baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 22nd November 2021

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

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

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

Note that we have discovered that the Perivale 5 is on this year, on December 5th, and we've added it as the Run-of-the-Month for December. For details and entry: Perivale 5 - Perivale 5 (activetrainingworld.com)

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.

Track-on-Field (by end of Sunday 28th November, to be reported on in the following digest):

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

Handicap on Wednesday #

Expect it to be dark this week so please wear something bright and consider running with a head torch. Remember that the aim is to finish the run at 19:00 so Steve will handicap each runner to enable that.

The club changing rooms will be open from about 17:30 and the rooms and showers will be available after the run. We have the function room booked for a drink after the run but note that there is no food available at the Bedfont Club - though you are welcome to bring in or order for delivery your own.

The event will run more smoothly if we know who will be coming so please advise us if you are considering attendance - we'd rather allow for you and have you not turn up than the other way around. So, let us know your likely attendance, whether you'd be doing the five mile two-lap course or just the one lap and if you didn't run last month what you would estimate your run/walk time to be.
>Roderick Hoffman

Retired Runners Lunch Reminder

This lunch is at the Steam Packet, 85 Strand on the Green, W4 3PU on Monday 13th December.

No running involved, just a pub lunch.

Free local car parking is possible but check your vehicle is ULEZ compliant. Kew Bridge is quite well served by public transport.

Partners welcome.  Everybody is eligible especially people who have given up work and/or given up running.

Please drop me a line if you haven't already.

>Steve Newell

NOW Wednesday 17th November from 12:00 - Langley Park Report

On Wednesday we had a most enjoyable NOW run around Langley Park. The weather was fabulous for the time of year - as the picture shows. The 5k route included long avenues of impressive redwoods, the Capability Brown lake landscape around The Langley Hotel and the rhododendrons of the Temple Gardens. There was a bit of a climb halfway round but nothing you could call a hill and not sufficient to stop the ladies in the group chatting away as they ran up it (the men didn't have the breath). The photograph is of us towards the end of the run just 250m from the cafe and carpark. But having led us there by a tortourous route I got everyone to point in the direction of the carpark. Only two pairs pointed in the same direction and no one pointed in the correct direction. Fortunately I did know the way (having practiced it the previous day whilst doing the park Orienteering course).

The picture shows all of the runners albeit photographer Melanie only as a shadow of herself. Marion (with John) and John (with Melanie) also went for walks and joined us in the cafe afterwards.

The next NOW event will be on the 19th January and Steve Newell will be taking onboard suggestions for venues. Rickmansworth is pencilled in.

Roderick Hoffman

> Steve Newell

Your Wellbeing Matters

I have recently been appointed the British Airways Athletics Club Welfare Officer and have undertaken training in Welfare and Safeguarding with England Athletics.

British Airways AC takes the wellbeing and welfare of its members very seriously. If any member has a concern or worry relating to the welfare of themselves or others, or wishes to report an incident, I can be contacted on Welfare@barunner.org.uk .

Amanda Coombs

Note that this is in addition to Amanda's role as Ladies Captain.

KLM Beach Run - Saturday 18th December

KLM Road Runners traditionally organise a beach race at this time of year and have a gala dinner afterwards and delight in members of other airline running clubs making it (with free entry for the race). This year they have decided to go ahead with a lighter event. This will include the traditional courses with a 6km run and a 10km run held from 1pm local time. These will not be timed...but that won't prevent them being competitively fought at the front! The courses are up the coast through paths on the sand dunes and then back down the North Sea beach. As always pray for cold weather so that the sand-grains stick together. There will be an informal drink afterwards.

Let me know if you are interested in attending this. Also, if you are prepared to go out on the Friday, I'll be combining the trip with a Dutch parkrun - even one starting with the elusive "Z".

>Roderick Hoffman

Activity Achievements over the week 15th to 21st November 2021

18 club members and friends reported their week activity achievements.

Roderick Hoffman

Veteran's Award

We managed to catch up with Piers at the NOW event, in-between marathons, and present him with the club veteran's trophy for his achievements in 2020. This was given to him for his achievements including his survival of the Doha Marathon, and in the hope that if we gave him the award he'd stop damaging himself.

Picture by Melanie Miller.

Christmas Do

Don't forget that for our Christmas Do on Wednesday 22nd December we'll be having a Secret Santa. Please find and wrap a present worth around £5 - of the quality that you would like to receive.

The Chairman will also be providing some stocking fillers at the event! The good news for Steve Hillier is that these won't be red tee-shirts.

parkrun results for Saturday 20th November 2021

37 runners and volunteers are listed below - get in touch if your activity is missing. A late result from Canada went unreported last week.  Paul Timms (23:40) ran at Downsview (also see below), Toronto, our first transatlantic parkrun for a while.  That was yet another new parkrun for us taking the total to 604. Paul also lowered the club record at Tetbury Goods Sheds recently to 22:58.

On to this week and the quest to explore new lands hasn’t diminished.  Neil Frediani (50:04) visited the post pandemic Tyne Green Country Park parkrun in Hexham, Northumberland for the first time and should be confident about bettering the club record on his next visit.  He was partnering a novice who improved on her previous parkrun time by 12 minutes.  Later in the day news came that David Duggan (31:11) had succeeded in flying BA to Washington and get to the start line of the Baltimore and Annapolis Trail parkrun which to his surprise is deemed locally to be a race!  Maybe the Pilgrim Fathers never grasped the concept of a time-trial but to be fair to them the pendulum clock wasn’t invented until 36 years after the Mayflower sailed. So the club total has moved on to 606 different parkruns.

Steve Newell (45:57) made the simple journey to Charlton via the excellent North Greenwich (O2) public transport hub and regained his Londone badge.  Eight weeks on from the launch of Charlton, 52 parkrunners have now completed the 58 parkruns in the London boroughs. A few miles away Roderick Hoffman (29:59) went to the 50th Bethlem Royal Hospital parkrun where the post Covid restart was delayed until last month. Roderick is now on 56 London parkruns.  Trish McCabe has done 36 and is the only other member to have done at least half the runs.  This week Trish McCabe (30:11) was at Broadwater in Surrey for the first time and was caught on camera and appears in the run report this week.

Scott Davison (25:41) ran at Upton Court for the first time.  Scott is now on 359 runs and has been mostly loyal to Bedfont Lakes and Crane Park for many years.

Paul Watt (19:18) went to Dulwich which has a reputation of being a fast course with its three laps of the carriage drive and only shallow gradients.  His best parkrun time ever by 21 seconds and a club course record.  Julie Barclay (25:48) nursed her way round for the women's club record.  Those with long memories might recall former member Natalie Ruffell (now with Clapham Chasers) achieving excellent and faster times at Dulwich but she wasn’t with us at the time (or now). She has run most recently at Rickmansworth in September being first lady home in 21:08 and we wish her well.

Steve Newell

Now, Downsview is not to be confused with Downview, where Jain Reid ran last year. Downview is the Restricted Access parkrun in Sutton, within London but fortunately for Steve and the other 51 Londone parkrunners, not counting for the Londone badge. We've also had runners at Feltham, another Restricted Access parkrun within London. I've made a change to the Club parkrun Database and the Club Events Map so that these Restricted Access parkruns do show up, and also those parkruns that no longer operate. There was once a parkrun in Morden Hall in Sutton, though "once" is the operative word since it only operated on the one occasion.

Roderick Hoffman

Full club parkrun database - {read access to club parkrun database} - Download and explore (this is where I get most of my club stats from).

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

Bushy parkrun - Club Featured parkrun Saturday 27th November

If you don't know which parkrun to do on Saturday then please turn up at the one that started it off, Bushy parkrun in the middle of Bushy Park. A number of us will be seeing if we can spot each other within the crowds - they have averaged over 1,000 runners since the restart. The event is very well organised because of, rather than despite, the numbers attending.

Regular runner Ian Cunningham reports "Parking has been far better since the road through Bushy Park was closed to through traffic.. but it does mean if you enter from the north you have to use the Pheasantry carpark and the Diana fountain one from the south. Since the restart there has been parking space available until 8:45 at the Diana carpark and sometimes it’s not even full!"

Roderick obo John Scaife

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

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