Rotherham HAC xx

May News and Views

Editor: Pete Humphries
12/05/20

Light in the Tunnel? Take Care

"Im wunderschönen Monat Mai....."

May is indeed a beautiful month as the poet (Heinrich Heine) said; this year April too was outstandingly beautiful and I'm sure those of us who, despite the pandemic, have been blessed by the health, the fitness and the initiative to get out into the fringes of the countryside have been rewarded with a regular display of flora and fauna seldom experienced.

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This mobile photo shot by Patricia Beighton on a RH WhatsApp challenge run

Club and Covid

RH Executive Committee (which runs the club) met last Thursday by Zoom to look at a number of issues. A good deal of intelligent observation and comment was made as it always is, but progress is at present elusive, depending as it does on decisions made by UK Athletics and England Athletics (ie our guides and insurers) who depend on government decisions and legality. There have since then been further announcements but no greater clarity.

Outcomes to report were:

■ possibility of getting back to training of young athletes (or adults)- how, where, when etc: we cannot take that path at the present time

■ 2020 subscription payments; England Athletics have asked clubs to pay the £150 club affiliation fee (due in April) and they have reduced the Athlete registration fee back to it's 2019 level (of £15) RH decided at the April Zoom meeting to hold off making any payments until club activities resume.

■ technically, 2020 fees are due from many members, whilst already about a half had paid prior to the pandemic.

■ Some members are unsure whether they should pay or not. Our position on this issue is as follows:

■ Bearing in mind that our income is largely members' subs and income from training nights, when we know our costs, likely income, and expenditure we will try to assess what level of payment by you, the member, will be appropriate for 2020. (The adjustment / reduction will depend upon the time club activities are suspended).

■ if you haven't paid 2020 subs yet 2020 yet? The club position is that we would prefer members to pay the adjusted / reduced rates (once they are calculated. The intention is not to refund the adjustment to those who have already paid 2020 subs, and to adjust their 2021 payment accordingly

■ We will take into account the amounts that members have already paid for 2020 when setting their payment for 2021, so that

■ No member will lose out or gain by having paid early or by paying late.

■ we do not expect competition running or other events until later in the year if at all; possibly Round Rotherham could figure in activities.

[stoppress: UKA have announced today- no licences before July]

HMG Covid-19 Strategy and the runner

The recent confused and confusing statements from on high have caused derision in the foreign press and uproar from all directions, notably from working people who feel cast adrift. However limiting comment to issues dealing with or affecting athletics/running one group of actions certainly is clear:

■ You can now exercise any number of times per day;
■ You can exercise with 'up to one' person from outside your household ;
■ you can travel somewhere else to take your exercise.

•the number of training or exercise periods: must be good and not difficult to achieve with safe non-contact. Though most runners I know have had enough after one proper run.

• I take the second to mean that we can run in twos (any two in fact: though whether with 'social distancing' or not isn't clear- common sense and our view is that all runs / training must adhere to social distancing standards)..

•in principle any distance, but a trip to Bridlington for a jog might go down badly with HM Police. I don't really see this as a good thing, though I did take advantage yesterday to drive to Droppingwell to measure the KMR route (Kanter)

I certainly will try pick up on regular training partner(s) soon though. We have received a letter from Chris Jones, CEO of England Athletics: probably a necessary text, it does a thorough job of stating the problems and the questions but there are no answers.

To summarise: our early predictions about the immediate and mid-term future were spot on. There may be a bit of group running on the horizon but maybe not, and racing ? Not a chance!

The impulsion to 'drive down the R value' seems to be key, but make no mistake: the 'R' value is a measurement derived from covid case statistics, not a procedure.

By what procedure are we driving down the number of covid cases? I would say only by widespread in-depth testing and contact-tracing.

Are we doing that? I would say not: enjoy your running, but be careful.

Harriers 24-Hr Virtual Relay

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The just giving page is closing with the final take amounting to £2594 Well done indeed to Joanne Pickford and all her colleagues: the funds by agreement are going to local NHS Covid Charity

Rotherham 10k

Sunday May 17th 2020 (but you can choose another day...)
I'm not sure whether the 10k would have been attempted virtually this year or just passed over until 2021 except for one vital statistic: AgeUK Rotherham (which operates within Age UK but separately) is dependent for its income on local sales of furniture, and the income from the Rotherham 10k. Both of which have vanished this year.

Hence the need for a virtual event. But it also is a sporting opportunity: why not make it interesting? If your reasoning is solely that of support, it doesn't basically matter what you do. Run a 10k on Sunday 17th wherever you are. Run it on a different day. Make it an easy 10k. Run it in chunks on separate days. All will result in money rolling in. (See below for 'registration')

On the other hand why not get a facsimile course if you can. Or even the course itself. Below is a profile of the course, use that (or click it for an extended article) I think you would be OK on the actual route, provided you don't turn up at some agreed start time !!!

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Failing that, what you need is an undulating 10k: there's a little hill at 2k but with a quite significant climb between 5k and 7k. This latter has some relief here and there but it's like town centre to Hospital or Stag. Not easy, but a course is a course- everything flat could not be more boring.

The fund-raising and related Just Giving donations have now passed the £3600 mark (as at Thursday the 14th, but we hope for more to roll in over the weekend. The Rotherham Virtual 10K was featured on Yorkshire TV's Calendar programme on Weds the 13th.

Registering

There was some lack of clarity about registering etc. • You can do the virtual event for free with no strings attached.

• If you want to flag up that you are doing it, or have done it, you can get your run verified by going on to Facebook or www.rotherham10k.co.uk and clicking the donation fo AgeUK
• ANY donation however large or small will get you a certificate after the event
• A donation of £10 will get you a medal (you can decline the medal if you wish)
• There is a link in facebook for you to get a certificate without payment if that is an issue.

Virtual KMR Series- 1

Thanks to all taking part, the results are currently listed at

KMR Virtual Race 1 Results

My report submitted to Rotherham Advertiser was not fully printed but can be read here

KMR Virtual Race 1 Report

The report doesn't dwell on it, but RHAC formed the big bulk of the interest and effort, so very well done indeed. Michael Lindley checked in from Harrogate Town Centre, and numerous of you make a great effort to duplicate the route. The total 'runners' was 35, there may be some not yet reported. There were some big hitters from Kimberworth but their numbers fell short, Pat and Kev might well put that right from number 2.

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Number two in the list is in fact the virtual 'Kimmy Kanter', which will be described on the series website in a day or so and in the next Newsmail. As before, run what you like or what you are able, but if you can find 4 miles off-road with lots of considerable undulation but no major big hill it would be spot-on. Again, June 1st, 2nd or 3rd but we would rather you do it another day than not at all. Send in a photo or whatever you wish: make contact!

Miscellany

Richard Harris is organising a virtual 4 x 1 mile relay primarily as an activity for his young-athlete charges. He invites the involvement of any adult runners who are interested in taking part. There is no handicapping and the team allocation will be relatively relaxed. Any member interested reply to Richard or to website@rotherhamharriers.org and I will forward.

I spoke with Peter Neal again this week (tapping his memory of past races). He is progressing fine; wisely leaving out the running so far but getting back into biking bit by bit. Peter asks me to pass on his appreciation and thanks for all the good wishes you sent him.

The past race in question by the way is the town centre Marathon and Half of 1985: the only other real town-centre race apart from Rotherham 10k 2018-19, though we have had Rotherham Advertiser 10ks in part of town, and Prince of Wales Half almost in town, and Kimberworth have had 10ks and Silverwood Half ran through Mushroom roundabout.

One or other, Peter and I were Road Secretary around the time and the race was planned by Dave Houghton and Gary Roche, we had a committee with Chris Ledwidge I recall, there were others certainly. I will come back to some of these events soon: the exact route at the moment evades me.

A note concerning Facebook:
Steve Gaines is the administrator of our Facebook account: Rotherham Harriers & AC Rebecca Marsden is now editor on that account.
RHAC has a variety of closed groups in addition, used primarily for organisation.

Users should be aware that the group 'Rotherham Harriers' which has a large following of RH members and non-members is an open group which is not in any way connected with RHAC as an organisation, so that views and actions etc expressed there are solely those of the individual Facebook users. This is solely to avoid any possible misunderstanding