baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 31st January 2022

Events marked "#" are points scoring for the club's participation trophy - for the 2022 title.

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

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

This Week's 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 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 (submit before Monday 14th February):

Run one mile and send me your time or add the details to the Facebook prompt. The mile can 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.

Weekly Athletic Achievement (by late Sunday) or use the Facebook group prompt:

Wednesday 26th January Five Mile Handicap

Run 4	26th January 2022
	target	actual	faster	slower	1st lap	2nd lap
Harjit Jhooti	1:00:00	1:02:24		2:24	31:30	30:54
Melanie Miller	1:00:00	1:02:32		2:32	31:30	31:02
Denis Foxley	0:50:00	0:46:00	4:00		22:50	23:10
John Scaife	0:52:30	0:52:05	0:25		26:00	26:05
Benita Scaife	0:52:30	0:52:05	0:25		26:00	26:05
Roderick Hoffman	0:47:30	0:47:21	0:09		23:30	23:51
Paul Watt	0:33:00	0:32:52	0:08		16:15	16:37
Julie Barclay	0:40:00	0:39:56	0:04		19:48	20:08

Running without looking at our watches we all managed quite even pace laps. I speeded up to finish paces ahead of Paul - mistake, I should have stayed at the same pace and even allowed Julie to overtake me. The impact on the series results will be interesting to see. Alan Anderson also pushed Ann round one lap. Thanks to Steve Newell for manning the clock.

The next round will be Wednesday 23rd February 2022.

Roderick Hoffman obo Steve Newell

January Track-on-Field results

There were none. We will shortly decide whether to boot or reboot this monthly activity.

BAAC Quiz:  Wednesday 26th January 2022, Bedfont

After the handicap run we had our annual quiz, hosted as usual by Linda Hillier supported by Steve. We were worried about numbers because Steve hadn't received any advice on attendance - but it turns out that Microsoft had been ignoring all of the baRunner forwarded emails (without notifying either end). This meant that insufficient food had been ordered, but fortunately the Duke of Wellington offer a take-out service so we had very generous second helpings at halftime.

Thanks of course to Linda for doing the quiz and Steve for ordering (and fetching) all of the food.

The quiz had six teams of three or four players and we managed to split the Taylors across two tables. This didn't stop them winning, but at least we've narrowed down to understand which of the Taylors are the quiz experts.  The win was with 98 points which was six points ahead of the next two teams. Those two teams had a very tight finish and the deciding question was in the final "odd one out" round.

Asked which was the odd one out of "Cow, Sheep, Goat, Llama"? the expected answer was Cow because "It isn't used for wool". The team that lost second place had suggested that a valid answer was Llama because "It isn't used for milk". However members of the audience were adamant that llama milk is a thing, and important in South America (and Google confirms that). However I'll leave on here another image from Google. That isn't me being a bad loser - the team with me in it came last by a significant margin so I'm clearly a very good loser.

Roderick Hoffman obo Steve and Linda Hillier

The next Club Evening is on 23rd of March when we'll be hosting our Club 2021 Awards Evening. There will be a run beforehand but then there will be time allowed to get ready for the evening of award celebrations. Food will be provided.

If you were the recipient of an award for the 2020 year could you arrange to have the award returned to Steve Hillier in time for engraving ahead of this year's event.

> Steve Hillier [using private email address due to previous problems]

Recent Activity Achievements

I picked up on 19 club members and friends reporting recent activity achievements.

When we were young

The last Tuesday in January always marked the day of the Round-the-Block race around the Cranford/Heston circuit around the then Concorde Centre sports club where we were based. The last race was held in 2020 and Jeremy Short remains its last winner, and Dave Barnard its last finisher.  It is one of only two events where I've ever been the first finisher - along with Mandavit parkrun in France and yes, that one has ceased operating also. I note though that the year I finished in first place I ran it ten minutes quicker than I ran the course on Sunday (not as a race).

Roderick Hoffman

parkrun Results for Saturday 29th January 2022

28 activities are recorded this week. Please get in touch if your activity is missing.

Running five parkruns in January hasn’t been a big deal in the past with two opportunities on New Year’s Day and then at least four Saturdays to follow but as we reach the end of the first month of 2022 a quick look back shows who has been fast out of the box to make the most of a fresh start as hopefully we move clear of Covid restrictions.  parkrun attendances are slowly recovering but are generally still well below pre-pandemic levels.  While some members (Denis Foxley, Roderick Hoffman, Chris Kelly) have been present as either volunteers or runners all five weeks only the following have hammered out 25km during the month – Bob Bannister, best 22:22:59 at Osterley;  Julie Barclay 24:15 at Raphael; Mike Dennison 19:54 at Osterley; David Duggan 31:11 at Hanworth; Murray Hogge 20:12 at Mile End;  Maria Jovani 22:10 at Osterley; Trish McCabe 28:05 at Rickmansworth; Melanie Miller 27:23 at Southall;  Petra Otto 43:51 at Sandall Park (Doncaster); Barry Walters 28:17 at Richmond Park and fastest, just, Paul Watt 19:51 at Raphael Park (Romford).  Melanie Miller has started the year in determined fashion with attendance at parkruns numbered #1, #2 and #3 already giving her a flying start on her quest to earn a Fibonacci badge in record time.

It has been observed that Steve Newell has been attracted to Clapham Common far more than any other member.  Steve often uses his bike and/or public transport to reach parkruns on a Saturday morning and has realised that the happy juxtaposition of his home, his local station, a suburban railway line to Clapham Junction and Clapham Common itself offers any amazingly almost effort free option to reach the start line with the option to gently cycle back by the Thames on the return journey.  In dry weather Clapham offers a flat two lap course and the start line and area has been moved to provide a far more enjoyable experience than the original.

There was just one new park added this week.  Sarah Gordon (43:08), no stranger to parkrun tourism, ran at Belvoir Castle which only started earlier in the month.  That makes 127 different parks for her and #618 for the club.  If you thought the previous total reported was 616 you were right.  A run by Simon Ashford (26:37) at Henlow Bridge Lakes in Bedfordshire last Autumn went unreported at the time.

Steve Newell

Other "J"s are available - As well as Jersey Farm I've run at Jersey (Channel Islands), Jells (Melbourne) and Jamaica Pond (Boston). Neil has also run at Jesmond Dene (Newcastle). There are then another 13 "J" parkruns worldwide including Jubilee near Durham.

Full club parkrun database - {read access to club parkrun database} - Download and explore (this is where I get most of my club stats from).

Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

Roderick Hoffman

To the Editor:

This was received this week from a Run Director keen to promote their event. This then is being given more prominence than YOUR favoriate event, that might even be on the same date. Why don't you write in and tell me/us about the event you are planning on doing - perhaps even nominate it to be our Run-of-the-Month for the month that it is in?

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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