Team GB athlete’s foot “explodes” after an amazing London Marathon run
A Team GB star made history at the London Marathon on Sunday—but it wasn’t easy, as she had to deal with a lot of pain.
Eilish McColgan, who only ran her first London Marathon last year (where her mum Liz won back in 1996 with a time of 2:27:54), finished seventh this time. Her finishing time of 2:24:51 made her the fastest British woman ever in the race.
This was just 26 seconds slower than her Scottish record of 2:24:25, which she set during her debut marathon. Despite being the Commonwealth 10,000m champion and holding the European record for the 10km road race, Eilish struggled with bad blisters. She said it felt like her foot had “exploded.”
The blisters caused other problems too. Eilish shared, “Not long after halfway, I had a really, really bad blister. It sounds strange, but it felt like my foot exploded. It made me panic and I started running awkwardly. I couldn’t put pressure on my foot, which made other parts hurt as well.”
She added, “By 24 miles, my knee started acting up too. I thought, ‘I can’t get this far and not finish.’ After the race, I had to see a doctor because my foot was so bad. When I took my sock off, the skin just fell off.”
Now, Eilish will take some time to rest before focusing on the Commonwealth Games in July, where she’ll represent Scotland again.
The women’s race was won by Ethiopian Tigist Assefa, who set a new women’s world record of 2:15:41 on the London course.
History was made in the men’s race too, with Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe running the fastest marathon ever in a world-record time of 1:59:30.
Both runners will also earn big prize money for their amazing achievements!