Eilish McColgan is one of Britain’s all-time great female distance runners – but still admits to being scared of the London Marathon.
A four-time Olympian, she is the British record holder for 10km and 10 miles but will be making her marathon debut on the streets of the capital on Sunday.
McColgan is following in the footsteps of her mum Liz, who won the race in 1996, but says she never expected to run it in the same way.
“You have no idea how big this event is”
She said: “My first memories of the London Marathon are probably sitting in the hospitality tent eating all the free food and looking at a tiny TV screen, not really understanding that my mum was in the London Marathon.
“At age six, you have no idea how big this event is. Over the years, I watched Paula Radcliffe win it on TV, and that’s probably when it sunk into my head how big the London Marathon is and how incredible it is to be part of this.
“I never, ever believed I’d be on the Start Line of the elite field, I thought I’d one day do it with the masses and do it for fun, so it feels very surreal to be sitting here now at the elite press conference and being on the elite Start Line on Sunday. It’s very scary!”
McColgan wanted to run the 2023 race but things didn’t quite go according to plan because of a knee injury – and she is determined to make every mile count this year.
She said: “For me, the biggest thing was making it to the Start Line. I had a very different experience in 2023, so the last couple of sessions I’ve been doing this year, I’ve felt a lot of nerves about something going wrong, so I don’t want to overdo it, or pick up some sort of niggle, or get sick.
“Bucket-list event”
“There’s definitely a heightened sense of wanting to be on the Start Line this year. London is a bucket-list event for me and having gone through all of the training in 2023 and not quite making it, I’m proud to be here now because it’s been a tough journey to get here.
“I’ve actually quite liked the taper – the tapering down hasn’t been too bad because I’m not someone who does super high mileage, so there’s not been a huge amount of change.
“Obviously less than what I had been doing, but not a huge jump that maybe other people would have if they’re running 100+ miles per week and then they come down to about 30.”
