chris to take the records off from Richard.  Here are the current scores across 180 parkruns (I'll do something for the Ladies another time).  Interesting to see that John Scaife holds 8 club records! Dave Dixon and Luke Smith share the record for holding the club best at every parkrun they have run at. In total there are 27 of us holding club bests - check Steve's stats to see who holds where.

Male Total parkruns Tourist parkruns Club Bests
Roderick Hoffman 164 117 70
Richard Ruffell 82 42 31
Chris Kelly 245 24 18
John Scaife 19 15 8
Barry Walters 34 13 7
Steve Newell 184 64 7
Neil Frediani 120 21 5
Ian Cunningham 204 15 4
Gary Rushmer 53 6 4
Dave Dixon 4 3 3
Ben Chaytow 108 7 3
Matt Gardner 20 8 2
Eddie Giles 61 12 2
Gareth Snook 13 3 2
Ray Hampton 12 6 2
Paul Knechtl 11 3 1
Piers Keenleyside 106 12 1
Denis Foxley 10 2 1
Simon Ashford 15 5 1
James Glover 7 2 1
Brian Bennett 43 16 1
Jeremy Short 69 6 1
Sr'ram Sethuraman 52 4 1
Adrian Haines 16 2 1
Steve Taylor 34 6 1
John Taylor 5 4 1
Luke Smith 1 1 1
Grand Total     180

On August 1st I expect to be running at Fulham parkrun to cheer Gregory Bailey across the finish line.  A while back I had become (and will always be) the first parkrunner to earn their 50 shirt by running at 50 different parkruns.  Gregory Bailey will be the first to earn his 100 shirt at his 100th tourist parkrun. Checking the stats this idea is catching on with five other parkrunners with 100% tourist records on 46, 46, 43, 37, and 37 parkruns respectively. Of course it is much easier these days because of the large number of parkruns to choose from - nevertheless it is two years' worth of parkruns without a single return visit.

Roderick Hoffman


Race to the Stones

Hello runners,

Following several 35 and 40 mile training runs, I decided to grab a place on the last day of registration for the 'Race to the Stones'; the 100K overnight option (50K each day).  The route, along the oldest path in Britain, start line in Oxfordshire to the finish next to the 5,000-year-old stone circle at Avebury.

Day one, a 25 degree day, settling into a group of six running at similar pace, the initial 5 miles at an easy 8:30 pace quickly changed as we started to scramble up hills, from time to time running was simply not possible, and now the watch showed an average of 9:20.  We were then faced with almost an assault course and the challenge of avoiding tree roots;  for approx. the next 8 miles four of the six of us tripped over.  By mile 11 I was in bits and had enough but the remaining couple of miles soon came and we were 'Out of the woods'.  Carrying on for a few miles a runner in front said to another, "Do you wanna go past?", the other replied, "Na, I know what's coming, so it's not worth it".   Well, all I could do is just swear and swear, and eventually thought "just accept the challenge of the terrain".   Yes there were many hills and challenges but now I had accepted the course and put things into prospective, and the course did eventually get easier under foot.

The scenery along the Ridgeway was fantastic and the organisation 'exceptional', it really was something! At times you are alone and what seems miles from anywhere, then another runner appears, you sometimes spend time talking about anything in order to take away the pain or thoughts of what distance you have to go, but over such distances everyone's pace varies considerably at different times, unless they just got fed up with me and moved on.

At the finish the race director said " Would I do it again", I replied "Let me have a rest first!", he smiled and then said "Did you enjoy it?", "No”, but I'll be there next year".  

Some notes:

Well organised and very tough course. Zinc oxide tape did the job, just one blister. Manage to calculate the right amount of camel pack fuel required between every other pit stop. Next time (Yes, hopefully there will be) will need some kind of gator to keep the small stones out of the trainers.   Don’t need to eat as much during the run as picked up a stitch, eat smaller amount over a greater distance. If hot (and it was) take salt.   The importance of carrying a mobile and a survival sheet in case of emergency; some points you can be on your own for a long time.

Colin Haylock


Running Shorts

Something to do after Saturday's parkun perhaps...

You may like to...

...Visit our Family Day at Cranford Park on Sat. July 25 (11am - 4:30pm). There will be lots going on, from ferret racing to falconry, from dueling knights to an animal farm - admission is free. There will be a small history exhibition in the stables and St Dunstan's Church will be open to view. Please see the poster attached.

Regards,

Bob Barton

Secretary

www.cranfordparkfriends.org    

Roderick Hoffman

WARR Early Bookers

So far early bookers for this year's WARR event include Roderick Hoffman, Piers Keenleyside, Tim Bellars+, The Scaifes, Helen Smith, the Rushmers and John Bussey.  There is room for many more in the team.


News for the next BAAC News Digest?

Please send items for inclusion in the next Digest.  Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at news@barunner.org.uk.


Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.


 

      

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