Jodie Jackman has completed the North Downs Run - with plenty of family support.

The runner from Folkestone finished last month’s epic 103-mile event at the Julie Rose Stadium in Ashford.

Jackman was greeted at the finish by son Finn and daughter Ruby, as well as husband Alex and grandmother Valerie.

She explained: “My nan, who’s in her 80s, had come up to meet me. She was at the finish gantry.

“As I ran around the track, I got to hold her hand and she ran over the finish line with me, which was really sweet.”

Jackman was also helped by a friend as she ran through the night, travelling from Farnham in the Surrey Hills throughout parts of Kent to Ashford.

“Just over halfway at Otford, I was allowed to pick up a pacer,” she said. “Basically, it was just someone to run with me through the night.

“For me, it was the safety aspect because I just didn’t feel comfortable running on my own.

"But one of my friends came from Haywards Heath to run with me.”

Jackman got into running after she became a mother and, having undertaken volunteer work at a race, decided to give the North Downs Run a go.

She said: “I got into running after having my son.

"It sort of started with the Race for Life in Folkestone and I loved that.

“Then, I ended up doing the London Marathon. It sort of snowballed from there.

“Doing 100 miles is, obviously, a huge challenge. I’ve done one before - the South Downs 100.

"Then, I did some volunteering for Centurion Running.

“With a lot of these big race organisers, if you volunteer some of your time, I think it was about 10 hours towards one of their races, you get a race spot at one of the others.

“I was thinking ‘Ooh, do I do the North Downs or go back to the South Downs?’. I ended up choosing the North Downs, just because it was something different.

"It’s far tougher than what the South Downs is.

“I think it has about 1,000 feet less in elevation but just the terrain for the North Downs is really tough underfoot.

“It’s a lot more technical and there’s lots of rocks, which made it really hard going.”

But the scale of the run proved to be even tougher than Jackman had thought. Having started on the morning of Saturday, August 3, she finished just before midday the next morning - inside the 30-hour cut-off - with a time of 28hr31min25sec.

“I knew it was going to be tough - but I actually found it tougher than I thought,” said Jackman, who is now taking it easy having spent time in William Harvey Hospital after completing the challenge.

“But I wasn’t too bad. I stayed quite cheerful throughout it all.

“There was probably a bit of effing and jeffing as I hit about 5 million rocks along the way - I’m surprised my toes are still left attached to my feet. I knew it was going to be tough.

"But by the end, I just felt that course was a one-and-done.

"I’ve got no desire to do it again!”

Jackman previously ran for South Kent Harriers.

“I used to,” she said. “Just with life commitments, I have ended up dropping away from club running.

"I run with a lot of club runners but it’s sort of more independent.”

While Jackman would like to run with her family, the chance to spend time running on her own can equally prove a welcome distraction, too.

She said: “I’ve taken the family to [the Folkestone] parkrun a couple of times.

“But my daughter is 13 now so it’s hard to get her to come along. My husband has been a couple of times.

“It’s something I’d like to get into doing a bit more but, sometimes, it’s nice to have my time where I can just go out.”