Eilish McColgan shares her hopes and ambitions for 2023, including a Marathon.
Any new year is awash with ‘New Year, new me’ resolutions but after the most memorable year of my life in 2022, I wanted some more of the same! However, despite not wanting any change, I decided to take on an entirely new challenge in 2023: the TCS London Marathon!
I’ve known for a very long time that a marathon would be in my future. From a young age, my mum would tell me I had marathon tendencies from watching me in training, and this was backed up by British Athletics when I underwent my first physiological treadmill test.
Honestly, it wasn’t particularly what I wanted to hear. I loved the feeling of being fast and running fast, especially on the track, and I remember as a youngster thinking, ‘26 miles? No way’.
But over the years, we’ve gradually built up my training to take on the 5,000m, then the 10,000m and into my first ever half marathon. Surprisingly, I’ve really enjoyed it. Taking on the full marathon distance feels like the logical next step.
Sadly, as you may have read, I wasn’t able to do it this year. Having been unable to race the New York City Half Marathon in the spring, because I was carrying an injury, we looked around for an alternative race. We decided on the Berlin Half Marathon, due to the depth of runners competing.
I’m proud to say that I ran a huge personal best and set a new national record in Berlin, but I also suffered an injury to my hamstring in the last 1km. Despite being told no running for four weeks after that, I got myself back running far sooner than the doctors expected and was feeling confident in my progress for London.
And then more challenges, including contractual issues with sponsors, and a problem with my knee, meant I had to withdraw.
As you can imagine, juggling all of the above has been incredibly stressful, but I’ve been in tough places before. It's sport. I know that making the decision not to race the TCS London Marathon will benefit me in the longer term. I also know I'm ready to run a fast marathon, but we will have to wait a little longer for those stars to align. And when they do, I promise it will be worth the wait!
