Tom and Jade Bedford certainly know their stuff when it comes to putting on races and the latest edition of the GoFundMe Kew The Run events in and around the world-famous Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew were a case in point.

The well-oiled machine that is also the same team behind Richmond RUN-FEST and Worthing Runfest clicked into action smoothly to promote Kew Gardens 10K on Saturday (1 April) and Kew Gardens Half Marathon on Sunday (2 April) with 3,250 finishers evenly distributed across both events.

The Kew Gardens 10K was held on a revised and improved course, entirely within Kew Gardens, billed as 'London's flattest 10K' by the organisers. Having run the race your correspondent can vouch for that claim, with a drop of 3m and just 11m to climb. You really don't notice a metre up in every kilometre!

There were 1,556 finishers inside two hours in Kew Gardens 10K and the top three finishers were Sean Flanagan (33:31), Oliver Hill (33:52) and Dominic Bolt (Fulham RC, 34:06). The leading women were Megan Chapple (36:59), Eliza Hawthorn (37:20) and Polly Warrack (37:48). The times represented a significant advance over last year as 40 runners beat 40 minutes.

The following day it was the turn of the endurance runners in the Kew Gardens Half Marathon with 1,694 completing the 13.1-mile course in 3:26:04. The half marathon course has a net drop of five metres and total elevation gain of 65 metres. It starts on the Broadwalk in Kew Gardens, follows the scenic Thames Towpath, through leafy Richmond past Richmond Bridge and Ham House and Ham Polo Club before returning to finish inside Kew Gardens.

Mark Haskett (1:12:25) finished strongly ahead of Matthew Benstead (1:14:01) and Tom Bean (1:15:10). The women's race saw Laura Berns (1:22:20), Ida Burrows (1:24:23) and Rozzie Batchelar (1:26:52) top the podium. Eight women were among the 118 athletes inside 90 minutes.

The RUN-FEST team is now preparing for the Worthing Runfest on 30 April 2023; GoFundMe Richmond RUN-FEST weekend on 9-10 September 2023 and the return of GoFundMe Kew The Run on 30-31 March 2024. Click here for full details.

Results from Kew The Run 2023 are available via runABC South race listing here.

Image courtesy Richmond RUN-FEST on Facebook