Our sponsored athlete, Eilish McColgan shares her thoughts on the highs and lows of her athletics achievements in 2024 and how she feels about what’s ahead in 2025.
2024 has been a strange year for me. It's the first year in more than seven years, where I haven't set a personal best. That could be seen as an unsuccessful year, but taking a step back gives a clearer picture of what 2024 was really about for me. It was a comeback year. An ‘against all the odds’ year. Having taken six months off, undergone knee surgery amongst other complications - I was finally back racing. And not only that, 2024 marked my fourth Olympic Games. The first ever Scottish athlete to achieve this in my sport.
So, there may not have been any PBs set, but there were several race wins and strong performances along the way to full fitness.
My last race of the season took place in New Delhi, India. It was an incredibly challenging race for me - not just the heat and the humidity but also the air pollution which made things tough. Unfortunately, the city had experienced slightly unusual peak temperatures that weekend. Plus, the 3.45am breakfast wasn't ideal for this night owl! Nonetheless, I ran as hard as I could for 4th place - just shy of a podium position.
Although my time was two minutes down from the Great North Run, just a month before - the weather was on the opposite end of the spectrum! And despite the challenging conditions, it was an incredible experience being able to run along the streets of Delhi - completely empty. It's hard to imagine because the city is constantly buzzing, bumper to bumper with cars, mopeds and tuk tuks. They really did look after us too. A beautiful hotel and wonderful food. Truly a once in a lifetime kind of race.
Straight from the race in Delhi, we headed on our holidays! We had already travelled around India back in 2019, so wanted to explore somewhere new. With a relatively short and inexpensive flight to Vietnam - Hanoi was our first stop.
Every year, I get two weeks off. This will change slightly as I transition to the marathon, but in previous years, my break is always around the end of October. We tend to look at locations which we wouldn't typically get to visit through our sport - and for us - a lot of Asia remains untouched. So we decided on Vietnam and Cambodia. I say 'we' decided, but it was a negotiation of sorts between myself and my partner Michael. The first week would be my choice - hectic, bouncing from place to place, and the last half of the holiday would be Michael's choice - a beach. We settled on finishing our trip in the Maldives. Not a bad negotiation!
A lot of people often ask if I get itchy feet when I'm on my break, but to be honest it varies year on year. This first week was so busy that I didn't have time to even think about running and enjoyed exploring two new countries and the incredible cuisine they had on offer! The final week, I'll usually go for a few easy treadmill runs - as and when I feel like it.
What's been nice this year is the fact I've chosen to go on a break rather than being forced into one. Last year, I had no choice but to take time off after my surgery. And having missed the whole of the winter of 2023, it feels good to be heading into this winter with a renewed sense of motivation and in good health.
On Monday, I start my training towards next year. Ready. Motivated. Eager.
Published 8 November 2024.
