baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 24th June 2019

Events:

• Wednesday 3rd July - T&F Rosenheim 4 at Kingsmeadow, Kingston from 18:45 #
• Thursday 4th July - Dream Mile on the Bath Road from 12:45
• Saturday 6th July - Hanworth parkrun club volunteer take-over from 08:30 #

We meet at 18:00 at the Bedfont Club on most Wednesdays throughout the year including this Wednesday - but numbers will be low so let me know to expect you.

New members and potential members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at most of our events. The full diary of club featured events is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml. Last updated: 4th April.

* Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] (parkrun details updated 24th June) / # 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.

Club Survey - results part one

Thank you to those of you who responded to the questionnaire last week. We can't respond to you on your specific answers or suggestions because the results of the survey this time HAS proved to be anonymous.  Over the next few weeks I will present summaries of the group's answers and comments, with some interpretation by myself, with the aim of discussing arising points at the AGM on 31st July.

43 people responded to the questionnaire although not everybody provided answers to every question so totals may add to less than 43 or 100%.

39 consider themselves to be members of the club. 14 are members of the Bedfont Club through BA Clubs. 12 affiliate with UK Athletics through us and 7 through other clubs. I'm thinking that the responses represent about 50% of the club's active members.

Of the 43;

• 8 live within five miles of Heathrow,
• 13 from five to ten miles,
• 17 from 10 to 50 miles
• 5 beyond 50 miles.

Around 8 of the 43 are current BA staff members, 19 are former staff members and 9 have never been BA staff. 7 didn't answer.

Looking at our desire to have a popular Wednesday Night club run:

• 5 state that they already attend regularly,
• 4 live far too far away,
• 17 live an inconvenient distance or time away,
• 7 have too many alternative events to attend,
• 4 don't attend because of the level of pollution around Heathrow.

Shift hours are mentioned by many, and (I guess) some of the retired members say they'd rather run earlier in the day.

What could attract attendees to a club evening?

• Four people suggest meeting earlier whereas six suggest meeting later. Neither of those is overwhelming support for a change but perhaps it is time that we tried something different, even if just as an experiment.
• Nine people said that knowing that there would be more people at the club would encourage them to come,
• Eight suggested formal training sessions and organised runs,
• Eight also suggested better changing facilities - this is where it becomes difficult to ask for improvements before we have numbers attending,
• Six suggested better variety of courses - see my note below on my informal 8 to 11k course,
• Six also suggested that the lack of food at the Bedfont Club was keeping them away.

In the "others" category several people suggested a once a month focus whereas others were honest and said that nothing would work for them.

Roderick Hoffman

Vets Track & Field 10th June - floods of success

The second Veteran’s League match took place on June 10th.  First it rained, then the wind blew, and finally we were treated to a fully-fledged monsoon.  Miserable conditions for running, jumping and throwing, but even worse for the poor officials who patiently waited for us to complete our events. 

It was not a night for record breaking, but the team continued with good performances.  Janet once again won her Hammer competition by nearly ten metres, while Julie took a second and two thirds in her competitive races.  Christine splashed her way round the bend in the 200m, and clung on to the wet shot to putt a good distance.  Paul and Michael produced strong 800m times around three minutes, while Steve closed the evening by long jumping into what looked like a beach at high tide.

The next Vets League fixture, to be held at Battersea, is expected to be a much warmer event on Midsummer Day! 

Steve Hillier

WARR - The Registration fee goes up by 5 widgets at the end of this week

Euro/GBP entry: https://raceroster.com/events/2019/23767/38th-world-airline-road-race-amsterdam-2019

USD entry: https://raceroster.com/events/2019/20109/38th-world-airline-road-race-amsterdam-2019

There are currently 25 of us signed up for the BA team.  I'll be communicating with the team shortly so let me know to include you if you are not signed up yet.

Roderick Hoffman

Hop, Step and Jump Monday

The third Track & Field Grand Prix at Uxbridge was meekly attended but mightily contested.  On a warm and slightly blustery evening, Simon led the way around the 800m.  His six-minute mile pace was fractionally slower than he achieved in the 1000m a month earlier, and Steve was also fractionally slower than in May.

Next came the main event, the Triple Jump.  After much debate about the use of a 9, 11 or 13 metre board, it was decided for safety’s sake to revert to the more unusual 4 metre board.  As there isn’t a wooden board positioned at this point on the runway, a ridge of sand and later green electrical tape came into use.  The lack of a nice springy take-off board probably worsened jumping distances considerably, although both probably achieved in three jumps what Jonathan Edwards achieved in one.

The next track evening will be the Rosenheim at Kingston on Wednesday 3rd July.  The next Grand Prix is at Uxbridge on Monday 22nd July:  400m and Hammer.

Steve Hillier

Bedfont Club informal 8 to 11k course

I've spent the last few Wednesdays from The Bedfont Club perfecting a one lap 10k course which joins together various stretches of countryside. The course uses Bedfont Lakes and by using different paths, or by avoiding Bedfont Lakes altogether, you can run 11k, 10k, 9k or 8k. This means that you can run with faster or slower colleagues and run the course as a handicap event, starting and finishing together.

Of the 10k...

• About 6.5k is in "countryside" with fields, lakes or trees on both sides.
• About 600m is on managed grass. The rest is on prepared paths or pavements.
• There are five short stretches near major roads including crossings - each with separate carriageways for safe crossing.

Let me know if you want more details - or join me one Wednesday to find the right turns. I will be preparing a fuller map.

Roderick Hoffman

Prudential Ride London 2019 – Sunday 4th August

This year sees the sixth staging of the Prudential Ride London, which grew out of the 2012 London Olympic cycle race.  British Airways AC has been involved in every one of these events, and we will be on the streets of London on August 4th to help make this year’s race another success.
Each year has brought its challenges:  Torrential rain, a bicycle crash and road closure close to our pen, and an uncontrollable advertising balloon, to name but three.  Each time, our team has risen to the challenge and shown how well we can work together.  More importantly, we’ve had a close-up view of an exciting race, a great location next to the Cenotaph, and plenty of support and appreciation from competitors and spectators.

The Sunday races, which we will support, include the 100-mile, 46-mile and 19-mile events.  Around 25,000 cyclists are expected to take part, including at least two BAAC members.

Thank you to those of you who have already signed up for this year’s event.  It would help if could reconfirm your availability.  We now need further volunteers to complete the team.  The shift is from 0900 to 1730 on the Sunday.  If you would like to come along, but can’t commit to the full day, that’s fine.  Just let me know what you can do.  Food and kit will be provided.

Many thanks,

Steve Hillier

Club parkrun results for Saturday 22nd June 2019

Volunteers include...

Barry Walters (23:15) ran at Hogmoor Inclosure for the first time and set a new club record.  Barry has now run at 38 different parks.

Joe Nolan (28:45) ran his best parkrun at Black Park since 2017.

Recent Comrades ultra-marathon finisher Ian Cunningham put his extra fitness to work and ran his best time at Bushy Park for over a year.

Just a week after the seventh birthday of parkrun at Crane Park, the park was closed by the police investigating a crime so Ben Chaytow (21:58) went over to Wimbledon Common and produced one of the best runs by a member there.  Gray Rushmer still holds the club record with 20:07.

Roderick Hoffman has been quietly playing alphabetic bingo with parkrun names and finally plucked up courage to travel out West to Yeovil to nail his “Y”.  The game appears to be over for the time being although any rumours of Xerox Park in California starting up could get everyone scrambling onto flights to Palo Alto.

Steve's parkrun stats - club parkrun stats - UPDATED

NEW club parkrun database - {read access to new club parkrun database} - UP TO DATE - Download and explore.

Steve Newell / Roderick Hoffman

Ironman Ireland

Alastair Brownlee (double Olympic triathlon champion) did his first Ironman on Sunday in Ireland (Cork). Tragically the swim (2.4 miles) was cancelled because of bad weather so they only did the 112 mile bike ride and then a full marathon run. Alastair Brownlee won and his marathon split was 2:51:31.  He was reported to be suffering from a bit of pain in his legs over the last few miles. It was meant to be his first full distance Ironman event so not being able to include the swim will have been frustrating. I think he will still be offered a place in the Hawaii race.

Richard Ruffell is doing his first (and only?) Ironman in Sweden later in the summer.

Steve Newell

Ed: According to the records on the website the club's MV50 Ironman record is currently held by George Smith at 12:07:27, set back in 1995. Some youngsters did faster times.

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

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