baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 27th February 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.

This Week's Events

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 (submit by end of Sunday 12th March):

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:

Weekly Athletic Achievement (by Sunday evening) or use the Facebook group prompt:

Forthcoming Events

This week and next will be quiet, but then we'll be entering a period with club events every Wednesday for six weeks!

Firstly, not on a Wednesday but on Sunday 12th March, we have our annual club Cross-Country Championships. Because the Cranford Park carpark is occupied by building work, this year's race will be in a new location for us - Minet Country Park in Hayes. This is the park immediately south of the Hillingdon Cycle Circuit used for last year's Concorde event. More details next week.

Then on Wednesday 15th we'll have another of our popular NOW lunchtime events. This time at Virginia Water for an informal run around the lake and a visit to the cafe afterwards. The lap around the lake is about 4.5miles and shorter out and back runs/walks will also be possible.

The next week has a formal event - our Annual Awards evening at the Bedfont Club. Food will be provided. A week later and we have the last Five Mile Handicap of the year and because it will now be summer time you may get to see more of the course!

Wednesday April 5th will be quieter since we have a Committee Meeting that evening but there will be an informal run before it. The following week Steve Newell is setting up his Northumberland 10k run. This will be two 5k laps running to a handicap, although some may choose to run just one lap for 5k. After the run we will be visiting the Duke of Wellington for drinks and food.

Finally in this sequence on Wednesday 19th April we'll have our Annual Quiz evening. Before this there will be the London Marathon briefing or an informal run for those not involved. For the quiz we will group into pre-arranged or on-the-night groups of four to six and see how many of Linda Hillier's questions we can answer. Food will be provided by the club.

Please plan to join us at several of these events and feel free to bring a friend. Try to let us know your attendance in advance so that we can plan numbers.

Roderick Hoffman (obo the full committee)

London Marathon Helpers

Last call for helpers for the TCS London Marathon on Sunday 23rd April. I’ve had a great response and need to confirm names in the next week, so if you’ve not contacted me then please do so ASAP and I’ll add you. Usual perks of kit, lunch pack and an exhausting (but rewarding) day helping the expected 49,000 runners enjoy their run whilst ensuring spectators can cross the course safely.

> Simon Turton

Concorde Race 2023

We will be holding the Concorde on the afternoon of Sunday 4th June. This will take the same form as last year being a one-hour event at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit. The start time for the hour is likely to be 14:30. The circuit is booked for us from 13:00 to 17:00.

Note that the only Sunday morning slot that was available would have been on Father's Day and we immediately had some of the team drop out of being involved on that date, hence we are trying the afternoon time.

Further details will be provided when they are available, but we'll be costing the event for fifty runners.

> Roderick Hoffman

Green Belt Relay (13/14th May 2023) Team Update

Our Green Belt Relay Team is one short - we have 7 fellows: Dave Dixon, Chris Kelly, Murray Hogge, Mike Dennison, Paul Knechtl, Roderick Hoffman, and on debut Keith Johnson; plus 3 fellowesses: Maria Jovani, Vicky McFarlin, Frankie Hogge; plus support from Barry Walters and Graham Taylor, so need one more volunteer runner to be complete - and a reserve would be nice. The overnight accommodation is pencilled in, and the legs are being logisticised, so let us know if interested. Newcomers can be given the easier legs if required.

Regards,

> Chris Kelly

Winter Five Mile Handicap Results for 22nd February #

A chilly dry evening with a welcome absence of howling aircraft overhead greeted seven runners for the fifth leg of the 5 mile inter handicap series.

A study of the halfway times shows that John Scaife paced his run almost perfectly while most others were within half a minute of an even pace after two and a half miles.

London Marathon entrant Stephen Taylor is the only ever present and he now has the luxury of dropping his worst result (best four scores to count) but a lot will now depend on the times others produce on the sixth and final leg which will be held in daylight on Wednesday 29th March.

 Podium placed runners will receive an offering from the Fullers Brewery shop.

Run 5 Wednesday 22nd February 2023. Conditions cool, dry and calm. Quiet (no aircraft)

	clock start	halfway split	2nd half split	5M time	v. target: faster	v. target: slower	points	ranking determinent	rank	clock halfway	clock finish
Steve Hillier	2:00:00	30:35	30:59	1:01:34		01:34	14	03:08	6	1:29:25	0:58:26
Benita Scaife	1:54:00	25:53	25:24	51:17	02:43		17	02:43	3=	1:28:07	1:02:43
John Scaife	1:54:00	25:37	25:40	51:17	02:43		17	02:43	3=	1:28:23	1:02:43
Roderick Hoffman	1:50:00	25:12	24:43	49:55	00:05		21	00:05	2	1:24:48	1:00:05
Chris Kelly	1:45:00	23:52	23:28	47:20		02:20	13	04:40	7	1:21:08	0:57:40
Stephen Taylor	1:43:00	21:39	22:12	43:51		00:51	15	01:42	5	1:21:21	0:59:09
Maarten Stenham	1:40:30	19:45	20:43	40:28	00:02		25	00:02	1	1:20:45	1:00:02

 Winter 5 mile handicap points table after 5 runs

	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	total (best four)
Stephen Taylor	18	25	25	15	(15)	83
Maarten Stenham	14	-	18	18	25	75
Paul Watt	25	21	-	25	-	71
Roderick Hoffman	16	16	-	16	21	69
Julie Barclay	21	15	-	21	-	57
Steve Hillier	-	-	21	-	14	35
Amanda Coombs	13	18	-	-	-	31
Benita Scaife	-	13.5	-	-	17	31
John Scaife	-	13.5	-	-	17	31
Jacob Stenham	15	-	-	-	-	15

Steve Newell

Recent Activity Achievements

22 club members and friends' achievements are listed below. Your achievement not listed? It could be because you didn't submit it.

Photos:

 Roderick Hoffman

parkrun Results for Saturday 25th February

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

parkrun review Saturday 25th February 2023

The steadily maturing Stockley Country parkrun attracted a large but manageable field of 200 runners for run 7 including the fitness enthusiast Worshipful Lady Mayor of Hillingdon, Councillor Becky Haggar-Kaikitis (con), who (dressed in full regalia) started the parkrun and joined in at the back and worked her way forward through the runners pausing for conversation and encouraging the slower runners before moving forward. I conclude that she did not have a barcode as she did not appear in the results! [The Timekeeper reports she got herself, her robes and her chain around the course in 46:42, finishing just behind the renowned tourist Chris COWELL]. Steve Hillier was marshalling at the end of the first big loop and made sure she went round again and completed the full 5km distance.  Roderick Hoffman was at the finish on timekeeping duty.  Steve Newell (48:25) was there for a second successive week and maintained his record of visiting London parkruns by public transport + bike.  After biking to Ealing Broadway he whizzed to West Drayton (Elizabeth Line) and later cycled back to Brentford via the Grand Union canal towpath just using Southwestern railway for the final two miles to Chiswick.

Our tourists continued to add to our collection of parkruns round the world.  David Duggan (36:55) was at Kroonstad (between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg) in South Africa, Harjit Jhooti (51:17) and Melanie Miller (parkwalking in 51:35) at East Brighton (Sussex) for three laps on grass there and then Alice Banks (27:27) at Himmel (Tucson , Arizona).  Her time places her third of 36 in her age-group listing there.  The club total moves up to 708.

David Cowell (19:08) was our fastest parkrunner this week (at Wollation Park in Nottingham).

Barry Walters (26:53) achieved a pb at Sandhurst.  He is enjoying his best sustained spell since the Covid interruption.

Steve Newell

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]

London Marathon Training - how is it going? [information correct at time of submission - see also Weekly Achievements above]

BAAC has at least nine, and maybe more, members and friends who are registered to run in this year’s London marathon.  Some have benefited from a club place, some have been lucky in the ballot, and some have gained “Good for Age” entries. Here are extracts from their news of progress to date.  Do you have a place?  Let us know how you are getting on in preparation for the big day.  Otherwise, we look forward to seeing many of you marshalling in London.

Steve Hillier

Gary Rushmer:

My training is going well but slow, I'm only up to 13 miles on my long run at the moment, not worried just yet as I'm still 6 to 7 weeks away from tapering, hopefully stay injury free and be all good to go on the day. If there's anyone on here doing their first marathon, one thing I can let you know is when you cross that finish line it will be the best feeling in the world.

Piers Keenleyside:

I have been running a marathon a month or more for the last 12 years (apart from the pandemic) so I am always trained up for the next marathon. I usually run 5 or 6 days a week covering 40 to 50 miles. Between marathons I might also run a half marathon, 10k or 10-mile event to try and get my speed up. I am rubbish at pushing myself in a solo training run - it has to be a race and I can find myself running a minute per mile quicker than training runs. I have just run the Seville Marathon in 3:48:55 and will be doing the Rome one in March before doing London for the 22nd time in April. Hoping to go sub 3:45. London will be my 199th lifetime marathon.

Jain Reid:

 I had a long time off running due to a back injury (a gardening accident, nothing to do with running!) and am very relieved that I'm now back where I was before the injury. I've not been able to put in as much weekly mileage as I'd like but have been gradually building up the long run distance on a Sunday slowly and steadily, to run the Valencia marathon in December and Seville last weekend. I managed to get a PB in both so I'm really happy with progress. I'm not very good with strength training so hope to join a gym and do better on that front in the weeks that remain. I'm still nervous about injury so have been doing run/walk for all my longer runs and the marathons (5 mins run, 1 min walk) and I will decide nearer the time if I still need to stick with the same approach. 

Harjit Jhooti:

I still haven’t got over the fact that I got in again.  Last October was my first marathon and the best day.  Unknowingly I had Covid-19 and didn’t know it until I did a test the next day.

I haven’t done much running, only parkruns, so I need to get a move on. I need to beat my PB of 5:14 (my strava says 4:59).  I had to go to the medical tent and sit down halfway because I had a pain in my hip due to an injury, a few days before, playing table tennis at work.

Leigh-Ann Ketterick:

Caught me on a bad week full of cold and disappointed haven’t been able to do many runs this week! Being a mother of two young children; working full-time and with a partner who works evening shift work, finding time to train can be difficult! However, definitely since January, the 6:00am runs (even in the icy weather) have become the norm!

I have a great training partner who although didn’t get a place has stayed with me and is following our training plan which helps immensely! We are just taking each run one at a time with no pressures and thankfully no injuries to date! (Fingers crossed that will continue). I will never be fast or follow in my dad’s wonderful long-legged footsteps but my aim is to get round and if I can beat my London Marathon time of 10 years ago I will be very chuffed!

Steve Taylor:

I’m playing catch-up with my training at the moment, I had a swollen leg over Christmas that lasted a few weeks, I got back running again and then had Covid-19. I’m mostly over that but just way behind on pace and distance compared to my usual training schedule so I’m doing all I can to get my fitness level up, including cycling and swimming. If I can get at least one 20 mile run in before the day then I’ll be happy. I won’t be chasing a time though.  I’ll be happy to get round in one piece. It’s great to hear how everyone’s doing, we’re all in a different place but hopefully we’ll all get to the finish line.

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

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