baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 25th March 2024

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] [parkrun run by club members updated January 2024]

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

Results for Next Week

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.

Monthly Mile - please submit your March Mile performance for publication in the first April digest (1st April):

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:

Your Athletic Achievement of the Week (or use the prompt in the BAAC Facebook group):

BAAC 2023 Awards Evening – Wednesday 20th March 2024 - Part 1

Award	2023 Recipient	Reason	Roderick presented the first set of awards, other than the Alamo trophy where Julie did the presentation
Five Mile Handicap Trophy (2022/23)	Paul Watt	This six event series ended last March. Participants scored points depending on how close they got to their handicap time - with their handicap being set based on their previous run of the course. Being spot on was best, thereafter being fast scores better than being slow. Not everyone can make all six events so the winner of the series is the individual with the highest total from their best four event results. Most years the winner will be someone who has run five or six of the events and so has been able to drop their worst score. But not this year. Finishing third was Maarten Stenham, having run five of the events, finishing second was Stephen Taylor, having run all six, but the clear winner was Paul Watt despite having run just four events. Paul is the 9th different recipient of this award in the last nine years!
Ladies' Track and Field	Janet Smith	Despite some injuries, our ladies still produced good performances in the Veteran’s League.  With strong opposition from the likes of Hillingdon and Serpentine, our ladies won a series of running and throwing events.  In particular, Fiona Bishop had a great season on the track, while Janet Smith won every throwing event she entered for us.  Janet came top in the Hammer, shot and discus and wins the trophy for the third year running (throwing).	Janet was unable to be present on the evening and will be presented with her trophy at the next opportunity.
Men’s Track and Field	Steve Hillier	The men’s team competed in both the Veteran’s and Rosenheim Leagues.  We didn’t quite reach the heights of 2022, missing out on the Rosenheim Final in 2023.  However, we managed some notable performances. Michael Ball sprinted consistently, only missing one match as he blitzed the 100, 200 and 400 metre events.  New member Sean O’Keeffe proved to be a great find in field events, winning the discus and high jump in the Veteran’s League.  Steve Hillier tackled sprints, jumps and all of the throws, which meant that he collected the most points throughout the summer and wins the trophy.
The Club parkrun Trophy	Julie Barclay and Paul Watt	parkrun normally happens in your local park on the 52 Saturdays of the year - but it also takes place on strange days in far-away places.  Along with New Year's Day each country nominates a special day for their extra parkrun - Christmas Day, National Day, Independence Day and so on.  Paul and Julie managed to find the opportunity to travel to and take part in 61 parkruns over the year.  And not only did they tick the quantity box, they also achieved good quality, both exceeding 80% age related times.
Alamo Trophy	Roderick Hoffman	This year the award has been given for the most foolish act committed by a member of the BA WARR team. A warm-up run was arranged at the Calgary Nose Hill parkrun and several team members attended. Roderick, with the experience of hundreds of parkruns, managed to hand in his finish token before having his result scanned, hence had to retrieve it to get a result. And it was impossible to hide his mistake - since the volunteer sorting the tokens was Julie. Julie presented Roderick with the trophy.
Veteran’s Trophy	Petra Otto	Petra has shown great resilience over recent times.  A fine runner of 5Ks and 5 mile races and with good marathon times over the years. Petra has had more than her fair share of injuries last year; including sciatica, hamstring problems and a hand injury.  So, what’s her solution?  A grumble, a cup of tea and a slice of cake?  No, she has studied ways of exercising during recovery, with High Intensity Interval Training, parkwalking, the Nordic Skiing machine and weights.  And in April, between injuries, gym sessions and hospital visits, she completed a Virtual London Marathon. She is an inspiration to us all.
Chairman’s Award	Stephen Taylor	[Awarded by the club committee since we don't currently have a Chairman] Last year Stephen achieved an all-round sporting feat which requires a huge amount of solitary training. He completed the London Marathon last April after a winter of pounding the streets. Six weeks later he set off on his bike for a 100 kilometre cycle through London and rural Essex, completing Ride London in 7:35.  Then in September he completed the Serpentine Swim of two miles in 1:34.  All three London Classics completed in a blisteringly hot summer.

Part 2 next week...

...but, for those who are into binge-watching - all of this year's winners are already listed on the club trophies page at:

baRUNNER News Trophies page

Roderick Hoffman

Five-Mile Winter Handicap 2023/24 - Sixth and Final Round

The final round of the 2023/24 winter 5 mile handicap will be held from the Bedfont FC carpark on Wednesday 27th March.  Runners will be aiming to finish in twilight at around 7 p.m. since sunset is scheduled for 6.26 p.m.

Start times (based on previous performances) will be:

Everyone else is welcome to join in and can start at the appropriate moment while aiming to finish at 7 pm (on the nail!).  The course is over 2 x 2.5 mile laps so half way times will be recorded if possible so that runners can judge in retrospect how successfully they have managed an even pace.  There is also the option to walk a single self-timed lap.

The changing rooms and showers will be available at Bedfont FC and some of us will probably sample the Indian cuisine at the Duke of Wellington across Hatton Road afterwards. 

Those finishing the series on the podium will be invited to choose a pint bottle of their choice from the Fullers Brewery Shop.

Steve Newell

Ed: The Handicap Trophy has to be earned through consistent running performances. It is amazing therefore that there have been nine different recipients of this award over the last nine years! But what of this year? Find out on Wednesday.

Farnborough NOW run 21st March - Report

Thanks to organisers Paul Watt and Julie Barclay, members of the club met for a NOW event around the former golf course and woodland just north of Farnborough Airfield - followed by refreshments at the Chalk in the Park Cafe. As well as those featured in the photograph, Melanie took this picture and Paul Knechtl caught up with us on the run, during his lunch break.

The next NOW event is scheduled for 7th May in Ockwells Park, Maidenhead, organised by the Scaifes.

Roderick

World Airline Road Race Update - Auckland, New Zealand with Race Day Sunday 6th October - OPEN

It is now possible to register for this year's event from the International Site: 41st World Airline Road Race - Auckland, New Zealand or directly from Race Roster at https://raceroster.com/events/2024/82004/41st-world-airline-road-race-auckland-nz . Registration costs $50 up until the end of May. Given what you get in return, this is a bargain price compared to other running events. Obviously getting to the event in New Zealand will in total cost you considerably more but the event could be seen as the incentive for your once-in-a-lifetime visit to the other side of the World.

In my capacity as Team Captain please keep me informed of your WARR plans or intentions.

> Roderick Hoffman

Recent Activity Achievements

16 members' achievements were communicated to me before this week's publication time.

Club Records: Note that Adrian's performances don't count as club records since we only count results wearing club vests - but we do note in the records performances in GB vests.

parkrun Results for Saturday 23rd March 2024

31 activities are recorded below. Please get in touch if your activity is missing.

parkrun Review Saturday 23rd March 2024

The vast majority of UK parkruns went ahead this week as the floodwaters receded although Reading was cancelled yet again – the parkrun there has only been possible twice so far in 2024.

We understand that Bob Bannister will be running his 500th parkrun at Bedfont Lakes on 6th April.  Let’s hope he remembers his barcode.  There was some drama at Sedgefield this week where one of just nine runners around the world completing the 500 was in danger of appearing in the results as “unknown runner” – not something you want if cakes have been baked!  The 500 club is still relatively exclusive but the 1000th member will be inducted very soon with runners each Saturday being sorted on age-grade (and time zone being ignored).  It is not a race!

Congratulations go out to Trish McCabe (28:59) who was at the rarely visited Roding Valley (Essex) this week and has now finished every one of the 76 parkruns within the M25 ring.  Julie Barclay (27:09) and Paul Watt (27:10) were there as well swelling the numbers to an attendance of 85.  They still have to go Rickmansworth Aquadrome which this week was still drying out and using an alternative three lap course.

No-one managed to sneak in under 20 minutes this week but there were some good times achieved by runners making a first visit.  Mike Dennison (21:28) went to the picturesque Hogmoor Inclosure, Ben Chaytow (21:33) tried Dulwich which is regarded as one of the faster parkruns in London, Maria Jovani (22:16) was the first lady home at Gadebridge and set a new club ladies record there.

Steve Newell

Matters Arising - Club Featured parkrun

Bob Bannister is expecting to become the club's 8th 500 club member with the run at Bedfont Lakes on 6th April. This has been designated a Club Featured parkrun so if you are not doing anything else please join Bob there.

Results Processing

What happens between you finishing a parkrun and us printing the table above?

• Your barcode is scanned with the finish token you were given (unless you forget - see "Alamo Trophy" above),
• The Run Director processes the results, matching times recorded to finish positions and barcode ids, and submits these to parkrun HQ,
• parkrun HQ accepts the results and stores them in the global parkrun database, listing the results on the website and sending you results messages - this is usually done by about 12:00 local time to each parkrun,
• I go through the list of about 50 club members and extract each result I find storing them in an excel sheet I share with Steve Newell - also I do some annotation of achievements. This is usually done by about 5pm on the Saturday (UK timezone - US results and late results may be spotted and inserted later),
• On Sunday or Monday Steve studies the results and adds his annotations and generates his report and sends it to me,
• I put Steve's report in the digest and I take a copy of the data in the Excel sheet and formats it into the digest for the table above.

Sometimes that process will go wrong. Frequently we may miss results that haven't been processed by the 12:00 time and we won't catch up on these until after the digest has been published. We nearly had the opposite problem this week - the initial results published for Pomphrey Hill included a result against Janet Smith's barcode. Janet often travels to different parkruns and although the time would have been good for her it wasn't immediately obvious that it was an error. When Steve studied the results he realised that the result would have been Janet's best ever age-grade by a considerable margin so he got me to check the results. I discovered that that place in the Pomphrey Hill results is now occupied by an "Unknown" so clearly the Run Director had corrected the results after we had done the 4th step in the process above. So, sadly, Janet can't claim the 69.53% age grade and the club women's record at Pomphrey Hill. But the Run Director probably only knew to correct the result because Janet emailed back to say that the result wasn't her.

A different problem arose at Stockley Country on Saturday. The person who finished 4th had his barcode scanned but as well as setting it alongside the 4th finish position his barcode also ended up as being that of the person submitting the scanned positions, so he was given a volunteer credit and a "Thank You" volunteer email by mistake. Our Run Director managed to sort that one out, but again, only because the recipient queried the email. 

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

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

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