The Bath Plug
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The official magazine of Team Bath Athletic Club First published Tuesday 01 Dec 1987 The Bath Plug Issue 1443 30 Nov 2018 Eliot & James at the Roundway Revenge! The Bath Plug skipped a week last week (my apologies!), but we are back with lots of club news from the last fortnight. I'm aware a minority of people may not have received recent issues, even if they have been on the mailing list, but we've made a couple of changes in the systems behind the scenes, so I'm hoping that will have fixed the problem now. In this issue: James and Eliot raced on the trails at Roundway Revenge, Dave Coales made a trip to the home of parkrun, Di has an update on T&F news, and don't miss the date of the TBAC Xmas party! Also a number of other recent results from TBAC athletes collated below including Eilidh Bell's fantastic sub2:45 & 2nd place at San Sebastian Marathon last weekend. A couple of reminders to point out: 1. The club are in need of volunteers to help run the Cotswold Way Relay next year see the article below. Please consider volunteering to help the club and maintain the status as such a great race that Luke has successfully built up over recent years. Contact Tom ([email protected]) if you think you can help. 2. Please let Julia know asap if you are planning to attend the workshop run by Mara Yamauchi on 20th Jan. See advert at end of the Plug, and let Julia know if you are interested ([email protected]). This is a great opportunity to get insights from one of the best! Tom Davies (Plug Editor) Roundway Revenge By James Donald Another weekend and another fun trail race, this time an 8 mile mix of roads, fields, wide tracks and windy forest trails that starts in Devises, goes up the Roundway hill and comes back down again. Eliot and I signed up for this fairly late in the day, having enjoyed it last year but wanting to make amends for substandard performances that had us finishing well down the field. In keeping with signing up late, we also arrived in Devizes rather late for the race, finding ourselves running past all the other competitors who were off to the start line as we rushed to the race HQ to pick up our numbers. Luckily we just about made it to the start in time, and made our way to the front where we found last year's winner (the rather rapid Ed Knudsen) waiting for us. From the start Ed went off hard, and thinking I may as well have a go I went with him for the first km or so, before rapidly falling away before the start of the first of the two major hills of the race. At the top of this, once we'd climbed above the Devizes white horse, Eliot drew level with me then proceeded to fly down the first steep decent at a breakneck pace that was particularly surprising given he'd had a dodgy knee all week having taking a spill the weekend before. After this it was a case of attempting to keep Eliot and Ed in sight for as long as possible, and to keep the eventual 4th and 5th place people behind me. Ed went on to win the race, with Eliot in 2nd and me in 3rd, so much better performances than last year. This event is really well organised (even I didn't take any wrong turns such was the standard of marshalling), has superb views out over Wiltshire, an impressive array of cake at the end, and keeps getting better (the course this year had additional forest trails with superb views in place of a fairly boring section of track), so I definitely plan on returning next year. James working hard during the Roundway Revenge (Photo: R&R Photography Ltd) Bushy Parkrun By Dave Coales Alex Carter and I took part in the 762th running of the Bushy Park, park run at the weekend along with 1118 other runners. The standard was high with Alex's 15.55 only good enough for 7th place and my 22 second post heart procedure pb of 18.12 only good enough for 30th place. The winner's time was 15.04. I first took part in the Bushy Park, park Run way back in June 2006. Back then Bushy Park was the only park run, with 159 of us taking part that warm June morning. My most recent outing at Bushy Park before Saturday was December 2012. 700 of us took part that cloudy December day and 17.01 was good enough for me to win. How times have changed. Track & Field News By Di Viles Yet another date for the diary. The SW Inter County Track and Field Champs for 2019 will take place on Sunday July 21st at Exeter. Those planning holidays next year, please note. Also a reminder of Day 2 of the SW Indoor Champs st Cardiff for U/13,U/15 and U/17 on January 6th and the U/20 and Senior athletes on Sunday January 20th. You need to go to the Welsh Athletics website for further details. Entries have closed for Day 1 on December 2nd. On Thursday night, my group of athletes were lucky enough to be given a masterclass in sprint training by Jason Gardener, the Olympic, World Indoor and European Indoor Champion, who was a former member of the Club and who did some work with me during his early days. He offered to do a session some time ago, and to my shame, I have only just taken him up on it. The athletes really enjoyed the session, it felt a bit special to have Jason coaching them. Thanks, Jason. Jason Gardener with Ben & Luke Game TBAC Xmas Social 7pm Thu 20th Dec By Lisa Bennett Big thank you to Kimberley Brace for booking The Curfew for the Team Bath AC Seniors Christmas Social, please give your names to Lisa Bennett & £15.00 to confirm your place. The cost includes food, let’s try and get 60 people! RunningBath 5K Timetrial By Ray Brigden The 5K League update after Nov 2018 is posted on the TBAC website. The final standings will be updated after December's 5K (next Tuesday Dec 4th) and will be printed in the Plug. The presentation for the RunningBath 5K Timetrial will be held just inside the entrance to the sports village University of Bath at 7pm on Tuesday 8th January 2019. This will be followed by the January 5K. Prize winners are requested to make a big effort to attend as a show of support for our sponsors RunningBath. All arrangements are provisional to be confirmed. Contact Sue or Ray Brigden for any questions. Cotswold Way Relay needs club volunteers By Tom Hutchison Cotswold Way Relay June 2019 needs new club volunteers Have you run the Cotswold Way Relay before? Do you value it as a great event? Do you want to see it continue and thrive? Do you want to experience event organisation from the inside? Do you want to increase your voluntary contribution to Team Bath AC? There is a place for you on the new CWR Race Management Team The Club Executive committee thanks and applauds Luke Sturgess Durden for his many years as sole race organiser: There is a huge amount of work involved to make each years event a success. Luke would like to step back. Next years race will have an organising team to do the work and Luke will continue as Advisor. The new look race team will: Work with David Bewick our web systems specialist; to produce updated race management software and race entry software that links with our club financial systems Plan next years race in outline before Christmas ready for public announcement in the New Year. Work with club administrator Lisa Bennet on race entry processing in the Spring Work with Club Manager Julia Waldron on race logistics Prepare teams for all the arrangements leading up to race day. Support the race on the day If you would like more information or think you can help: Either speak to Lisa Bennett or Julia Waldron on the club desk Or please contact me Tom Hutchison as soon as possible email: [email protected] The Bath Plug is the weekly magazine of Team Bath AC. Copy and comment for publication, questions and corrections to the editor at [email protected]. Copy to the editor by Wednesday 18.00 for inclusion. Available online at teambathac.org. If you would like to unsubscribe from The Bath Plug or to update your TBAC communication preferences more generally, please do so here. This ensures your preferences are updated within the TBAC membership records. .