BATH HALF MARATHON

[Andrew Taylor]

Just to confirm that arrangements for COBAC members wishing to join next year's half marathon on Sunday 19th March 2006 will be pretty much as per last year.

We are planning to reserve special discounted places for paid up COBAC members again this year, so club members should ignore information regarding the normal entries route & wait for their entry form - price to be confirmed.

We will be mailing special entry forms to all COBAC members around the middle to end of August, ahead of release of entries to the general public on 1st September.

COBAC entry forms will also be available from the desk on Tuesday night training at Univ.

COBAC entries will close on 14th December.

Any queries, pleased to help

Andrew Taylor
Race Director
RUNNING HIGH Ltd Event Management
PO Box 3315, Bath BA1 6WX
Office Tel : 01225 422165 (Fax : 01225 4221645)
Public Enquiries : 01225 471282
website : http://www.runninghigh.co.uk
email : racedirector@runninghigh.co.uk

[Andrew Taylor]

I am keen to use the half to promote the club more directly. In addition to subsidised & guaranteed places for club members, the ideas which spring to mind include :

1 - providing a marquee for club members (and information stand ?) on the day plus bannering (at our expense, although this may need to be shared with others - such as the Runners World forum group)

2 - a club presence (information stall or supervising a sponsored run) at the Saturday family sports day

3 - offering reserved places in the half for fastest finishers in the club's other races (as a means to promote those events and help drive up entry numbers)

4 - COBAC pacing group leaders on the day (others parties have asked to do this).

5 - I will also be inviting non-competing club members to participate through marshalling etc.

6 - It would be great if COBAC could incorporate 'official half marathon training groups' within the club's normal Tues/Thurs/Sunday club runs, with normal charges applying. The SAS groups are well attended, and this may also help club recruitment. We have a number of enquiries each year from entrants looking for organised training runs, I normally direct them to COBAC, but many are put off by the idea that an athletic club would be too competitive, despite my assurances to the contrary !!

7 - I have included a 'plug' for COBAC membership for bath half entrants on the new training page on the race website at : http://www.bathhalfmarathon.co.uk/default.asp?i=39

8 - I will also be listing details of COBAC races - such as the Vicky Park 4 - on the new events page

I would be grateful for feedback and ideas from other club members

Andrew

[Craig]

It's really good to see some pro-active planning. I think the idea of having pacing groups for spring training leading through to pacing groups on the day (with the same leader) could work really well at integrating race entrants into the club.

Zina recently talked about an old approach to rewarding fast times in city races whereby the top few finishers got gold medals, then a load more got silver and a load more got bronze. It strikes me that the front end of most city races is much weaker than it used to be and maybe this kind of reward could work well. In the club we have probably a dozen runners who could go sub 1h20 in bath. Not exactly record breaking, but I wonder if you could introduce some form of nominal incentive to get these enthusiastic club runners aiming slightly higher?

I’ve found the shift from 80mins to sub 75 has been surprisingly manageable, and I know in the past such times were commonplace for many in the club. Maybe the right incentive could help more of the club drag themselves up to a slightly higher level.

So my suggestion is different medals for fast finishers. Maybe men sub 70 for gold, sub 75 for silver and sub 80 for bronze. Women sub 80 gold sub 90 silver and sub 1h40 bronze. The medals could be tiny cheap sports day style ones, so the idea should not cost much if anything to introduce. I do think it might help give the regular enthusiastic runners something to aim for though.

[Paul Hen]

Craig, i think the medal incentive idea would definitely appeal. Though unfortunately it doesn't apply to me, yet!

Training pacing groups would be a brilliant aid, especially for new runners like myself. It would give great incentive and direction in training, and would give me lots of confidence on the start-line.

Cheers, Paul.

[Andrew Taylor]

We already give special edition medals to all finishers, to avoid complication, & having checked that different coloured medals are feasible, we would probably have to hand them out as people finish, ie gold medals to the first 100 - or whatever - finishers (male or female), silver to the next 250 and bronze to everyone else, rather than handing out a second set of medals.

We could also offer guaranteed and/or discounted entries to next year's race to finishers in specified time brackets by sex/age categories.

The response from the club was that there wasn't enough manpower available to add half marathon training sessions for non-club members onto existing Tues/Thurs or Sunday club training sessions. I do think this is a shame, given that Bath Univ, Genesis Gym, and BANES are very keen to do this. This would raise the profile of the club & potential recruitment for new members, as the first step towards membership for many initially put off by the idea of an 'athletic' club.

COBAC pacing groups would also provide good profile for the club on the day itself. But the club would have to find sufficient responsible volunteers to lead the pacing groups. We would be happy to help by providing nominal payment (eg £30 each) plus free entries for each leader, and to publicise the groups.

[Andrew Taylor]

I thought COBAC members entered for the half might be interested in the opportunity to win a free expenses paid trip to this year's Chicago Marathon, courtesy of New Balance as part of their 100th Anniversary.

Two runners from each of their 50 of their sponsored partner races worldwide (including Bath) will win a trip to the LaSalle Chicago Marathon on 22nd October

You can enter on-line throuth the Bath Half website. Entries close on 17th February

ps Happy new year

Andrew

[Diff]

Sounds good to me Andrew.
All expenses paid is always a good thing in my book.
The 100 words are proving tricky though!

[benlang]

Bath half Sunday. Who is running and what times are we aiming for?

Anyone else going for around the 1.14-1.15 mark? - if so, please shout at me to "get off my lazy ar$e and run faster" on Sunday if you see me.

Pub after?

[Craig]

best of luck for a sub 75 ben - i reckon you've got it in you. gav and nick are also likely to be there or thereabouts i think.

I'll be aiming for a hassle-free 82 on my troubled pins. pb for bath.

all bar one both for afternoon and evening i believe - i should be there for an hour in the evening but am at a toddler party all afternoon.

[gavin.davies]

I'm hopeing for a 1:15 time or within a minute or two of you Ben.

I'm still a bit sore in the Achilles area after a small local Suffolk half on Sunday 12th but hopefully by this sunday I will be well rested and ready to be carried along by a few 1:15 runners.

I should be about in a pub for a few drinks in the afternoon, maybe the Raven/ABO before I have to get a train back.

I look forward to seeing, racing and drinking with you all soon.

Gav

[Ruth]

Hi all,

Have arranged with a few people to meet for drinks at Bar Ha Ha on sunday evening from 7pm.

Let everyone know and see you there.

Gav what time are you getting train?

[emer]

Looks like we have differing pub options starting to spring up. If we're in ABO (as you IPL lot call it - All Bar One to us normal mortals) for the afternoon why not move to HaHa for the evening, and hope it is not too smoky. Actually, those of us who spend all afternoon in the pub probably won't notice the smoke or much else! If you turn up in one pub and we're not there just try the other one.

Racing on Sunday too. Anxious, but really want a sub 90 time (which would be a PB). Don't know if I'll last the distance, but if not, I'll die trying.

[Ruth]

Hi Emer,

I think sunday evenings are very quiet in bar haha so unlikely to be too smokey. I have now said lots of enough people Bar HaHa as venue but maybe none of them will come I will troop down to join you in ABO

Great goal. Best of luck with it. Mine is to not drop out due to ITBS induced knee pain (!)

Ruth XX

[benlang]

I love the way there is more about post race boozing than race tactics on this thread - fantastic!

I'll try to get to one of the bars you've mentioned at some point, but will be in the crystal palace immediately after the race, as outdoors seems a good plan for a smoke-free, baby-friendly venue.

........and my son prefers it too...........

Good luck to all of you - may the force be with you.

[Diff]

Good luck to all 133 of us.
looks like it might be windy as well. (Just find a big bloke to run behind)
Not looking for an outright pb myself as London takes precedence this year.
I'll be happy with 1:24+ but if the wind is 20mph as forecast, it could easily add to that.