Plucky runner with broken leg refuses to go to pot and crosses finishing line

Mark Rushworth was in agony but never suspected it was because his fibula was broken in two places.

He had started struggling 10 miles into the Leeds Half Marathon at the weekend but was determined to finish.

Doctors do not know how he suffered the double fracture as he had not fallen, although he may have had weakening in the bone which fractured during the run.

Despite this, his time of one hour and 56 minutes was only five minutes slower than his personal best.

Mr Rushworth, of Bingley, near Bradford, said: “On the day adrenaline got me through. People were passing me and shouting my name and when I finished it was like something from a Hollywood film. I don’t know how I carried on, but I just got on with it.”

The 38-year-old was three miles from the finish when he stopped to tie a shoelace and felt dizzy and in pain. Medics questioned whether he should carry on but he insisted.

“I was very near to passing out, I was hobbling, swearing and I had tears in my eyes,” he said.

The father-of-one now faces six weeks in a pot and three months off running.

To donate to Mark’s fundraising for Sue Ryder’s Manorlands Hospice in Oxenhope, log on to www.justgiving.com/markrushworth.