Group’s half marathon charity run

Members of the Urban Fitness group, in Horsham Park, will be taking part in the Barns Green half marathon in September to try and raise funds for Chestnut Tree House near Arundel, as well as testing their own fitness after months of training.

The run will take place on Sunday September 28 and competitors will have to cover more than 13 miles.

Ben Hollands runs the club and came up with the idea of running the half marathon.

He said: “All the members of the Urban Fitness running team are keen to put their new found fitness to the test and running 13.1 miles is as good a test as any.

“We have chosen Chestnut Tree House as I have a connection to the charity and know someone who works for them.

“I could not do what they do, and I thought as I have this connection and I run this club, why not make the most of the opportunity.”

The group have five members running in the marathon and for many this is their first long distance run and their first taste of competitive running.

Steve Light is a member of the club and is part of the team that will be competing next month.

He said:“I’m running the half as I wanted to set a goal for this year being fairly new to running. I’ve been going to Urban Fitness since it started and we decided to put a small team of runners together.

“We saw what had happened to the Chestnut Tree House shop in Brighton with the flooding in July and we wanted to help out since it’s such a worthy and local charity.”

The group are hoping to raise £1500 from the run but say they will not be too upset if they beat this total.

If you would like to donate to Ben and the team visit www.justgiving.com/urbanfitness1/