Runners from Powys complete the London Marathon 2025
Runners from across Powys were among the record number of participants who crossed the finishing line of the London Marathon on Sunday.
Among the more than 56,000 runners who completed the 26.2-mile course for their chosen charities were Rhiannon Jones and Catherine Price.
Mum-of-three young children Catherine Price, who lives in Llaithddu near Llanbadarn Fynydd, was running the marathon for The Brain Tumour Charity and has raised almost £3,800.
Her family received the devastating news in November that her fit and healthy mum had a terminal and aggressive form of brain cancer and only had up to 15 months to live if she had an operation to remove as much of the tumour as possible.
But in an unbelievable turn of events, surgeons told her mum that she had been misdiagnosed and had in fact suffered a stroke and the deadly tumour was actually brain fluid.
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'Although we feel incredibly lucky to still have mum, people like you and me will every day, receive the awful news that they or their loved one has a brain tumour,' Catherine said.
'Our recent experience really brought it home that many families are living a nightmare because of this life shattering disease.
'Although it's an almighty task, both physically and mentally, running a marathon is easy compared with living with a brain tumour, terminal or not.'
Catherine ran more than 200 miles since February to prepare for the iconic event which she described as an 'amazing experience'.
'There were crowds all the way along the 26.2-mile route. It was a hot one though, temperatures reached 22 degrees.
'I was pleased to get round in one piece and was happy with my finishing time.'
Meanwhile, mum-of-four Rhiannon Jones, who's 34 and originally from Welshpool but now lives in Montgomery, was running for the charity Cerebral Palsy Cymru which has supported her three-year-old son Axel who has the lifelong condition.
Axel was born with a complex heart condition and was ventilated for more than a month. The poorly baby boy nearly died from sepsis and suffered significant brain damage. He underwent his second open heart surgery last summer and this week he is starting nursery four days a week.
'He is incredible,' proud mum Rhiannon said. 'He can't walk, talk or crawl and he's fed through a PEG (a feeding tube) but he really does a lot. He's so determined and knows what he wants. He's thriving at the moment.'
Rhiannon completed her first ever marathon in four hours and 11 minutes in what was an emotional experience.
'It was really incredible from start to finish. I cried crossing the line. Honestly, it was amazing.
'Seeing my husband twice and having random people shouting my name was a proper boost. I would 100 per cent do it again.'
Not only did Rhiannon smash her target time by almost 50 minutes but also her fundraising after raising more than £3,100, which included £1,000 from a coffee morning in Montgomery.
'I loved it. It's such a boost to know that I've put in the hard work with training and into fundraising. People are really kind and have donated. It's something quite special.'
The public ballot for the 2026 London Marathon will close on Friday (May 2). The results of the free random draw will be announced by email in July.
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Firstly, she can finally call herself a marathon runner. And secondly, she'll almost certainly never tackle a marathon that challenges her as much as her debut did. McColgan has a stellar record on both the track and the road, but having decided she was going to move up to the marathon, it took her literally years to reach the start line. A number of injuries, including knee surgery in late-2023, served to delay and further delay her marathon debut. But finally, at the London Marathon in April of this year, McColgan ran her first marathon. And from almost the second she crossed the finish line, a wave of relief crashed over McColgan and she's spent the past weeks basking in a pressure-free state that she's never before experienced in the entirety of her decade-long elite career. 'This is the first time in my career I'm in no rush to get back into things. It's nice not to feel that intense pressure or stress because so often, I've been rushing to get ready for the next thing,' the 34-year-old says. 'Last year, I was rushing to get back from knee surgery to make it to the Paris Olympics then almost immediately, I felt like I was constantly fighting against time to be ready for the London Marathon. 'So this is the first time ever that I've felt like okay, I've ticked my box for the year and so if I do another marathon in 2025 then great but if I don't then it doesn't actually matter. "It's now up to me what I want to do for the rest of the year instead of feeling like I'm constantly rushing to get ready for the next championship and running out of time. 'It means I now feel the least pressure I've felt during my whole career, and that's really, really nice.' (Image: PA) From the outside, McColgan's run in London was something close to a dream marathon debut; an eighth-place finish, top British female and a new Scottish record of 2 hours 24 minutes 25 seconds was an impressive performance. And given the way the race panned out - McColgan was forced to run almost the entirety of the 26.2 miles alone - the Dundonian appeared to be coping admirably with her maiden marathon run. Appearances can be deceiving, though, and how she appeared to spectators could not have been more contrasting to how she felt. 'From very early in the race, I felt rough. Literally as soon as I started running, I was concerned about how heavy my legs felt and that's obviously a big worry when you've got 26 miles to go,' she says. 'That feeling didn't ever really go away and if anything, it just gradually got worse so mentally I found that tough. I knew it was going to be a very long slog, and it was made even harder given I was running by myself because I had never visualised doing the whole race solo. 'I definitely had moments of thinking of stopping. From halfway, I had cramp in my right quad so in my head I was just telling myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 'So I honestly don't think I'll ever run a marathon that feels as hard as that again. 'It wasn't until I got in that last half mile stretch heading on to the Mall that I actually believed I was going to be able to finish.' Despite her struggles throughout the two-and-a-half hours of the race, though, McColgan admits her first marathon experience was something she'll treasure. Despite having raced on the biggest stages of them all - she's a four-time Olympian and produced one of the most memorable moments of the Commonwealth Games in 2022 when she won 10,000m gold - the experience and the atmosphere of her debut marathon was, she admits, unique. 'London was very different from track racing because people were cheering specifically for me. I could hear people shouting 'Go Eilish', people were shouting my mum's name or were shouting Dundee Hawks. It was very different from the Commonwealth Games when it was very noisy but you can't pick out what people are saying. The crowd was the only thing that kept me going.' Eilish McColgan won 10,000m gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (Image: Steve Christo - Corbis) On seeing her finishing time, McColgan's initial feeling was disappointment. She had bettered Steph Twell's previous Scottish record by over two minutes, and her own mum, Liz's, by two-and-a-half minutes. McColgan was, she thought, in shape to go faster but as the weeks since the race have passed, she's begun to realise that finally making her marathon debut after two heavy disrupted years of injury, and battling to the finishing line feeling far from perfect is a remarkable achievement. 'I've been trying to get on the start line of a marathon for two years and it had never happened so of course there was a little bit of doubt in my own mind wondering if it's going to happen,' she says. 'So, on reflection, I'm really proud of finishing it because it would have been much easier to have called it a day early doors.' There is, unsurprisingly, a number of things McColgan will take from her run in London into her upcoming training, and into future marathons. The Scot will focus almost exclusively on the road going forwards and while she remains uncertain quite when her next marathon appearance will be, she's sure of what she wants to achieve on her hermit outing over 26.2 miles. 'Sub 2 hours 20 minutes is a big goal - that's when you start becoming more competitive and giving yourself a chance of being on the podium at the major marathons,' she says. 'I definitely feel like 2:20 could potentially be the next step for me given how tough London felt so next time, if I could feel normal until halfway, I think that would make a big difference to me and to my time. 'I don't know exactly where my next marathon will be but the great thing is there's a major marathon every few weeks so if I aim for Berlin but amn't quite ready, I can push it back to New York or Chicago or even London next year. 'So I feel like I'm in a great position.'
