Our photo shows a less glamorous but essential task for club volunteers after a major race in the countryside – the course clean-up. The core team from Istead and Ifield Harriers were out in force on Monday 1 July to ensure that no one would have known that the previous day 533 runners had completed the 40th-anniversary North Downs Run 30K!

The blistering heat of last year was absent and the cooler conditions helped runners record faster times. Only a handful finished outside the official cut-off time of four and a half hours, shepherded safely across the finish line at Cyclopark Gravesend in 4:38:00 by tail runner M70 Geoff Bains of the Harriers.

A popular addition this year was the English Sparkling Wine tasting and spot prizes provided by race sponsors Silver Hand Estate Gravesend, England's largest organic vineyard.

Istead and Ifield Harriers commissioned a 40th-anniversary medal and race T-shirt to commemorate the significant milestone for their sold-out 30K race that was once again selected to host the British Masters (BMAF) Multi-terrain Championships.

Last year, only one runner ran under two hours – Ed Bovingdon of the host club in a course record 1:51:37. This year, five men had finishing times that started with the first ordinal. Daniel Radcliffe (Folkestone Running Club, 1:55:38) secured overall victory from the first two in the BMAF Championships: M40 Nick Impey (Ranelagh Harriers, 1:56:41) and M40 Jay Smith (Tonbridge AC, 1:57:19).

There was a tremendous course record run by W40 Andrea Clement (Blackheath and Bromley Harriers, 2:00:54) – the fastest female since Lizzy Hawker (Road Runners Club) ran 2:04:42 in 2006 – to win the women's race and the BMAF title in seventh overall.

Not far behind the flying Clement was Alice Crane (Dorking & Mole Valley AC, 2:02:23) and W40 Amy Clements (Kent AC, 2:08:37) – overall winner of this race on six previous occasions and the defending champion this year.

Full results and previous reports are at the runABC South race listing here.

Photo courtesy North Downs Run on Facebook