baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 24th January 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 EventsPlease 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 30th January, to be reported on in the following digest):
Weekly Athletic Achievement (by late Sunday) or use the Facebook group prompt:
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| Colleague | Activity | Distance | Course | When | Duration | Comments |
| Andy Rayner | Running | 2.2miles | Sun | 00:32:30 | First jog of the year. Also fast walked the same distance twice on Tue and Fri in 37:30 and 38m. | |
| Barry Walters | Running | 13km | Lightwater | Sun am | 01:18:56 | Ran to just beyond the Brickmakers Arms on the old Windlesham Relay course and after 40 minutes turned back for home feeling ok. Conditions were cool and dry with hardly any wind. |
| Benita Scaife | Running | 7.5miles | Windsor Great Park | Sun am | 01:30:22 | We ran in Windsor Great Park, starting at Queen Anne’s gate, past the Ranger’s gate and to the Chaplain’s Lodge where we had planned to turn left past Ox pond before climbing up the hill behind the copper horse and running the entire long walk to finish at the back of the castle.... |
| John Scaife | Running | 7.5miles | Windsor Great Park | Sun am | 01:30:22 | ...The track was however closed and we had to detour round the hill, making our distance c. 7.5 miles. 1:30:22. The photo shows the section we weren’t able to access. |
| Chris Kelly | parkrun | 5km | Reading | Sat am | No surprises from me - it was a Reading parkrun! But it was also my 500th - and Sarah's 50th - and I was *very* pleased to tick it off . It's taken a while, but I guess that's normal! (also see below) | |
| Clara Halket | Walking | 13.31km | Local trails | Sun | 02:15:45 | A very cold 13.31km walk on my favourite local trails |
| Denis Foxley | Running | 4.7miles | Ruislip Woods and Lido | Sun am | 01:00:00 | Muddy conditions |
| Emma Moreton | parkrun | 5km | Bedfont Lakes | Sat am | 00:24:28 | Back in the game with a Bedfont Lakes parkrun (knee on road to recovery)❤️ |
| Harjit Jhooti | Running | 11.62km | Rushmoor | Sun pm | 01:21:12 | My longest run this year. Before this run I marshalled at the Farnborough half. Memories of flying as a passenger on a private jet into this airport. |
| Janet Smith | parkrun | 5km | Bramhall Park | Sat am | Some parkrun tourism while working in Stockport ♀️ | |
| Joan Foxley | Running | 4miles | Ruislip Woods and Lido | Sun am | 00:55:00 | Muddy conditions |
| Julie Barclay | Running | 7miles | Ash | Sun | 01:00:00 | Now running pain free. |
| Melanie Miller | parkrun | 5km | Great Salterns | Sat am | 00:39:59 | First inaugural attendance plus writing of the run report (GreatSalternsParkrunReport01.pdf) before, or while, travelling to the Running Show in Birmingham! |
| Michael Ball | Race | Lee Valley Indoor Stadium | 60 mtres at the London Championships Lee Valley. | |||
| Paul Watt | Running | 12miles | Ash to Wood Street Village | Sun | 01:36:00 | Planned 8minute/mile and it worked. |
| Petra Otto | parkrun | 5km | Sandall Park | Sat am | 00:43:51 | parkrun tourism at Doncaster’s Sandall Park - battling with mole hills, slippy goose poo, frozen tarmac, and frozen and soggy mud. Two and a bit laps, incl a hill. Still managed a new Nordic Walking PB - 43:51. I was chuffed to bits with that (last week 46:15), especially on such a challenging course. Plus 2x gym, 1x a very challenging and energetic dance class (I thought it would be an exercise class). |
| Piers Keenleyside | Running | 16.5miles | Sun am | 02:43:24 | Kept my RED January attempt well and truly on track with an 85.8 mile week finished off today with a 16 1/2 mile run done at an average <10 minute mile pace - the last half mile was at 8:34 pace. | |
| Roderick Hoffman | Running | 10km | Harrow Hill | Sun pm | 01:07:34 | Practice run for the Harrow Hill race due in three week's time (see below). I didn't tackle Football Lane but did climb Peterborough Road twice running most of the way. No photo so I'll include the Tutu's café visited after the parkrun on double TuTu day. |
| Simon Turton | Orienteering | 10.29km | Thame | Sun am | 00:58:04 | You can see from the sign where I ventured to for another Street-O, courtesy of Thames Valley orienteers. Slightly undulating area and pleased with my run (just the one error). Bit cool weather-wise but fine when running. |
| Stephen Taylor | Running | 12.08miles | Ealing / Canal loop | Sat am | 02:05:22 | Stretching this week's only run a bit from last week and taking the scenic route along the canal again. |
The Harrow Hill Race is our Run-of-the-Month for February #. It is on Sunday 13th February with a start time of 10:30 from the foot of Football Lane. It starts with half a climb up the lane, then loops round and does a full climb up the hill. From then it's downhill all the way...well, apart from some undulations and a second climb up the hill up the not quite so steep but somewhat longer Peterborough Road. It is a great event and if you can manage the uphill then there is much downhill to be enjoyed. For details and entry see: Harrow Hill Race 2022 - Harrow Hill (activetrainingworld.com) .
31 activities are recorded this week. With the odd exception this list is of people we believe are paid-up members so if your activity is missing it could be that that is in doubt...or it could be an error on our part. So, please get in touch if your activity is missing.
| Club parkrunner | parkrun | Run# | Pos | Time | Age Grade | PB? | Comment |
| Piers KEENLEYSIDE | Gunnersbury | 455 | 232 | 0:27:35 | 60.24% | ||
| Benita SCAIFE | Gunnersbury | 455 | 377 | 0:32:28 | 64.37% | ||
| John SCAIFE | Gunnersbury | 455 | 378 | 0:32:29 | 52.59% | ||
| Steve NEWELL | Gunnersbury | 455 | 500 | 0:59:50 | 32.87% | Tailwalker / Matching Chris Kelly's parkruns with his finish position | |
| Michael Dennison | Reading | 537 | 8 | 0:21:00 | 78.41% | first run at Reading, park #53 | |
| Ben Kelly | Reading | 537 | 22 | 0:22:03 | 58.50% | new member | |
| Maria JOVANI | Reading | 537 | 24 | 0:22:15 | 72.06% | first run at Reading, park #52 | |
| Christopher T KELLY | Reading | 537 | 38 | 0:23:12 | 66.81% | 500 runs in total spread over 59 parks | |
| Barry WALTERS | Reading | 537 | 128 | 0:28:25 | 59.59% | 8th run at Reading, has done 50 parks | |
| Roderick HOFFMAN | Reading | 537 | 150 | 0:29:53 | 54.16% | ||
| Alan FRIAR | Reading | 537 | 192 | 0:33:50 | 58.13% | ||
| Sarah Kelly | Reading | 537 | 228 | 0:38:37 | 51.70% | [non-member] run #50 | |
| Sarah GORDON | Beacon | 30 | 199 | 0:39:22 | 52.29% | Run #280, park #126, First BA lady at Beacon (Lichfield) so sets record | |
| Maarten STENHAM | Bedfont Lakes | 578 | 25 | 0:22:43 | 61.92% | ||
| Bob BANNISTER | Bedfont Lakes | 578 | 28 | 0:23:13 | 72.22% | ||
| Janet SMITH | Bramhall Park | 623 | 311 | 0:38:58 | 47.09% | First BA lady so sets record | |
| Ian CUNNINGHAM | Bushy Park | 861 | 939 | 0:32:05 | 49.56% | ||
| Ben CHAYTOW | Crane Park | 440 | 38 | 0:24:22 | 58.21% | ||
| Melanie Miller | Great Salterns | 1 | 211 | 0:39:59 | 44.10% | Initiating Wilson Index / New BA park #616 / BA records | |
| Alastair HESLOP | Guildford | 413 | Finish Tokens at Guildford | ||||
| David DUGGAN | Hanworth | 71 | 46 | 0:31:11 | 51.90% | ||
| Denis FOXLEY | Harrow | 280 | 99 | 0:28:44 | 62.94% | 173rd parkrun (total) | |
| Joan FOXLEY | Harrow | 280 | 187 | 0:40:28 | 57.87% | 173rd Harrow parkrun | |
| Murray Hogge | Mile End | 447 | 23 | 0:20:12 | 80.12% | ||
| Paul WATT | Raphael | 276 | 13 | 0:19:51 | 78.09% | BA male and grade records, park #64 | |
| Julie BARCLAY | Raphael | 276 | 60 | 0:24:15 | 76.70% | First BA lady so sets record, park #69 | |
| Jain REID | Richmond Park | 686 | 346 | 0:32:06 | 56.39% | ||
| Trish MCCABE | Rickmansworth | 186 | 181 | 0:28:05 | 56.56% | 1st run at Rickmansworth, park #77 | |
| Petra OTTO | Sandall Park | 366 | 214 | 0:43:51 | 49.94% | Sandall parkrun was formerly known as Doncaster | |
| Kay TRINDER | Woking | 300 | 38 | 0:23:32 | 76.91% | Woking reaches 300th | |
| Jacqui Musselwhite | Woking | 300 | 81 | 0:25:23 | 68.61% |
Bramhall parkrun (once in Cheshire, but currently in Greater Manchester) is one of the longest established of parkruns, having started in April 2008. Janet Smith (38:58) ran her first parkrun earlier than most of us, at Bushy way back in 2006, so it has taken many many years for Janet and Bramhall to meet up for a brief encounter this weekend. Our club record at Bramhall is held by Chris Kelly with 19:57 set on his only visit in August 2014 when he was up to a mere 200 parkruns in total.
Roll on to this weekend and Chris Kelly (23:12) ran his home parkrun course at Reading finally taking his total to 500 which makes him eligible to buy a treasured blue running vest. With stage managed precision his wife Sarah, a far more recent recruit to parkrunning, reached her 50 run milestone on the same day. Club members there to help them celebrate included son and new member Ben Kelly (22:03), Maria Jovani (22:15) who lowered the club female record and Barry Walters (28:25). Barry recently became the latest member to reach 50 different parkruns and once ran Reading in 19:50. Chris Kelly has held the club record at Reading with 18:40 for almost ten years. Age shall not weary them, time just goes faster as you get older!
At
the other club featured parkrun Piers Keenleyside, John and Benita Scaife ran at
Gunnersbury where Steve Newell tail-walked and came in 500th for the first time
anywhere to support Chris Kelly from a distance. The next “cfp” will now
be at Southall Park on 12th February with the visit to Homewood now planned for
19th March. Early reports from Southall parkrun suggest it is flat and
friendly but everyone needs to be warned that the park does not currently have
any working toilets. Don’t rely on old maps!
Melanie Miller (39:59) sought out the inaugural at Great Salterns in Portsmouth which can’t have been a very well kept secret as 238 runners turned up along with 29 volunteers [Ed: Including Melanie as Run Reporter - see link above]. The club parks total moves on to 616. Melanie’s "Wilson Index" is now 3. She is also chasing the more intellectual "Fibonacci Sequence" so she is looking for a 21 and then a 34. For those not familiar, the sequence applicable to parkrun is 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610 and 987 (Bushy Park is only on run 861, so it could be very crowded one Saturday in the spring of 2024). As if running a 5km wasn’t exciting enough in its own right!
It is almost exactly five years since the inspirational Tom Rowley celebrated his 90th birthday at Woking parkrun. This week saw Woking parkrun’s 300th edition and Kay Trinder (23:32) and Jacqui Musselwhite (25:23) were there to mark the occasion.
Paul Watt (19:51) with no responsibility for this column this week and time on his hands travelled to Romford in Essex (London Borough of Havering, to be clinical) with Julie Barclay (24:15) and set new club records at the gently undulating Raphael Park (pronounced Ray-Fell). If Dagenham & Redbridge regain league status there could be a long jog into this area next season (good/bad news: after a 0:2 home defeat to Stockport Country, Dag & Red have slipped down out of the playoff places). Thanks to Paul for his commentary over the last two weeks – there will be plenty more opportunities in the future!
Indeed if anyone else would like to try their hand at weekly parkrun reporting just get in touch with the editor.
Steve Newell
Chris Kelly is the club's second member of the 500 club after Alan Anderson. Alan is currently on 606 (parkruns that is, not the football chat show). The next club member to reach 500 is likely to be Ian Cunningham, currently on 445 - so plans will be being made this time next year. Up to a year after that it could be like London Buses with myself (413), Bob Bannister (410) and Steve Newell (403).
Looking at parkrun globally 1,730 5k parkruns operated last Saturday. That is the most that there have ever been, even before the pandemic. The previous record was 1,713 on 1st Feb 2020. And the new record was despite many parkruns, including some whole countries, still not operating because of Covid-19 restrictions.
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]
Roderick Hoffman
An elite group of four BA runners participated in Gunnersbury parkrun on 22nd January. Piers, Benita and John ran, while Steve was tailwalker.
The field of exactly 500 parkrunners overflowed from the path onto the grass at the start but the ground was firm all the way round, and the relatively mild (compared to Friday’s below zero) 6 degrees made for just about perfect conditions.
Coffee was then obtained from the kiosk on the museum terrace and consumed in an initially deserted conservatory in which heaters and blankets were provided, making for a very pleasant conclusion.
John Scaife
Meanwhile at Reading parkrun Chris Kelly was in celebratory mood...
"Fabulous morning at Reading parkrun doing my Five Hundredth parkrun, with my wife Sarah notching up her Fiftieth. It did seem like a long time since the previous milestone - 250 weeks running (plus 71 other weeks...) - so I was very pleased to join the about 171 others in the 500 Club yesterday (including Reading's own Lorraine and Phil - and Ian!), and I have indeed ordered the T-Shirt already. Sarah is a later entry to the parkrun phenomenon - post hip-(h)op - but by managing to reach 50 on the same day, has enabled us to order two T's in one go! It was great to see a few friends visiting from my Club, British Airways - Mike, Maria, Barry, Roderick and Alan, and receive well wishes from others. And to share some cakey comestibles with all. I'd like to say Thanks to all the volunteers past and present at Reading parkrun, not least the EDs - Jamie Smith & Mark Saunders back at our first one in 2009 (good to see Margaret and David from that day!), Lucy, our inestimable Teresa (directing again today..), and current stars Ian and David, but also the many who have freely given any of their time, like Chris "The Bridge" Smith (whom I have passed maybe 1000 times over the years...). Thanks all!"
Chris Kelly (from Facebook)
The venue for the next event in the winter Street-O series on the evening of Tuesday 8th February has been announced as The Railway Tavern which is near the entrance to Liverpool Street Station (Central Line). See StreetO Tuesday 8th February 2022 | London Orienteering Klubb for details.
Roderick Hoffman
Is it possible for you to advertise in this week's digest that I have a place going begging for the Quicksilver, Hampton Court Half Marathon, on Sunday 20th February. Because of my current injury I will not be running and very happy to give my entry to someone else.
Many thanks,
Next Digest - Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send them to the editor, Roderick Hoffman, at news@barunner.org.uk.
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Wednesday 19th January NOW Ruislip Lido Report