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BA Athletics Club News Digest 22nd August 2022

Events marked "#" are points scoring for the club's participation trophy - for the 2022 title.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

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

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 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.

Weekly Athletic Achievement (by late Sunday) or use the Facebook group prompt:

Next NOW event 31st August - Stockley Park parkrun course

This time last year we had a NOW event at Stockley Park to try out a possible 5km parkrun course. We are now expecting that parkrun to start before the end of the year but the course will be different, though still a one lap 5k. This NOW event will consist of a group jog round the new course. There will also be a shorter walking route available. We need to decide whether to meet in the centre as before, handy for the cafe and toilets, or to meet where the parkrun will meet and visit a (fairly) convenient pub after the NOW. Let me know if you are available, and whether you have a preference.

> Roderick Hoffman

Equinox 5k Bedfont Lakes 21st September

The annual Equinox 5km will be held at Bedfont Lakes on Wednesday 21st September. The course will be two anticlockwise laps starting and finishing by the Motte. We will be using the Bedfont Road car park (no toilets). Some may choose to do a warm-up/down run from the Bedfont Club house.

The changing rooms and toilets at the Bedfont FC in Hatton Road will be available before and after the run.

We will start in small groups from 6pm onwards.  Runners should select a start time which will allow them to finish by 6.45 pm.  Sunset can be expected at 7pm. [Timings to be confirmed once we are certain of the carpark closure time for that date]

> Steve Newell

Track & Field - Rosenheim League Final Results

As reported last week, our ladies T&F team focused on the Vet’s League, producing a range of great results.  Our men’s team split themselves between the Vet’s and Rosenheim Leagues, and were successful in qualifying for this final ahead of four other clubs.

Race day coincided with the end of our second summer heat wave.  Amazing thunderstorms during the late afternoon cleared to provide a cooler evening and a wet track, with flooded throwing circles.

Our two supporters, Julie and Linda, were joined early on by Paul Watt.  An unfortunate injury in warm-up ruled Paul out of the 1500m, so the three cheered on our team in this high standard event.

We were lucky to be joined by new member Sean O’Keeffe, who took on the throwing duties for the evening.  Leaving behind his usual M60, 5kg weights, he launched the senior 7.26kg hammer and shot to respectable distances from the soggy throwing circles.

On the track, we acquitted ourselves well against athletes 35 years our junior.  Mike Ball produced 100m and 200m times consistent with his performances throughout the season, as did Steve Taylor in the 3000m.  Steve T also tackled the spirited 800m, while Steve Hillier ran his first competitive 400m in several years and he completed the programme by launching himself into a sandpit.

It proved a great social evening, and an opportunity to watch, and compete against, some very quick athletes and famous clubs.  Our eighth T&F competition of the summer brought our season to a close after three months.  Thanks to all of the ladies and men who have competed this summer, and we hope to see a few more of you on the track next May.

Rosenheim League Track & Field Final, Kingston 17th August 2022

100m	Michael Ball	M60	16.7	8th
200m	Michael Ball	M60	36.2	8th
400m	Steve Hillier	M65	108.3	7th
800m	Steve Taylor	M55	03:31.2	6th
3000m	Steve Taylor	M55	15:04.4	4th
Long Jump	Steve Hillier	M65	2.56	7th
Hammer	Sean O'Keeffe	M60	14.60	6th
Shot	Sean O'Keeffe	M60	7.40	8th

Final standings

Ed: No shame in coming last - we beat all of the teams that failed to qualify.

Steve Hillier

Recent Activity Achievements

I picked up on 16 club members and friends reporting recent activity achievements this week.

Incase you were wondering - Petra's photograph is of her being thanked by the committee of the rabbit club she is a member of for attending their event instead of the March parkrun.

Roderick Hoffman

parkrun Results for Saturday 20th August 2022

36 activities are recorded this week. Please get in touch if your activity is missing.

parkrun Review Saturday 20th August 2022

Trish McCabe (30:47) took time out from her "Londone" quest and became our latest member to try the steep inclines at Church Mead in Amersham. Her recent runs at Oakhill, Sunny Hill and Queen Elizabeth (Hampshire) will have helped her preparation. Half of the 100 or so runners there this week were first timers. Few are brave enough to return and try for a pb!

The standout performances this week came from David Cowell with a quick 18:44 at Highbury Fields (5+ laps for those who haven't tried it yet), Mike Dennison (19:45, 84.14%) at Bushy and Alice Banks (26:23, 79.22%) at Higginson, Marlow.

The club different events tally moved up to 670 with Roderick Hoffman (30:44) at Tidworth in Wiltshire and Harjit Jhooti at Inch Beach in Co Kerry.

John Taylor (20:38) was the fastest of a Taylor clan outing at Rickmansworth. John is eleven years into his parkrun career and a third of all his runs have been in the last twelve months.

Steve Newell

parkrun Returns

Fulham Palace parkrun will resume on 3rd September after a gap of seven months. Hammersmith and Fulham council have been resurfacing all of the footpaths. To start with it will be for one week only as Bishops Park will be hosting a charity event in 10th September. That event is the Ultra Challenge Thames Path event from Bishops Park, Fulham to Hampton Court Palace.  The towpath could be busy that Saturday as the annual Great River (rowing) Race from Greenwich to Petersham Meadows which attracts 400 boats and thousands of spectators is on the same day.

From the 17th September we should see a resumption of regular Saturday parkruns. Work on the Craven Cottage stadium expansion is nearing completion but the presence of constructors and their equipment will be evident for a few months yet. Fulham Palace parkrun is a flat three lapper and was regularly attracting 400 runners before the interruption.

The international tourists amongst us will be delighted to hear that parkrun Malaysia is back, after a gap of 128 weeks. Both Taman Pudu Ulu and Presint 18 restarted on Saturday and a third parkrun is due to start in a few weeks' time. Only three parkruns have had longer breaks in operation - Avery Beach in Canada returned after 129 weeks, Nahoon Point had a break of 185 weeks and last month Tramore Valley in Cork restarted after a gap of 338 weeks (pictured - showing steady numbers since the restart). Some parkruns, paused for the pandemic, have not yet restarted but are still not officially closed.

Also whilst one can't see Russian parkruns returning, not for a long while anyway, but the current closure of French parkruns is still seen as temporary.

parkrun Non-Tourist Achievement - The Groundhog Day

Ben Kelly had a Groundhog Day parkrun at Reading on Saturday. The Groundhog Day is when you run at the same parkrun venue consecutively and achieve exactly the same time. That's twice this year that Ben has had a Groundhog, having earlier achieved the same on 22nd January, also at Reading. The following table shows 66 Groundhog Day achievements by current members (although including periods of time when they may not have been members). I don't have everyone's data back-loaded so apologies to anyone who I've missed - please write in and tell me of your achievement. In the table below John Coffey has achieved Groundhog Days at three different venues. Trish McCabe has achieved the most - seven in total. 28 club members have had Groundhog Days. This is one parkrun achievement that I don't have and never expect to get - since I make a point of never running at the same parkrun venue consecutively.

# Groundhog Day is observed on the 2nd February so Ian Haylock has had a Groundhog Day on Groundhog Day itself, and Bob Bannister had one where the first run had been on Groundhog Day.

* Both Colin Haylock and Piers Keenleyside have achieved Groundhog Days despite having improved age grade performances. This occurs when someone has a birthday between the two run dates. They still count as Groundhog Days.

** Trish has twice had a double Groundhog - the same time on three consecutive occasions. On the first of these in 2013 she had achieved a PB of 28:23 on the first run and then equalled it on the next two runs! Her next Groundhog, on 23rd August, were two runs of that exact same time (though she had improved her PB in the meantime). Then in 2016 she had more Groundhog Days including another double. I think that this adequately explains why Trish has now become a parkrun tourist.

Full club parkrun database - {read access to club parkrun database} - Download and explore.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

> Roderick Hoffman

Toughest and Easiest parkruns

Paul seems to have been taken by surprise by the toughness of Durlston - he shouldn't have been since in the digest of 21st March, the week it launched, I warned that it would be brutal and then in the digest of 4th July I warned that it had 200m of ascent vs only the 129m at Church Mead. Also both Harjit and Melanie ran it (or climbed it) on 9th April and have spoken about it since.

There is a compiled list of UK parkruns by relative speed ( Content Item (thepowerof10.info) ). This uses run times of parkrunners who run different parkruns to suggest which are easier to run fast or more difficult. There are many potential issues with this, but it should be roughly accurate - it reports Victoria Dock as the quickest parkrun and Great Yarmouth North Beach as the slowest. It only includes parkruns that started before this year so it doesn't currently include Durlston or Church Mead. Of parkrurns several members have done Henley-on-Thames is a 5.5 (high equates to slow) and is 686th of the 708 UK parkruns. Queen Elizabeth is a 5.0, Wendover Woods 4.5, Lloyd 4.4 (higher or lower depending on the moisture level in the mud), Sunny Hill 3.8. At the fast end Victoria Dock scored 0.8, Sutcliff 1.0, Dulwich 1.2, Northala Fields, Bushy Park and Woodley 1.7. Popular local Bedfont Lakes is a very average 2.6, 356th of the 708.

Roderick Hoffman

Letters to the Editor

Next Digest - Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send them to the editor, Roderick Hoffman, at news@barunner.org.uk.

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