Aussie Olympian reveals she ran the last kilometre of a marathon despite going BLIND - but says 'I've never smiled so much during a race'

Australian Olympic distance runner Eloise Wellings has revealed that she lost her vision while running the Valencia marathon in Spain last weekend.

Wellings, 41, finished 26th overall in the grueling event with an Olympic qualifying time of 2:25.47 - her second best on record.

The elite veteran believes she might have finished inside the top 10 if not for a scary incident that occurred about two hours and 23 minutes into the race.

In a post to social media after the event, the mother-of-two explained the unusual situation.

'Yesterday was something else,' she wrote on Instagram.

'Ninety-five per cent of it was some of the best micro moments of my running days so far. I've never smiled so much in a marathon and the things that I loved about this race leave me excited to show up again.

'Yesterday revealed to me all over again the things I love about this sport… and also one of the things that kinda sucks — Marathons are a game of margins.

'The not-so-ideal five per cent included a hypo episode with blurry vision kicking off at 37km.

'I lost valuable time in the next three kilometres to manage the blur until lights fully went out at 41km, stopping, hanging over the barricade with just 900m left to run I had an apparently incoherent conversation with a Spanish man (which I have zero memory of lol) and then up and getting running again in what I hoped was the general direction of the finish line.

'I lost a couple of minutes in the final five kilometres because I missed the 28km drinks station. Margins.'

The Aussie star is one of seven women vying for a spot in the nation's Paris 2024 women's marathon team, and is hungry to run again as soon as possible. 

'So here I am, lying in bed at 3am googling marathons in early 2024… because that dream day is just a small margin away,' she wrote..

'Mad love and respect for our three other Aussie women in the race. What's that saying… 'A rising tide floats all boats'. 

It has never been more accurate in women's marathon running in our country and it's a privilege to line up alongside you all.'  

Wellings finished about two minutes behind fellow Australian Genevieve Gregson, whose 2:23.08 saw her finish eighth.