baRUNNER - a website for the British Airways Athletics Club

BA Athletics Club News Digest 30th March 2015

Events:

• Thursday 2nd April - Magic Mile on the Bath Road from 12:45
• Wednesday 8th April Watersplash 10k Heston Venue sports-ground for 6pm start followed by social with food
• Monday 13th April Track & Field Grand Prix Hillingdon Track Uxbridge (1000m + Triple Jump)

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/).

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European Silver Medalist

Racing in the European Masters Indoor Championship in the appropriately named town of Torun in Poland, Adrian Haines achieved second place in the 800 metres AND with a new personal best of 2:01.03.  A PB at the age of 47 years and 339 days it perhaps wasn't surprising that Adrian was immediately asked to provide samples A and B for a drugs test.  Nothing untoward was found.

obo Adrian Haines

Ed: ...and to think that some days I struggle to run 400m in 2:01!

Club parkrun results for Saturday 28th March 2015

There was an excellent turnout of members at the new Maidenhead parkrun and the fact that we had left our mob visit to the second week was very much appreciated by the team there who had had a bigger crowd at their inaugural than they really wanted.  Pictured below: In addition to Alice Banks (added at the end), Roderick Hoffman, Monica Alonso, Tony Barnwell, Steve Newell, Alan Anderson, Neil Frediani and Janet Smith there was encouragement from Benita and John Scaife, marshalling out on the main loop.

Monica Alonso used the run at Maidenhead to chalk up her "50" so she can expect an invitation to apply for a red t-shirt in the near future.  For Alan Anderson who doesn't venture away from Gunnersbury very often it was an opportunity to set a V75-79 record.  With time running out before he moves up a division he will probably never return to defend it.  It will be open for younger men like Brian Bennett to have a go.  Gunnersbury parkrun was able to go ahead without Alan but it perhaps demonstrates his concern that they might have problems that he got himself up a whole hour early on Saturday morning.  Still, he was well rehearsed for the clock change the rest of us had the next day.

Roderick proved the fastest club runner on the day on what was his 150th total parkrun and Tony Barnwell was also running his 75th. Alice would probably have challenged Roderick had she not been sitting at home at ten to nine thinking that the start was at 9:30. Sprinting from the car park she did cross the start line moments after the off but then had to navigate to overtake exactly 100 runners on the course in order to finish 74th. She did set the club best grade result and did treat the rest of us to coffee and doughnuts afterwards - and Roderick, Neil, Alan and Steve will probably record slower runs next Saturday as a consequence.

The course is 98% flat but the other 2% includes a gradient rarely experienced in a parkrun and everyone should give it a try.  For drivers there is a large free car park and it is easy to get to from junction 8/9 of the M4.
 
Only a few miles away, Joe Nolan ran his 200th (out of 215) parkrun at Black Park.  He has to make the most of his season ticket for the car park there which is far from free!  Chris Kelly dashed round Reading and not for the first time then grabbed a barcode scanner and put in a volunteer shift as well.
 
Sreeram Sethuraman ventured away from Upton Court to visit Bognor Regis parkrun.  That takes the BA score up to 158 different parkruns. 
 
We currently have three runners homing in on their centuries.  Ben Chaytow who usually runs at Crane Park is on 98, Tony Hird who always runs at Gunpowder Park (by Enfield Lock) is on 94 and Piers Keenleyside who is also homing in on his 100 marathons is on 95.  He'll probably enjoy a double ton-up weekend in the middle of May.
 
At Frimley Lodge (Barry Walters' home parkrun) there was a record turnout of 548 (without Barry joining in) and celebration as Darren Wood ran his 500th parkrun and was presented with the first ever turquoise "500" T-shirt.  He's hardly missed a week since his first time trial at Bushy Park (run #2, 9th October 2004).  He ran 255 times at Bushy before moving to Frimley Lodge where he has now run 211 times.  He's toured a bit and has one first place to his name - at Hanley.  His time on Saturday was 25 seconds faster than he did his first ever run and with a PB of 17:58 (at Bushy) and age still under 35 he could easily reach 1,000 runs before his 50th birthday!

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

Steve Newell (mainly - plus Roderick Hoffman for most of the less flattering stories)

Next w/e (4 April) is the first Saturday of month parkrun pacer day at Black Park again, now with a "19" added, to cover every minute from 19 to 33 minutes.

Joe Nolan

parkrun - A Celebration

If you run and you own a coffee table then you might like to consider getting yourself a copy of "parkrun - A Celebration".   This is a collection of inspirational parkrun photographs and stories put together by a combination of professional enthusiasts and enthusiastic professionals. It is a great book to have on the coffee table to flick through at an idle moment but be warned that if you do so on a wet and measurable morning, instead of setting off for your training run, then you will end up feeling guilty - particularly with photographs of others running in extreme weather such as the one on page 95.

120 pages, 32x24.5cm. It costs £19.99 with free postage and with proceeds going towards setting up new parkruns. Available from wiggle http://www.wiggle.com/parkrun/.

Roderick Hoffman

Running Vests and Shirts Sale

We have some old stock that we are looking to give away at bargain prices!

Ladies Vest – From Viga, Print both sides	Sizes 14 & 16	£12.00 NOW £5.00
Unisex cotton short sleeved T-shirts, Print both sides	Sizes M, L & XL	£4.50 NOW £2.00
Unisex cotton long sleeved T-shirts, Print both sides	Sizes M, L & XL	£5.50 NOW £2.50
Unisex cotton short sleeved WARR 2006 T-shirt, Print both sides	Size L Only	NOW £3.00
Unisex cotton short sleeved WARR 2008 T-shirt, Print both sides	Size L & XL	NOW £3.00
A small number of club branded tracksuits remaining	Medium to large sizes	Jackets are now £18.50 and trousers £8.50

We also have a full range of regular club kit available:

Ladies Vest – New style, Print both sides	Sizes S, M & L	£12.00
Ladies Technical T-shirts, Print front ONLY	Sizes S, M	£8.00
Mens Vest, Print both sides	Sizes M, L, XL & XXL	£12.00
Mens Technical T-shirts, Print front ONLY	Sizes S, M, L & XL	£8.00
Hi-vis running bibs, No Printing	One size fits all	£10.00

Also see this attachment for photographs of each item.

For all your kit enquires please contact Paul Knechtl - Paul.A.Knechtl@BA.com

Running Shorts

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.