30,000 jog the night away

More than 1,000 London runners are celebrating today after having beaten Paula Radcliffe in a 10km race.

The runners were among 30,000 who took part in the night-time Nike RunLondon event which saw the marathon world-record holder in her lowest placing since she was 11.

Radcliffe took 45 minutes to complete the Southwark course, 16 minutes after the winner of the men's race and 13 minutes after the ladies' winner. But she said she had enjoyed the experience. "I do like running at night, it's something like beating away the winter blues," she said.

"I wasn't ready for a competitive race but felt I must support it and accompany some of the fun-runners. It was really good fun."

Nike is donating four sports courts to Southwark as part of its RunLondon campaign. However, the event caused disruption to residents who claim they were not properly notified. Hundreds found themselves trapped in huge traffic jams or unable to leave their homes at all because of nine major road closures from 4pm yesterday to 4am today.

One resident, Belinda Lowe, was trapped in Surrey Quays shopping centre car park, the start point for the race. She said: "I was told I needed to get out by 5pm. I left at 4.40pm but traffic was so bad that I came out of the car park onto the road at 8pm."

Columba Blango of Southwark council said: "Letters were sent out in October to all residents affected so it is very unfortunate that some have been inconvenienced by it. I would like to apologise to those affected."