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BA Athletics Club News Digest 6th February 2017

Events:

  • Saturday 11th February - Surrey League Cross Countries - Ladies at Farthing Downs, Coulsdon from 12:00, Men at Lloyd park from 14:00.
  • Wednesday 15th February - Heartthob Hash - Heston Venue from 18:00*
  • Wednesday 22nd February - Winter 5 Mile Handicap followed by BAAC 2016 Awards Evening (food provided) at the Heston Venue from 20:00*

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. Last updated 9th January.

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

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

Difficulty viewing this email?  Read it off the website instead - http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml

Running related gossip and chat: Facebook Page "BARunner" https://www.facebook.com/BARunnerUK/


Round-the-Block annual 5k road race Tuesday 31st January - result

1st Chris Kelly 21:17 Ran from the Amadeus office on the Bath Road arriving 15 seconds before 12:30 - and then ran on from the finish back to work. Must have been training for something to come...
2nd Simon Turton 22:12  
3rd Neil Frediani 26:56 Just back from South Africa and on his first run in his new age category
Roderick Hoffman 27:26  
John Coffey 28:13 Half his time compared with the previous Saturday's parkrun
Dave Barnard 40:20 Running his last Round-the-Block race in the 70 to 79 year age category

Excuses, Excuses,

Hi,

I expect you hear this story every week but after a hurried domestic rearrangement the folks who are re-doing our floorboards in the kitchen at home had a window to start work today.

Being witness to four burly strangers uprooting the current flooring and squirting large amounts of mastic on her kitchen floor was deemed too stressful for Daisy* the dog who has accompanied me to work today and is currently resting in the car.

I think the kindest thing for me to do is take her for a runwalk at lunchtime rather than do the Round the Block.

I do often run with her off the lead and sometimes successfully on, but to complicate things she is in season at the moment and, as well as looking very sad, just wants to stop and pee everywhere.

As I say, I’m sure this is a tired old excuse but wishing you well for the run today.

Regards

Albert*

* Names changed.  I do like the way that Albert has anticipated the obvious challenge to do the event with Daisy, and has a second story layer built in to counter this. I expect that Daisy appreciated Albert's sacrifice - perhaps appreciating it more than Albert appreciated her condition on their long drive home together across London that evening.  On a serious note event organisers always appreciate apologies from potential attendees, be it simple or elaborate; much better than getting a noshow.


January Five Mile Handicap Results

25-Jan-17 Handicap run time Time gap from handicap Rank this month Points this month Total points New Handicap
Simon Turton 35:00 34:58 00:02 11 25 52 00:35:00
Chris Kelly 35:00 34:37 00:23 10 22 59 00:34:30
Steve Hillier 48:30 48:59 00:29 9 20 54 00:49:00
Steve Taylor 41:00 40:30 00:30 8 19 54 00:40:30
Gary Rushmer 32:30 31:56 00:34 7 18 78 00:32:00
Harry Wild 38:30 39:10 00:40 6 17 69 00:39:00
Roderick Hoffman 44:30 43:30 01:00 5 16 75 00:43:30
Trish McCabe 44:30 43:29 01:01 4 15 81 00:43:30
Alan Anderson 55:30 57:18 01:48 3 14 42 00:57:30
Tony Barnwell 54:30 56:24 01:54 2 13 49 00:56:30
Alan Friar 45:30 48:39 03:09 1 12 45 00:48:30

There were 12 participants on a cold January evening, with the timekeepers taking full advantage of the heater while the runners generated their own warmth. Due to transport difficulties Christine Munden arrived a few minutes late and ran a short course finishing close to the target of 19:00 but not eligible for points this month. A slight change with the top 3 being Trish, Gary and Roderick, who have all taken part in all 4 runs so far. There are quite a few who have taken part in 3 runs, and have every chance of catching the leaders if they take part in the remaining 2 events, as it's the best 5 of 6 runs to count.

The next 5M handicap is on 22nd Feb, this will be followed by the Awards evening so the planned finish time, and hence each person's start time, may be adjusted to enable the completion of the event before 19:00.

Paul Brandon


Dream Mile Feb 2017 Results

The graph below show best times for each time period for recent and frequent runners (the database behind this holds all times for all runners since the event started in September 2013.  Those with BA access can see this at this link):

Dream Mile results Feb 2017

There were reasonable conditions for this month's Dream Mile, even a slight tail wind, but they were not as good as in January so everyone ran slower except for Matthew who exactly matched his January time. The next run will be on Thursday 2nd March so hopefully we'll see some improvement then.

Roderick Hoffman


WARR 2017 and 2018

Passing on messages relating to this year's and next year's World Airline Road Races:

Trust All is well.

We have confirmed the host hotel 5*Pan Pacific. Rates at SGD260 plus one breakfast and SGD280 with two breakfast. 4th Oct to 8th Oct 17.

Dinner will be at Suntec Convention Centre which is 5 minutes away from race HQ.

Daily Schedule:

  • 04 Oct: Arrival-Race pack collection-host hotel
  • 05 Oct: Meet and greet at the Asia longest bar- host hotel
  • 06 Oct: Team Captain's meeting and followed by T-shirt swap party-host hotel
  • 07 Oct: Race day and Dinner
  • 08 Oct: 70th Anniversary Singapore Airlines Charity Run (optional 10k/5k)

Looking forward to hosting all of you Rain Shine Run Singapore.

We have also asked our Tradewinds and Tours to handle the spill-over hotels nearby.

Enjoy your weekend and stay in touch

Best Regards 

Ghana (WARR 2017 Chair)

and...

It's with great pleasure we announce the winning bid for WARR 2018 to Air Canada and Jazz Aviation, to be hosted in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Dates are being finalized for end of September and will be announced in the coming weeks.

WARR International Committee

Roderick Hoffman (roderick@rhoff.org.uk)


Club parkrun results for Saturday 4th February

4th February family & friends time parkrun commentary grade
David Duggan 22:13 Bedfont Lakes run #186, 128th at Bedfont 49%
James Shoulder 22:17 Bedfont Lakes run #7, 6th at Bedfont 58%
Chris Evans 24:45 Bedfont Lakes run #155, 151st at Bedfont 60%
Ian Cockram 24:55 Bedfont Lakes run #379, 236th at Bedfont 59%
Caroline Cockram 26:55 Bedfont Lakes run #259, 162nd at Bedfont 60%
Neil Frediani 33:48 Bedfont Lakes run #162, 107th at Bedfont. Ed: In a new age category but he'll have to run a lot faster to get a new grade record! 48%
John Lennon 37:43 Bedfont Lakes run #240 41%
Andrew Jordan 21:15 Bushy Park run #126, 114th at Bushy 70%
Ian Cunningham 23:54 Bushy Park run #275, 234th at Bushy 64%
Lesley Chamberlin 24:34 Bushy Park run #153, 40th at Bushy, pb 76%
Ben Chaytow 22:01 Crane Park run #159, 136th at Crane Park 62%
Trish McCabe 27:27 Crane Park run #172, 16th at Crane Park 56%
Piers Keenleyside 24:33 Evesham run #155, 4th at Evesham Ed: A fast warm-up for the next day's  Marathon. 65%
Kathryn Keenleyside 40:28 Evesham run #21, 2nd at Evesham 47%
Steve Dodsworth 22:54 Fountains Abbey course pb, club record 67%
Linda Dodsworth 26:35 Fountains Abbey run #101, 3rd at Ripon 60%
Darren Wood 20:11 Frimley Lodge run #600 65%
Kerstin Luksch 20:42 Gunnersbury run #211, 207th at Gunnersbury 72%
Alan Anderson 32:07 Gunnersbury run #443, 220th at Gunnersbury 67%
Steve Newell volunteer Gunnersbury report writer
Denis Foxley 25:48 Harrow run #64 66%
Joan Foxley 37:15 Harrow run #54 58%
Alice Banks 26:27 Maidenhead run #73, 45th at Maidenhead 72%
Roderick Hoffman 28:51 Rugby run #242, park #184 54%
Sarah Gordon volunteer Rugby
Paul Watt 21:37 Rushmoor run #41, 27th at Rushmoor 69%
Julie Barclay 23:12 Rushmoor run #91, 19th at Rushmoor 75%
Adrian Haines 18:28 Tilgate M-2, run #32, 20th at Tilgate 79%
Sreeram Sethuraman 35:21 Upton Court run #104 38%

An excellent run by Adrian Haines (18:28, 79.24%) at Tilgate this week earned him a second placing. [Ed: Officially the fastest time by a club member this year...but see below]

Steve Dodsworth (22:54) achieved a pb and set a new club record at Fountains Abbey near Ripon shaving a few seconds off the time run by Ian Cockram some time ago before he was actually a member.

Linda Dodsworth (26:35) was running her 101st parkrun, she recorded her 100th at Sunderland (26:00) last week.

Welcome to our newest member, Lesley Chamberlin, who made her first appearance in the results since joining clocked 24:34 at Bushy Park where she has now run 40 times.  Her other runs have been at Bedfont Lakes(104), Milton Keynes(4), Crane Park(3), Homewood and Barnstable (once each).

Roderick Hoffman (28:51) was part of a record attendance of 366 at Rugby where the parkrun has only been going for 9 weeks. [Roderick adds: the Rugby parkrun field, and crew, included over 130 parkrun "Tourists" from the "Most Events" table on a planned visit.  I had suggested to the Run Director that at the briefing he should shout out "Are there any locals present?"].  Countrywide the attendance at 5km parkruns on Saturday was just below the 100,000 mark.  At Woking, without the excitement of Tom Rowley's birthday party, there were 150 fewer runners than the previous week.

The world's most prolific parkrunner, Darren Wood (20:11), became the first to chalk up his 600th parkrun, at Frimley Lodge.

Steve Newell

Partially updated club parkrun stats

#DFYB

#DFYB is the hash tag for "Don't Forget Your Barcode".  There are not many rules in parkrun but one that is strictly administered is that to get a result you must present at the finish a scan-able barcode, else your result will not be entered into the computer. So for instance some of you may have seen media articles suggesting that Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill ran a parkrun on Saturday.  The results for Sheffield Hallam show that if indeed she did then she didn't present a barcode at the end:

215 Hannah WOOD 25:08 SW30-34 59.02 % F 42   PB stays at 00:21:20 2
216 Unknown                
217 Paul SINTON-HEWITT 25:09 VM55-59 61.63 % M 175 Ranelagh Harriers First Timer! 321

It could have been an accident - it must have been chaotic at the finish since they happened to have a record turnout that day and, oddly, around the 25 minute mark there was a large bunching of finishers - some doing PBs and many well below their best.  But you would have thought that Paul Sinton-Hewitt would have helped the newcomer get their barcode scanned ;-).

I had the pleasure of meeting Jessica in early 2012, in Sheffield, and when I asked her about running longer distances she made it quite clear that the 800m that she had to run within the Heptathlon was quite long enough and she couldn't imagine ever having to run further.

And whilst on the #DFYB subject I'll also mention this "Unknown" from the January 28th Hackney Marshes results:

Daniel JONES 18:09 VM35-39 73.09 % M 5   PB stays at 00:17:13 70
Unknown                
Simon PREUVENEERS 18:19 VM40-44 75.61 % M 7 Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets AC New PB! 37

The club's best result at Hackney Marshes is 17:10 by Dave Dixon so that time was not under threat by "Unknown" on this occasion - but this would still have been the fastest run of the year by a club member.

Roderick Hoffman

More Records

Sixteen South African parkruns were bigger than Bushy and exceeded 1,000 finishers last Saturday.  That included an inaugural parkrun for Valhalla (near the now closed Voortrekker Monument parkrun) with 1,067.  At Bushy they had had 444 parkruns to perfect their processes before they got more than 1,000 finishers.  North Beach (Durban) had 1,933 finishers, so not far behind the record set at the Voortrekker Monument parkrun the previous week.


Marathon Training Notes

We have around thirty members and friends preparing to compete on the streets of London in April. Many of them are training together, or sharing tips and experiences to help the training run more smoothly. Here are some highlights from the last few weeks:

Colin Haylock: The long runs are the most important as it builds stamina; importantly increasing distance by 10% each week and never worrying about the pace, just cover the planned distance without stopping. Important not to run the following day. I aim to build up to a minimum of four * 20 mile runs (And run the last 20 miler no later than 26th March) and feel fairly comfortable running 13 miles by the end of Jan. Take a banana on the 20 mile runs, consume slowly from mile 12. When the negative thoughts set in, think of nice things you will do after the run, like the food you will eat with your feet up watching Emmerdale.
Colin Russell: The only advice I would pass on is to never try something new on the day. Always train at least a few times, and especially on the longer runs, in the kit you plan to run in on the day. If you need new trainers, get them now and break them in during your training. And especially try the gels and drinks they will be handing out on the course on your training runs. The marathon is not an event you want to try a new product and discover it upsets your system.
James Glover: Being a bit injury prone! the extra bits that work for me is not to increase distance/pace too soon (I only run twice a week) & learn to listen to my body...I've been running during the summer/autumn slowing building distance. I've now added in a couple of cross training sessions a week to increase fitness. I can also recommend a good sports massage every so often - seems to help me.
Michelle Lepherd: My training plan is about slowly increasing distance and, in 4 week blocks, focusing on speed, then strength, then hills etc. I have been running about 30-40km a week. I do back to back longish runs on Saturday and Sunday and my week is filled with 2 more runs, cardio and cross training. I'm prone to injury (I sympathise James!!) so I am hoping the cross training will balance me out and prevent injury.
Gary Rushmer: I've done 17 marathons and one of the things I've learnt is that the start of marathon day is so different from your normal long run. Firstly there's the travel up to the race, could take up to 2 to 3 hours from the time you leave home to the start of the race. If possible, before your long runs (in March) try to practice with what you will eat and drink on race day. Do not change anything on the day of the race.

If you want to pass on any encouragement to the team, let me know!

Steve Hillier


For most of us the Marathon is the once-in-a-year or even once-in-a-lifetime achievement. But for others it is just a start...

Thames Trot 50 - Saturday 4th February

On Saturday I ran the Thames Trot 50 - along the river path from Oxford to Henley. It was a fabulous day, weatherwise - cold and clear - and the mood of the fellow runners, marshals, supporters - and everyone else on the river path it seemed - was buoyed up by the sunshine. I was very impressed with the race organisation - arriving at the hotel for check-in - nice and warm - I was able to check in, get my number, bag tag, T-shirt, complementary coffee, get changed, hit the loo, drop my bag, pickup my chip and be ready for the start with very little hassle.

The temperature was great - a Helly and a T-shirt worked well all day - and on a 50 miler you can get away with wearing a buff however you like! I had a backpack for drinks, gels etc., and I'm now convinced that I need a race vest, with pockets and drinks at the front, but it was good enough at a pinch.

Chris Thames TrotFrom the start it was a short jog down the road to the river and onto the path. I was fairly sure it would be soft, sticky, slippy or cloggy, and possibly all of those, from my weekend training runs so went with the Inov8 mudclaws, for the four wheel drive feeling, and hoped I could put up with their lack of cushioning on the harder surfaces.

There were checkpoints every ten, nine, eight miles or so, with very cheery and helpful marshals - checking our number, timing tag, fluid and cake levels were good, and helping to top them back up. I got to the first checkpoint at ten miles in a good time 1:28, and feeling fine, and my wife, Sarah, met me at the check points, with my personal re-supplies - I like a pint of milk - but they were all well stocked with fruit cake, GU gels, water and bananas, plus savoury snacks at the middle point.

I soon got to feeling tired, and wishing I had got more training in. I was walking around the checkpoints, and digesting, but still just about managing to run in between. My initial pace dropped, but as the checkpoints get a bit closer together I was still hitting them almost as hoped, and so it went on, trying to keep running and resist walking.

Eventually I managed to work out that even if I did walk from the last checkpoint, I was likely to make it before the cut-off, and that gave me a bit of a boost. Then running past my house at about 40 miles was - sort of - reassuring. I kept gritting my teeth and doing the one foot in front of the other thing. So I was very pleased, to make it to Henley in 8:57, and have been buzzing ever since. Didn't manage to do much upright stuff on Sunday, including the stairs but I've got shares in ibuprofen so should be okay.

Regards

Chris Kelly

and...

I've knocked off a couple more marathons over the last 8 days:

  • 29th January - Marrakech Marathon - 3:26:06 - my 10th fastest ever and 4th fastest MV50
  • 5th February - Gloucester Marathon - 3:35:16 - a bit hilly compared to the pancake flat Marrakech course and run on a very cold and foggy morning.

These take my tally to 123.

Piers Keenleyside


Headline news - not going for a run

Last week's headline was Tom Rowley doing his first parkrun; this week's revelation is that Ron Hill didn't go for a run the very next day, Sunday 29th January.  In Ron's case he had been for a run of at least one mile every single day for the previous 52 years, so not going for a run was a radical change. Some more details for those who missed this (where have you been since December '64?):

DR. RON HILL'S STREAK ENDS AFTER 19,032 DAYS - THE LONGEST RUNNING STREAK EVER RECORDED IN THE WORLD!

Dr. Ron Hill, 78, an entrepreneur from Hyde, England in the United Kingdom, has ended his five decades long running streak. "It is great sadness that I have to report the end of my streak," said Dr. Hill in an statement to Streak Runners International (SRI). "I have been having heart problems and have been waiting for some time now to have the problem diagnosed and hopefully rectified. 1 Mile runs have not helped and on Saturday 28th January I ran my last 1 Mile. After less than 400 metres my heart started to hurt and over the last 800 metres the problem got worse and worse. I thought I might I die but just made it to 1 mile in 16 minutes and 34 seconds. There was no other option but to stop. I owed that to my wife family and friends plus myself."

Started on 21 December 1964, Dr. Hill's running streak lasted 19,032 days (52 years, 39 days) and was the longest running streak ever recorded in the world. Besides possessing the longest running streak in the world, Ron Hill is a three time Olympian. In the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, Dr. Hill placed 18th in the 10,000 meters, in a time of 29:53, and 19th in the marathon, in a time of 2:25:34. In the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, he placed 7th in the 10,000 meters and ironically ran the same time (29:53) as he had run four years earlier in Tokyo. Dr. Hill's final Olympic games was in Munich in 1972, where he placed 6th in the marathon in a time of 2:16:30 at the age of 33.

During Ron Hill's illustrious running career, he set world records for 10 miles (47:02, Leicester, England, April 1968; 46:44, Leicester, England, November 1968), 15 miles (72:48.2, Bolton, England, July 1965), 25 kilometers (75:22.6, Bolton, England, July 1965), and the 26.2 miles marathon (2:09:28, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 1970).

Ron Hill was also the second athlete to break 2:10 in the marathon. In 1970, Dr. Hill ran a personal best of 2:09:28 at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland. At that point, the only faster marathon time was run by Australian Derek Clayton, who clocked a 2:08:33 in Antwerp, Belgium in May 1969. The Antwerp course, however, was suspected of being short by possibly 500 meters. "The course was measured using five cars and was never able to be remeasured," noted Dr. Hill in a 16 December 2014 email to SRI/USRSA. "The Belgians refused to answer any queries about the course." In July 2009, the Association of Road Racing Statisticians rejected the record set by the Derek Clayton at Antwerp for the course being short and now lists Dr. Hill's 2:09:28 as the world fastest marathon at the time it was set in 1970.

Ron Hill also set a course record for the Boston Marathon. In 1970, he was the victor of the 74th edition of that race in a time of 2:10:30. His 1970 win eclipsed the old Boston Marathon course record set the year before by more than 3 minutes. Ron Hill also won gold medals for the marathon at the European Championships in Athens, Greece in 1969 and, as mentioned before, the Commonwealth Games in Scotland in 1970. During his lifetime, Dr. Hill finished 115 marathons, where he ran 112 of them in under 2:50, 103 in under 2:45, and 29 in under 2:20. His final marathon was the 100th running of the Boston Marathon in 1996, where he completed the historic course in a time of 3:12:46 at the age of 57.

Dr. Hill graduated with a Ph.D. in textile chemistry in 1964 from Manchester University. In 1970, he started Ron Hill Sports, "which pioneered various products including wrap-over shorts, mesh vests, waterproof running jackets and reflective strips." He sold the company in the early 1990s and has since started Hilly Clothing specializing in technical socks and other apparel. Ron Hill was also President of the Road Runners Club from 1987 to 1988.

I am 100% Certain that the Whole of the World Wide Running Community wish Dr. Hill a speedy recovery and much success in the future.


Running Shorts (and Shoes)

  • Gary Rushmer (Jnr)'s grandfather assures me that whilst Gary may have looked like he was floating across the mud at Woking last week his shoes were actually as muddy as everyone else's.  Also the small print of the "Grand Father" contract revealed that it was the Grand Father's responsibility to clean them!
  • I was going to post to say that entry for the Staines 10k on 14th May was open...but the race is already full so I won't.

Next Digest?

Is it your turn to send something in this week?

Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at news@barunner.org.uk.


Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.


 

      

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