FEET OF HEROISM
Less than 24 hours after crawling across the finish line – and almost going blind – marathon star is back at work in the NHS
‘My knees are still bleeding’
GETTING up for work on a Monday morning can be a struggle for most of us at the best of times. So spare a thought for Hayley Carruthers yesterday.
Less than 24 hours after dragging herself across the finishing line of the London Marathon – and going almost blind in the process – she was back in her NHS job, despite having hardly any sleep.
Millions had seen images on TV of the 26- year- old collapsing exhausted a few yards from the end of Sunday’s 26.2-mile race.
Yesterday she revealed she hadstarted to lose the sight in one eye, felt sick and was unable to move her legs. She crawled across the line and was carried away on a stretcher, her knees bleeding from where she had fallen.
She quickly recovered and after celebrating with chicken and chips, waffles and ice cream she took the train home to Birmingham, and was back yesterday morning at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she works as a cancer research radiographer. She tweeted a selfie in uniform with the caption ‘Back to reality’.
‘My boss did say I could have the day off but we are only a small team and I didn’t want to let them down,’ she said.
‘I haven’t slept. We got back around 11pm and then I was up again at 6am. I was too excited.’
Miss Carruthers, one of the few British elite runners to juggle her athletics with a full-time job, set a personal best and finished 18th in the women’s race, despite having started too fast and struggling before halfway. She said: ‘I did not think I was going to finish. I was just thinking about my friends, my family, my coach, all the people who had been supporting me.’
‘I was thinking “Come on keep going, just one more step”. It was like an out-of-body experience. I passed out for a few minutes.
‘I feel quite tired today, my knees are still bleeding and my legs ache, but I am OK – I must be running on caffeine. I haven’t got round to replying to a tenth of the messages I have received and I can’t thank people enough.’
Miss Carruthers lives in Birmingham with her boyfriend Perrie Mortiboys, 29, a fire engineer.
They met while volunteering in South Africa. She took up running only three years ago but now has her sights set on next year’s Tokyo Olympics. Her time of 2:33:59 in London was four minutes outside the Olympic qualifying time.
Her parents Steve and Jackie had watched anxiously on Sunday from the 20-mile mark on Westminster Bridge.
IT consultant Mr Carruthers, 52, said: ‘It was a horrible moment to see your daughter in such pain but ultimately we are just proud at what she did. It was pure grit and determination that got her over the line. Hayley is 100 per cent committed to what she does. I am not surprised she went back to work without a fuss because that is the way she is.’
Travel agent Mrs Carruthers, 57, added: ‘She looked very bad and we knew something was wrong. We could not get to her because of all the security. Thankfully the paramedics were able to tell us she was OK.
‘The runners went off too fast and that is what caused her problems. She said herself that she now knows how not to run a marathon.’