baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club
BA Athletics Club News Digest 29th January 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 WeekPlease 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 January Mile performance by the end of the month for publication in the first February digests):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):
Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5k
Great conditions for running, cold but sunny. There was a breeze which was strong on occasion but didn't slow us down much. The course was the two lap course that they often use. This features an uphill out from the start but therefore a downhill back into the finish which led to some fast times. As well as the finishers above, Paul Watt cheered us on and, due to train problems, John and Benita Scaife arrived too late to take part but were able to take the running photographs above and several of us went to the cafe afterwards. Mike was first V65 and Julie was 2nd FV60. The next "Last Friday of the Month" is Friday 23rd February. Roderick Hoffman Future EventsAs the diary shows next week is busy with a Street-O Orienteering event at Kingsbury Circus, Kenton on Tuesday and then the "January" Five Mile Handicap at the Bedfont Club on Wednesday. Then on Saturday we have the final Surrey League Cross Country matches at Lloyd Park. Further ahead John Scaife has added a NOW event for Tuesday 7th May at Oakwells Park in Maidenhead. "The route will start and finish at the (free) car park off Ockwells Road and adjacent to the cafe. The post-code is SL6 3AA and what3words friend.radar.remain. It is 2 minutes drive from M4 junction 8/9. The running route will be approx. 5km but the layout of the park allows for a shorter circuit for walkers if wanted." Recent Activity Achievements15 members' achievements were communicated to me before this week's publication time.
parkrun Results for Saturday 27th January 202438 activities are recorded below. Please get in touch if your activity is missing.
parkrun Review Saturday 27th January 2024Steve is still away ("We are staying in a rather isolated cliff top hotel and the sun is shining and the pool a comfortable temperature.") and no one volunteered to write this week's parkrun report. Dave Duggan stays on 499 parkruns finished, but is hoping to do his 500th in the USA, hence isn't expecting any of us to join him. Roderick Hoffman parkruns in Essex – part 2 (of 2)The northern parkruns in Essex are divided into two rows each served by long established arteries of the road network. To access the top row you just need to drive up the M11 to Bishops Stortford and turn off at junction 8 and then head eastwards along the A120. The first parkrun on the left is at Great Dunmow.
This is a two lap trail run which can get very muddy during wet weather.
Parts of the course follow the River Chelmer and which is crossed via
footbridges. Heavenly post run refreshments are served at the Angel and
Harp. The next one along the A120 after bypassing Braintree and merging with A12 is Colchester Castle. The two lap course is not flat but is on tarmac all the way! The river meandering through the town is the Colne. The Castle Park includes a cricket pitch which has been used for Essex county matches over the years and also a putting course by the café used by parkrunners on Saturdays. Barely a mile away and also close to the city centre in Colchester is Highwoods parkrun. This event depends on the local Tesco Extra for carparking (free for 3 hours!), toilets and a cafe (Harris & Hoole).
There are still five more parkruns in Essex to mention. These are spaced out in a band across the middle of the country starting with Harlow which is near (and to the West of) junction 7 of the M11 motorway. The course is over two larger laps in Harlow Town Park and with an out-and-back section of a cycle way plus a shorter loop to take you to the finish. Hill wise, not flat but nothing too severe to negotiate. Close to the geographic centre of Essex is Chelmsford, Chelmsford Central parkrun starts and finishes in the Central Park near to another Essex Country Cricket Ground. The run includes a loop round Admirals Park and Tower Gardens accessed via a path alongside the River Can. Mostly on tarmac, just 20% grass. The A414 from Harlow meets the A12 (from jct 28 of M25) just outside Chelmsford. The A414 continues eastwards towards the coast and the tidal waters of the Blackwater are encountered at Maldon and Heybridge Basin. The river Chelmer (remember him way back at Great Dunmow) finally reaches the sea and merges with the Blackwater. The Maldon Prom parkrun is over two laps in the recreational area of the town which includes a marine lake, a splash park and a statue of Byrhtnoth, an Anglo-Saxon leader who was killed while fighting at the battle of Maldon in 991 AD which was won by the Vikings. Generally a good flat surface all the way round. Two more to go. Mersea Island can be reached by road, but only one road (The Strood) and that road can be covered in water at high tide to a depth greater than it is wise to attempt to drive through so check the tide-tables before planning to be there at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. It is possible to take a train to Colchester and then catch a local bus. The Mersea Island parkrun is over on the East of the Island, two fairly flat laps, mostly on grass with views over the Thames Estuary to the South. The parkrun is not usually crowded but occasionally attracts one hundred runners in the holiday season.
Steve Newell Matters Arising - North Essex parkrunsOf the ten North Essex parkruns no club member has yet run at Highwoods parkrun. All the rest have been run at albeit four of them just by one club member - myself for Chelmsford Central and Great Dunmow, and David Duggan at Clacton Seafront and Harwich. Two club members have run at each of Maldon Prom and Mersea Island, three at Great Notley, four at Colchester Castle and the most, five, at Jarlow. No club member has run at the same North Essex parkrun twice or more. I've run at six of the ten, Harjit at three of them, Richard Ruffell and David Duggan two each. Another six members have run at one parkrun. The author of the above, Steve Newell, has yet to run at any of them...I wonder where he gets his information from? I remember Great Notley parkrun well - Steve mentions mud which I didn't notice but when I did it there was one stretch through the sand of a sandpit! And the hill he mentions has a statue of an enormous eagle on it - and in those days newcomers to the parkrun were expected to tap the base of the statue to obtain permission to finish the course.
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"Great stuff Harjit in BOK Land; loved it down there but with caution? And as ever Jas on a role!" Andy Rayner.
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.
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Back
on the road, the A120 continues beyond Colchester for another 15 miles or so to
the East and North towards the ferry port Harwich and 
Lastly,
a little further along the coast we have the