baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 31st July 2017

Events:

• Thursday 3rd August, Dream Mile, Bath Road 12:45*
• Saturday 5th August, Run-of-the-Month, Black Park parkrun at 09:00 (see below)*
• Wednesday 23rd August, Club-In-house-Event, BBQ on Harmondsworth Moor from 18:00

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. Updated July 17th.

*Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

Not for you, no longer interested?  remove me please.

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Club Facebook Page "BARunner" https://www.facebook.com/BARunnerUK/

City Race 2017 - Thank you

On behalf of both the London Marathon and BAAC, I’d like to thank you for your help and support at last night’s Standard Chartered Great City Race 2017. The race is normally on a Thursday but for various reasons was moved to later in the month of July and a Monday evening, coupled with school holidays commencing I think accounted for the lower number of pedestrians experienced around the course. Feedback from all marshalling positions was very positive and for those that were able to make the post-race hospitality at the Windmill pub, the catering was very much appreciated (so much so that Nick commented we were, ‘out catered’ as there was food left over; unheard of in previous years!). I know it’s not the most onerous event to marshal but I think that’s why I enjoy the City Race so much, because it’s nice to get time to socialise with not just the BAAC team but marshals from other clubs. The LM staff I talked with (Nick Bitel (LM Chief Executive), Hugh Brasher (LM Event Director), Lucy Ferguson (Ops Asst), James Quinlan (Volunteer Mgr) etc. were falling over themselves to heap praise on the marshalling teams, so give yourself a pat on the back. Special thanks to Dave D for making sure all marshals got their preferred T-shirt size.

Mike and Zara Thorn, David Duggan, Trish McCabe, Zoe Ostley, Guilaine Sheward, Roderick Hoffman, Steve Taylor, Clara Halket, Janet Smith, Jagjit Singh, Ayee Tavares, Bob and Anne Bannister, Steve Hillier, John and Benita Scaife, Chris Kelly, Jas and Tejinder Singh Modaher, Nick Edge.
 
Thanks again,

Simon Turton

World Airline Road Race 2017 Singapore - October 4th to 8th

This is now just over two months away so it is time to get down to some serious thinking about attending.  All members, relatives and friends are welcome.  The airline team will consist of all current airline employees (including employees of airline subsidiaries) and retirees - former employees claiming a company pension or old enough to do so and not in full time employment for another company.  Please check with me if you have any doubts on your eligibility.  Non-employees/retirees are eligible to run in the non-airline team category.

The event consists of the following and more:

• Host hotel of the Pan Pacific in Marina Bay near all of the event venues including race course and many Singapore top locations.
• Meet and Greet party on Thursday 5th (Host hotel)
• T-Shirt Swap party on Friday 6th (Host hotel) - Clara and I are looking into the logistics and cost of having a team shirt this year
• 10k Race Saturday October 7th at 06:00 from "The Float" in Marina Bay.
• 5k Race at 07:30 from "The Float"
• Awards Dinner Saturday October 7th (Host hotel)
• Optional additional race - Singapore Charity Run on October 8th from 07:30: Singapore Charity Run 

I'm aware of the following team members registered for the event.  If you have registered but aren't listed here then please let me know.

• Roderick Hoffman,
• Tim Bellars,
• Piers Keenleyside,
• Clara Halket,
• Michelle (Shelly) Garratt,
• John Scaife,
• Benita Scaife,
• David Rimmer,
• Chariya Romphokaew-rimmer,
• Monica Alonso,
• Helen Smith

...and I know that Dorothy and Martin Cook have already registered, or are intending to shortly, and probably Gareth Snook also.

Others are yet to register - again let me know that you are planning on being with us.

Registration site: raceroster.com/events/2017/12241/36th-world-airline-road-race-singapore-2017

Event details: http://worldairlineroadrace.org/

I'm advised that they are getting close to the date when they need to finalise numbers for the dinner although they haven't yet stated a cut-off date.

Roderick Hoffman (team captain, roderick@rhoff.org.uk)

Monopoly Event 2017

Last Wednesday saw the fourth running of the Monopoly event.  The simple plan was for each team to collect as many Monopoly tokens as possible from Community Chest (Paddy, the far side of the field), Free Parking (Harry, somewhere beyond the Motorway Bridge) and Chance (Steve, beyond the footbridge over the Parkway), and return them one at a time to GO (Linda) at the Concorde Centre. 

With only five entrants, picking equal teams became tricky, but we got close.  The Thimbles (Chris Kelly and Roderick Hoffman) managed to collect 11 title deeds between them in the allotted time, amassing a fortune worth £2,120.  They were marginally out-invested by the three man battleship team of Simon Turton, Alan Anderson and Steve Newell, who collected 13 title deeds worth £2,345.  All competitors timed their runs to perfection, returning to GO as the clock ticked down to the last minute, hence avoiding time penalties.  All had a good run out including plenty of exhausting hill work. 

The teams celebrated their new-found wealth long into the evening at the Queens Head.  The only complaint on the night was from one of the Thimbles, "Battleship? He {Simon} is a fast cruiser!"

Thanks as always to Harry, Paddy and Linda for their help in making this event happen.

Steve Hillier

Club parkrun results for Saturday 29th July

I’ll start this week in eastern Australia which is in a far earlier time zone and parkruns start at 7 a.m.  In spite of body clocks still being on Friday evening Benita (30:50) and John Scaife (30:51) visited their 13th different parkrun in New South Wales at Willoughby in northern Sydney. They are likely be running somewhere different next week.  There are now 60 parkruns in New South Wales alone and many others elsewhere in Australia.  Former member Caroline Yarnell has been running more regularly at nearby Curl Curl recently but visited UK this month and ran an impressive 23:02 (79.67%) at Maidstone.

Parkrun is a time trial and not a race and the speculation over whether Roderick Hoffman (201st different park) would be soundly “beaten” by Gregory Bailey (200th park out of 200 runs) turned out to be a waste of time.  They jogged round Maldon Prom together in 26:38.  Other tourists to join them included Ian Taylor (23:39) doing his 300th run but only his 113th park and Morgan Daniels running his 121st park out of 121 runs.

There were first time appearances by Janet Smith (46:08) at Bracknell, Alice Banks (28:11) at Tring, and Piers Keenleyside (24:44) at Oxford where Chris Kelly’s two year old club record of 19:47 remains safe for another week.

Next week – Black Park – see you there.

Steve Newell

Updated club parkrun stats

Petra's Australian Outback Marathon day - 29.7.2017

'Marathon' day arrived on Saturday, 29th of July. And, after yet another pretty sleepless night due to having been overly excited about the very long journey (one and a half days), finally it was off to the Australian Outback Marathon. I only arrived at the Ayers Rock resort on Thursday, 27th of July, on a specially organised trip. Two hours after most of us had arrived, we were already off on a 45-minute training run, to shake off the cobwebs, and to get some kind of idea of what the terrain was like.

Race day morning, a bus picked us up from our hotels at 5:45 am, to drive us to the start. It was a freezing cold morning, and only approx. 8 degrees C. Hot drinks were served, and so I grabbed the customary cup of coffee, especially in view of there having been portaloos set up for us. They looked quite out of place, situated in the middle of the outback!!!

The race started on time at 7:45 am for the marathon, as well as for the half. Our race number also contained the chip-timing electronics, so that everyone would get accurate timing. The course being where it is, had been measured as accurately as possible, but they could not guarantee total accuracy. The course itself was fairly flat, with deep red sand in places, turning my half-marathon into quite a challenge. It felt a bit like running through dunes. Put 31 degrees C into the equation on top of that, and you'll definitely have a big challenge ahead of you. However, the most beautiful scenery made more than up for that! The red sand was absolutely everywhere, not just underfoot, but also in our shoes and socks, and even on my teeth. Where the red sand had compacted it was fairly easy running. The atmosphere was incredibly friendly, with runners encouraging and spurring each other on. I was amazed about the lush plant life in the desert (it's currently winter), where you would find tiny flowers, some melons growing, and lemons ripening on the trees. The course was roughly the same for runners of the half and full marathon apart from towards the end, when it made the marathon runners turn left, with us doing the half distance continuing the last 3 to 4 kilometers towards the finish line.

I finished much better than I had hoped, as I hadn't been allowed by the consultant to train for half or full marathons anymore due to some arthritis in the lower back. I can run two half-marathons per year, but without putting all that training in that I used to do.

I seemed to have managed the half-marathon on one or two 6-mile runs per week (plus gym three times per week), finishing in 2:45:05. During the last 5 km I told myself that I only had the work of one Parkrun left. That thought certainly sped things up towards the end. 

I must praise the organisers, Travelling Fit, for one superbly organised race in every way. Absolutely everything had to be shipped over from their HQ, from the merchandise they sold, to the race markers, water bottles, food, tents, etc., i.e. everything you'd need for the staging of such a huge event! There was also a 6 km fun run for kids, as well as adults, and a 11 km race. All in all there were 650 runners from 29 (!) countries. The race, now in its 8th year, has reached full capacity. As the area around Uluru (Ayers Rock - in the photograph above) is a sacred place, and also an area of outstanding beauty and, therefore, protected, the number of runners may not increase much more. 

Entries to this once-in-a-lifetime trip can be made either through Mike Gratton of 2:09 Events, or through Travelling Fit down-under if Mike is not taking a group to this event himself. I can highly recommend this race, which has left me with so many memories. It will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2019 - now there's a thought...

Petra Otto

Tom's Report follow-up

Tom Rowley's report last week made reference to the presentation to him of a physical album of photographs put together by the ladies cross country team and other club members.  Helen Smith has passed on the following link that may work for you to be able to see the contents of that album:

www.photobox.co.uk/1xC8C8A7/creation/4855351076?cid=puksecs001&channel=1180

Helen points out that the price-tag Photobox has attached to the album is not realistic so you should ignore it.  Obviously both the album, and the recipient Tom, are priceless.

Next Digest?

Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to the editor, Roderick Hoffman, at news@barunner.org.uk.

Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.