baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 22nd February 2021

 For future weeks: inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk.

Unrestricted races are currently off so the club continues to operate with Solo and Shared runs as listed above - for restrictions and advice see the Coronavirus footnote at the end of this digest.  Due to the Tier 4 lockdown all shared runs are off the agenda until at least 29th March. Hopefully shared runs will restart then, including with the Winter Handicap run on Wednesday 31st March.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

Roderick Hoffman

This Week's Events

Please help me by sending in your results, for instance by filling in the tables below and forwarding to News@barunner.org.uk. Some events, such as the weekend achievement, 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.

Track-on-Field (by 5pm on the last Friday of the month, to be reported on next Monday):

Ross Barkley 5k (by the end of the month, will probably be reported on the week after):

Weekend Achievement (by 5pm on the Monday) or use the Facebook prompt that will be added on Friday:

Roderick Hoffman

This Week's Midweek Challenge - Streets A to Z - Results

The results from this are now in and shown in the table and graph below. Quite how I defined the "Finish Line" drawn in Orange on the graphs is now explained at the foot of the instructions; good luck at understanding this: British Airways Athletics Club Street AtoZ Instructions (barunner.org.uk).

In short I'm assuming that the good arrangements of streets near me mean that my distance performances for a number of different letter counts defines a good performance hence anyone that does better than me has done a great performance and the difference can be used to define the winner of the event.

So in terms of distance covered Steve Newell and Piers Keenleyside were first and second (and Piers was also third with his second, longer, run). Both tackled getting the most letters possible so it is possible that the finish line was biased towards them (for my run I did have to travel a mile out of my way west to get my "Q" and a mile out of my way north for a "V" which may have handicapped my results). Each of Steve and Piers live in relatively densely packed parts of London.

When it came to time there were more people in contention, reflecting in part that I'm not the fastest runner in the club - but also good to see great performances collecting ranges of letters from 9 to 19. Ben Cooper, over in Cardiff, got the best result with Mike Dennison a short way behind. I hope that Ben lives in one of the flatter areas of Wales else he must be superhuman to have done so well running between random streets. Obviously Mike had been down every street in his area over the last few weeks so knew exactly where to run. Simon got the third best time result - collecting 19 different letters in a relatively rural area.

Credit to Amanda Coombs whose first midweek run earned her fourth place in both time and distance competitions.

In March we'll have a similar Street challenge but this time collecting as many different street sign suffixes as possible - i.e. "Road", "Street", "Avenue" etc. This will probably have the same variable time, distance and count format since this allows competition between densely populated and rural areas.

Roderick Hoffman

Meet the Committee - Alan Friar

SOLO Activity Achievements, Weekend 19th to 22nd February 2021

Although I've only listed 25 results for members and friends below some others did their Streets A to Z run over the weekend.

^^^ Melanie's Chiltern View

<<< Jane and Albert

Roderick Hoffman

BA Athletics Club Records - 100m

The table below shows the club records held for each age group for the 100m event. To qualify as a record the event has to be competitive and timed and the runner has to be a paid-up member of the club and running in a club vest (or in an in-house organised event). Members for whom BA is a second claim club may need permission from their first claim club for them to run in a BA vest and claim the record (so the same performance cannot be claimed by two different clubs). Note also that our records will also show, in addition, a better performance by a club member in a National Vest (whether they be first or second claim), though there are no examples of this in the 100m. In the table below the status "NEW" indicates that the records have recently been updated with these records and if they replaced a previous record that one is noted with status "Previous". Status "Unset" means that this record has not been claimed. Ladies in the age range 40 to 45 might eagerly await news of this year's Rosenheim Track&Field series!

If you know better, or suspect that you may have broken one of these records, please send us your claim - we want to get these in the best shape possible. New records or questions: Stats@barunner.org.uk .

Roderick Hoffman

* Anne Hurn in the 1999 Dublin ASCA not only set the BA record but it was also the ASCA record and she did the same in the 200m. And then (nothing ever changes) she had to write up the whole Track&Field meet event for the Round-the-Block newsletter hence wasn't able to highlight her own achievement! So, 21.5 years late, well done Anne (where is she now?). [Ed: There was also a full write-up in the Round-the-Block by Colin Bloomfield which gave Anne plenty of praise, and mentioned the running]

Event Management Questionnaire

Coronavirus Warning Footnote [changes from last week underlined or struck-through] (no changes)

No Changes due to today's announcements - though Monday 29th March will probably be a key date for the return of club activities.

In the UK exercise outside is permitted because it will boost physical and mental health and because the risk of catching Coronavirus outdoors is very low provided social distancing advice is kept to.

• Do not exercise outside the house if you have been asked to isolate or 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, or if you consider yourself to be vulnerable, such as being elderly or with pre-existing health conditions,
• You may drive to outdoor publicly accessible open spaces but you are advised to stay 'local' (defined as "in the village, town, or part of the city where you live."), you are also advised to minimise the amount of time spent outside your home and you should follow social distancing guidance whilst you are out. Further advice is to reduce public transport and shared car journeys and do not cross the "Tier 3" boundary (in either direction).
• Tier 4 rules only allow you to exercise on your own, with people in your linked household (bubble), as part of child-care or with one other person. You are advised to exercise just once per day and to minimise the variety of people you meet over the weeks of lockdown. Exercising your pet is allowed in addition, but only on your own.
• As you exercise, keep 2m away from all others including those you run with as well as those you meet on the run, by default diverting around those you meet (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,
• If government instructions are updated to limit or prevent exercising outside your homes, or to meet with fewer people, please respect such instructions - we should be fighting the virus, not authority.

If you are unwell yourself, especially if you have symptoms of 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.

Shared club activities are not permitted in Tier 4.  For when the situation changes any club member may be permitted to organise a shared activity. We recommend the social distancing gap of 2metres although "1meter+" can be followed during the activity itself.  To legitimize a run with more than six participants:

• The chairman (Roderick) or the secretary (Steve Hillier) must be notified in advance that the event is taking place,
• One of the participants must be a paid-up member of the BA Athletics Club and must be prepared to perform the duties of a "Covid-19 Coordinator", if more than six attend we recommend that that member wears a BAAC top or distinctive clothing,
• Participants, and the activity, should not cross the "Tier 3" boundary or the "Tier 4" boundary (in either directions).
• A risk assessment has to be raised based on this template,
• The considerations within the risk assessment must be followed,
• After the activity perform a review of the risk assessment and log and pass on any issues or lessons learned.

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.