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BA Athletics Club News Digest 25th November 2013

Forthcoming Events:

  • Wednesday 27th November - 5 mile Handicap - Concorde Centre from 18:00 (see below)
  • Saturday 30th November - Club Featured parkrun - Black Park for 09:00 (see below)
  • Sunday 1st December - Run of the Month - Perivale 5

New members and non-members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at all of these events.

The full events diary is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml.

This news digest is being sent to you because you are on the BA Athletics Club email list.  To be removed please email us at news@barunner.org.uk. Difficulty viewing this email? Read it off the website instead - http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml


Handicap Run this Wednesday - Concorde Centre

The target is to finish the run at 19:00.  Your start time will be determined by your previous result with a little rounding (or if you are a firsttimer your best guess for a 4.82 mile run).  Watches should not be worn.  The course is that of the Concorde Five as shown on the map here.  The Handicap run is run clockwise and via Wentworth Road.

Winter runs from the Concorde Centre


Club Featured parkrun Saturday 30th November Black Park for 09:00

Black Park course is one lap on firm, flat and wide tracks of compacted earth and gravel. It is very popular attracting about 400 runners every Saturday and is also one of the most scenic with a route through a pine tree forest.  It is located near Pinewood Film Studios, frequently having filming sets – in recent weeks Cinderella has been filmed at a castle constructed between 3k & 4k …..maybe parkrunners will be seen in the background when it gets released !  

Fast times can be expected with a course record of 15m 09s, however a time between 17-19m would take the victory laurels on some weeks ! (come on you fast guys !).

As the ‘crow flies’ Black Park is only about 8 miles from the Concorde Club.  The only downside of this venue is that there is a car parking charge of £2.50, however there are some lay-bys on the A412 close to the 2k point that you can park for free….

 http://www.parkrun.org.uk/blackpark/course/

Hope to see you on Saturday – I will arrange a team photo with the resident photographer so please get to the start line area by 8.50ish…and I’ll also give you a few course tips !

Joe Nolan


Retired Runners Lunch

A reminder that the retired runners lunch will be at Pissarro in Chiswick (W4 2UG) next Tuesday 3rd December at 1 p.m.  If you have not already done so please let Steve Newell (steve-newell@blueyonder.co.uk) know if you are planning to come along.  With the landlord buying back the lease of the restaurant in January the future of this fixture is uncertain and there may have to be a new venue in 2014. A high tide has been arranged towards the end of the main course as usual!  The Great River Swim will not be affected.  The river has already been booked for 6th September 2014.

Steve Newell


parkrun Quiz answers

No one sent is a complete set of correct answers so I get to keep the £500 prize.  Sorry - did I forget to mention the prize last week?

The answers are...

1 Gunpowder parkrun "Runs both east and west" (i.e. crosses the Greenwich Meridian).  Note that Greenwich parkrun is run in a park 5k to the east of the meridian, it isn't even the closest parkrun to Greenwich - Hilly Fields lies just 1.5k to the West of the Meridian.  After Gunpowder the next nearest to the Meridian is Walthamstow which runs to within 500metres of the line.  But Gunpowder literally crosses the line - and to prove the point it has the start in the Western Hemisphere and the finish in the Eastern Hemesphere.

2 Aylesbury parkrun runs over a Civil War battlefield - that of Aylesbury Battle from 1642.

3 Bushy Park parkrun has had most different BA Club Family members run at it (30). Which has the next most?  Bedfont Lakes has had 26 BA Club Family runners (next highest being Gunnersbury with 18).

4 Just one parkrun run at by BA Club family members starts with the letter "U". Which one? Upton Court - and 8 of us have run there (we also have run at just one parkrun starting with each of D, E, Q, T and V but with only one or two of us running at each).

5 I recently pointed out Paul Knechtl's consistency - so name either of the two BA parkrun family members who, according to the parkrun computer, have the largest variation between their fastest and slowest results?  The two answers I was expecting were Dave Dixon or Richard Ruffell - depending on your interpretation of the word "variation". Dave has the greatest mathematical variation since he has only run two parkruns and has recorded times of 18:01 and 36:45 (due to a late arrival).  Richard has the greatest absolute variation with a fastest time of 20:18 and a slowest (according to the parkrun computer) of 59:59. There may be others in the club with big variations - Piers for instance pointed out that he has done a number of 40 to 50 minute runs as tail runner at Gunnersbury - but I don't think he beats Dave and Richard on either of those two categories.

Roderick Hoffman


Club family parkrun results and stats for 23rd November 2013

BA Family parkrunner Saturday parkrun Commentary WAVA Chase The Place
Brian Bennett 23:24 Bedfont Lakes 78%
John Coffey 24:08 Bushy Park best age grade in 2013 74%
Colin Haylock 19:25 Bushy Park 72%
Chris Kelly 20:07 Reading 72%
Richard Ruffell 21:05 Hanley club park #78 71% +Bonus
Ian Cunningham 21:10 Bushy Park 125th run 70% Week 5
Natalie Ruffell 21:49 Hanley first female 68%
Tim Hawkes 19:28 Upton Court second man 66% Week 5
Joe Nolan 23:54 Black Park 66% Week 5
Alan Friar 26:27 Woodley 125th run 66%
Ray Hampton 26:58 Bramhall parkrun pb, club park #79 65%
Roderick Hoffman 25:02 Highbury Fields course pb 60% Week 5
Tony Hird 24:34 Gunpowder 60% Week 5
Steve Newell 29:13 Highbury Fields park #24 60% +Bonus
Tony Barnwell 30:56 Black Park 58%
Kerstin Luksch 26:10 Gunnersbury 57%
Neil Frediani 33:43 Bedfont Lakes 46% Week 5
Alan Anderson volunteer Gunnersbury

parkrun Highlights  

Brian Bennett made a rare visit to Bedfont Lakes and ran the best age group performance there (78%) and the best by any of our members anywhere this week.  After his pb at Bushy last week Neil Frediani was about ten minutes slower and there must be explanation!
 
Two new parks conquered this week taking the club total to 79.  Natalie Ruffell was the leading female runner at Hanley (Stoke on Trent),  Father Richard found the hilly course challenging but managed to beat her by several seconds.  After his debut at Woodbank last week, Ray Hampton moved across Stockport to take on the pretty course at Bramhall.
 
Ian Cunningham and Alan Friar both ran their 125th parkruns and are now half way to their 250 vests.
 
John Coffey enjoyed his best form of the year at Bushy Park this week.

Steve Newell

A tough old course, 2.5 laps with some tight turns (on icy ground), with the first half of each lap up a serious hill, so you go up 3 times but only down twice! Temperatures seriously cold, with plenty of frozen patches on the ground, but half the locals ran in shorts and vests, just the soft southerners seemed to dress for the weather.
Richard Ruffell

Christmas and New Year's day parkruns

If you have nothing better to do on these two days then consider running an extra parkrun or two.  The following are local possibilities:

Christmas Day - all 9:00 start:  Bushy park, Crane park, Guildford, Reading, Richmond and Woodley

New Years Day: Bushy park 9:00, Crane park 10:30, Guildford 10:00, Kingston 10:00, Richmond 9:00, St Albans 9:00, Woodley 10:30.

Or take advantage of quiet roads and do a parkrun further afield - the full list is here: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/christmas-compendium/ . Check the start times carefully because they do vary - but note that you CAN do two counting parkruns on New Years Day!

Steve's parkrun stats


Team Events

I was wondering if anyone would be be interested in either/both 'extra' team-style events next year:

South of England Cross Country Chamionships  - Parliament Hill - 25 JAN 2014 -  http://seaa.org.uk/home/onlinereg.html

endure24  - June 28/29 2014 - Reading - 24hr team/individual relay trail race - http://www.endure24.co.uk/

It would be good to get an idea of numbers of people who might be interested in either of these events - please let me know if you are...bearing in mind that we will - as usual - be hoping to enter the quorate-requiring (?) team events we do as a Club each year:

GBR (Brian Bennett) 17/18 May 2014 - entries now open - http://www.greenbeltrelay.org.uk/

RNR (Richard Ruffell) - 20th/21st September 2014 - entries open March 2014 - http://www.roundnorfolkrelay.com/

So we don't want to spread ourselves out too thin... but let me know if interested...

Regards,

Chris Kelly


News for the next BAAC News Digest?

Please let us have your ideas for how club communications can be improved and please send us items for inclusion in the next Digest.  Results, news, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at news@barunner.org,uk.  You can copy Paul Brandon and Roderick Hoffman in BUT the news@ address is the one that we use when the digest is compiled.


Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.


 

      

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