One of Bournemouth AC’s fastest men at the moment, Joe Arundel, was in Half Marathon action at the Great Eastern Run
Offering a fast, flat course on closed roads around Peterborough, top level runners seem to flock to the Great Eastern Run making it a highly competitive field. Bournemouth AC man Joe Arundel was competing in the Half Marathon and he always seems to be lead contender no matter who he’s squaring off against.
Coming off the back of a brilliant 31:42 time at the Round the Lakes 10k where only Bournemouth AC’s new Somalian superstar Abdinassier Mohamoud was able to beat him, Joe had every reason to be confident.
Joe is on the left of the picture at the start of the race
As he showed at the Broadstone Quarter and the Overton 5, it’s not often Joe gets beaten. It was an amazingly stacked field at the Great Eastern Run though so it was never going to be plain sailing.
The runners in the Great Eastern Run Half Marathon set off on their way
Joe was in fine form as usual and going at an incredibly fast pace
The man currently ranked 54 on the runbritain Natonal Ladder, Jonathan Escalante-Phillips was in the line up so he was sure to provide some stiff opposition. In fact, he was eying a 1:03:30 time which would see him qualify for a place on the elite start at the London Marathon.
Joe comes to take a superb runner up spot
Running a brilliant race himself though, Joe stepped up to the plate to record a remarkable time of 1:06:40. That was enough to see him take a very impressive runner up spot, finishing ahead of many top quality athletes.
Joe went over the line in a tremendous time of 1:06:40
Jonathan Escalante-Phillips wasn’t too far off the time he required but just missed out in the end going over the line in 1:03:56
Jonathan Escalante-Phillips wins the race in 1:03:56
Michael Kallenberg of Swansea Harriers took 3rd in 1:06:51 and Alex Tovey claimed 4th in 1:07:42. Michael Waddington of Ware Joggers was the final man to get in under 1 hour 8 minutes as he took 5th in 1:07:55. Three more athletes ran under 1:09 and there were 16 in total who finished under 1:10.
Georgina Schwiening finished way ahead of any other woman
Georgina Schwiening was first female and she finished 30th overall in a time of 1:10:42. 47 athletes got round in under 1:13, showing what an incredibly high class field it was.
The top three finishers were Joe (left), Jonathan Escalante-Phillips (middle) and Michael Kallenburg (right)
Eleanor Grubb of City of Norwich ran a nice clean race to finish second female in a time of 1:16:28 and that put her 87th overall. Helen Davies of Ipswich Jaffa found the course to be a piece of cake as she crossed the line in 1:16:34 which put her 91st overall. A total of 3,170 people successfully completed the Half Marathon race that day.
For Joe, it was another excellent time to add to his glittering Power of 10 profile. It would have also set him up nicely for the New Forest 10 a couple of weeks later where he would be lining up alongside Abdinassier Mohamoud again in a rematch from Round the Lakes. That looked set to be another intriguing clash of the titans and one thing was for sure and that was that whoever came out on top, Bournemouth AC would be the winner.