Image copyright Hayley Carruthers

A runner who was the second fastest British woman at the 2018 London Marathon hopes to break the world best time for a 5km Parkrun this weekend.

Hayley Carruthers, 25, is taking part in the Walsall Parkrun later with her current personal best at 15:59.

That time is nine seconds off the women's record set by Charlotte Arter in Cardiff just last month.

Ms Carruthers, a research radiographer at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, only started running in 2016.

"I'd be over the moon, but it's not what it's about, I'd be more happy knowing other people are getting involved," she told the BBC.

"I'm just going to run at full effort, as fast as I can. I know I'm in shape, training has been going really well, it just depends on the weather and the conditions."

The 25-year-old represented England at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2018, running a personal best time of two hours and 36 minutes.

In April she will be taking part in the elite race at the London Marathon. Speaking about being the second placed British woman in last year's marathon, she said: "It's bonkers, I had no idea. I love running and being able to do it at a higher level."

Ms Carruthers only took up running in May 2016 when a friend also started. "I found I really loved it, so I just carried on," she said.

One element of her training programme for this year's London Marathon is to take part in a Parkrun a few days after a race to test how her legs are, as it replicates the end of marathon.

The women's world record for the 5,000m is more than a minute-and-a-half faster than the fastest Parkrun time, standing at 14:11.15, set by Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo in 2008.

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