Things you wouldn’t expect in an interview with Eilish McColgan: To discuss the merits of the “Helicopter Burger” – bacon, chips, Lorne sausage, beef patty and fried egg wrapped in a giant floury bun – sold at a 24-hour bakery called Clark’s which was once voted the best place to get ‘drunk food’ in Scotland. 2. To hear “Corfu” and “Istanbul” in the context of fast-food restaurants rather than warm-weather training bases.
However, Britain’s best female long-distance runner since Paula Radcliffe is simply reliving her student days in Dundee, when alcohol, nightclubs and fast food were as much part of the routine as an ice bath is now.
“I had a normal university experience, going to student nights and fresher weeks… drinking, eating kebabs and partying all the time,” she says. “I was not a professional athlete, running was a hobby. I had no real ambitions to go to the Olympics. I thought I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t feel like anything was in danger. We used to go to a place called Corfu Kebabs. There was another one called Istanbul Grill. We would get all kinds of things.”
However, there was a caveat. No matter how late McColgan stayed out, she would never miss the three-weekly training sessions that her mother, Liz, the 1991 world 10,000m champion, ran at Dundee Hawkhill Harriers athletics club.
It was a routine they had built up since Liz took over the training group when Eilish was 13 and it is refreshing to hear how this legend of Scottish athletics approached her coaching role.
“My mother let me decide if I wanted to do it,” says McColgan, 33. “The sessions were tough – strict – but at the same time we had a lot of fun. One thing she did very well was hold us back. I remember coming back from races and being angry because, for example, I had come sixth and I was only allowed to train one or two days a week. My mom would say, “Tough – you’re not going to train like an adult until your body is ready.” There are a lot of coaches and athletes who misunderstand that.”
McColgan took part in the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, shortly before leaving home to begin a degree in mathematics and accountancy. She was 17, an age that could easily be considered make-or-break for an aspiring athlete. How did her mother react when she decided to embrace the full college experience?
“She saw that I was leaving the sport and not living a healthy lifestyle at all, but not once did she say to me, ‘Stop that.’ She just said, ‘That’s your decision, if you return to the sport then that’s fine and I’ll be there to help, but if you choose a different path, don’t worry.’
That McColgan could maintain even a basic level of training would confuse some of her athletic friends. “They were like, ‘Why the hell are you training when you just danced until three in the morning!?’ I didn’t sleep and I didn’t recover as I should – lots of sore throats, sore heads and colds. But I guess somewhere deep inside I believed that maybe I could fight for Britain. I had a voice that said, ‘Go on ‘, even if it wasn’t 100 percent effort.”
This mentality would last for more than two years until a switch was made in 2011 as both the end of her studies and the 2012 Olympic Games in London came into view. McColgan began to wonder if a place in the 10,000-foot steep hunt would be possible and made the decision overnight not to go out again. After regularly seeing her in the nightclubs and takeaways, it was now the turn of her friends at the University of Dundee to be shocked as they tuned in for the 2012 Olympics.
“They didn’t even know I wanted to be an athlete – it was a complete confusion for them when they saw me at the Olympics,” she says, laughing. “They were just wondering where I was.”
With the largely remotely coached help of Liz and the dedicated help of partner Michael Rimmer, McColgan has since continued to improve incrementally over the past decade.
In 2018 there was a European silver medal in the 5,000 meters, but as the distances have increased so have her relative performances, reaching a memorable high point in the summer of 2022 with 10,000 meters 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 track, a beautiful family story came full circle.
‘I still speak 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. The shock of his unexpected loss was so great that Eilish admits she doesn’t think it has all sunk in yet. Nuttall’s children from his first marriage – Hannah and Luke – are both aiming to reach Paris at the Olympic and Paralympic Games respectively. “We always talked about his children’s athletics, which I really enjoyed – he was so passionate about the sport,” says Eilish.
The McColgans’ mother/daughter/coach/athlete relationships are the focus of an excellent new BBC documentary, Eilish McColgan: Running runs in the familyand they have long been plotting a path to both next summer’s Olympics in Paris and an attempt at a major marathon.
“I probably still speak to my mother every day,” she says. “We never had a real argument. I don’t feel like I’ve had to sacrifice any of my life to reach this level… while many other people don’t feel the same way. Yes, I don’t have any global medals, like Olympic or world medals, but that’s not all I’m worth.
“I read an interview with Holly Bradshaw, the pole vaulter, and she wondered whether winning her bronze medal at the Olympics was worth all the sacrifices. I felt so sad when I read that because Holly is an incredible person. She is a good friend of mine, her value is far beyond a bronze medal, and yet she focused everything on that one idea. It really made me think.”
An injury limited her 2023 after early-season times in the 10,000 meters and half marathon were first and second respectively in the British all-time list and in the top 10 in the world for the year. “That gives me hope to know it’s not that far away; I’m still getting faster,” she says.
She would of course like to win an Olympic medal next summer, in the 10,000 meters or the marathon, but there is a sense that she has something more valuable: an ability to still enjoy the journey. “I don’t think about it too much,” she says. “If I win, great, but if I can do a PB, or at least finish knowing I’ve done absolutely everything, there’s no point in getting discouraged. Whether my best is good enough for first, fifth or tenth place, I will be more than satisfied. It’s just trying to make small improvements every year and get closer to the top of the world.”
‘Eilish McColgan: Running in the Family’ is on BBC iPlayer