baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 24th July 2023
Events marked "#" are points scoring for the club's participation trophy - for the 2023 title. Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] For future weeks: inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk. Results for Next WeekPlease 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. Monthly Mile (please submit your July Mile performance by the end of the month):Run one mile and send me your time or add the details to the prompt in Facebook. The mile can be somebody else's formal event or even one mile within a longer run. I'll then produce a fancy graph showing your time this month compared to those of other people and previous runs over the last year: [no need to submit if your best mile is the pre-AGM mile or one of the Arethusa miles (see below)].
Weekly Athletic Achievement (by Sunday evening) or use the Facebook group prompt:
Arethusa Mile - Club run Wednesday 26th July - reminderWe are having a club run at the Arethusa Mile in Bushy Park this week. The Arethusa Mile is a free organised weekly run on a road circuit mainly around the Arethusa Statue Fountain near where the Bushy Park parkrun starts. If you haven't run this event before then you need to be there by 7:15pm to pre-register, my advice is to aim to be there by 7. The actual race starts at 7:30pm. The Bushy Park carparks should be open until 8:30 but if you want a leisurely departure then use the Clapperstile car park - accessible from Queens Road, Teddington - and then enter Bushy Park on foot via Clapperstile Gate and have a one mile warm-up to the start of the event. More details on request. Great City Race Thanks (and more)Good morning all, I hope you’re well. I just wanted to say a big thank you for your help in supporting the Great City Race last night and making it such a success. There was nothing but praise from our sector manager Jason and the LME team (understand some of you also had a chat with both Hugh Brasher & Hugh Jones). In the main, the general public (and competitors) were complementary of our efforts but there’s always a minority that are a little selfish but I know you rose above this.
Thanks again, it was fun. Helpers were; Simon Turton, Steve Hillier, Roderick Hoffman, Jas Modaher, Neelam Kaur Modaher, Tejinder Singh Modaher, Sukhdev Modaher, John Scaife, Benita Scaife, Dave Rimmer, Chariya Rimmer, Denis Foxley, Joan Foxley, Chris Kelly & Jain Reid [some of whom were still there for the photo]. Simon Turton Don't forget the Big Half on 3rd September - volunteers to >>> Steve Hillier
With respect to the Vitality London 10000 on Sunday 24th September: For various reasons BAAC are not coordinating a team of volunteers this year but members / friends etc. are free to volunteer individually through ‘Rosterfy’: Invite > London Marathon Events Ltd. (rosterfy.eu) . You’d be helping between 08:30 – 14:00 and the London Marathon organisation will be providing staff to manage the sector you’d be helping on. It’s usually a fun event so why not sign-up? And let us know how you get on, under different management! Simon Turton Recent Activity AchievementsOnly 12 members' achievements were communicated to me, but it is the holiday season. Your achievement not listed? It could be because you didn't submit it.
parkrun Results for Saturday 22nd July42 activities are recorded below. Please get in touch if your activity is missing.
parkrun Review 22nd July 2023The count of different parkruns visited by members over the years in getting close to 750 and could have got even closer! Melanie Miller (38:54) went to Hockgraben (Lake Constance, Germany, CET). Piers Keenleyside (26:46) and Sarah Gordon (39:56) went to the Cinder Track. Whitby, Yorkshire, BST). Roderick Hoffman (33:24) set off intending to run at The Old Railway Track in Llangollen where none of us have run but somehow ended up at Erddig a few miles away near Wrexham where the football team plays on a racecourse! Richard Ruffell ran there (and faster) some years ago so it's been ticked off before. There must be a story there. The count is stuck on 748 for this week. David Cowell (18:29, 76:74%) was our fastest runner this week. He was making his first visit to Alvaston (Derby). Other notable runs came from Mike Dennison (20:17, 82.66%) at Woodley, Paul Watt (20:56, 75.32%) and Julie Barclay (24:05, 79.45%) at Bexley, Ian Haylock (20:59, 71.41%) at Bushy, Alice Banks (28:35, 73.12%) at Eastleigh, Fiona Bishop (25:48, 78.55%) at Hanworth, Murray Hogge (21:21, 76.42%) at the Reading “600”. Emma Moreton (22:48) was the first lady over the line at Bedfont Lakes. Steve Newell How I arrived at the Wrong parkrun
Are You Free?I'm also away from Stockley Country on 12th August as are both of the other people who have been Run Director there. Many BA club members have the experience of being Run Director so if you are available that day please let me know - either to be the Run Director or to take on another of the non-running roles whilst a new Run Director beds in. Otherwise we may need to cancel. >>> Let me know. Full club parkrun database - {read access to club parkrun database} - Download or save a copy, and explore at your leisure. Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] Roderick Hoffman Letters to the Editor (in some cases "Intercepted by the editor", others "mislaid by the editor and then re-found")I saw the mention in the latest digest of my Eiger E35 Ultra - thanks! I'm happy to have completed it and did scrap through the cutoff time towards the end. I honestly thought I was going to finish somewhere between 6-7hrs but the lack of training/taper this past 6 weeks plus the heat & elevation proved more of a challenge on the day. Course was fairly technical, with lots of tree roots, rocks, twists & turns, single track and sheer face drops and makeshift bridges. Huge kudos to everyone that finished the run, especially these doing the 50k and 101k options. I can’t even comprehend the pairs running the 250k with a cutoff time of 95hrs. There was great supportive energy in the town of Grindelwald and the Jungfrau region in Switzerland is spectacular! James Edwards On Sunday 9th I joined over 1000 others at Holkham Hall in Norfolk for the Outlaw Holkham 70.3 Triathlon. It was a very early start, with the race for the faster swimmers starting at 6am, for me I was in the water by about 6.30. The water was pretty murky but I found my way round and after 2000m and just under 40 minutes the swim was done and I was off on the bike for an undulating 56 miles round Norfolk. Certainly not the flat course you might think for Norfolk. It was warm, but not too hot for once. Back from the bike in 2hr 48mins at an average speed of 20mph. While in transition swapping my bike shoes for running shoes the loud speaker announces the winner coming in and I still had 13.3 miles to run! So ignoring that I was then off on to the quite hilly 3 lap run course. The sun decided now was a good time to shine, not what I wanted as the weather forecast was for a drop or two of rain at this point, which would have been much preferred. It was not my greatest run, with a few stomach cramps adding to the usual pain. Overall finished in 5hrs 25mins, which was exactly 11 secs quicker than I did the same race 4 years ago, but to be fair it was a lot hotter that day. I was 3rd in my age group out of 32 which was a nice surprise and as this race was also the British Triathlon designated 70.3 (Half Ironman) British Championship race I was on the podium for a BTF medal as well. Overall I finished 381st out of 1106 finishers, not too bad as 95% of those were younger than me. Richard Ruffell 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.
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Bit
of a roller coaster on the volunteer front with two dropping out at short notice
but a bonus when Dave and Chariya turned up unannounced to help… then
disappeared again, only to return after a stint helping on the course. It’s the
first time at this event we’ve utilised a ‘dual tape’ and hopefully the use of
the maillot jaune (OK, it was a tabard) helped avoid confusion on which side of
the road runners were meant to be (I think I only messed it up once but the team
recovered well). Post race, it was refreshment time and a bonus that we arrived
just as they were clearing out the stock, so got to take a few beers home as the
rain started.
What is important on a Saturday morning (on a weekend off from helping at
Stockley Country) is firstly, getting to the start of a parkrun course by the
start time and secondly, then getting to its finish. I took a risk on Saturday
relying on two rural buses to get me from my hotel in Chirk to Llangollen for
the Old Railway Trail parkrun. I left my car in the hotel carpark because I
wanted to walk back along the Llangollen Canal. It was a mistake. Google and the
bus stop showed different times for the bus and a bus didn't arrive for either
of them. I got on the bus that did arrive but it turned out to be an express
service to Wrexham. But it didn't arrive like an express in Wrexham because it
had to go round-the-houses to avoid a closed road. I almost caught the next bus
from Wrexham to Llangollen (which would have got me to the start for 9:05) but
the bus sailed past the stop without stopping (perhaps I looked "English"). I
checked my phone at 08:40 and it told me that the start of Erddig parkrun was a
30minute walk away...so I set off running and made it there as the Run Director
gathered parkrunners together. She warned that the course was muddy, and I
looked down at my "Rail Trail" road shoes, but in truth it wasn't too bad.
It was also hilly but
you got to run down the hill in the second km so you know what to expect from
the up in the last km. And there may be obstacles on the course (pictured) but
my run was uninterrupted and I made it to the finish. Then a most enjoyable
breakfast and chat in the National Trust quality cafe, a dash back to the bus
stop and I made it to Llangollen for 11:30, in time to start my walk and by
chance to meet three of the parkrunners who had made the Old Railway Trail -
including one who turned out to be a Hoffman Club member. A good day, including
a workout of both mind and body!