Clevedon AC’s Tom Abrahams aimed to beat the Fastest Known Time to run the Mendip Way from Uphill to Frome – a distance of 79km.

Due to the absence of organised races, there has been a rising level of interest in Fastest Known Times.

The record stood at 11 hours, 55 minutes and Abrahams set out at 8.30am with a small support crew including fellow club runners Steve Wood and Phil Collins.

He had a good steady start in great running conditions and reached Loxton in exactly one hour, in line with Abrahams’ detailed planning for the event.

From that point through to Cheddar, Abrahams was in excellent form and gained time, which he was able to consolidate through to Wells.

It began to get tougher in the early afternoon sun, but he maintained a steady pace through to the finish at 5.50pm and was thrilled to set a new time with 9:20.44.

Abrahams had to provide various forms of evidence to claim the result, including photographs, GPS data and social media links before his time was officially verified and thanked his team for their enormous support over the day to help him achieve his target.