by Things you wouldn’t expect in an interview with Eilish McColgan: Discussing the merits of the “helicopter burger” (bacon, fries, Lorne sausage, beef patty and fried egg packed into a giant floury bun) that sells around the clock. bakery called Clark’s which was once voted the best place to get ‘drink food’ in Scotland. 2. Listening to “Corfu” and “Istanbul” in the context of fast food restaurants rather than training bases in hot climates.
Britain’s greatest long-distance runner since Paula Radcliffe, however, is simply reliving her student days in Dundee, when alcohol, nightclubs and fast food were now as much a part of the routine as an ice bath.
“I had a normal university experience, going to student nights and cooler weeks… drinking, eating kebabs and partying all the time,” he says. “I wasn’t a professional athlete, running was a hobby. I had no real ambitions to go to the Olympics. I didn’t think it was good enough. I didn’t feel like there was anything to jeopardize. We used to go to a place called Corfu Kebabs. There was another one called Istanbul Grill. “We would have all kinds.”
However, there was a warning. No matter how late McColgan stayed out, he would never miss the three-weekly training sessions his mother Liz, the 1991 world 10,000m champion, organized at the Dundee Hawkhill Harriers athletics club.
It was a routine they had established since Liz took over the training group when Eilish was 13 and it’s refreshing to hear how this Scottish athletics legend approached her role as a coach.
“My mom let me decide if I wanted to do it,” McColgan, 33, says. “The sessions were hard, strict, but at the same time we had a lot of fun. One thing she did very well was stop us. I remember when she came back from the races I was upset because I had come, let’s say, sixth and I was only allowed to train one or two days a week. My mother told me: “Difficult: you are not going to train like an adult until your body is ready.” There are many coaches and athletes who make mistakes.”
McColgan competed in the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games shortly before moving away from home to begin a career in mathematics and accounting. He was 17 years old, an age that could easily be considered decisive for an aspiring athlete. How did his mother react when she decided to embrace the full student experience?
“She could see me moving away from the sport, just not living a healthy lifestyle at all, but not once did she say to me, ‘Stop doing that.’ She just said, ‘That’s your decision, if you come back to the sport then great and I’ll be there to help you, but if you choose another path then don’t worry.’”
That McColgan could maintain even a training base would confuse some of his track and field friends. “They were like, ‘Why the hell are you training when you’ve been up until 3 a.m. dancing all night?’ He was not sleeping or recovering as he should: he had a lot of sore throats, headaches and colds. But I guess deep down he believed that maybe he could compete for Britain. “I heard a voice saying, ‘Keep it up,’ even though it wasn’t a 100 percent commitment.”
This mentality would remain for over two years until they changed films in 2011, when both the end of his career and the 2012 London Olympics appeared. McColgan began to wonder if a place in the 3,000m steeplechase would be possible. Overnight he made the decision to stop going out. Having seen her regularly in nightclubs and takeaways, it was now the turn of her friends from Dundee University to be surprised when they tuned in to the 2012 Olympics.
“They didn’t even know I was trying to become an athlete; For them it was a complete confusion when they saw me at the Olympics,” he says, laughing. “They were just wondering where the hell I was.”
With largely remote training assistance from Liz, as well as the dedicated help of her partner Michael Rimmer, McColgan has continued to gradually improve over the past decade.
There was a European 5,000m silver medal in 2018 but, as the distances increased, so did their relative performances and the summer of 2022 reached a memorable peak with 10,000m gold at the Commonwealth Games. Her mother had won the same title in 1986 and 1990, so when McColgan hugged Liz on the side of the court, a wonderful family story came full circle.
“I still talk to my mother every day”
She recently spent seven weeks with her mother in Qatar, a trip that would end in tragedy last month when Liz’s husband and Eilish’s stepfather, John Nuttall, died suddenly of a heart attack. Such was the shock of her unexpected loss that Eilish admits she doesn’t think she’s taken it all in yet. Nuttall’s children from her first marriage, Hannah and Luke, aim to reach Paris in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, respectively. “We always talked about his kids’ athletics, which he really enjoyed; he was passionate about the sport,” Eilish says.
The McColgans’ mother/daughter/coach/athlete relationships are the focus of an excellent new BBC documentary, E.ilish McColgan: runs in the familyand have long been plotting a path toward the Olympics next summer in Paris and a run in a major marathon.
“I probably still talk to my mom every day,” he says. “We have never had a real argument. I don’t feel like I’ve had to sacrifice anything in my life to get to this level… while a lot of other people don’t feel the same way. Yes, I don’t have global medals, like Olympic or World Cup medals, but that’s not all I’m worth.
“I read an interview with Holly Bradshaw, the pole vaulter, and she wondered if winning her bronze medal at the Olympics was worth all the sacrifices. I felt so sad reading that because Holly is an amazing person. She is a good friend of mine, her worth is far above a bronze medal, and yet she put her all into that one idea. She made me think a lot.”
An injury curtailed his 2023 after his early-season times over 10,000m and the half marathon had been first and second, respectively, on the British all-time list and in the world’s top 10 for the year. “That’s given me hope knowing it’s not that far away; I’m still faster,” she says.
Of course, he would love to win an Olympic medal next summer, over 10,000 meters or in the marathon, but there is a feeling that he has something more valuable: the ability to savor the journey. “I don’t think about it too much,” she says. “If I win, great, but if I can set a PB, or at least finish knowing that I’ve done absolutely everything, there’s no point in getting discouraged. If my best is good enough for first, fifth or tenth, I’ll be more than happy. “It’s just about trying to make small improvements every year and get closer to the top of the world.”
‘Eilish McColgan: Running with the Family’ is on BBC iPlayer
