baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 28th May 2018Events:
We are still meeting at Cranford Community Centre most Wednesdays for an informal run from 18:00, including June 6th. New members and potential members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at all of these events. The full diary of club featured events is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml. * Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps] / # Club Points event 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. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BARunnerUK/ (formal "BARunner" page), BA Runner Facebook Group (ask to join) Inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk. New Club Base
Who and How?BA Clubs members can have their joining fee and annual membership fee paid for by BA Clubs. If you are a BA Clubs member, AND anticipate coming to three or more evenings over the year, then please tell us (Roderick Hoffman (roderick@rhoff.org.uk)) so that we can ask BA Clubs to enroll you in the Bedfont Club. From enrollment you will be entitled to use the Bedfont bar during all of its opening hours, as well as the changing facilities every Wednesday. Non-BA Clubs members, who wish to run with or against us, have two options:
The first Club Wednesday at the Bedfont Club will be 4th July (though there is also a Rosenheim T&F fixture that evening). Similar evenings will be on 11th July and 18th July (though again clashing with T&F fixtures). To enable familiarization with the streets around the Bedfont Club I will set up an Orienteering Challenge which can be undertaken on any of the Wednesdays in July (or all of them!). We still anticipate having the AGM on 25th July at the Wraysbury Clubhouse. Concorde Five Help RequestLast week I sent nineteen emails asking whether individuals would be available to help with this year's Concorde Five. So far I've had seven replies, some yes, some no. Whether I've emailed you or not, if you are able to help on the morning of June 17th, from about 09:00 to 12:30 (negotiable) could you please let me know whilst I've still got some hair left. We need upwards of 15 helpers in addition to people in fixed roles. Roderick Hoffman (roderick@rhoff.org.uk) Green Belt Relay Saturday 19th/20th May reportAs mentioned last week, BAAC once again made it round the Green Belt Relay this year, covering the 218 miles in the time of 1.05:33:26 to finish 3rd Vets, 23rd overall (at latest recount).
The numbers are impressive, with each runner averaging 20 miles over the 2 days, but they hardly do justice to the joy of the runs themselves. Many of the legs follow the course of rivers, such as the Thames to and from Hampton Court, diverting occasionally to avoid weddings at Eton, or the River Lea Navigation, in Essex, throwing in a long steep climb for the last two miles up to High Beach in Epping Forest. Others follow disused railways, for miles, or cross railways at stiles (carefully!), while others find the most hills in a 6 mile radius and take you up and down all of them (Little Marlow, thanks Richard...). Thanks to the military precision that inevitably comes from a plan that has been worked out over months of evenings and weekends(!), complete with last-minute optimisations to accommodate first-choice runners dropping out, switching in of quality stand-bys, and keeping one reserve for gastro-enteritis worst-cases, we were able to hit the start line running, and the second start line literally running (Dave... ) and kept hitting our start lines throughout the weekend. The pleasure of being in a relay team is that besides the running there are also times to enjoy waving runners off, cheering them in, and as part of the logistics of the race, providing Marshals at risky points in the race to assist at road crossings, and provide water stations. There is an element of time pressure to reach some of these points in good time, which keeps the adrenalin flowing, and necessitates the handover of runners from car to car at odd times, or handover of HiViz vests, or waiting to pickup runners from finishes, then swiftly transferring others to railway destinations for onward or return journeys, while not forgetting to get the next runner to their start... But there are also times in the mid-morning when a National Trust tea shop
calls, or in the mid-afternoon, when a pub can be found on the river close to a
marshalling point. One of the legs starts and ends next to cricket pitches, in
villages 13 miles apart, one with a cactus show, and one By 9pm on Saturday night, we are ready for some decent food and drink, and a
chance to relax, mull over the events of the day, try to work out where we are
on the scoreboard and then try to get some sleep without being woken up too much
by the frogs doing impressions of noisy ducks.
This year we welcomed three GBR novices, Tim Bellars, John Shaw (from Hayes & Harlington Runners) and Duncan Wright - Duncan, taking time off from the South of France, has plenty of relay and other experience, and managed to knock out his 20+ miles at 6:33 pace, as crazily impressive as ever. Tim was a late substitute, so didn't have much time to plan, but he got right into the swing of things, managing to find an unexpected diversion on his first leg, in fine Green Belt tradition! This did however have the happy upside of allowing him to post a startlingly good time for his second, longer leg on Sunday, a minute per mile faster. John was able to plan further ahead and completed recces of both routes beforehand, by combination of car, bike and foot. Despite their length, and difficulty, which were considerable, he was able to keep himself on the (long,) straight and narrow on the day. With pubs and cafes at both ends he was also able to refuel for the journeys back to his starts which was just as well, as we did slightly mess up the proposed vehicle transfer (sorry, John..). We were extremely pleased to welcome back Vicky, who has had a year off developing the GBR 2038 team, and hope that she enjoyed it as much as usual, despite the challenge of chasing a 10month old around between legs, while we were rolling around enjoying ourselves! Richard survived a tough couple of legs the week after his Ironman 70.3, DaveD banged out a couple of single digit finishes, including some hills, even after folding his legs up for a 6 hour theatre trip on Saturday afternoon. Neil managed to speed up by a minute per mile on Sunday morning - before his tea-break! Graham did his usual sterling efforts, running his legs, and driving others. DaveB was another late substitute, so managed to stay with people who knew the way, while Murray and I almost managed to finish in exactly the same positions in our legs, but not quite. Thanks as always to the runners, for their training and reconnaissance, our dedicated driver, Nick Edge, for his support, and our Marshalling assistants: Paul and Kay Brandon, and Roderick, whose plans to run were foiled, but still managed to help at two Marshalling points, and join us for a burger at the end. Anyone interested for next year, let me know... Thanks Chris Kelly Club parkrun results for Saturday 26th May 2018
Steve Newell is on a boat sailing round the top of Scotland so is unable to write up this week's club parkruns, so this is my report. With apologies to anyone missed out or misrepresented. Steve was also unable to partake in a parkrun himself - but that doesn't mean he wasn't thinking of them - I've attached two photographs from him of the two most northerly parkruns in the UK - sadly he wasn't at either location on the Saturday morning.
What of the rest of us? The numbers are above - another impressive time by Dave Dixon, three top five finishes by our ladies, several improvements or good times - I for instance was pleased to finish ahead of the 30 minute pacer at Sixfields Upton (the course is actually around three fields, though there are two laps). If you want to be paced around a parkrun course then don't forget that next Saturday is the first Saturday of the month and therefore it must be pacer day at Black Park (and probably other locations also). Roderick Hoffman parkrun stats - club parkrun stats NOT updated. Running Shorts
A bit brief this week? I've included everything submitted! Next Digest - Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to the editor, Roderick Hoffman, at news@barunner.org.uk. Club website:
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From the start of July the club will have a new permanent base for Wednesday
evening events. The new venue will be the Bedfont & Feltham Football &
Social Club in Hatton Road (TW14 9QT). In BAAC communications this will be
referred to as "The Bedfont Club" - though note that it is different from "The
Bedfont Sports Club" which is an establishment next door to the Football Club.
See 
Photo - Murray Hogge running leg 3>
Photo: 200 miles later and Graham Taylor has the
finish in sight!>
Picture>
<Picture:
Kirkwall
in the Orkneys. The Kirkwall parkrun doesn't run across the arc...but it
does include sections at either end of it.