Arena 2019 parkrun series: Race 1 – Preston Park – Results
Arena 2019 parkrun series: Race 1 – Preston Park
Greetings folks and welcome to the first of the Parkrun Series race reviews. First up was Preston Park.
As per last year, over 60 Arena runner’s turned up to take part in the event, and with a total of 542 runners overall it made for a pretty congested start. Unless you’re Timmy that is, and then all you have is open path, for the first lap at least.
The conditions were very decent with it being cool and calm and ripe for some PBs. 17 were achieved in all. 8 for the men and 9 for the women. So great work to all of you.
In terms of performances, the aforementioned Timmy Gedin was the particular standout as he smashed his PB for the course by 20 seconds with a time of 16:12. This gives him no.1 spot in the Preston Park parkrun Arena records, moving up from 2nd place. Off the back of an awesome time at Chichester 10k as well, it looks like Timmy is on his way to break a few more records. Lovely stuff.
Another Gedin who put in a quality performance was Mats, who finished 7th Arena, but achieved an age grading of 82.10% to put himself in 2nd place in the age grading records and knocking El Capitan Dan out of the standings.
Other special mentions for the guys include Jim Risdale who finished as second Arena on his way back from injury, and Joe Ashely who seemingly jogged the first 2 laps then put on the after burners to grab 3rd Arena spot, all on a dodgy foot. Top work chaps.
For the ladies, Dani Tarleton came over the line first with a cracking time of 18:53, 19 seconds ahead of Helena Rooney who achieved a PB with a time of 19:12. In 3rd was another Helen and another PB, this time Helen Moss with a time of 19:31.
Unfortunately, no records broken for the ladies, so no additional bonus point deductions, but you do get the satisfaction of knowing that 38% of you all achieved a PB, compared to the men where only 23% achieved a PB. That’s 63% of all PB’s achieved by Arena’s on the day. Probably too many percentage stats in that paragraph, so instead take a bite of this PB pie…
So with all that in mind, what are of the series overall scores I hear you ask? Well, after round 1 the tables are looking like this:
Women’s series standings:
Men’s series standings: 
Club Records:
The new Preston Park parkrun records now read:
Preston Park parkrun Men
1 Timmy Gedin 2019 16m 12s
2 Richard Clayton 2018 16m 29s
3 Alan Silvester 2016 16m 34s
4 Anthony Snelling 2018 16m 48s
5 Joe Ashley 2016 16m 53s
Age grading
1 Paul Gasson – 82.90%
2 Mats Gedin – 82.10%
3 Marc Steene – 80.86%
4 Paul Arscott – 80.35%
5 Alan Silvester – 80.08%
Preston Park parkrun Women
1 Caroline Hoyte 2017 17m 42s
2 Emily Proto 2014 17m 53s
3 Julie Briggs 2014 18m 01s
4 Tara Shanahan 2018 18m 19s
4 Maisie Trafford 2017 18m 43s
Age grading
1 Chris Naylor- 91.10%
2 Caroline Hoyte – 90.58%
3 Nicky Yeates – 89.47%
3 Caroline Wood – 89.41%
4 Tara Shanahan – 89.35%
Next stop Hove prom on the 16th March, which is an age graded race, so start downing that cod liver oil guys and see you there!
Thanks Al