baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 23rd March 2020

Events:

• Wednesday 25th March - SOLO 5 Mile Handicap @ your course at your time # [see below]
• Weekend 28th/29th March - Second SOLO park run @ your time and course [see below]
• Thursday 2nd April Local Mile @ your course, your time [tbc]

All face-to-face events are off for the time being but the club continues to operate with Solo runs - these ARE still permitted but see the Coronavirus footnote at end.

New members and potential members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at these events. The full diary of club featured events is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml. Last updated: 10th March/19th March but further cancellations expected.

* Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] (parkrun details updated 12th February 2020) / # Club Points event.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BARunnerUK/ (formal "front window" club page), BA Runner Facebook Group (informal "back office", ask to join).

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

SOLO Five Mile Handicap this Wednesday! # (see footnote for Coronavirus restrictions))

We are running the final leg of this year's Winter Five Mile Handicap on Wednesday, albeit as a solo run. This will still be a club points scoring event #.

So on Wednesday, at a convenient time for yourself and on a course where you should be able to distance yourself from anyone else, push yourself round a course of length between 4 and 6miles (6.5 to 10km). Your speed will be judged alongside the speeds with which you have done the other handicap runs. Please reply to this email, or forward it to news@barunner.org.uk, and fill in the following table before pressing send - by close of Thursday 26th (or use the Handicap post in the Facebook group).

Name:
Location of course:
Distance (must be between 4 and 6 miles):
Run time (must be recorded):	[NO dead-heats allowed]
Pick a card:	Select a card numbered from 1 to 20 (see below)

Apologies for those without watches - submissions MUST include both time and distance measurements. You are allowed to look at your watch during the run BUT for that reason we are not publishing target speeds. Treadmills are allowed. Running/walking only.

Social distance rules - NO dead-heats allowed, runners on the same course must finish at least 1s apart. John and Benita take note.

Pick a card - Steve Newell has a pack of twenty "hazard" cards. Many are blank. Others contain hazards such as "Held up at the traffic lights for 30 seconds". Each competitor must choose a card numbered from 1 to 20 and take any hazard they are dealt! You will learn your fate when the full results are published, hopefully next Monday.

Roderick Hoffman

SOLO park run review Weekend 21st/22nd March 2020

Lots of uptake and variety in our weekend's SOLO runs. The list above is in rough order of submission and, obviously, we are all winners in this. Distances varied from 3k to 13miles.

Please submit your best exercise performance of next weekend and keep this list going. You can use the same route or a better one - up to you. If your best exercise performance is on a bike or a rowing machine or up a flight of stairs...then please submit to inspire us all.

PS: Can you get a better "SOLO" run image than my attempt in the picture? Send them in.

Roderick Hoffman {submit by end of Sunday}

parkrun update

I have been tidying up the East Midlands Region section of the "Runners" sheet recently and those members who have run at one or more parkruns there are encouraged just to check that their records are correct.

"East Midlands" includes the counties of Northampton, Leicestershire, Rutland, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.  For an area 100+ miles north of Heathrow we have a very well spread attendance record mainly due to the fact that Sarah Gordon lives in the area and is a prolific tourist.

If parkrun returns before foreign travel is encouraged again the Skegness Boating Lake is a newish event which no member has run at so far.  Another new run is Wollaton Hall in Nottingham, the venue chosen for the recent National Cross Country Championship races which can get incredibly muddy after wet weather but probably well worth a visit at the end of a dry summer.  Ask Christine Munden to tell you all about it.

Steve Newell

Steve's parkrun stats - club parkrun stats

Stuck at home with nothing to do?

Apart from that DIY task you've been putting off...well you still don't need to find the spanner...

There are 30 questions, numbered 1 to 30, and I've just had a quick look and I know the answer to question 4 and perhaps a couple of others. I'll set up a Facebook post in the club group to see if between us we can provide answers to all thirty (without giving those answers away).

Teddy Hall Relays - 11 March 2020

On Wednesday 11th March two members of the British Airways Athletics Club, accompanied by friends, participated in the annual Teddy Hall Relays – a 4 x 4.35 mile relay event organised by the Oxford University Cross Country Club. This large event sees teams from Oxford University sports clubs, departments and colleges compete alongside other universities and athletics clubs.  The standard was varied ranging from first-class athletes to runners enjoying a leisurely jog/walk.

The relays start and finish on the Iffley Road track, the venue where Sir Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile record in 1954. The route heads towards Donnington Bridge, crosses it and takes runners along the Thames Path crossing the river again to lead runners to Christ Church Meadow where the circuit passes near the Oxford University Botanical Garden. The final stretch takes in the High Street, and Magdalen Bridge before returning to the track along Iffley Road.

Results:

The quickest leg was completed by Will Gardener of the RAF A team in 21.44.

BA and Friends:

• Steve Norris 26.05
• Chris Kelly 28.21
• David Brazier 36.15
• Christine Munden 42.58

Christine Munden

Coronavirus Warning Footnote

Exercise outside is still permitted and will boost health, well-being and sanity. "One form of exercise a day, alone or with members of your household", "Parks will remain open for exercise" Boris Johnson, 20:30, 23rd March.

1. With respect to solo runs there have to be some "do nots":

• 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 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.
• 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.

2. 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.

Difficulty viewing this? Read it from the website:- http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml.Club website: www.barunner.org.uk.