baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 6th July 2015

Events:

• Wednesday 8th July - Rosenheim T&F Twickenham, Monday 13th July Veterans League Perivale
• Thursday 23rd July - BA Fun Run and Little Legs at Harmondsworth Moor from 4pm. See below.
• Wednesday 29th July - Ruffell Runaround Run-of-the-Month - Heston Venue from 18:00

New members and non-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 5th July).

Running related gossip and chat: Facebook "BA Runner" (link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/636199849751546/).

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

BAAC Annual General Meeting report

The club AGM was held last Wednesday.  Full report to follow.

Following two decades of hard work we marked the departure of Alastair Heslop from the committee (though he promised us he'll still have some involvement over the next year).  I am pleased to announce that we have welcomed a new member of the committee, Steve Taylor, initially to the "without portfolio" role.
 
A full listing of the committee members is on the website: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Club_Committee.shtml

Steve Hillier

Magic Mile Results for Thursday 2nd July

	Previous Best Time	Last Recorded Time	03-Jul-15	Difference	Best Time
Derek Baker		00:07:51	00:06:48	-63 seconds	00:06:48
Vaneeta Cro	00:14:33	00:13:10	00:12:20	-50 seconds	00:12:20
Chris Kelly	00:05:42	00:06:07	00:06:00	-07 seconds	00:05:42
Simon Ashford	00:06:18	00:06:43	00:06:38	-05 seconds	00:06:18
Richard Ruffell	00:05:59	00:06:21	00:06:16	-05 seconds	00:05:59
Roderick Hoffman	00:07:08	00:07:25	00:07:34	+09 seconds	00:07:08
Dave Dixon	00:05:21	00:05:06	00:05:16	+10 seconds	00:05:06
Ian Cunningham	00:05:52	00:06:03	00:06:15	+12 seconds	00:05:52

Conditions: Hot/Humid, Overcast, Dry, Slight easterly crosswind.

Thankfully the weather was a lot cooler than the record highs the day before. It was still quite humid though meaning fast times were hard to come by. With one result to come, there was one PB on the day, Vaneeta Cro reducing her PB by 50 seconds to 12:20. The couch to 5K training is certainly working. Good to see Dave Dixon out for a second month in a row recording another good time. Nearly everyone one seemed to be around 20 seconds slower than their best time … Next event will be on Thursday 6th August 2015.

Paul Knechtl

The results for the Parkway mile, run on 1st July before the AGM, have not yet surfaced which proves perhaps that PK is more efficient in his absence than SN?  But perhaps others are to thank or blame.

BA Fun Run fast approaching: Thursday 23rd July from 16:00 with the theme "Summer Holiday"

Later on this week I'll be sending out details to those who have already offered to help marshal this event.  I'm still in need of more offers so please let me know. 

What's in it for you?  If helping the airline host a major charity event isn't enough then there is a food voucher which hopefully this year will also cover a beer.  Oh and you could be rubbing shoulders with an England goal-scoring legend (not yet confirmed) not to mention performers who your kids will have heard of.

• The event is on Thursday 23rd July
• The venue is Harmondsworth Moor next to the BA Waterside Head Quarters
• I can arrange parking for you in the Waterside car parks (so avoiding the narrow concrete entrances to the moorland car parks)
• The Little Legs is a 1,000m run from 16:30 for the under 10s
• The Fun Run is a 5k race from 17:30 with all entrance money and sponsorship aiding Cancer UK
• This year's theme is "Summer Holidays" [sorry - Cliff is not expected]
• 200 runners have already signed up which is the number who ran last year so we expect a larger field
• attendance counts towards the Round The Block trophy awarded each year

Roderick Hoffman

World Airline Road Race update - Flight Costs

If you are thinking of making it out to Dubai for WARR then we are keen for you to be there.  For those of you who are active BA staff then British Airways and BA Clubs are also keen that you make it to compete against the other airlines.  So much so in fact that they are prepared to help with flight costs!

BA Clubs rules are fluid and not well explained but...

1) In the past we have been able to request a standby ticket from BA Clubs to get us there and back (though we have had to pay some of the taxes and charges).

2) This year they have also said that if you want to use one of your own annual tickets - for the higher priority, cabin entitlement and/or to take family with you - then BA Clubs is prepared to contribute towards the tax element of your ticket.  This is, as you would expect, only available if you are a paid up member of BA Clubs but given the amount of tax on a LHR-DXB-LHR ticket this would have to be seen as a great deal! 

Please let me know if you are interested in taking BA Clubs up on either of these opportunities - we will need to check on a case by case basis to see what this will actually be worth. Note that the standby ticket has traditionally been equally available to members of regional BA Clubs but we've been advised that the tax rebate may only be for BA Clubs London members.

Roderick Hoffman BA WARR Team Captain

Club parkrun results for Saturday 4th July 2015

4th July is always a good time to look westwards and see how our parkrun cousins are getting on, especially this year when two of our members have run at half of the runs they have over there.  At Clermont Waterfront near Orlando in Florida there were 94 finishers, the equal second best attendance in the two years or so the event has been going.  Durham, NC, only attracted 19 runners, a few more than the two-year average figure of 15.  At Livonia, MI, which has been going for three years there were 54 runners against an average turnout of 21.6.  Lastly, over in San Francisco, the one most recently visited by one of our members and where Julie Barclay holds the VW50 age category record (22:41) there were just 27 runners where the average over six months has been just 17.
 
If those fields look a little sparse compared with Bushy Park (968 this week), Black Park (485) or Gunnersbury (351) then consider the situation with the recent start-up in France.  Les Dougnes, near Bordeaux, once part of the English Empire and the location chosen for the fight back to re-establish a foothold near a vineyard, attracted a fairly typical attendance of two.  The debutant was our own Roderick Hoffman spreading his wings in a new direction, clinching a second place for the first time and pleased with the time of 26:30 in the hot conditions.  The start time there, by the way, was 0830 local time. See also below.
 
Les Dougnes was one of three new parks visited by out members this past Saturday.  In New South Wales, Benita and John Scaife together with several family members were in Sydney for the last of their current series downunder, this time at Cooks River.  Caroline Cockram visited Telford (Shropshire) for the first time.  The club total has risen to 185 different parkruns.
 
On more familiar ground, Alan Anderson (29:37) ran at Gunnersbury for the 150th time, Simon Ashford ran a course pb at Chichester (23:24), James Glover (25:31) achieved a course pb and set a new club record at Alice Holt Forest.  Richard Ruffell fitted in (Banbury, 21:32) as his 40th park, taking another club record off Roderick, before going to watch Hamilton qualify at nearby Silverstone.
 
Chris Kelly was back at Reading for his 243rd parkrun.  Next week he is taking part in a mile swim in the Thames at Chiswick.  The time of high tide will allow him to run at Gunnersbury first, should he wish to do so.  Piers Keenleyside has admitted he has been doing so much running recently he has neglected his swimming and won't be joining in this time - the water may never be so warm again.
 
Updated club parkrun stats: www.barunner.org.uk/results/ba_parkrun_park_totals.xls 

Steve Newell

Information from UK Athletics

We get various communications from UK Athletics and some we'll pass on and others not based on how many people we think the communication will be relevant to.  Perhaps all of us who race should be aware of this one - although more some that others...

Dear Club Secretary, Athletes may choose to use supplements but should be aware of the facts and risks, so that their choice is an informed one. There is no 100% guarantee that any supplement is safe and UKA has set out their position on supplements, providing clear advice to athletes, and those who support athletes, on how to reduce the real risk of inadvertent doping posed by supplement use.  View the UKA Supplement Position Statement http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/anti-doping/supplements-and-nutrition/ and any queries can be directed to antidoping@uka.org.uk or 0121 7138466. Kind Regards, UK Athletics Anti-Doping Team

I couldn't find anything in the detail specifically barring the consumption of chocolate; even at the quantities supplied at our regular socials.

Running Crossword

I haven't yet had a fully correct answer submitted so I'll present this again...entries please...

Easier Clues

Prize - the usual one year's free subscription to this periodical to the first received with all the correct answers. You might get a mention also.

I'll publish the answers next week.

Roderick Hoffman

News for the next BAAC News Digest?

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Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.