Britons Yee and McColgan are ready to go the distance

Alex Yee, Britain’s reigning Olympic triathlon champion, is entirely aware that his latest undertaking – a giant leap into the London Marathon unknown – could go one of two ways.

In the first scenario, he completes his maiden 26.2 mile race somewhere in the region of two hours nine minutes or quicker, placing him inside the all-time British top 10 and ripping up all that is considered required protocol for elite marathon training. In the other, he hits the infamous marathon wall – or perhaps does not even reach it – and falls far short of his targeted finishing time, proving that longstanding convention exists for perfectly good reason.

Answers will only emerge when he steps into the alien territory of marathon closing stages: more than four times further than he has ever raced on either road or track in his life. “I think there’s a realistic chance that it may not go to plan, but that’s a chance I’m willing to take,” he said.

This year’s London Marathon men’s field is arguably the finest ever. Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest marathon runner of all time, will race alongside Olympic champion Tamirat Tola (Ethiopia), defending London Marathon champion Alexander Mutiso Munyao (Kenya), new half-marathon world record holder Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda) and a host of other marathon winners. Mahamed Mahamed and Philip Sesemann are the Britons hoping to star at the front, but few entrants are as intriguing as Yee; certainly, none can rival the quandary of what will become of the triathlon interloper.

Yee, 27, is already Britain’s most successful Olympian in his primary sport, with individual gold and mixed relay bronze from Paris last year following the individual silver and mixed relay gold he won at Tokyo 2020. It was in the wake of his Parisian glory that he first floated the idea of running the London Marathon. “To find where my limits are,” he told Athletics Weekly, when asked what he hoped to get from the experience. “Post-Olympics, I wanted to do something that challenged me and hopefully allowed me to grow as an athlete.

“What is the limit of my body that I can achieve, and what can I find? That’s something which keeps me up at night, keeps me excited and keeps me pushing the envelope.”

There was one other reason: “I also have a deep love for the London Marathon and it’s one of my only bucket-list races.” In his youth, Yee competed five times in the Mini London Marathon. Both his parents are London Marathon finishers.

Eager not to neglect entirely triathlon’s swimming and cycling demands, Yee continued to incorporate them alongside his running in a training regime that looks vastly different from that of the marathon veterans he will race alongside.

While the world’s best tend to run 120-150 miles each week, Yee stuck to about 75, increasing to 90 in the biggest weeks. Additionally, he spent about five hours swimming a week and nine on the bike.

No sooner will the curtain have risen on his marathon experiment than it will fall, and Yee will resume life as a triathlete. Probably.

“My mind is fully focused on the triathlon, but I think over this year there may be another opportunity to do a marathon,” he said. “I’ll probably have a few more answers once I cross that finish line and I either have a hunger for more or a desire to get back to the swim and bike after experiencing that level of pain.”

For Eilish McColgan, making it to the start line of the London Marathon will be an achievement in itself. Her long-awaited marathon debut has twice been foiled by injury, with the 34-year-old Scot forced to pull out in 2022 and 2023. It means that the European 10km record holder has had to be patient when following in her mother Liz’s footsteps.

McColgan was watching on from the hospitality tent, eating pizza, when her mother won the London Marathon in 1996 in a time of two hours 27 minutes 54 seconds. It is the only distance where she has not run faster than her mother, and McColgan said earlier in the year that she has her eye on beating that personal best, too.

She took gold in the 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 but a knee injury disrupted her 2023 season and she could manage only 15th place in the 10,000m at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The 5ft 9in runner has continued to be outspoken about the body-shaming that female athletes have to deal with. McColgan is regularly told to “eat more” or accused of having an eating disorder in comments on her social media posts.

“The reality is that male athletes are rarely subjected to these sorts of comments,” she posted on Instagram last month. “Teenager Eilish who was hiding away in baggy clothes, embarrassed by her bean pole figure would be very happy to know she grows into a strong and confident w oman, completely unwavered by the thoughts of an insignificant few.”

McColgan’s marathon debut should have been taking place in one of the most spectacularly competitive women’s marathon fields ever assembled. For McColgan and the other British athletes, the 2:20 barrier continues to elude them. Only Paula Radcliffe has run under that time, with Charlotte Purdue, Rose Harvey and Phily Bowden – three of the top-10 fastest British women ever – all competing this weekend.

The real competition was supposed to be taking place ahead of them, with women’s record holder Ruth Chepngetich and last year’s winner Peres Jepchirchir the eye-catching headliners. However, both had to pull out in the week prior to the race, citing physical unpreparedness and an ankle injury respectively.

That leaves Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa and Sifan Hassan, of the Netherlands, as the two main women to keep an eye on at the front. Assefa is the woman whose record Chepngetich beat so spectacularly in Chicago last year when the Kenyan became the first woman to break 2:10. Assefa’s world mark, achieved at Berlin in 2023, made her the first Ethiopian woman to set a marathon record. That in itself was remarkable, knocking more than two minutes off the previous mark.

Hassan is arguably the most talented multi-distance athlete ever. The only woman to win Olympic gold in the 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon, she also has a 1500m bronze.

Vivian Cheruiyot, the 2018 winner, has also been added to the field. The 41-year-old finished third at last year’s New York Marathon but has not run under 2:20 since 2019.

Photography: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images, Lars Baron/Getty Images