A PROFESSIONAL runner has set a new record as part of a team which ran from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 36 hours.

Rebecca Gentry, aged 31, who grew up in Beckett Road, Worcester, completed the challenge with five other runners.

Ms Gentry's group beat 18 other teams in The Speed Project race, which started on Friday, March 10.

"It was a mental challenge as much as physical. It was midday when we were running through Death Valley and it was over 100 degrees," she said.

"We did 10 kilometres each and swapped. There was a camper van that supported us, you high five the next runner and they meet you at the next checkpoint.

"When coming through Death Valley we were doing four minute kilometres.

"At night it's quite scary. The American trucks just hammer down those roads."

Ms Gentry said there was one moment when she got into the camper van and her vision started spinning.

She thinks she ran about 100 kilometres in the 547 kilometre race, which is the longest distance she has covered.

The former Alice Ottley School student became a trainer - and later a running coach - for Nike after leaving her job in marketing.

"We were the first team to arrive in Las Vegas. We arrived at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and there were tonnes of people there shouting and screaming, it was a crazy moment," she said.

"The last team came in on Sunday evening and we got in on Saturday night."

The Speed Project race has been going for three years and Ms Gentry's team beat the previous record by 35 minutes.

The team arrived in Las Vegas 36 hours and 20 minutes after leaving the starting line in Santa Monica.