Sir Mo Farah has finished third in the men’s London Marathon in a British record time, unofficially recorded as two hours, six minutes and 21 seconds.
Farah, who won gold in the 5,000 metres and 10,000m in the past two Olympic Games, admitted his second full marathon had taken its toll in a race where there was a world record pace at the halfway point.
He told the BBC: “I am knackered. The guys went for it, they were on for world record pace, so it was do or die. I went with it and hung in as much as I could.
“It’s so different to the track. It’s incredible. It’s different pain, different training but I’ve really enjoyed it. I gave it all, 110 per cent as I normally do.
“I’ve got a long way to go in the marathon. You get heavy legs. Mentally you’ve just got to be strong, take your drink and just pace yourself.”
Discussing his hash of collecting his water bottle, Farah added: “The drinks station was quite confusing. I went to pick it up but it was the staff. They were helpful towards the end but at the beginning someone was trying to take a picture.”
“It was do or die, I went as fast as I could.
“Definitely a tick to getting the new GB record. It’s some payment for the fact that I haven’t seen my kids in three months.
“It just shows that my training has obviously gone well and I want to thank everyone out there for their support.”
The race was won by Eliud Kipchoge, a 33-year-old of Kenya and the winner in 2015 and 2016, while Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata Tola finished second.
