baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 29th March 2021

 For future weeks: inclusions, with photos, please to Roderick Hoffman at news@barunner.org.uk.

Shared events are now ON with two this week, a shared mile on Thursday of next week and a NOW "Cooper Test" run planed for lunchtime on 21st [new date]. See the specific diary items for details. Not everyone will be able to attend so the plan is to continue with solo run reporting for the time being.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

Roderick Hoffman

This Week's Solo 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, such as the weekend achievement, 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.

Ross Barkley 5k (all those since early March will be reported on next Monday):

Weekend Achievement (by 5pm on the Monday) or use the Facebook prompt that will be added on Friday:

Roderick Hoffman

This Week's In-Person Events - please register in advance.

On Tuesday 30th at Bedfont Lakes we are organising a run around the parkrun course. Meet near the Clockhouse Lane entrance, near the traditional parkrun start, at 18:00. That car park closes at 20:00, the one the far side may close at 19:30 but should be OK for this event. Some of us will be doing a straightforward jog around the 5k course and some of us will be doing a 5k "Ross Barkley" sprints session around the course. Anyone (including Kelly and I) can do either event or even one lap of each! Please follow the social distancing guidance before and after the event. Register your interest either by mailing me or use Kelly's Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1652577254925847 .

On Wednesday 31st we have the next run in our Five-Mile "Winter" Handicap series. Meet at the Bedfont Club from 18:00 to finish your five-mile run for 19:00. We expect the car park, changing rooms and showers to be available - the bar won't be. The course will be the simple two-lap course introduced at the start of this series. Please register your intention to come by replying to me or using the "Sign-up" option in the calendar entry. This will be a "#" club points scoring event. At the moment Steve Newell and I have listed the following (a previous time in brackets): Steve Hillier (54:30), Amanda Coombs (44:36), Julie Barclay (38:00), Paul Watt (34:48), Roderick Hoffman (52:06), Chris Kelly (36:00), John Scaife (43:00), Joe Nolan (46:30).

It is important that we know how many people to expect at these events - please register your interest even if you are only a 'possible'.

>Roderick Hoffman (register interest)

Athletics Club Virtual Social Scattergories Quiz - Report

Our March Zoom social included a Scattergories quiz.  Competitors were challenged to come up with a list of items which started with a specific letter, and described a particular subject, e.g. Films starting with “S”.

 Despite some controversy over what constitutes an artist (should we have said painter?), and trying to identify biscuits starting with “J” (no, that one’s a cake), the 18 competitors were still talking to each other at the end of the evening.  Congratulations to the winning team of Mike and Amanda Coombs for their excellent final score of 96. 

Let’s hope we can achieve a “face to face” summer social!

Linda and Steve Hillier

Attendees were Steve Taylor, Steve Newell, John & Alice Banks, Graham, Abigail, Madeline & Dawn Taylor, Janet Smith, Paul & Kay Brandon, John Taylor & Marion Woodhouse, Chris Kelly, Amanda & Mike Coombs and the Hilliers. The Chairman/Comms Officer forgot...and had to send his apologies the next day.

March Track-on-Field Results

Five of us managed the Track-on-Field this month. Steve Hillier is the only person to have managed the event every month over the twelve that this has been running for. I've managed eleven months, Denis and Michael nine and Stephen eight. Next would be Barry Walters with six. Over that period 22 of us have recorded a result in at least one month and 92 results have been recorded in total. The next graph shows everybody's best results over the last year (as times, rather than speeds). Note that the 100m, 200m and 400m use the scale on the left whereas the 800m and 1500m use that on the right. I've listed participants in order of their best 400m time.

Roderick Hoffman

BA Athletics Club Records - 800m

The table below shows the club records held for each age group for two laps round the metric track, the second event of the Ross Barkley.

To qualify as a record the event has to be competitive and timed and the runner has to be a paid-up member of the club and running in a club vest (or in an in-house organised event - but on an accurately measured course). Members for whom BA is a second claim club may need permission from their first claim club for them to run in a BA vest and claim the record (so the same performance cannot be claimed by two different clubs).

 If you know better please send us your claim - we want to get these in the best shape possible. New records or questions: Stats@barunner.org.uk .  We are currently checking two claims for records of those published in recent weeks.

Roderick Hoffman

*There are three rows shown for the 800m MV50. The previous record was set by Malcolm Field in 2005. Adrian ran faster in 2018 but in a GB vest so although this merits a mention it doesn't count as the club record. But Adrian ran faster than Malcolm's time in 2019 so does now hold the record. Jacqui also has separate club and country entries for the FV50.

**Round-the-Block Issue 16, July 1989, included the announcement that the club would start collating its records. Allan Smith was announced as the person to do this...but replaced in the same announcement with Graham Taylor. It is now the responsibility of Paul Brandon. In that same issue the ASCA results from Paris were printed including Tim's record setting 800m performance - finishing 3.9 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. He also won the 400m (though only by 0.6s) and there were also wins that day by "Golder" in the 200m and Barry Walters in the 5000m. As a men's team we were narrowly pipped for first place by SAS, 50points to our 47points. There was no ladies competition that year. NB "ASCA" is the organiser of intra-airline competitions primarily run between European Airlines.

Coronavirus Warning Footnote [changes from last week underlined or struck-through]

In the UK exercise outside is permitted because it will boost physical and mental health and because the risk of catching Coronavirus outdoors is very low provided social distancing advice is kept to.

• Do not exercise outside the house if you have been asked to isolate or you are unwell, particularly if you have symptoms of the coronavirus such as a fever, or if you share a house with someone who has these symptoms, or if you consider yourself to be vulnerable, such as being elderly or with pre-existing health conditions,
• You may drive to outdoor publicly accessible open spaces but you are advised to stay 'local' (defined as "in the village, town, or part of the city where you live."), you are also advised to minimise the amount of time spent outside your home and you should follow social distancing guidance whilst you are out. Further advice is to reduce public transport and shared car journeys and if reinstated do not cross the "Tier 3" boundary (in either direction).
• Current rules allow informal groups of up to six (or two households) to meet outside and exercise together.
• As you exercise, keep 2m away from all others including those you run with as well as those you meet on the run, by default diverting around those you meet (don't leave it up to them to avoid you),
• Do not push yourself too far, this may weaken your defences against the virus and/or increase the probability of requiring assistance. We all have different limits so you need to judge what would be too far for you,
• If government instructions are updated to limit or prevent exercising outside your homes, or to meet with fewer people, please respect such instructions - we should be fighting the virus, not authority.

If you are unwell yourself, especially if you have symptoms of the virus:

• Put your needs first...
• but please let me (Roderick Hoffman) or Steve Hillier know of your condition/status, but we will keep it to ourselves unless you ask us to pass information on.

Shared club activities are permitted.  Any club member is permitted to organise a shared activity. We recommend the social distancing gap of 2metres although "1meter+" can be followed during the activity itself.  Until everyone has had the opportunity to be protected by the vaccine all participants should continue to follow the social distancing rules. To legitimize a run with more than six participants:

• The chairman (Roderick) or the secretary (Steve Hillier) must be notified in advance that the event is taking place,
• One of the participants must be a paid-up member of the BA Athletics Club and must be prepared to perform the duties of a "Covid-19 Coordinator", if more than six attend we recommend that that member wears a BAAC top or distinctive clothing,
• If the tiers are reintroduced then participants, and the activity, should not cross the "Tier 3" boundary or the "Tier 4" boundary (in either directions).
• A risk assessment has to be raised based on this template,
• The considerations within the risk assessment must be followed,
• After the activity perform a review of the risk assessment and log and pass on any issues or lessons learned.

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.

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