baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 23rd January 2017

Events:

• Wednesday 25th January - Five Mile Handicap at Heston Venue from 18:00* (see below)
• Tuesday 31st January - Round-the-Block at Heston Venue at 12:30*
• Thursday 2nd February - Dream Mile - Bath Road from 12:45*

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. Last updated 9th January.

*Club Event Map: [Clickable link to Google Maps]

Not for you, no longer interested?  remove me please.

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Five Mile Handicap - December results and start times for Wednesday

An impressive result from Barry although it is Gary who moves up the leaderboard into second place behind Trish. But it is difficult to discount anyone since at the end of the series everyone can drop their worst run (or non-run).

See you on Wednesday, and don't forget that we'll be eating and drinking in the Queen's Head afterwards.

Also if you email BA Clubs now - to membership@ba.com - they can have your new membership card ready for you on Wednesday. If you are not a member then ask for details - the Queen's Head discount is probably itself worth half the membership fee!

CIE Event 18th January "All Ways Folly" - Street-O Orienteering - Results and Reports

Results

Orienteering is very much a "technical" running event.  Running quickly is an asset but unlike most races you aren't just pacing yourself against the person ahead of you whilst considering the shopping list for later - whilst running you have to work out the running route for yourself taking into account conditions and your own capability and absorbing the map and control questions at the same time.  And for runners who hadn't done an Orienteering event before, or not recently, this event in the dark presented additional challenges.

Of the runners who took part Gary would normally be the fastest and Steve Hillier perhaps the slowest.  But during the event Steve showed that careful thought and more prior knowledge of the area counted for a great deal.  No surprise that Simon was the highest scoring finisher - as well as being a fast runner he has been doing orienteering events for many years. Simon writes "...there was no obvious route and the proliferation of control sites meant I was constantly re-assessing my options whilst ensuring I kept within the hour (which I failed to do!). I left myself a little too much distance to cover from my last control in the time remaining but the whole run made for a good interval training session. "

Anyone who thinks that they have missed out on this and would like to give it a go there are three options:

• The controls from last Wednesday are still in the streets of Heston (being part of the furniture - literally) so if anyone would like to do a self-timed run from Heston Venue on a Wednesday evening (or at any other time) then let me know and I'll get a copy of the map to you and arrange to mark your findings.
• The next “South London Orienteers” Street-O event is on Tuesday 7th February at Mortlake. See http://slow.org.uk/streeto/mortlake-street-o-tuesday-7-february/ .  The format is very similar to that of Wednesday’s run except that you will see many other runners doing the event.  It costs £2 and don’t worry about the reference to SI cards or electronic timing in the text.
• I will arrange a similar (or different) Orienteering event for the summer months - for when you won't need a torch nor thermals!

Roderick Hoffman (roderick@rhoff.org.uk)

Ladies Cross Country Result from Lloyd Park on Saturday, 14th Jan 2017

Deby Helsdon led our team home with a time of 41:02 followed by Monica Alonso in 51:58. Despite having only two finishers we managed to beat six other teams (and two of those had four finishers!).

Running for first claim club Woking, Julie Barclay finished the event in 39:01.

The remaining fixture of the season is on February 11th at Coulsdon.

BA Athletics Club Survey - Results (part 1)

Thank you to everyone who responded to the club questionnaire.  The results are being displayed here with some commentary including some interpretation.  The club committee will be looking in detail at these results and considering what changes we should instigate as a consequence. Response The club currently has just under 100 paid-up members and the distribution list includes as many again.  The survey was answered by 67 people fully and another five partially. Since all questions were optional some sections had fewer responders. Respondees 47 said they were full members and 12 associate members so this probably represents about 60% of the membership. About 10% of the non-members also expressed their opinion - I consider these to be potential members hence their views are equally important.  Roughly 90% of the non-members didn't respond. 75% of responders are male, that is probably representative of membership although a larger proportion of non-members on the digest list are female. 75% are BA or ex BA and 33% are retired or semi-retired. In terms of location half of responders are based within 10 miles of Heston/Heathrow but just as many are based between 10 and 50 miles.  This suggests that most events we hold in the Heston area are only appropriate for about 45% of our members.
	Activities - it is fairly obvious that the vast majority of our members do road races and/or parkrun. Quite a few do marathons on a regular basis and more would like to. Cross Country is popular. Everything else appears to only be of interest to a minorities of members - "10" in this graph may represent 15 to 20 members. This doesn't mean we should avoid these activities, but does suggest that we should look for options such as tying in with other local groups for these activities. With Communications it is obviously that the weekly digest, specific emails and the club website satisfies most people.  That doesn't mean that the other channels are not of value, though the club should be cautious before investing much resource in any of the bottom four listed items. Most responders thought that the digest is about the right size and frequency and had about the right content.  A significant number thought that it would benefit from a larger variety of authors, needed more on coaching and training, and more photographs and pictures, and some suggested less parkrun content.  The editor agrees - increasing the numbers of authors and the coaching/training content should inevitably reduce the parkrun content as a proportion - and probably in volume also as it is less needed as a filler in light weeks.

Next week - Part 2 - Club value, change suggestions and coaching requirements.

Roderick Hoffman (roderick@rhoff.org.uk)

Club parkrun results for Saturday 21st January

Steve's away so not the usual table and report this week.  The following table features first claim club members (though when I looked the only non-first claim or non-member's result I noticed was Joan at Harrow).

In centigrade Ian's run was probably hotter than all of the other parkruns featured added together!  I haven't featured a coldest run of the week because there were too many candidates.  Local parkrun Bedfont Lakes was cancelled because of the ice on the paths and the park itself was subsequently closed.

Eddie had his second run at new home Salisbury and knocked 44 seconds off his time - but expect further improvement as he gets familiar with the course.  The only other PB I spotted this week was by Steve Dodsworth with a 3 second improvement at Harrogate.

Alan Anderson ran his best time since this date last year (23rd January). Whilst he may have been our most elderly runner this week that shouldn't be the case next week as we are expecting Tom Rowley to run at Woking on his 90th birthday. See you there. Shout up if you need a lift.

The following week - On Saturday 4th February - there is going to be a big parkrun tourist visit to Rugby (by arrangement with the locals) - 63 tourists have said they are going!  If you fancy joining in - then do.  Some of us are also getting together the evening before - hosted by the Rugby parkrun team.

Roderick Hoffman

10K Virgin Fun Run 9th July 2017

If anyone wants to run in this event for a good cause then Action in Africa has secured six places.  Contact Andy Dutton for details.  Action in Africa is an Ashtead based charity which focuses on sponsoring education and health programmes in Nyaishozi, a remote community in northern Tanzania.

[some] Details of the event: https://uk.virginsport.com/event/westminster-2017

Next Digest?

Is it your turn to send something in this week?

Results, news, pictures, feedback, jokes, stories - send it to us at news@barunner.org.uk.

Club website:

www.barunner.org.uk.