Ahead of her London Marathon debut next month the 32-year-old runs a brilliant 30:00.86 to win the Sound Running Ten in California

Eilish McColgan enjoyed an historic run at the Sound Running Ten on Saturday evening in San Juan Capistrano, California, as she out-kicked long-time leader Alicia Monson of the United States to win in 30:00.86.

The time saw her improve Paula Radcliffe’s British 10,000m record of 30:01.09 which was set when winning the European title in Munich in 2002. On that day 21 years ago, Radcliffe famously splashed her way through monsoon conditions and, whereas it wasn’t quite as wet in California on Saturday, McColgan also ran through rain in the closing laps.

After Josette Andrews took Monson and McColgan through halfway in 15:08, the British record looked a long shot but McColgan was definitely on pace to improve her own Scottish record of 30:19.02.

However the metronomic series of 72-73sec laps mid-race crept up into 71sec territory in the closing stages as Monson forged on and the penultimate lap was 70sec before McColgan unleashed a terrific final lap of 64.87. Making her move past Monson with 300m to go, she ran her final 200m in 31.5 to shave 23 hundredths of a second off Radcliffe’s record.

Monson was not far behind in second in an American record of 30:03.82. The previous mark of 30:13.87 was set by Molly Huddle in the 2016 Olympic final.

Amazingly McColgan ran the time in her first track race of the year and after an injury-hit build-up and was racing with a black strapping on her left knee.

After going so close to breaking the 30-minute barrier, she said: “I’m absolutely buzzing. Two years ago I ran a big PB here so it’s nice to be back with the crowds. I knew I was in really good shape but to have it all come together on the day doesn’t always happen.”

BRITISH RECORD

A truly stunning achievement by @EilishMccolgan ?

In clocking 30:00.86 at the @sound_running Ten in California, she breaks the previous record of 30:01.09 set by @paulajradcliffe back at Munich 2002 ?

A historic run ?? pic.twitter.com/tXKdczCKKy

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) March 5, 2023

McColgan was a late entry into the Sound Running event and explained: “I thought ‘eff it, I’m going to give it a go’. I’m building up for London Marathon and have had a few niggles and missed some prep races in January and a half-marathon in February but I’m really strong right now so I’m glad I did it.

“The marathon is going to be a big challenge. I think I’ll run a good 20 miles but that last 10km is going to be tough.”

Radcliffe set a world marathon record of 2:15:25 one year after her 10,000m national record so it will be interesting to see how close McColgan can get to that kind of performance on the roads on April 23.

McColgan now holds British records for 5000m, 10,000m, 5km, 10km and half-marathon and memorably won the Commonwealth 10,000m title in Birmingham last year.

McColgan’s record-breaking 10,000m splits

1:12.03, 2:25.31 (1:13.29), 3:36.72 (1:11.41), 4:50.16 (1:13.44), 6:03.03 (1:12.88), 7:16.01 (1:12.98), 8:28.78 (1:12.77), 9:41.57 (1:12.79), 10:53.58 (1:12.02), 12:05.98 (1:12.40), 13:19.31 (1:13.34), 14:32.35 (1:13.05), 15:45.89 (1:13.54), 16:58.00 (1:12.11), 18:10.37 (1:12.37), 19:22.85 (1:12.49), 20:35.10 (1:12.25), 21:46.87 (1:11.77), 22:58.86 (1:12.00), 24:10.95 (1:12.10), 25:22.15 (1:11.20), 26:34.07 (1:11.92), 27:45.66 (1:11.60), 28:56.00 (1:10.34), 30:00.86 (1:04.87)