BHAA thread 2017

Paddy1234 wrote: »

I see on the website that there is a Winter league. Could anyone briefly explain how it works as can't appear to find it on the site? Thanks

Essentially the Winter League runs over the cross-country season. It would've started with the Teachers' race in Castleknock College in Oct 2016.

There are seasonal leagues, so don't worry about joining in the middle of one particular league or prior to the commencement of another.

After becoming a member and participating in a race you're assigned a Standard. The bands of standards are grouped into categories, which run as separate tables, e.g. "Men's A ... Men's B" and so forth.

There are also age-related bands. It means that you've a got a chance of scoring in a particular sub-category on each individual race.

Team prizes were once one of the most central components of the BHAA, as it was originally organised as a workplace-based team competition. (It may not have the modern hi-tech companies getting involved to the extent one would hope, any many of the traditional employers - e.g. Guinness, Dublin Bus etc - have fallen by the wayside as race organisers, but it was a "neutral territory" of sorts when various NACA/BLÉ wars were raging).

Given the move to high degrees of self-employment in various sectors, e.g. IT or the 'gig economy' in other fields, the BHAA has become more relaxed in terms of how sectoral teams are declared. The team element is important, as it gets people to turn up for others, or to make that final push: e.g. even if in 101st place it could still get the team a placing in the league.

(On that point, there are separate men's and women's races for many of the cross-country events, but some women enter the "men's race" to help the workplace team score for team prizes).

I'm not explaining any of this too well, but I'm sure a BHAA committee volunteer can add some clarifications to the above. Basically you get a 'Standard' (e.g. 15,16,17), which are grouped into Leagues, but besides the individual competition you can also score for teams. (Your standard operates within a range of time bands, so you will rise and fall with your scores).

(It takes an incredible amount of effort on behalf of the volunteers from each workplace, e.g. from the race organisers to those who compile the various category prizes).

It's also good fun: if you were a footballer you wouldn't be on the same pitch as some of the Premier League players, but in BHAA races you're on the same starting line in a race of 150-200 people, e.g. you literally see people disappear over the horizon! You also get to gauge honestly how much room you have for improvement: e.g. in a large 3,000 person race that's run on an annual basis you can kid yourself but in a small race on a fortnightly basis you are shown up if you harbour delusions of improvement that aren't there.

It's quite sociable: the race organisers' volunteers put on tea, coffee, brack and sandwiches afterwards, which allows for a good chat with a broad array of ages and abilities. Similarly, they do track, trail, road, cross-country and even a beach race: you'll find people who excel at all sorts of terrain or distance relative to another.

(In that regard it gives you a lot to learn from talking to club veterans of the 1980s running boom to 2000's gym bunnies who've learned how to run via yogic flying).

Won't be doing it tomorrow, as I'm still recovering from a calf strain, (have missed all the BHAA cross country events thus far), but here's the elevation etc from last year if anyone needs to see it:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1051586314

For those who haven't ran cross-country, this is one of the best courses: plenty of challenging climbs, one or two tricky descents (it's more the tree roots prior to the descents than the actual charge/slide/tumble down to the Khyber).

Ignore the distance on the above, it's definitely 4 miles - I just occasionally am slow to hit the 'start' when haring off after the posse. Here's the almost-identical course in 2012:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/170264332

Once again, have a look at the elevation readings. It's a great challenge, and tomorrow it'll offer the possibility of the free mud facial.