One hundred runners from the RAF have set a new 100x10km relay world record by over four hours.

The 100 men and women ran a collective time of 64 hours 36 minutes and 22 seconds to improve on the previous mark of 69:06:52 at RAF Cosford track.

The previous record was set three years ago by an America team at the Shepard High School track in Palos Heights, Illinois.

The record attempt was the idea of RAF Athletics Association Group Captain John Lawlor and Michael Kallenberg as a way of marking the Air Force’s centenary year.

Starting on Monday (May 21), Lawlor ran the first leg in 44:21, but it was the sixth runner and first female, SAC Chloe Finlay, who ran 39:48 on the sixth leg who brought the overall time under the previous record.

The average time required was around 41 minutes per person and the RAF runners were two hours inside the record at the halfway mark and the time only continued to fall.

Head organiser Kallenberg, a 2:20 marathoner who clocked 30:40 at the Telford 10k already this year, ran the final celebratory leg in 35:22 at 5:00am on Thursday (May 24) to take a superb 4 hours and 22 minutes off the record.

The RAF has a fine history of distance running with longtime British Marathon record holder Steve Jones within their ranks, although they didn’t need the Welshman’s 10,000m PB of 27:39 this time.