Arena in dazzling form as the sun shines.

Our results guru Teo Van Well has been working overtime this bank holiday weekend trying to keep up with all the results and races that have been going on so a big thank you to Teo for keeping on top of it all.

On Saturday Arena took a small army up to the East Grinstead 10 miler with our Vets who seemed to enjoy a good day up there. Firstly a very good result for Aled Anderson who came home in 4th place in 1.06.07. With Jim Watson coming home in 7th place this was enough to give him 1st in the M40 category. Michael Miller in 1.23.22 gave him 2nd place in the M60 category. Sue Brumwell in 1.33.12 placed her as 1st lady in the F55 category and with her training partner, Anne Miners in 1.41.00, placed as 2ndin the F55 category. A top day from our girls and congratulations to all.
Over at Hill Barn Lane in Worthing it was the Three Forts Half Marathon. For those of you that don’t know this one, this is a tough race of mixed terrain and climbs then add to that a bit of heat then you have a race on your hands. We must say a massive well done to Ricky Coleman who came a very respectable 12th place with a time of 1.41.13. Coming home in 16th overall but as 3rd lady, we raise our hats to Lucy May-Richardson as she came home in 1.43.54. Much respect to both of these guys and congratulations to you both.
The Haywards Heath 10 Miler on Sunday saw a body of Areneez turn up for this one. Again the heat will have played its part here however our guys really brought it home for this one. We are very happy to announce Georgia Steers as 1st lady in the F35 category with a time of 1.21.58.
Our men it seemed were on fire with the man, who had ran the East Grinstead 10 miler just the day before, Aled Anderson placing 3rd in 1.03.56; 4th Gary McKivett 1.04.18; and by the slimmest of margins in 6th place was Del Wallace 1.06.43 as Dan Vaughan was virtually on his heels in 7th 1.06.44. Needless to say Arena took home the 1st team trophy. A superb effort from Georgia, Aled and the rest of our men and well done to you all.

The last race of the bank holiday weekend was the Burgess Hill 10k. Now I’m not sure if Aled Anderson has got a home to go to but it was Aled again who was first Arena man home and placed 6th with 40.09. Considering how hard he had raced the two races over the last two days I thought this was pretty damned good and much respect to Aled for his achievements over the weekend. Now Aled please go home and take a rest 🙂
However what was lovely about this race was to see some other Arena names taking some glory. Georgia Steers seems to be full of running at the moment and placed as 2nd F35 in 51.46. Wonderful to see both Tamar Coleman as 2nd F55 in 1.00.23 and Fiona Jamie taking 3rd F55 in 1.02.18. Arena really does have so much strength in depth. Congratulations to you all.
What a fun packed running weekend it was and although running conditions may not have been perfect, it will have made it a much more sociable days running  as our guys could enjoy the company much more after the races. There is so much love for this club and really happy to see all the blue vests throughout Sussex this weekend.
Just a reminder to you all there is a committee meeting on Monday 14th May so the Withdean training session will start with the warm up at 6.20 and the main session begins at 6.30pm