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BA Athletics Club News Digest 21st April 2013

This News Digest

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Forthcoming Events

Don't forget the following priority club events:

Wednesday 24th April - Test run of the new Concorde Five Mile course - as many runners and marshals as possible wanted. Concorde Centre from 18:00.
Saturday 27th April - Club Featured parkrun - Bushy Park for 09:00
ROM Sunday 8th May - Stockley Park 10k 10:30

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. Updated this week.

Concorde Five Mile Test Run this Wednesday 24th April from 17:30

We now have an accurately measured five mile course for the Concorde Five and on Wednesday we need to do a test run of the course to practice for the big event in June. Please aim to get to the club house early - for 17:30. We'll want to start the race from Cranford Park at 18:00 but marshals will have to be given time to get to their positions. Also, to complicate matters, Church Road is due to be dug up from Tuesday AND the Cranford Park car park is still advertised as closing at 18:00!

We need as many runners as possible to try out the course and provide feedback.

We need marshals to man some of the key points and again provide feedback.

We also need starters, a finish team, a lead cyclist and even someone to man a water station in Harlington High Street. Please volunteer for these roles particularly if you expect to be offering your services for June 9th.

Volunteers email me please

Map of the course showing marshalling positions

Marshal Notes

Roderick Hoffman

PS Don't arrive too early for this one - the club are chlorinating the showers and toilets from 09:00 to 12:00 that day. The work should be fully finished by 17:00.

Speedbird Ladies and Concorde Five Mile Events

Both of these events are open for entry.

The club's male members are asked to support the Speedbird event by offering to marshal - please contact Clara. The club's women are encouraged not to marshal but to take part in the race. Email Clara Halket and print and fill in the Entry Form.

All club members are invited to enter the Concorde Five BUT please indicate if you would be prepared to marshal instead - the club's priority is for this event to run smoothly. Alastair will return your race entry fee if you marshal on the day. Entry Form

It is my personal view that unless we get forty runners in the Speedbird and eighty plus in the Concorde then these events will not be worth continuing with in future years - and I'm worried about what that would mean for the club. So could all club members please do all that they can to promote these two events. Poster.

Roderick Hoffman

Marathon Well Done

Well done to all of the BAAC runners and marshals in this year's London Marathon. Some quickly extracted results below - apologies (and let me know) to anyone I've missed. Well done to Chris Kelly and Lissa Pritchard for the fastest finishes and special congratulations to Graham Taylor and ALL the BAAC marshals in the last two miles that enabled Graham to beat his target 3:30 time by just 4 seconds - it must have been hard work!

Place overall

Place gender

Place category

Name

Club

Runner no

Pymmes parkrun

Last Saturday I ran Pymmes parkrun for the second time. This is a nice little parkrun consisting of three laps round a well constructed tarmac path around the parameter of picturesque Pymmes park in North London. The course is nicely just off being flat - the very slight undulations helping to rest the legs on the way round. The conditions on Saturday were ideal for a fast time - dry, cool and no wind. Consequently, and because I'm fitter than I was when I last ran at Pymmes early this year, I did a good time - 26min 30s so my best parkrun time since last July and, in 55 parkruns, the very first time that I have beaten my own course best at an event!

It should of been crowded - the park being nice, the course being fast and the location easy to get to - literally just off the North Circular and with a station Silver Street just round the corner. Oddly though this parkrun has not taken off - it has its regulars but in January I finished 8th out of just 12 parkrunners. Since then I've been suggesting to several parkrunners I've spoken to that they should go to Pymmes where they can be almost guaranteed a top ten finish. The parkrun organisation is aware of the situation and in recent weeks Pymmes parkrun has been re-launched with new race directors and equipment. On 23rd March there were only ten runners but the one/two of Danny Norman and Paul Sinton-Hewitt reveals the attention being paid by top parkrun management Last week, for the two year anniversary event, the increased publicity attracted a record attendance of 33. This week they were down on that number with 17 - but that is well above their average and meant that I had to run the much faster time to get a top ten finish - ending up in 9th place. But if you want a good time, and a high finish, look up Pymmes parkrun for a visit.

One other interesting fact about Pymmes parkrun. The winner on Saturday was one of their most regular runners with 68 appearances at Pymmes - one Brian Forrester! Well, would you believe it. But you'll have to go there yourself to see whether it is the one Brian Forrester we know!

Roderick Hoffman

Club Featured parkrun Saturday 27th April Bushy

Bushy is the home of parkrun and the club will be paying a return visit this Saturday. This will be a big event - Bushy parkrun always is and a week after the London Marathon all records are likely to be broken - you should expect to be running with over a thousand other parkrunners. Fresh from his marathon exploits we expect Ian Cunningham to be doing his one hundredth parkrun on Saturday - earning his black "100" shirt (to be collected at a later date).

How to get there - this is from the Bushy parkrun website http://www.parkrun.org.uk/bushy/course/ "The most popular car park is at the Diana Fountain in Bushy Park. This however does get extremely busy (and filled beyond capacity) and if you have not arrived by 8:40am then you may be unlucky. A better option is the car park at The Pheasantry Cafe which is signposted half way along Chestnut Avenue. The cafe also has toilets, cycle parking, a lovely 5 minute walk to the start and food/drink available for post-parkrun refreshment."

The event start is 09:00 but please aim to get there in plenty of time to find each other and be ready for a team photograph by 08:40 - I would recommend aiming to be parked well before 08:30. If anyone needs help getting to Bushy please let us know where you'll be coming from - Roderick Hoffman.

Steve's parkrun stats

Run-of-the-Month for May - The Stockley Park 10k - Sunday 8th May - 10:30 start

This is a well organised local 10k race across and around the golf course at Stockley Park just north of Heathrow. I've run the event two of the last three years and there are usually at least a couple of other BAAC runners. This year, with the cancellation of the Green Belt Relay, this event is the club's Run-of-the-Month for May so all club entrants will score points for the club's "Round-the-Block" participation trophy.

On-line entries are possible for about another week but you should also be able to enter on the day - check the website: http://www.purplepatchrunning.com/races/stockley-park-10k where there are also maps of the course and the location.

Let me know if you'll be running - Roderick Hoffman

Green Belt Relay - Reasons for cancellation

Last Weds 17th, Brian Bennett and I attended a meeting of the Green Belt Relay Organisers, along with representatives from other clubs, such as 26.2, Stragglers, Serpies, Stock Exchange, Sandhurst and others, to explain more about this years cancellation and plan ahead for 2014.

The problem was with the slightly more onerous conditions placed upon race organisers this year - and mainly that the number of teams signed up was below the minimum needed to marshal all the critical positions.

Ideas were discussed to ease the marshalling burden - for instance that each team be responsible for one, whole stage, rather than the current one position every few stages tactic. In previous years, we have marshalled on Legs 3, 6, 9, 15, 18 & 21 - we might prefer to stay as we are - enabling us to do some positions as we go - and have some loyal helpers do convenient locations for them - but the flexibility to do otherwise might suit other local teams better.

There were other Run Britain requirements that prove challenging - getting a race adjudicator - having a lead car/bike - access to a defibrilator - so the organisers are exploring options, including possibly reclassification.

Timing - all weekends in May seem to be very popular with one or other events - its hard to know which is best - probably the third weekend. I guess we can sympathise from our own experience.

Anyway, planning goes on, and they will be keeping in touch as they progress. Hopefully we will be able to generate more interest from BA runners for next year - it is a tough but rewarding event.

In the meantime, there was a plug for the shorter River Relay - 8 September 2013 - http://www.stragglers.org/index.php/races/club-races/river-relay which we can consider entering if there is interest.

And while on the subject of Straggler events, there is of course always the Cabbage Patch 10 - 20 Oct 2013 - http://www.cabbagepatch10.com/

Rgds, Chris Kelly

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