baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 27th April 2020Events - see below:Inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk. Solo Events Calendar
All face-to-face events are off until at least the end of May, but the club continues to operate with the Solo runs listed above - these ARE still permitted but see the Coronavirus footnote at the end of this digest. * Please suggest formats for runs with the "tba" in the above table. Midweek SOLO Your-Street-O Results
The results are shown in the table below. Every course was different and everyone had different challenges to overcome so it isn't really fair to compare people's performances…but I have listed the table in extent completed order. Five of you visited ALL of the control points on your maps and got back to your front doors within the hour - well done to Bob, Gary, Janet, Mike and Simon. A special mention for Jacqui, in mid table, because whereas most of those at the top of the leader-board had a dead-flat floodplain to run around Jacqui had the hills of Knaphill to contend with. Others gave themselves the additional handicap of going out between midday and mid-afternoon in the hottest week of the year so far. Thank you to Ian who came out of retirement to act as tailrunner for this event. Though I suspect Ian is one of several who will contact me over the next couple of weeks to say that you've rerun the map and have really nailed it this time! Some reported missing post-boxes. Obviously for 22 courses I couldn't drive around each area and spot the post-boxes myself - not an "essential journey" by the current definition. Instead I used an orienteering mapping tool, OOMAP, that includes a link to a database of post-boxes. However that database is not up-to-date, it is probably at least twenty years out of date if not many more. So for maps with more than 16 post-boxes to choose between I also used Google Earth, and Google Street View, to check that the post-boxes were still in the positions OOMAP suggested. But the satellite and street car photographs could be a year out of date. Harjit was the first to hit such a problem - she knew that she was in the right place and went round and round looking for the post-box but to no avail. But then she spied a postie, delivering letters, so she enquired about the box. The postie told her that it had been demolished by a car and hadn't yet been replaced.
The orienteering tool, oomap, was unavailable from Wednesday through to Friday, perhaps because of overuse during this lockdown period, but was back up on Saturday so may be available for you to have a go with it. On a PC or Laptop go to https://oomap.co.uk , click on the red "UK", click on the "x" to close the box, then either enter a postcode into the "Postcode:" box and click "Jump" or simply narrow down to the area you live using the mouse (or enter the code in the bottom right hand corner of your existing map into the "Map ID:" box and hit "Load"). Click once where you want the centre of your map to be - a blue dot will appear. This can be moved by clicking on it and then dragging it somewhere else). Click where you want the start/finish to be, click on "Start/Finish" then "OK". Now the clever bit. Click on "Add Postboxes" and the map will fill up with control points! If there are too many you can delete some using the table on the right. When you are happy with the map click on "Save & get PDF map" which will download the PDF to your machine. At this point you are invited to buy a coffee for the tool's creator. I did buy him several coffees for last week's exercise (from club funds) and if you make extensive use of the tool you might like to do the same. Last week's exercise gave you a good flavour of Street-O events. Please note though that there are several differences between last week's event and the series that a few of us do each year:
Roderick Hoffman
This week's Midweek Challenge - What3WordsThis week's BAAC Midweek Challenge is based on what3words. This requires a simple run…and then a bit of imagination including the use of the website: https://what3words.com . The concept of what3words is to provide a system for locating anywhere on the earth's surface through easier to remember words, rather than postcodes or coordinates. Every 3m square in the world has been given a unique 3 word address that will never change. This challenge is to use, or perhaps misuse, the what3words for a bit of fun following your exercise. If you go to the website above and type your postcode into the Search box it will locate the postcode on the map and tell you the what3words location of that postcode. Now do your run:
Then use the map of the website to locate the other two points on the triangle and look up their what3words. Finally use the three sets of three words, selecting ONE word from EACH set, and make an apt, humorous or meaningful phase. Tell me what that is by the end of Friday. So, the run isn't important, about three miles but speed isn't necessary. AND for those stuck at home I'm happy for you to do a workout equivalent to where you would have run to. But give me those three word expressions. I may judge everyone to be a winner…but may highlight the phases that made me smile most! As an example my postcode looks up noisy.decide.brief. I could plan my running triangle to two local points whose what3words are free.strut.than and dinner.swift.cubes. So I could submit my answer as "Brief swift strut" to describe what I've just done or perhaps "Noisy free dinner" for what I want to do when the lockdown finishes. Over to you. Send me the results, for instance by filling in this table and forwarding to mailto:News@barunner.org.uk, by the end of Friday:
BAAC 2020 Virtual Relay Marathon – Sunday 26th April - Results and report #
I received a huge number of emails, in fact from the majority of yesterday's runners direct, and more via Team Managers thanking both me and all the Team Managers for such a great job done, a great idea, and how much they enjoyed it which has given them all such a motivational boost in these troubled times and so lovely to get back 'together' with so many friends they have been missing for a long while now. Surprising or surprising not (?) ...many reported being very nervous before the start, worrying about 'dropping' the baton (and not getting their start/finish/times thro) and about not letting their team mates down ! This was equally shared between experienced marathon runners and total newcomers to this 'special marathon'. I told my team after, that this distraction probably played a vital role in overcoming any struggle running fast, such that not only bettering all their predicted times but also to new PBs for a mile. Not bad since many confessed to little running in the last month ! In my team final briefing at 07:55 before the start countdown, I told them all to 'run like hell, as if they were escaping from robbing a bank, and to wear Kipchoge's smile every step of the way' ! I would like to thank every runner, all the Team Managers, and the 'Guardian Angel BA Team' in the backroom that helped advise, formulate and carry out the event plan. It was a true joy to do my bit towards what became 'a marathon festival' from the days leading up, the incredible day itself, and indeed the partying seems to be continuing today on my WhatsApp race channel ! One other question that kept getting asked was ….when is the next one ?… Thanks so much all, Joe Nolan
Steve Newell [team captain and coordinator of Team 1] Ed adds: Steve had a very frustrating morning because his WhatsApp service for some reason batched up messages and delivered them to and/or from him up to twenty minutes late. His team ran faultlessly except for the occasions where Steve needed to submit starts for the few team members without access to WhatsApp. Our time, above, excludes any lost time. PS. Perhaps Sue has now been banned from downloading the complete series of "Game of Thrones" (or whatever) on Sunday mornings. Photo Montage - thanks to Maria and myself, but don't ask us to name everybody, and apologies to the many missing! We have raised £279, representing more than £10 per mile, for White Lodge through the 2.6 challenge initiative, with more promised. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/2020-baac-virtual-relay-london-marathon SOLO activity achievement weekend 24th to 27th April 2020Fewer to report on this week due to the focus on the Virtual Marathon Relay.
Mike reminds us of views of Heathrow...
Same again next weekend. Submit your best performance of the weekend by filling in the following form and sending it to me OR replying to the message on Facebook (or any other messaging format to me).
Roderick Hoffman {submit by 5pm on Monday} 1981 London Marathon (shown on BBC on Sunday afternoon, still available on iPlayer)
BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000hrf7/the-1981-london-marathon-an-historical-first NEW Colours Quiz - answers next weekHere is Linda Hillier's numbers quiz. For those people who have an aversion to numerical problems and who prefer to visualise the issue, try this one! Some clues are obvious, some are tough, and it's just a bit of fun! Enjoy. On Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/636199849751546/permalink/2981530825218425/) many of us have had a go but none of us have managed to get the following two. Have you? Let us know. The Facebook item will have our answers added later on this week. 7: Green F; P S I 2020 BAAC Solo Exercise Survey Results23 people have responded so far and I'm summarising their answers below. The survey remains open so please fill it in, particularly if your activities contrast with those of these first 23. The survey is here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FBQRXTW and is open to all digest readers whether you are members of the club or not. Results so far... Q1: Over half of responders reported that they were doing about the same level of exercise as before, but a different mix. 26% are doing more than before whilst 18% are doing less.
Learning from this - We are probably doing things about right, the weekend activity achievement is open to walking and cycling as well as running. The midweek challenge will sometimes be open to walking as well as running but none have been designed for cycling. Had 30% or more of you ticked one of the other categories we would have had to consider what we were doing to support you. Q3: The Average frequency of exercise was a healthy 5.7 times a week and the average duration was just over 50 minutes. The "how far from home do you go" question was mainly to check that you had thought this through. The runners amongst us had an average maximum distance away of about 45 minutes - which would still be a long walk with a twisted ankle. The cyclists however were answering "two hours". I'm not a cyclist, but I wouldn't want to walk a bike with a broken chain for two hours.
Q5: Noted the popularity of the "Weekend exercise achievement" and the Midweek challenges of fixed distance events. The Track-on-field was a marmite subject, you either loved it or had no interest in it. I didn't ask about the Your-Street-O because it was too new but it does seem to have gone down well. Q6: This was about the tools that you use and 100% of you said that you read the digest, I hope that you've read this far this week. Other tools with high percentages were the website, WhatsApp (and on Sunday we saw the good and the bad of relying on WhatsApp), Email and Facebook. 50% of us use phone messaging, nearly 40% of us use Strava and one third use Video Conferencing (and I bet that that has gone up since the start of May). We are due to have an AGM in July and we need to decide at our next committee meeting (which will probably be via video conference) how to plan the AGM - including an option to delay it by up to three months. Q8: This was about what was keeping you busy. 50% of you said that you were neither working nor child-minding so sounding like you had time on your hands (with many mentions of the word "furloughed"). 23% were working from home, slightly more than the 18% who were working outside the home. We'll continue to monitor the survey and judge whether our communications and activities remain appropriate for what you need and want. Any concerns or queries - email me: Roderick Hoffman Coronavirus Warning FootnoteIn the UK exercise outside is still permitted because it will boost physical and mental health. The relevant law in England states, "No person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse...a reasonable excuse includes the need...to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household". The word "need" is not defined, and you could be challenged on your interpretation. In line with government guidance; whose purpose is your health, the health of those around you and reducing demand on NHS and other services; we advise you as follows:
If you are unwell yourself, potentially with the virus:
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.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Well, that was different and most of you said that you enjoyed it.
Although not part of the instructions several of you took photographs of each
postbox and I've included Harjit's collage as the best set.
"Thanks to every member of the team from the first mile to the last for all
being ready to go a few minutes early, reporting starting and finishing and then
sending your times promptly. Every credit to Joe for burning the midnight
oil last week in preparation and involving so many teams. I sensed that it was
all just so much fun and now we have tested the model we can look forward to the
scaled up version next time - or would everyone just prefer to slog out the 26
miles in October from Greenwich to The Mall? I hope Gary was able to
get to work in time, it is reassuring to know that there are still some jobs
left at LHR. It is very quiet these days living under the flight path!"
Q2:
over 90% were still running outside the home. More than half were also walking
and nearly half were cycling. Nothing else makes more than 20%. 
Q4:
Of the five options presented it was "Providing twice weekly challenges" that
got the highest score. "At home training tips" got the lowest score - which is a
bit of a relief since we've yet to publish any. But there is some demand for
these so I may try to source something for next week.