The logo of the baRUNNER website. HOME NEWS DIARY

baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

 The logo of the baRUNNER website.
Events>

BA Athletics Club News Digest 11th February 2013

This News Digest

This is being sent to you because you are on the BA Athletics Club email list.  If you wish to be removed please email us at news@barunner.org.uk. Do you know someone who might appreciate being on the mailing list?  They don't need to be a member.  Let us know.

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

Forthcoming Events

Don't forget the following priority club events:

  • Wednesday 13th February - "Heartthob Hash" Club In-house Event Concorde Centre 18:00 (see below)
  • Sunday 17th February - BA Cross Country Championship - Cranford Park from 10:30
  • Wednesday 27th February - 5 mile handicap followed by Club Awards Evening - Concorde Centre from 18:00

New members and non-members of all fitness levels and abilities are welcome at all of these events.

The full events diary is on the club website at: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event Diary.shtml.

Heartthob Hash details

This Wednesday's "Heartthob Hash" will follow the same "Poker Hands" format as in recent years.  Full Rules including location of NEW checkpoints and poker hand values

In short the start is from 6pm and there will be a number of checkmarks in local streets and your first objective is to run to each of the checkpoints and collect a playing card from each.  Once you've visited all of the checkpoints you will have a poker hand of five cards - the hand is random so might include two of a kind, three or even four or a straight of consecutive cards.  If you have the time and you think that you need to improve your hand then you can run back to some of the checkpoints to swap cards to try to improve. You need to be back to the clubhouse within 70 minutes of your start and then during the evening social hands will be revealed to see who has the best and thus who has won.

The distance run over the 70 minutes is likely to be from 5 miles to 10 miles depending on your speed, navigation and time judgement.

Steve Newell

Speedbird Ladies 5k Race Entry Form

This year's Speedbird Ladies 5k race will be on Wednesday 8th May.  The entry form is now available on the website.  Please forward this to anyone who you think may be interested.

Entry Form

Club Track&Field Championship Publicity

The revised date for the BAAC Track&Field Championship and Family Fun Day is Sunday 24th March.  The Thames Valley Athletics Centre has been booked so now all we need are lots of willing participants.  We want to attract both existing members and potential new members.  A poster has been produced.  Please distribute this around your area or print it off and post it on notice boards.  There is a space between Eddie's and Roderick's details for you to write on your own details if appropriate.

High resolution poster (1.7mb)

Low resolution poster (0.4mb)

Round the Block 2013 Results

Hi All,

After postponing the event due to snow for a couple of weeks, we managed to stage the event on a nice but windy day. We had 23 runners taking part this year and must pay particular praise to our youngest ever runner, Philippa who is only 3! With mum, Melanie Holman, she did not complete the course, but I sure in the very near future she will be a force to be reckoned with :-)

It was a very close even this year, with the top 6 runners all within 2 minutes of each other. The eventual winner was P Rieier in a time of 22:43, followed in second by Scott Davison (23:08) and Pierre Muller (23:52). The ladies event was a little more split, but the winner was Astrid Gousse in a time of 28:01. Now on to the team event. We had 3 teams this year and one of the new teams from Amadeus took the crown. Running Camembert were this years victorious team with 14 points to spare from the second placed team.

Position Team Points      
1 Running Camembert 36      
2 Fighting Interns 50      
3 Lunchtime Joggers 67      
         
Individual Results
Position Name   Time 1983 Time* Team
1 P Reier   22:43    
2 Scott Davison   23:08    
3 Pierre Muller   23:52   Running Camembert
4 Axel Rimbaud   24:07   Running Camembert
5 Eddie Giles   24:12    
6 John Coffey   24:38   Lunchtime Joggers
7 Denis Delsol   25:02   Fighting Interns
8 Nicolas Dissaux   25:08   Fighting Interns
9 Frank Royez   27:17   Fighting Interns
10 Astrid Gousse F1 28:01   Running Camembert
11 Yann Armand   28:43   Running Camembert
12 Alan Anderson   28:48    
13 Kevin Holland   29:43   Lunchtime Joggers
14 Steve Newell   29:58 22:33  
15 Roderick Hoffman   30:20 24:31  
16 Helen Smith F2 31:07    
17 Dave Barnard   31:31 20:25  
18 Maureen Corvo F3 31:42   Fighting Interns
19 John Kelly   32:56   Lunchtime Joggers
20 Khall Sheikh   35:38    
21 Vaneeta Cro F4 40:49   Lunchtime Joggers

Thanks to Brian Forrester (24:27*) & Paul Brandon for their time keeping and on the day co-ordination. Thanks to Paul Brandon for his First Aid support, which thankfully nobody needed and to Tom Rowley for his marshalling duties on route. And finally thanks to all of the you for turning out and raising funds for the White Lodge Charity.

The 'Round the Park' race is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 3rd September 2013, so don't forget to put the date in the dairy. I will send out some more details nearer the time.

Paul Knechtl

* Note that the 1983 event was raced round the full Round-the-Block lap hence was about 15% longer - but we were 30 years younger.

Results of Saturday's Surrey League Cross Country Races - Ladies

The 4th and last match of the season took place on Saturday 9th February at Denbies Vineyard hosted by DMVAC.

My morning started with a snow shower as I made my way to the venue, however Denbies was dry but cold. After a browse in the shop and spending money on some wine (I was there 1 1/2 hour early), I found Helen and Monica chatting near the start line. Melanie with her supporting family (husband Martin, children Alex and Philippa) and Deby joined us soon after, followed by Kat and Marion. Roderick came to support the team after completing his Parkrun at Alice Holt, and then Mark Taylor arrived with his girlfriend Carol Ash who was running for the team.

5 of our runners made it to the start line - Monica, Deby, Melanie, Marion and Carol. I was sidelined by a recently diagnosed stress fracture on my right shin, Helen by a lingering cold and Kat who is starting a family. It was a 2-lap 4.23km course over some serious inclines with a good dishing of mud in some areas. As we supporters watched the runners made their way over the starting hill and towards the next one, we were full of admiration for the runners and secretly pleased not to be running! Despite a lingering cold Debbie led our team home followed by Monica and Melanie, with Carol and Marion not too far behind.

Afterwards we adjourned indoors for some light lunch and 'not very strong' refreshments. Our two youngest supporters, Alex and Philippa kept Deby entertained while Martin headed out for a 62-mile cycle ride as he is training for very long charity cycling event - John-Oh-Goats to Lands End (gulp).

A huge 'Thank You' to all runners who ran during the season, especially Marion who is the only person to have run all 4 matches. A huge 'Thank You' too to all the supporters who kept us all going when the going got tough. We can all look forward to good break (from the cold and mud) - there may be other races to run and support (don't forget to put Speedbird 5K in your diaries, Wed 8th May, 7pm start), but there is only one cross country season on our calendar, so till the next one!

League standing at the end of the season: BAAC 24th out of 48 teams, with a total 2533 points from 4 matches

Individual match results of our team (out of 292 finishers):

Position Score   Time
        154         58         47:45 DEBY HELSDON
        190         76         50:00 MONICA ALONSO
        204         88         51:09 MELANIE HOLMAN
        262         130       59:42   CAROL ASH
        281         147       65:23   MARION WOODHOUSE

From Clara Halket, Ladies Captain

Club XC Pre-run?

Next Sunday is the club XC. Does anyone fancy joining Natalie and me for a ten miler leaving the Concorde Centre sharp at 8.50 making it back by about 10.15 for the start of the XC at 10.30? A good way to get the weekend long run in with some hard miles at the end. If you are interested let me know by email.

Richard Ruffell

Berkamsted Half & 5 Mile Runs

Sunday 3rd March is the Berkhamsted Half and 5 mile runs, the club ROM for March. Anyone wanting to run is welcome back to the Ruffell's for a shower and lunch afterwards. The half is a good test for those building towards a spring marathon and the 5 miler is short enough for anyone to give it a go, but competitive at the front if you want a hard race.

If you plan to run and would like to join us afterwards please let me know so we know how many to cater for. Supporters welcome as well of course.

P.S entries are open on line or let me know and I can enter for you locally.

Richard Ruffell

47 parkruns without repeat, and counting

My first parkrun was run with the club on 25th June 2011 at Bedfont Lakes.  I ran my 47th parkrun at Alice Holt last Saturday and that means I've now run 47 different parkruns in my first 47 parkruns.   My target is to achieve 50 different parkruns in my first 50 parkruns which I'm sure will be a unique achievement.  Since I've done all of the parkruns near here I don't expect to see any of you as I complete my target but for the record here is my plan (subject to the weather and other eventualities):

16th February   Conkers (East Midlands)
23rd February   Coventry (West Midlands)
2nd March   Concord (Sheffield)
9th March   tbd   First overrun
16th March   Grovelands   Second overrun

The reason for the two "overruns" is so that as well as doing 50 different parkruns in 50 I'll also be able to claim to have done 50 different UK parkruns in 50 UK parkruns.

I'll return to Bedfont Lakes to claim my 50 shirt on Saturday 23rd or on a Saturday in April.

Roderick Hoffman

Wokingham Half Marathon Results Sunday 10 Feb 2013 10.00

Place Time Name Team Category Number Chip Grading
152  1:23:33 Chris Kelly British Airways AC Vet Men 45-49 783     1:23:19 77.07
873  1:46:08 Colin Haylock British Airways AC Vet Men 40-44 688     1:41:19 58.89
1603  2:05:36 Joe Nolan British Airways AC Vet Men 50-59 1514     2:00:59 55.65

Rgds,

Chris {Personal Best!} Kelly

London Marathon Training

BAAC will have 20 plus runners pounding the London streets in three months time.  Training is continuing...

Last year's London Marathon saw me clock a PB of 4hrs 7 minutes with several other PBs achieved during training on the lead up. So it's going to be a hard act to follow this year with sub 4 being the obvious target, I'm certainly not up to that pace just yet. I always find it hard to keep up the momentum after the marathon, first there's the weeks it takes to truly recover, followed by a lazy summer and before you know it you've lost all of that hard earned fitness. So I've started my training schedule with a few pounds extra to shift from Christmas and the hope of picking up the pace as I go along. I'm following a training schedule from a book called "Run less run faster' it's based on running three times a week, an interval session, a tempo session and a long run. Then filling in the gaps with cross training, e.g swimming and cycling. The idea is that the sessions are hard but you have enough recovery time between and the reduced miles hopefully lessens the injury risk. I'm up to week four and have just completed a 17 mile long run this weekend. It was tough going and slow, however the windy conditions on my 'out and back' run along the canal were in my favour on the way back which helped. I'm hoping that I can get a good long run in each weekend so that when the day comes it's not so much of a shock to the system. For me tiredness/endurance and refuelling seem to be the key things to work on. I have really enjoyed some runs around Richmond park in previous weeks and hated two and a half hours on the treadmill last weekend when it was too snowy to venture out (how they can put on so many cookery programs on a Saturday morning beats me). I hope to get out around Richmond park a bit more as having somewhere pleasant to run takes your mind off the strains and pains of the last few miles, even if it is a bit hilly. I'm also looking forward to completing a half marathon or two in the run up with Berkhamsted being my favourite as it's the first one that I ran back in 2005.

Steve Taylor

Hi all hope your training is all going well. I've been running with British Airways now for about 14 years and in that time I've managed 14 marathons. 1 New York, 1 Boston, 1 Chicago and 11 London marathons with my best time coming in London of 2 hours 58 min. This year I decided to enter and try to get a qualifying time of under 3 hours 15 min. But it did not start to well with a knee injury, but with a little bit of rest I soon started running again. So i started going down to the track on Mondays with Eddie & Steve for some speed work. It certainly helps to make the long runs easier. (hard but highly recommended) Done a cross country race since and a 8 mile race so far and both have gone well. Long run so far is 13 miles, little bit of hill work, (must do more) and some good tempo runs of 10 miles on Wednesdays down at the Concorde club, mixed with 5 mile handicaps & 5km. I've also entered 3 races before race day 1 half marathon & two 20 mile races. So at the moment my week looks like this.

  • Sunday: 13 miles
  • Monday: speed work (works out about 6 miles with warm up & warm down)
  • Tuesday: rest day
  • Wednesday: 10 mile tempo run down club
  • Thursday: 5 mile easy
  • Friday: hill work if not 8 mile steady
  • Saturday: park run 5km or 5 mile easy.

Remember don't do too much too soon.

Gary Rushmer

These are edited extracts and not all contributions have been included - to see the full submissions see this website page.

Further contributions welcome - to Steve Hillier.

News for the next BAAC News Digest?

Please let us have your ideas for how club communications can be improved and please send us items for inclusion in the next Digest.  Results, news, feedback, jokes, stores - send it to us at news@barunner.org,uk.

Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.

 

      

Full Index