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BA Athletics Club News Digest 30th November 2020

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

Unrestricted races are currently off so the club continues to operate with Solo and Shared runs as listed above - for restrictions and advice see the Coronavirus footnote at the end of this digest.

Roderick Hoffman

This week's Events

This week will be quiet with only the Ross Barkley and the weekend achievement due to be reported on next week.  Please help me by sending me 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 (by the end of the month):

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

Roderick Hoffman

December's Events

The shackles are off and we can meet to run together from Thursday onwards. We can expect December to be busy including the following:

• Solo Mile to be done by the end of Friday 11th or soon after - with an optional shared run if anyone wants to set this up,
• Winter Five Mile Handicap from the Bedfont Club on Wednesday 9th December with a planned run finish time of 7pm (details next week),
• Christmas Collaboration Event from 12th to 5pm on Wednesday 16th (see below) to be followed by Club Winter Zoom with quiz and chatter,
• Round Heathrow Run or Walk on Wednesday 30th December (details next week).

Christmas Collaboration Event - Sat 12th to Wed 16th December - 'Letters' join together!

We need lots of club runners and walkers to volunteer to make some letters for a Club Christmas project, using GPS or phone tracking. The picture shows some I made earlier (as walks in the first lockdown), in these cases these are all on green public spaces within a mile of where I live, but you would be welcome to draw the letters anywhere including on street layouts. The letters in my example range from 100m to 250m in height. Yours can be any size from 100m upwards - but the larger the better! Also your letters can be any way up (I'll produce a final print of all the letters collected with them rotated to be the right way up).  I would also ask for the GPS/track to be "clean" - you can run elsewhere but don't cross your letter (unlike the "K" in the picture) and also try to ensure that the letter is quite large relative to the rest of your run - I'll do any highlighting necessary.

I would like lots of club members and friends to offer to draw an assigned letter. Obviously you would need GPS or phone tracking capability. Please let me know that you are up to this and from early next week I'll assign you a letter to draw. In total we'll have a good selection of letters drawn and we can then have a competition that evening to rearrange some or all of the letters into a good phase or sentence. That could form part of the planned Club Christmas Zoom that evening.

Let me know you can draw a letter > Roderick Hoffman

Track-on-Field Result for November

Seven results for the Track-on-Field this month.

Mike was clearly the fastest this month, then Eddie though Eddie is relatively slower over the longer distances - though his course choice may explain that (see below). Emma was the "most consistent" though that isn't to be expected over different length courses - but her courses perhaps had variable winds. Steve showed the biggest improvement in speed for the shorter distances - though still has a relative problem over the 100m. I need to work on my 200m speed - perhaps meet up with Michael and see how well I can keep up as the distances get shorter.

Month on Month looking at average speed we can see that Steve had a good run this month but the rest of us don't have much to write home about.

Finding a good location for the track-on-field is more difficult for some than others. I had it relatively easy this month with my first visit to the Kings College Track in Ruislip where the only difficulty is working out where to start and finish your metric distances on an imperial track. Eddie had it harder...

Also pictured is the Feltham track where Michael ran this week, the Spikes Bridge circuit which Stephen and I have used in the past and the portion of the Thames Path that Emma has used.

Roderick Hoffman

SOLO Activity Achievements, Weekend 27th November to 30th November 2020

This week 23 members and friends reported activities.  Please try to make future submissions by Monday 5pm, or 6pm at the latest, either by email to me or using the "Prompt" in Facebook.

Roderick Hoffman

parkrun News

parkrun restarted in Queensland, Australia last Saturday which added a hundred events to the total so now 218 are operating. Also, thanks in part to a couple of new events over the last couple of weeks, Japan had their highest ever number of runners with 804 runners over 21 events.

Triathlon News

The elite triathletes of the world (aka Planet Earth) are following the examples of earlier generations of golfers and tennis professionals by forming the "PTO", Professional Triathletes Organisation.  Membership will include both men and women with women eligible for maternity leave.  There will be an intercontinental team competition loosely similar to the Ryder Cup for the Collins Cup, named after Commander Collins (US Navy) who created the Ironman race in Hawaii over 40 years ago.

The PTO 2020 "Middle Distance" Championship event is being held at Daytona Speedway in Florida on 6th December with a prize purse over a million dollars (US) with a very spectator friendly format as competitors will swim 2 laps of 1.2 miles(2k), cycle 20 laps of 2.5 miles (80km) and finally run 4 laps of 2.8 miles (18km) so in total just under half an Ironman.  The Covid19 disrupted season and travel restrictions have prevented many of the invited talented GB women from taking their places on the start line but the men's field includes both Brownlee brothers and the veteran Tim Don who trained at Hampton open air pool in his youth.

Steve Newell

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 irrespective of distance, but you should follow social distancing guidance whilst you are there. Advice is to reduce public transport and shared car journeys and do not cross the "Tier 3" boundary (in either direction),
• The current English lockdown restrictions allow you to run on your own, with people in your linked household (or "bubble"), as part of child-care or with one other person
• 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.

For club shared activities we recommend the social distancing gap of 2metres although "1meter+" can be followed during the activity itself. Any club member can organise a shared activity. 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,
• Participants should not cross the "Tier 3" boundary (in either direction),
• A risk assessment has to be raised based on this template,
• The considerations within the risk assessment must be followed,
• After the run 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.

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