The British Half Marathon record-holder triumphed on her return to racing after sustaining a toe fracture during April's London Marathon.

Eilish McColgan is no stranger to overcoming adversity.

Throughout her long and illustrious career the 35-year-old British distance runner has bounced back from a number of injuries, with this year being no exception.

At April's London Marathon, McColgan finished seventh overall with 2:24:51, a mark that was 26 seconds outside her Scottish record of 2:24:25.

Running the second half of the race entirely on her own, the Brit noticed blood on her right shoe and told the world's media afterwards that it was like "my foot exploded".

McColgan then found out she had suffered from an undetected foot fracture, resulting in her pulling out of the 10,000m at her home Commonwealth Games in July.

So nerves were understandable as she took to the start line at Sunday's Big Half (September 6). McColgan arrived off the back of a warm-weather training stint in Dubai and a couple of months at altitude in Font Romeu. Even though her biggest run was 12 miles in the build-up to the race, the British half marathon record-holder showed her class and won with a mark of 70:43.

McColgan spent the first half of 13.1 mile course with Jess Warner-Judd and Emma Pallant – the trio passed 5km and 10km through 16:06 and 33:08 respectively – before making her move just after Tower Bridge, establishing a nine-second lead to Warner-Judd at the 15km mark.

From thereon in McColgan didn't look back and beat Warner-Judd (72:13) by one minute and 19 seconds, with Pallant making up the podium in 72:59.

"It's probably the least prepared I have been for a half marathon," a candid McColgan told AW, who regained the Big Half title she secured two years ago. "Today's win gave me a lot of confidence in knowing 'yep everything is good again'. I went through half-way a little bit slower than usual but then kicked on after Tower Bridge. I ran it the way I wanted to run. That's given me confidence for some more racing now."

McColgan couldn't run for the first eight weeks after sustaining the toe fracture and spent a lot of that time cross-training. That low impact training allowed her to maintain her base fitness without putting unnecessary load on her right foot.

"The nerves were a little bit higher than usual as I haven't had the usual training load," McColgan added, reflecting on a challenging few months. "I've been really sensible with how slow I've built things up again. I did one 12-mile run and it wasn't fun, so I knew today would be tough.

"The feeling is that the heart and lungs are better than my actual legs right now, which I want to get stronger ahead of Great North Run next weekend. I'm going to have to go out a bit harder there given the fields are a bit stronger and involve some of the best athletes in the world. I just want to be as competitive as I possibly can there."

There was a surprise victory in the men's elite field as Kadar Omar Abdullahi, who runs for Birchfield Harriers, ran a personal best of 61:51 to defeat Jack Rowe in the British capital.

Rowe was aiming for a fourth consecutive Big Half crown, which would have beaten Mo Farah's record, but just fell short as he clocked 62:10 to Abdullahi's 61:51.

Abdullahi, who is from Ethiopia but came to the UK as a refugee aged 13, officially became a British citizen earlier this summer and had a previous best of 62:46 from Cardiff four years ago.

"My own story is what has inspired me to be here," Abdullahi said. "Running is what saved me and got me integrated into society. I am a British citizen now and that makes me very proud. I have lived in this country for ten years and without running I wouldn’t be who I am today. It is a great achievement; I always had the dream of getting myself in this type of field and testing myself."

David Weir once again smashed the course record to claim his place as the event's most decorated athlete. The 47-year-old won the Big Half for a record fifth time in a time of 46:13, beating the previous men's wheelchair record, set by himself last year, by 45 seconds.

Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the elite women’s wheelchair race for the third time with 52:47, edging closer to the course record of 52:05, set by Sammi Kinghorn three years ago.