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BA Athletics Club News Digest 22nd June 2015

Events:

  • Track&Field: Monday 22nd June 18:30 Vet's League Battersea / Wednesday 24th 18:45 Rosenheim Ewell Court
  • Wednesday 1st July - Parkway Mile followed by Club AGM
  • Thursday 2nd July - The July Magic Mile on the Bath Road from 12:45.

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.

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

This news digest is being sent to you because you are on the BA Athletics Club email list.  To be removed please email us at news@barunner.org.uk. Difficulty viewing this email? Read it off the website instead - http://www.barunner.org.uk/News Latest.shtml


Concorde Five Mile Road Race Sunday 14th June 2015 thanks

Full results on the website: http://www.barunner.org.uk/Event_Concorde.shtml

Considerable thanks to all of the officials, marshals and other helpers without which we couldn't give back to the running community hosting events like this:

  • Race Referee and Finish Team: Laurie Kelly with Barrie Saunders and Mike Lyons
  • Event Adjudicator: Richard Carter
  • Lead Cyclist: Neil Frediani
  • Tail Cyclist plus: Steve Hillier
  • Kids Race: Tom Rowley
  • St John: Michael Balai and Jennie Wilks
  • Entries and results: Alastair Heslop
  • Refreshments: Jagjit Singh, Kulbir, Raleem, Gursewak
  • Course Set-up plus: Steve Newell
  • Marshals: Brian Forrester, Alan Friar, Sarah & Suzie Kelly, Denis Foxley, Graham and Mark Taylor, Nick Edge, Gary and Gary Rushmer, Simon Turton and the girls, David Duggan, Clara Halket, John Williams, Dave Rimmer, and anyone I've missed but let me know because Nick keeps score over the year!

Roderick Hoffman


City Race 2015 Reminder + BAFunRun call

re. last week's request for help for Thursday 9th July; I still need an additional 7 helpers so don't be shy, please do volunteer!

Regards, mailto:simon.turton@ba.com

Also please note that the BA Fun Run is TWO weeks after that on Thursday 23rd July and Roderick is keen to confirm the team of volunteers.

mailto:roderick@rhoff.org.uk


World Airline Road Race announcement

The World Airline Road Race is the largest annually held running event for airline staff and associates.  This years event is being held in Dubai and hosted by staff from Emirates and Fly Dubai.  The schedule will be more or less as follows:

Day Date October Time Event Venue
Sunday to Wednesday 18th to 21st Daytime Various Cultural / Touristic Tours All over Dubai
17:00 - 20:00 WARRtering Hole (event meeting / drinking point) to be advised
Wednesday / Thursday 21st to 22nd tba Race Packet pickup to be advised
Thursday 22nd 13:00 - 15:00 Team Captains Meeting Emirates HQ
17:00 - 01:00 T-Shirt Swap Party Jumeirah Creekside Hotel
Friday 23rd 06:00 - 07:30 10km Run to be advised
08:00 - 09:30 5km Run to be advised
Daytime Various Cultural / Touristic Tours Dubai
18:00 - 02:00 Gala Awards Dinner Atlantis Hotel, the Palm Dubai

The Atlantis Hotel is the majestic 5 star hotel that gets advertised on BA flights. The Jumeirah Creekside Hotel is the event Host Hotel and also boasts being a luxury five star hotel but is probably more affordable for airline staff on a budget and is also closer to the airport.  Where transportation is required to events this will probably be to and from the Jumeirah Creekside. Cheaper rates will also be offered at other nearby hotels nearer the time of the event. If you are thinking of attending then you need to...

  • Plan enough leave to be in Dubai for a minimum of 14:00 on Thursday 22nd to 12:00 on Friday 23rd but for a better trip from 14:00 on Wednesday 21st to Saturday morning,
  • Plan to acquire a return ticket to Dubai - and for BA Staff I'll announce soon how that can be cheaper than you'd expect (non-BA staff contact me and we'll see what we can do),
  • Book yourself onto the event at: http://www.active.com/dubai-d/running/distance-running-races/warr-dubai-2015?int=  [try a different browser if this doesn't work in Internet Explorer], the Gala Awards is a highly recommended add-on.
  • Book the event Host Hotel - see http://worldairlineroadrace.org/hotel.html or wait for other hotel offers or make your own arrangements,
  • Tell me that you are coming so that I can assist you and plan a team T Shirt and other trimmings,
  • Get some training in - preferably wearing several layers to get used to running in the heat!

regards,

Roderick Hoffman BA WARR Team Captain


Results of Bridges Relay Wednesday 17th June

I travelled up by tube with the BAAC member and Ealing Eagles team manager Piers Keenleyside who was resting for once. Thanks to an incident on the District line we travelled by Piccadilly, District, Piccadilly and Victoria Lines to Westminster and thanks to the later start of the race nowadays arrived in plenty of time to go and get a double espresso and use the toilets in the entertainment complex to the east of Westminster bridge (having been warned that St. Thomas’s toilets were out of bounds to runners. "Don’t they realise that by being runners we save the health service a lot of money by being healthy and that our taxes pay for the NHS and their toilets too!!." Rant over).

Anyway Ian and Colin Haylock were there and had collected numbers and secured our position on the wall, Vicky was around too. The evening was lovely with a cooling breeze and clear skies. At 19:30 Big Ben chimed and the stampede of first leg runners set off into the wind much to the dismay, I imagine, of anyone who happened to be walking towards Westminster bridge from the west at that moment.

Ian came home in a respectable 14:42, a touch slower than last year, Vicky a very decent 15:05 (2 mins faster than last year) and I came home in a dismal 18:34 compared to 15:31 last year and I felt like I was flat out going for a pb.  Weird as I did a 10k pb yesterday at more or less the same pace. Must do some speed training. Anyway at least it left Colin with something to do to help us achieve our target time of 1hour as stated by team manager Richard Ruffell beforehand.  Colin came in 14:11 on roughly the time that brother Ian had said he would do and EXACTLY the same time as last year although Colin reckons he ran it in 14:05.  The team time was therefore 1hr 2min 34sec - 64th of 119.

I don’t know what prize Richard was offering for beating 1 hour but feel like I let the team down so will never find out. Anywhere near my last year's time and we would have hit the target. [Ed: I was first reserve that evening but I also ran very poorly last week and would have been slower still had I raced so I don't think that Neil should be too critical - I blame it on the pollen].

It was good to see Steve Newell spectating, photographing  and joining us for the after run beer. Also we briefly met former bridges team member and still BAAC associate Natalie Ruffell who was not pleased with her time for Clapham Chasers who have gone from having no teams in the past four years to 13 teams this year. Who gave them the idea to enter? They appear to be everywhere these days. Natalie doesn’t know when to stop, having just run 4.5miles to get there and she ran back afterwards. I suspect she will end up doing ultras and Ironman triathlons like Piers.

Thank you to  Richard for organising our team,

Neil Frediani


Left: Bridges Relay Team - left to right:  Ian Haylock. Vicky Edwards. Colin Haylock. Neil Frediani

Right: Three 100 parkrun club members: Steve Newell, Tony Hird, Roderick Hoffman.


Club parkrun bumper results for Saturday 20th June 2015

20th June 2015 Family, Friends,+ Time parkrun Comment Grade Tourism Runs
Paul Freyne 28:42 Barry Island non-member, 1st to 250 parks 50% 250 294
Chris Cowell non-member, 1st to 100 parks 149 310
Paul Sinton-Hewitt 24:39 Crane Park run #246, parkrun founder 62% 121 246
Roderick Hoffman 26:21 Gunpowder run #160 58% 114 160
Joanne Sinton-Hewitt 24:57 Crane Park run #248, non-member 68% 92 248
Steve Newell 30:32 Gunpowder park #62 58% 62 182
Richard Ruffell 21:20 Cassiobury course pb 71% 39 79
Ian Cockram 25:21 Crane Park 57% 35 303
Caroline Cockram 25:43 Crane Park new member 62% 30 185
Chris Kelly 20:23 Reading first run as VM50, funnel manager (for positions 26 to 315) 72% 22 241
Ian Cunningham 21:30 Guildford run #200, course pb 70% 15 200
Geoff Miles 25:44 Osterley run #239, BA non-member 65% 15 239
John Scaife 28:55 Parramatta BA Park #178 56% 14 16
Benita Scaife 28:53 Parramatta parkrun pb 66% 13 14
Barry Walters 20:01 Bracknell age cat rec 79% 13 33
Eddie Giles 24:26 Upton Court run #58 69% 12 58
Joe Nolan 23:31 Black Park age cat pb 68% 10 224
Claire Killen 25:43 Ormeau 1st run at Ormeau 62% 8 27
Linda Dodsworth 28:11 Sunderland run #29, perspective new member 55% 8 29
Steve Dodsworth 23:55 Sunderland parkrun pb, run #34 perspective new member 63% 8 34
Tony Barnwell 30:40 Black Park run #82 60% 8 82
Alan Friar 26:56 Reading 65% 8 163
Caroline Wilson 25:44 Ormeau BA park #179 59% 7 18
Alice Banks 25:01 Wycombe Rye course pb 74% 7 29
Steve Taylor 25:00 Northala Fields First anniversary run 58% 7 32
Marion Taylor 29:31 Northala Fields   57% 7 37
Julie Barclay 22:09 Woking 2nd lady 78% 7 46
Ben Chaytow 21:55 Crane Park run #106 61% 7 106
Matt Gardner 21:39 Fulham Palace 60% 5 17
Kevin Holland 28:53 Poole 417th/623 59% 4 16
Sreeram Sethuraman 40:53 Upton Court tail runner 32% 4 51
Claire Byrne 26:29 Gunnersbury run #53 64% 3 53
Scott Davison 22:51 Bedfont Lakes run #120 62% 3 120
Kerstin Luksch 21:22 Gunnersbury pb 70% 3 144
Denis Foxley 24:35 Harrow course pb 69% 2 6
Gareth Hobby 24:31 Woodley first run at Woodley 56% 2 16
Oliver Mathai 25:01 Gunnersbury run #31 65% 2 31
Alastair Heslop volunteer Guildford funnel manager 1 1
Martin Offiah, MBE 26:31 Gunnersbury pb, non-member 55% 1 4
Tony Hird 24:29 Gunpowder run #100 61% 1 100

A bumper crop of parkrun stories this week and there is so much happening I can't include everyone.

Tony Hird duly completed his 100th run at Gunpowder Park - see Roderick's note below.  Roderick Hoffman and Steve Newell joined Tony at Gunpowder Park which is on the site of munitions works commissioned around the time of the Battle of Waterloo 200 years ago.

Ian Cunningham after 170 runs at Bushy Park decided to switch to Guildford to notch up his 200th run.  Alastair Heslop was managing the funnel there as he arrived at the finish.  If you are thinking of trying Guildford yourself during the current dry spell, leave it for a couple of weeks as the parkruns have been cancelled now until 4th July.

After years of studiously avoiding parkruns Denis Foxley is getting the hang of it at Harrow and lowered his pb this week to 24:35.

Barry Walters only appears occasionally at a parkrun but when he does he usually shows explosive form.  He zoomed round the relatively new course at Bracknell and shattered the VM55 record by 100 seconds (20:01, 79.43%).

His first run as a 50 year-old saw Chris Kelly in action at Reading where he is now 45th out of 390 in his new age group all time list.  Immediately after completing his run he volunteered to manage the funnel for the slower finishers.  Joe Nolan (V60), for once unrestrained by pacing duties, set a new age group pb (23:31) at Black Park.

At Gunnersbury, Kerstin Luksch ran faster than ever recording a pb for the fourth consecutive week.  Claire Byrne was probably unaware that her dash for the finishing line was just enough to hold off the once electric pace of Rugby League legend Martin Offiah.  Martin's teanage son Tyler had finished some minutes previously.

There is a developing story at Crane Park where parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt completed his 246th run.  Curiously his wife Joanne is on 248 so I wonder who is going to reach 250 first - after you Dear!  One of our new associate members, the well travelled Caroline Cockram (25:43), was also at Crane Park with her husband Ian (25:21).  Welcome to them.

We also extend a warm welcome to Claire Killen and Caroline Wilson who have joined us this week.  They have embarked on a parkrun tour of Northern Ireland and this week were at Ormeau parkrun in South Belfast.  Expect your knowledge of the province to improve dramatically as we follow their progress over the coming months.

Prospective members Steve(23:55, pb) and Linda Dodsworth (28:11) were in Sunderland this weekend.  As soon as they sign up we can expect some more northern runs to be added to our list.  

Almost creeping in under the radar were John and Benita Scaife on tour again in Sydney and trying Parramatta parkrun for size.  5km almost exactly like all the others!  John adds: "Benita and I did Parramatta parkrun on Sat. Simple out and back course along the Parramatta River in NSW. Spotted three Leighton Buzzard AC vests so we weren't the only tourists." And Tom Rowley points out reciprocal details: "At Woking   three young tourist running for Queensland AC, The 15 to 17 year old lad was 2nd in 17.12, the 11 year old was 3rd in 18.14 and the 10 year old girl was 1st female in 21.00, beating Julie."

And lastly, one that escaped our attention a few of weeks back, Jeremy Short ran Thetford Park in 20:44*.

Updated club parkrun stats: www.barunner.org.uk/results/ba_parkrun_park_totals.xls 

Steve Newell

Statistics Perfection and parkrun Tourist update

The table and report above and the stats spreadsheet are compiled by Steve Newell from the information publicly available from parkrun and submissions by members. 

*This is made easier for Steve if in your parkrun profile you enter "British Airways AC" as your Running Club [click on "manage my profile" in your parkrun result email and then click on "update"].  Note though that you should only do this if you are a paid up member and if BAAC is your "first claim" club. Parkrun provide a weekly club report that Steve can use - you can see it here http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=251 .

Steve will include members, friends and family who don't appear in that report by checking their records manually. Some errors or omissions are inevitable - such as missing Jeremy Short as mentioned above and last week Ian Haylock being initially credited with Colin Haylock's performance at Bushy (he must have been pleased) but will be corrected when pointed out.  Please send to Steve any information that could be of interest to members (even if only yourself!).  Send to him at Steve Newell <steve-newell@blueyonder.co.uk> or via the digest, for instance to news@barunner.org.uk . Articles in their own right should be sent to the digest but Steve will appreciate a copy also.

Steve's report is often enhanced by myself and this week you'll note that I've highlighted the number of Tourist parkruns run by each member. This is on the weekend that parkrunner Paul Freyne has become the first person to run at 250 different parkruns.  Think about that for a moment - if you started this coming Saturday it would take you nearly five years to get to visit 250 different parkruns.  These days there are plenty to choose from, 656 at the latest count. Chris Cowell had been the first parkrunner to visit 100 different parkruns and there are now 44 runners in the "Cowell" club including myself.  There is a parkrun report of "most events" which lists everyone who has done thirty or more different events.  I'm listed in that report at position 33 and other club members to appear are Steve Newell at position 119, my sister Sarah Gordon at 295, Richard Ruffell at 317 and Caroline Cockram qualified on Saturday with her 30th in 495th place.  parkrunners who appear on the UK Most Events list even have their own facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/571983126241545/, though only those on the list are allowed in) and meet up at inaugurals and special events. 

By contrast Tony Hird ran his one hundredth parkun on Saturday and all one hundred have been at Gunpowder parkrun revealing true parkrun loyalty.  Tony does have plans for his 101st - but they don't include Gunpowder!

More evidence that parkrun can be whatever you want it to be.

Roderick Hoffman

PS Driving to Gunpowder on Saturday to join Tony I quite literally drove past two parkrun courses on my way (turning right at Northala and left at Pymmes) and passed close by several others.  After my run at Gunpowder I celebrated the longest day weekend by stopping at Pymmes and running a "freedom" parkrun there (Pymmes park incidentally is being beautified with the construction of a new wetland area), Oak Hill (good cafe for breakfast or lunch), Gladstone (a tough undulating course), and then Northala (where I was too late for the birthday cakes).  Ian Cunningham needn't worry - my times got consistently slower and I even had to walk some of the flat Northala course.

Northala fields parkrun anniversary

On Saturday I ran in the 1st anniversary parkrun at Northala fields along with a larger than average field of 166 runners. They had asked for volunteers to run as pacers and with all of the round number times already taken I opted to run as  a pacer for a 26 minute finish time. Running as a pacer was a first for me but with regular glances at my Garmin I managed to keep a steady pace. I had a few hopeful followers at first but most seemed to be happy to find their own natural pace. I think some runners were happy to see roughly where they were in relation to a pacer. One young lad stuck with me until just after the 4K mark and then decided he had a bit more to spare and pushed on to the finish. On the home straight I came past a runner, who on being overtaken by the 26 minute pacer decided to put in  a bit of extra effort and ran a PB of 25:40. I came in at 25:55.

At the finish all the runners were treated to a banana and orange drink as well as a table full of food goodies to choose from, including hot Nepalese dumplings with a spicy sauce and some lovely cakes. People hung around and chatted for ages, or was it just for the cakes?

Steve Taylor


Running Shorts

Ranelagh Harriers 10K 21st June

Complete a very flat and twisty 10K on Sunday, with an aim of achieving a sub 40. Finished with a chipped time of 39:50, so extremely pleased as a PB.  ‘The tank was severely depleted, it hurt’; at the last ‘K’ I dropped two seconds off the 6:24 planned pace and needed to recover this time, it was then a question of asking myself ‘ Do you want it, and how much do want it’!

Conditions were thankfully favourable as shortly after the event the weather warmed up.   Next goal is sub 19 5K, maybe in a couple of months’ time, but again, down to how much I want it.

Colin Haylock

Tom Rowley adds:

Scott Davidson running his first 10k for 2/3 years ran well enough to get under the 50min he was aiming for and was 357th in 46.34; Julie Barclay had him in her sights although feeling tired managed to finish with 46.43 in 365th place.  Neil Frediani came along nice and relaxed and achieving a PB by 2 minutes since his last 10k and was 542th in 50.07.    All liked and enjoyed the two lap course. 639 finished

Neil Frediani reported on facebook how as he gets older his times are improving - ten years ago his 10k target was to get under the hour, in 2011 he did 52:44, 2012 improved to 52:24, 2014 better still at 50:49 and now this year 50:07.  He is looking forward to beating 50 minutes next time!


News for the next BAAC News Digest?

Please send items for inclusion in the next Digest.  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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