England Athletics
BADRAT x England Athletics
What, Why and How?
Who are EA?
As many of you know, BADRAT became England Athletics (EA) Affiliated in 2020. Not only does this provide all of our members with certain benefits and support, but it means you as runners can become affiliated members of BADRAT too. We are rather aware that we are offering all our members the opportunity to become affiliated to us, but that perhaps many don’t really know quite what this means or what the benefits are. Let’s get that sorted now…
For starters, who are EA? Put simply, EA are “…the membership body for athletics and running clubs in England”. This means that BADRAT, as an affiliated club, operate within a framework set our by the sports’ membership body, which is why we have a committee, AGMs, specific officers and athlete insurance for our running sessions amongst other things.
Why become an EA BADRAT affiliated runner?
The benefits of affiliation with the club on a generic basis are set out well by EA themselves -
“As an England Athletics registered athlete, you'll be part of a nationwide community of athletes and runners whilst also helping us to support your club and the sport we all love. Your registration fee not only benefits the sport as a whole but also gives you access to a range of benefits and services.”
They also sum up some key points in their graphic below (see figure 1). But what else?
Well, from the club’s perspective is means that whenever you run in an England Athletics registered event (and many road events are) you will be running as a BADRAT. For many of these events you cannot enter manually your club name, but it fills in automatically when you enter your EA Unique Reference Number (URN) which also gives you access to your discounted entry fee (one of the EA member benefits). This means you are representing the club; you’ll show as a BADRAT runner on the results sheets!
Affiliation also opens up opportunities for London Marathon places. BADRAT will receive one space allocation if we have between 10 and 150 affiliated runners (and more as numbers increase, but one step at a time!). This means you may have the opportunity to run in the London Marathon as part of a club ballot process as one of the 10 or more affiliated members without having to enter the national ballot – pretty cool hey? (you can find more details about this through this link )
Power of 10. I know, this may not be super exciting for many of you yet, but the Power of 10 is a system that records your running event entries and results to EA events and gives you a time line of progress, a history of events and also a good idea of where you are compared to many other athletes in your running prowess. As some of you become avid road event fans this may be rather handy!
Discounts with partners. As if the BADRAT partner offering wasn’t enough, by becoming an EA affiliated runner you’ll be able to access even more great partner discounts through EA. These include Aftershox, Runderwear, Enertor and more.
Figure 1
Where do I sign up?!
If you’re keen to get signed up to become a registered athlete and you are not already an EA member with another club you can simply either fill in the section about EA affiliation on your membership renewal form or contact us directly (by email, WhatsApp, Facebook message or by grabbing us in person at a club run).
The cost is currently £15 per year and it goes to EA in its’ entirety. We then get you registered and you’ll receive a membership pack, URN and confirmation by email.
How to change clubs
If you are already affiliated to another running club you can switch free of charge through your EA Portal – MyAthletics Portal, details of which will be in your previous membership packs. You can choose to switch first claim club and need to search for ‘Bridgwater & District Road & Trail’ on the club list.
Got any questions?
You can contact us at any time to ask questions regarding affiliation or any other club or running issue via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Messenger, Email or Carrier Pidgeon*
(*please let us know so we can leave a window open)
If you have questions about or problems with your EA portal or personal data you can contact them via their website contact form at https://www.englandathletics.org/about-us/about-us/contact-us/ .
Most important of all we are really keen to make one thing clear. Though we would love members to become affiliated (especially those who plan to enter events as things get back to normal-ish) there is no requirement to do so. Unlike many clubs, BADRAT does not have tiers of membership – there are no ‘social members’ (often stated in comparison to ‘competitive members’), there is no distinction or ranking. All BADRAT members are full-on BADRAT runners, all important, valued and equally awesome.
Our members make us, and all of our members are BADRAT runners.