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Newsdesk 2020
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 569 15th April 2020
Editor: Steve Rowland
mailto: sandsrowland@btinternet.com
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
What strange times we are living in. I hope everyone is keeping as well as
possible? It is at times like this, where all of daily life is disrupted,
that we discover what it really means to be part of a club. Although we can
no longer train together or even run together (family Ranelagh groups
aside), I've been cheered to see many of you continuing to build on your
existing Ranelagh friendships to sustain yourselves in different ways,
including Strava for workouts, WhatsApp for chats and Facebook for memes. I
am sure there have been many text and zoom calls into the bargain.
As an example of how to keep running at the moment it's great to see
interest in the virtual relays from the women's team. I am sure there are
many others including somebody doing laps of their garden for marathon
training.
I would urge you all to remember each other and take time to be in contact,
Ranelagh is the sum of its members. You are the magic that makes it such a
great place. Check in on each other and find ways to ask for help if you
need it.
The club committee is keen to restart training as soon as we are allowed to,
but in the meantime, try to keep happy and healthy. For me that has meant
daily walks with Rob, cooking lots from scratch and some Ballet workouts
from youtube while I try to manage my very busy work schedule. You do not
need to be 'making use of this time', remember that adaptation from training
comes with rest.
As these strange days turn into weeks the thing I look forward to most is
cheering you all on at the next race we can hold. Hopefully we can be
resplendent in blue and gold soon!
Becky Curtis-Hall
KEEP IN TOUCH
1. Join the Strava Group:
2. Log your run and give it a catchy title.
3. Give our segments a shot!
4. Check back here every week for highlights
5. Note that Activity and Profile Privacy settings will need to be set to
Everyone if you want the rundown team to be able to see your individual runs
Follow us elsewhere on social:
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VIRTUAL RACES
Suzy Whatmough reports:
“A virtual version of the National Road Relays were held this year, since
the usual race had to be cancelled. The Ranelagh ladies took part, with each
runner doing their own solo 5km at a suitable social distance from others
and somewhere local to home. I think we were all keen to wear the Ranelagh
vests, be part of a team again (even if not in person) and to have a good
excuse to eat more cake. Karima Graham and Clare Day even managed to get
PB’s! Honorary mentions also for Fanny Vein, Keeley Phillips, Laura Blazey,
Adrienne Baddeley, Emma Lloyd Harris, Natalie Haarer and Holly McGuigan, who
all did their 5km but for various reasons weren’t in the official scores.
We came 22nd in the 12-stage competition, 60th in the 6-stage competition
and 30th in the vets race.”
1913 Suzy Whatmough 19:19
2437 Clare Fowler 20:39
2509 Sarah Palmer 20:52
2687 Cecily Day 21:26
2779 Rebecca Northmore 21:44
3075 Katherine Henry 22:56
3103 Marianne Malam 23:05
3122 Jessica Harbert 23:09
3187 Ann Kearey 23:36
3372 Karima Graham 24.55
3378 Charlotte Hyde 24:56
3381 Clare Day 24:58
3392 Carol Aikin 25:05
3467 Fiona Pugh 25:50
3546 Claire Warner 26:44
3750 Ellie Lawley 31:49
SEB COE'S MESSAGE TO THE ATHLETICS COMMUNITY
I am comforted in these intolerable circumstances, which are affecting every
continent on the planet, of the creativity and resilience of people. From my
teams in Monaco who are in isolation but still running the business, and our
Member Federations in 214 countries who are trying, day by day and hour by
hour, to figure out how to keep everything afloat, to our amazing athletes
who are doing whatever they can to train in bedrooms and backyards while
also finding time to produce inspirational and motivational videos and
tutorials for adults and children who, like them are confined to their homes
across the world. I have never been prouder of them. The spirit of human
optimism and endeavour stands the test of time. When we get through this,
and we will, we will be braver and more innovative. We will be more
collaborative and resilient. We will be stronger and more tolerant. We will
be more global, not less.
In sport we have a unique opportunity not to tiptoe around things and tweak
at the edges. We have the chance to think bigger, to rip up the blueprints
and banish the ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it’ mentality. Ironically,
I believe social distancing will actually bring us closer together as a
community and sport can sit right at the centre. The situation the world
finds itself in today is a huge wake up call for all of us – as human
beings, as businesses and as sport. We should capitalise on this and work
out new ways of delivering events, create and plan new events that embrace
the many as well as the few. We can use this time to innovate and extend our
sport across the year. Rather than just focusing on one-day meetings and
one-day road races at one end of the spectrum and 10-day extravaganzas at
the other end, we should look at weekend festivals of running, jumping and
throwing that take advantage of the Southern and Northern Hemisphere
seasons. We should work with governments to re-establish sport in schools,
rebuild club structures, incentivise people to exercise and get fit. This
should and could be the new normal. We don’t have to do things the same way.
The priority for all of us right now is to contain the pandemic, stay
healthy and stay home. But where we can continue to drive our sport forward,
we must, and again my thanks go to the World Athletics team, our Member
Federations, our athletes and all our partners for making time to do this.
The world will not be the same after this pandemic. It will be different and
that could be a good thing. Going back to core human values, back to basics
of what is important, redefining our purpose, is something we can all do on
a human, business and sporting scale. We have heard a lot from governments,
health care professionals, Prime Ministers and Presidents about social
distancing and we are all practising it. But as I said at the beginning,
although we may be separated physically during this period, my instinct is
that ultimately this will draw us closer together, not further apart.
Sebastian Coe, World Athletics President (March 27)
DESPITE THE EPIDEMIC, THE 1920 OLYMPICS WENT AHEAD
By Track Stats Editor, Bob Phillips
It’s a macabre coincidence that the lead-up to the Olympic Games of 100
years ago was fraught with a universal calamity all too similar to that
which we are now facing in 2020. Already by January of 1919 there had been
400,000 deaths reported in the USA alone from the “Spanish Influenza”
epidemic which was ravaging the World, but there was no question of that
country – the most successful at the Games since their revival in 1896 –
withdrawing from the next celebration planned for 1920. Far from it.
In March 1919 the Central News Agency in New York reported the definitive
decision of the US sports administrators: “In reply to a query from the
Swedish Athletic Association, prominent officials here at the Amateur
Athletic Union declared ‘America stands ready to send a representative
athletic team to the next Olympic Games, regardless of the time or place
which may be designated’ ”. The members of the French Olympic Committee –
whose opinion counted for much as founders of the modern Olympic movement –
were more circumspect, but their hesitation had nothing to do with health
matters. They declared, “The Olympic Games should not be held before 1921 as
there would not be sufficient time for the Allied countries which have
supported, and are still supporting, the burdens of the war to prepare
adequately for a meeting in 1920”.
Those burdens of war had, of course, been horrendous. There had been an
estimated 8.6 million military fatalities – 1.3 million of them in France
and over 900,000 throughout the British Empire – and yet the toll from
influenza between 1918 and 1920 would be far greater. Though there was not
even public radio in those days there was still widespread newspaper
reporting of the epidemic but no screaming headlines of doom-laden
predictions. The Minister of Health in Great Britain, for instance,
announced in July 1919 that in the six months to 31 March there had been
136,000 deaths from influenza in England and Wales, but this caused no
barrage of demands from Members of Parliament for immediate Government
action. To provide some sort of perspective, in his same address to the
House of Commons the Minister reported that there had been 488,000 visits to
venereal disease treatment centres the previous year. The MPs moved on,
undisturbed, to other business.
No thought was apparently given to the idea of suspending major
international sporting events attracting thousands of spectators. Already in
1919, in the euphoria of peace at last, there had been an Inter-Allied Games
held from 22 June to 6 July at the Stade Pershing, in Paris, specially built
for the occasion by the US Army, in which 1500 athletes from 18 nations took
part. Then, when the protracted Olympic Games of 1920 opened in Antwerp as
per schedule on 20 April, lasting until 12 September; there were actually
more competitors than there had been in the Stockholm Olympics of 1912 (2607
as against 2547) and one more country (29).
Why was there such indifference at these mass gatherings to the health
implications? Well, that’s a question which needs more expertise to answer
fully than that of a mere athletics writer with an interest in history, but
perhaps a salient factor is that the populace of a century ago lived with
the impact of infectious diseases every day of their lives to a far greater
extent than we do today, and though there were strong views expressed on the
wisdom of taking part in an Olympic Games these were for other reasons
entirely.
In Britain a campaign to boycott the Games on the grounds that they were
getting too seriously competitive was led by no less a person than Sir
Theodore Cook, who had helped organise the 1908 London Games and had written
the Official Report and become an International Olympic Committee member!
For those reasons, his views were naturally given due attention but were
out-weighed most notably by the counter-arguments of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
the creator of Sherlock Holmes and an avid athletics enthusiast. Then Sir
Theodore rather undermined his stance by entering the literature section of
the Olympic Arts competitions in Antwerp and taking 2nd place!
PETE MULHOLLAND
John Mather reports:
“Sad news, long time athletics servant, volunteer, marshal and athlete for
Hercules Wimbledon AC, Pete Mulholland has passed. Pete was awarded the
British Empire Medal in 2015 for services to athletics. Pete was very
popular among his teammates and colleagues, always happy to chat and offer
encouragement, he will be sadly missed by all that knew him.”
SPORTING FEET
Our friends at sporting-feet continue to support
runners in these challenging times. Please support this local business and
friend of the club when you're thinking about any running / footwear
purchases. Their Richmond and Putney shops are physically closed but you can
order online or over the phone. You can pick up in store or they will
deliver within two days free of charge. If you quote the code WEB10 and you
will get 10% off whatever you purchase.
THAMES SIDE BREWERY
Andy Hayward writes from his Brewery and Tap Room on the Thames close to
Staines Bridge:
The Government has confirmed that 'off-licenses and licensed shops selling
alcohol, including those within breweries' are exceptions to the closures.
We are now Staines 6th Emergency Service . This means that Thames Side
Brewery taproom selling beer for takeaway can remain open (following
government guidelines regarding social distancing, numbers on premises at
any one time etc).
TAKEAWAY OPENING - Thursday, Friday & Saturday - 4 pm to 7pm
Takeaway is preferred, but If you live locally, are self-isolating and
require DELIVERY, our delivery day is Friday between 10am & 4pm, mention
delivery when you call. Reward yourself - Use your daily bike ride, run or
walk and come on over to collect .
Call / Text with order - Michele 07703 518956 or Andy 07749 204242.
TAKEAWAY PRICES
2 pint container - £6.75
4 pint container - £13.50
Bottles = £1.90
Bag in Box - Keep cool between 10-12 degrees - lasts a minimum of 4 weeks if
properly stored.
5 litre - £24.99
10 litre - £48.99
20 litre - £96.99
IMPORTANT - Filling takes time so please order beforehand if you don't want
to wait. Beer is unfined to increase shelf life and may be hazy. Tastes the
usual fantastic taste!!!
CABBAGE PATCH 10 miles Sunday 18th October at Twickenham.
CP10 entries are on hold, but you can put your name on their waiting list
for further announcements. https://www.cabbagepatch10.com/
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