Eilish McColgan: “You start to think: ‘Can I get back?'”

Eilish McColgan relishing her return to the London Marathon start line after her injury struggles, with the European 10km record-holder now coming at the event from a position of strength.

Eilish McColgan admits she wondered if her life as an elite athlete was over. After a medal-laden year she’ll never forget in 2022 that brought Commonwealth 10,000m gold and 5000m silver plus European 10,000m silver and 5000m bronze, 2023 seemed to be going swimmingly. 

First the British 10,000m record (30:00.86) came her way in March before a switch to the roads brought the national half marathon mark (65:43) in Berlin the following month. 

Those, however, were to be her only two races of that year. A knee injury meant there would be no marathon debut in London, no world championships in Budapest and, following surgery, no running at all for months. 

She returned to reach her fourth Olympics in Paris, and did become a marathon runner last year as she finished as the first Briton home when she broke the Scottish record with 2:24:25, despite suffering with cramp. However, it was only last autumn, when finishing third at the Great North Run, that she began to feel that her body was starting to come back to full strength. 

If any further sign was needed, then her European record-breaking run of 30:08 at the Valencia 10km earlier this month certainly provided it. 

McColgan’s confidence levels are very much on the rise and she is part of a strong British field announced for this year’s London Marathon. Having proved a point to herself and the outside world, the 35-year-old’s ambitions are now a lot higher this time around. 

“You do start to question: ‘Can I get back?’,” she said on a London Marathon media call. “Time goes by so quickly. Then the natural instinct is to start thinking: ‘Is this it now? Do I just get slower and slower from here? Is this old age kicking in?’. 

“It also doesn’t help when you have those external voices all agreeing with that. They’re almost fuelling it, saying: ‘She’s too old. She’s past it. There’s no way she’ll get back to her best’. But there was always something inside of me that told me I could do it.

“It was obviously a nice feeling to know that I’m not old, not getting thrown out to the recycling tip any time soon.”

McColgan admits she rushed her way back for the Olympics and then for London – she only managed one 20-mile run in the build-up – but she wouldn’t change a thing.

“I was desperate to make the Olympic Games, even though it probably wasn’t the most sensible thing,” she said. “I tried to chase fitness to make the Olympics and then similarly last year I had to be in London, I couldn’t miss another London Marathon. Mentally, for me, it was really, really important that I was there on the start line, that I completed it, and I knew I could do it.”

Now it’s excitement rather than trepidation she feels about this marathon mission. McColgan was one of three British athletes to debut in the event last year and record times that sit inside the British top 10, with Abbie Donnelly clocking 2:24:11 in Frankfurt and Jess Warner-Judd 2:24:45 in New York, where she finished seventh. All will be competing in London on April 26.

“The last couple of years, I’ve been racing and I’ve been training, but not at 100 per cent so it feels good now to be operating at like 100 per cent and I’m getting the benefits from that.”

McColgan is savouring every moment of this stage of what has been a lengthy career, and one that hasn’t necessarily gone in the direction she would have expected. 

“I never honestly would have imagined that, going all the way back to London 2012, I would still be here today, but also that I’d be doing the marathon. I just never would have thought that would be the path I took.

“Everyone told me when I was younger, my mum included, that one day I’d be running the marathon but I just thought: ‘No way, I’m so far moved from that – not just even physically, but also mentally’. It just felt like a completely distant, alien world that I would never really find myself in.

“But it is something I am really proud of and I think that’s why I’m so vocal now for young female athletes coming through to make sure that they are looking after themselves properly, because I do believe that makes a big difference. 

“I’ve always been a good eater. I’ve never had any problems with that side of things. I’ve always fuelled correctly. I’ve always known the importance of that around the menstrual cycle. Growing up, mum and dad were in the sport and understood the energy demands of what running takes so, from a young age, I always had those building blocks. I’ve had a lot of injuries throughout the years, but I’ve then been able to bounce back and recover and move on from those.”

Despite more of a focus on the roads, the defence of her Commonwealth title in Glasgow in July is very much in the McColgan calendar, although it will depend upon how well she recovers from her London exploits. 

“Ultimately, if I’m not ready, then I’m not going to risk it,” she said. “I won’t turn up just to make up numbers,. I’ll turn up if I think I can be very, very competitive for those medals.”

But it’s the marathon that she is placing centre stage. That Scottish record last year beat her mother – and former London winner – Liz’s PB, but Eilish is planning to go quicker. 

“Deep down, I’d love to break through 2:20. It’s a huge barrier. There isn’t a huge amount of European women, or even American women, who have ever been sub 2:20 so it seems like that’s a bit of a barrier. In the UK, I don’t think it’ll be very long before someone does. I’d love to be one of those women moving towards that and, ultimately, getting as close as I can to the very, very best.”

Despite suffering from around mile 17 last year, London left an indelible mark on McColgan, so the thought of being able to attack the event from a position of strength this time is one she is savouring. There is something different, she revealed, about road running – especially on that route.

“London was beyond anything I’ve ever experienced before,” she said. “From start to finish, people are just screaming your name. I’ve never, ever had anything like that. It’s so much more intimate than the track. The Commonwealth Games was really cool – with everyone in the stadium, the noise is insane – but you don’t hear the individuals, it’s just there’s a noise, a real electric feeling. 

“When you’re actually running the road, you hear people saying ‘Eilish’ or ‘McColgan’ or ‘Scotland’, or ‘Go on Liz!’. I get my mum’s name all the time and it makes you smile. It’s a pick-up every time. Even somebody shouting something, like: ‘Come on, Hawks’, for my club Dundee Hawkhill from home. It’s that sort of stuff. It really does pick you up and it’s amazing how much that can give you a lift. 

“Last year, if that marathon experience had been somewhere else in the world, I think I would have struggled to get to the finish line but, in London, there was no let-up in noise. They say that the crowds get you to the finish line and that is honestly how I felt about London.”

2026 TCS London Marathon: British women’s entry list:

(Personal bests in brackets)

Charlotte Purdue (2:22:17)

Rose Harvey (2:23:21)

Abbie Donnelly (2:24:11)

Eilish McColgan (2:24:25)

Jessica Warner-Judd (2:24:45)

Lucy Reid (2:26:35)

Louise Small (2:27:48)

Alice Wright (2:28:48)

Verity Hopkins (2:31:19)