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BA Athletics Club News Digest 14th November 2016Events:
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 November 4th] *Club Event Map: [long Google-map hyperlink you would not type in] 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/ Wednesday 9th November - Club Charity Quiz - ResultGreat to see so many of us at the Quiz last week - I counted 22 plus Steve and Linda Hillier as quiz masters. It was printed last week that first prize was the honor of having one's name printed in the digest so I have to say congratulations to Team "E" - John and Judy Williams, Dennis Foxley and Roderick Hoffman for getting slightly more points than the other four teams largely thanks to knowing their geography (ten points) AND knowing that they knew their geography (hence playing their joker on that round to double up to twenty points). And between us I believe we raised around £108 for White Lodge. Thanks of course to Steve and Linda. Roderick Hoffman Men's Surrey League - Epsom Downs on Saturday 14th November - Results
As a team we came 6th out of 10. Club Events and Champions in 2017There are a number of key events that are open to participation by all club members. Each event has a champion. As we head towards 2017 I thought it would be useful to list those key events, and the club members we rely on to manage them, and also put in a request for ideas for new key events or for new champions for existing events. The following table covers to the end of July.
So if you want to see a different event featured and/or if you are willing to be a club champion for an event then please get in touch with Neil Frediani or myself. Club parkrun results for Saturday 12th November
Numbers were well down this weekend due to very wet weather in SE England especially and cross country league fixtures. Numbers at Bushy (690) were the lowest since January 1st 2015 - a fall of 500 from recent levels. Janet Smith, one of our earliest adoptees of parkrun, albeit not our most prolific, celebrated ten years of Saturday morning 5km time trials with an outing at Black Park. She completed her original run at Bushy Park in 31:01 (50.13%) on 11/11/06. Ten years on, in soggy conditions, her time was 35:08 (48.91%) but the previous week at Portsmouth Lakeside she achieved 32:23 (53.06%). Remember this is a lady whose serious sport is throwing weights about and runs just to be sociable! The Bedfont crowd, after their day out at Homewood Park last week returned to the puddles of their home course. Caroline Cockram (27:45) seems to be going rather better than she was a few weeks ago. She is on 246 runs and is eager to get her 250 vest through the post before Christmas. Steve Newell is using parkrun tourism as a practical opportunity some Saturdays with his study of public transport systems. The 93 bus from Putney station and a short walk proved an excellent way to reach the Windmill on Wimbledon Common and it runs even when it is raining. Unlike nearby Richmond Park, large puddles to rival those at Bedfont make the course quite challenging with tree roots hidden by soggy autumn leaves proving an additional hazard. The impact of a tumble illustrated by the data available for analysis from a GPS watch is fascinating as was the concern of other parkrunners. Roderick Hoffman stayed dry by travelled to Paris to try the Montsouris parkrun which only started a fortnight ago. Montsouris is quite close to Issy-les-Moulineux, a suburb twinned with the London Borough of Hounslow. About 5km from the Tour Eiffel. parkruns in France seem to be rather slow to gain momentum. Roderick was first male, second overall with a time of 26:33. He was also last!* Roderick has now run at five different parkruns in France (and there are only seven). That must be some sort of record*. Gareth Snook (24:02) made his first visit to Barry Island parkrun and crossed the line in 17th place out of 91 runners. That parkrun has been going for about 18 months and quite often attracts 100 runners. Our Welsh collection is improving. Alice Banks was again at Maidenhead and earning extra Brownie points by helping sorting the finish tokens afterwards. Quite what Alan Anderson was doing on his 433rd parkrun has yet to be revealed. He is credited with a double dose of volunteering (course set-up, course clear up) and a run-time a minute or two longer than the tail-runner! I fancy the plot must include a bike, a puncture, a barcode, a big puddle, maybe even an alarm clock! But they all count. Alan is now the 9th most senior member of the "250" club. Some (all six of them) of those who were ahead of him have now been promoted to the "500" club so that makes Alan 14th in the all-time most prolific worldwide parkrunners list. Updated parkrun stats: www.barunner.org.uk/results/ba_parkrun_park_totals.xls Steve Newell
parkrun TourismSome non-tourists assume that parkrun tourists don't do their share of volunteering. Partly to counter that assumption two of the country's parkruns this week were staffed entirely by parkrun tourists on the UK Most Events table. This was at Southwark and Rosliston, including one of our number Sarah Gordon. Next week there is a third such takeover, at Queen Elizabeth park, where I for one will be hoping that the weather is better! *As well as being first male finisher and second overall I also achieved the highest grade finisher at a parkrun for the third time, though this time only by 0.2%! Numbers at French parkruns continue to be low although the other Paris parkrun, parkrun du Bois de Boulogne, is now attracting 40 to 50 parkrunners each week which is greater than three London parkruns (Pymmes, Aldenham and South Oxhey). The potential is there, again I noted that the park of the Montsouris parkrun was full of runners, I counted around 200 whilst I was around. The difficulty is "Vous pouvez conduire un chameau au parc, mais vous ne pouvez pas le faire fonctionner." (which is what Google tells me is the translation for "You can lead a camel to the park, but you cannot make it run.") *Not the case - the "Most Events" table for France (http://www.parkrun.fr/results/mostevents/) reveals that I am lagging behind three others, two of whom have done six of the seven. I had expected to see Peter Fordham make it seven out of seven at the inaugural parkrun de Fontainebleau last Saturday so when he didn't I checked in case he was unwell. No problem - he ran Roodepoort parkrun in South Africa. I've now run 26 parkruns outside the UK. Thus although I am 21st on the International Most Events table I am lagging down in 34th place on the UK table. And I can't claim that I'm the most non-UK travelled of runners on the UK table - many have run more including someone on the UK most events table who has also done 59 non-UK events (if you think about it anyone who has moved between, or is based across, two parkrun countries is more likely to become a parkrun tourist in one or both countries. Now on the subject of running parkruns in different countries this is how the club is doing compared to my previous report:
Note 1 - Since making the extract Singapore has announced the start of a
second parkrun - West Coast parkrun, starting December 3rd. So we will
have done 1 of 2. The table shows that despite our best efforts we are slipping behind! We have added 78 to our total but at the same time 155 new parkruns have started up. Only in the UK are we keeping up - 64 parkruns added whilst 51 have been added. But I think that we'd need a big international recruitment drive to consider trying to run at every parkrun worldwide! The new parkrun in Singapore means that East Coast parkrun will soon lose its status as the world's most remote parkrun at 2082 miles from the nearest alternative run (Darwin). Crissy Field will take over - with 945 miles to the newly started Richmond Olympic (Vancouver) parkrun. The numbers at East Coast have improved this year - most weeks it gets between 70 and 90 runners. Roderick Hoffman Harmondsworth Hash - May 1993!"On this, the first Hash Run of 1993, 35 Club members enjoyed new territory based on Harmondsworth — the site for the new Head Office complex of Prospect Park {Ed: subsequently renamed "Waterside"}. Paths and tracks; rivers, lakes and canals, all opened up as the trail of flour wound its way for a smidgen over 5 miles. Mistakenly running the False Trails, of course, adds to the distance. The FRBs (Fast Running B***s), Allan Hardy, Barry Walters and Simon Turton frequently found themselves chasing the False Trails, whilst the SCBs (Short Cutting B***s), just as often found themselves leading the pack. By clever use of Checks, False Trails and Regroups, the whole pack should finish together about 65 minutes after leaving Harmondsworth Church, and having used a river to pass under the M4, a " sewer" to pass under the railway; having mastered nettles and Alsatians; and having discovered the country's largest car scrap yard; the pack swept home through vivid yellow fields of rape. It then took all of 6.17 seconds for the first beer to be bought from the adjacent pub {Ed: The Five Bells} - possibly quicker, Such is the hold the Hash has on some people that Phil Smith then shot away to run with the Barnes Hash at 8pm the same evening ! Many thanks to co—hare Rod Hoffman and to his dexterity with "Nettle-Slayer" shears On On " Unknown Author - might have been John Williams
You should all have received an invitation to the clubs 35th Anniversary event on 21st December. Don't forget to reply. Observation and recognition testOne person, Piers, correctly reported that the two running colleagues in last week's picture were Steve Newell and Alan Anderson. But he had been there when the photo was taken.
Running ShortsAthens Marathon - 13th November 2016I completed the Athens Marathon today. It was a lot tougher than I expected. I'd seen from the official course profile and last year's public Strava data that there were a couple of significant hills but the overall elevation gain did not seem too bad at just over 1000 feet - about the same as the Richmond Park Marathon. I set off well and over the first 6 miles managed between 7:07 and 7:26 minute miles - but then I had to start climbing the first and smaller of the two hills and my pace dropped to 8:30 minute miles. Between miles 12 and 20 there was the second much bigger hill and although the gradient was not steep it just went on and on for close to eight miles! In some respects the course reminded me of the Comrades race in South Africa where you climb up hills for endless miles! On this bigger hill my mile splits dipped to as low as 9:30. The finish was in the ancient Panathenaic stadium which dates back to 330 b.c. I eventually finished in a time of 3:44:40 and was first of the six Ealing Eagles that made the trip over there. Piers Keenleyside Next Digest?Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at news@barunner.org.uk. Club website:
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Those
of us Waterside based may be familiar with much of the hash trial as shown on
this map, although some of the scenery will have changed.