Distance runner says much of her medal-winning and record-breaking success has been down to the help of the man who’s by her side
Eilish McColgan describes the last few months as having been “a bit whirlwindy”. She is speaking to AW from Qatar, where some (very) warm weather training is being combined with a visit to see her mother and coach Liz, plus the chance to take in a few World Cup matches.
The Scot came down from the altitude of Font Romeu, then broke the British 15km record in Holland, on her way to the middle east. In between all of that, too, the diary has been packed as the award ceremony invites have come flooding in.
McColgan has been a woman in demand – and with good reason. Her exploits in 2022 are now vry well documented but here’s a quick recap. She is now the owner of the British records at 5km, 10km, 15km and the half marathon. On top of that, there was a 15-day spell this summer in which she won four major championships medals – the pick of which was a Commonwealth Games 10,000m victory which shook the brand new Alexander Stadium to its foundations.
All of which has seen the AW British female athlete of the year having to brush up on her acceptance speeches. There has been a determination to be there in person to receive her prizes, too. A desire to enjoy this turn in the spotlight.
Eilish McColgan (Mark Shearman)
It might have meant having to squeeze in the occasional hotel treadmill 10-miler before switching straight from training kit to cocktail dress, but it has all been worth it.
“Even if I win a global medal, I still probably won’t ever get this opportunity again, where everything sort of aligned,” she says. “Everyone really supported me with that Commonwealth Games win. I’ve had people in the street stopping me and there was a grown man in Aldi telling me he was crying about my race. It’s all been a bit overwhelming but really cool.
“Why don’t I make the most of it? Why don’t I enjoy those moments? Yes, it’s been a little bit more hectic, perhaps over those last two months, but I certainly haven’t regretted it.”
By her side at these functions – and pretty much everywhere else for that matter – has been a figure McColgan attributes a great deal of her success to. Michael Rimmer, himself a three-time Olympian and European 800m silver medallist, joining his partner on the road has been vital.
Mike Rimmer (Getty)
To paraphrase John Donne, no woman is an island but, if we are to really strangle the life out of this metaphor then McColgan is in fact part of a small archipelago. While Liz leads the coaching set-up from Doha and there is also input from Eilish’s father Peter, Rimmer is the man on the ground. He is the person on the bike dictating the pace, shovelling the snow off the track at an altitude camp, handing over drinks in the middle eastern heat and cooking the meals. It has been this way since the pandemic and his calming influence has, says McColgan, put her in precisely the frame of mind she needs to succeed.
“It’s been massive,” she says of the decision for Rimmer to start travelling with her. “In the past, I was spending five or six weeks on a training camp just totally on my own in a tiny little studio apartment. I felt like it was work so I justified it as: ‘I’m working, I’m here to just train’ so you get on with it.
“I’d communicate with Michael, my family and friends via WhatsApp and things but it’s just not the same as having someone physically there with you every single day.
“I used to feel like I missed home a lot but now I don’t really feel like that because essentially Michael is my home so wherever we go now we’re together and it’s made a big difference to my happiness and the way I am day to day.
“My parents have always said that a happy runner is a fast runner and that’s certainly been justified.”
To some, the thought of spending virtually every waking hour with their other half might sound like an endurance test in itself. Not for McColgan. Her parents used to have a similar set-up while Gary Lough famously adopted a virtually identical role for his wife, Paula Radcliffe.
“Since the pandemic we’ve travelled together and I can’t think of a time when we’ve spent any more than a couple of days apart,” adds the European 10,000m silver and 5000m bronze medallist. “I know it doesn’t work for everyone. Some people find that quite intense being around each other 24 hours a day, but we don’t. Michael’s very chilled out, is very relaxed and just a really good person to have around. I think that then reflects on me.
“Training doesn’t feel intense, it feels relaxed, and we’re flexible with how we train as well.
“I think that’s definitely the way I need to be. When things get too intense, I think it just becomes a bit overwhelming and more job-like.
“At the end of the day, running is something I love to do. I don’t ever want to lose that enjoyment of just going out for a run and enjoyment of the sport.
“Yes, I do get paid to do this, but I don’t want that mental switch to start changing from ‘this is fun’ to ‘this is a full-time job and I need to be up at 7am every morning and I need to have this every day for my lunch and my breakfast and my tea’. I don’t think I’d perform very well doing that.
“In the past, I would be so regimented and feel ‘if it’s on my programme, I have to do it’.
“If I was sick, if I had an injury, I would just get out the door no matter what. I struggled to make those hard decisions or small decisions.
“I think it’s having someone there to say ‘no, you’re not doing that, this is stupid, you’re not feeling well, take the day off or change things around’. Just having someone there to manage things rather than relying on yourself makes a big difference.”
Eilish McColgan (Mark Shearman)
It adds a deeper level of investment, too.
“I think, pacing on the bike and having someone there with you every day, motivation is just a little bit higher,” she says. “It never particularly wavers, because even when it’s snowing and it’s hailstones and we’re going out for a run he’s coming with me and there’s no questions about it. You don’t even doubt that. We do it as a team.
“It’s a very small team – essentially myself, my mum, Michael, my dad chipping in little bits of advice. I don’t have a physio or a physiologist or a nutritionist or a doctor but I think it makes it more important to me when I’m on the start line then because I know I’m not just doing it for me. It really is for my small family.
“I want to succeed for them because I know how much effort they put in, Michael probably more so than anyone.”
Thoughts, now, turn to 2023 and April 23 – the date of the London Marathon and a debut over 26.2 miles – is already ringed in red on the calendar.
A part of her, however, will always be in Birmingham.
“With it being a home championships made it so much more special and being in Birmingham at the stadium where I’ve competed at British championships since I was under 13. I think I won’t ever have another home experience like that.
“To come away with the win and the Games record and knowing my mum was in the stadium, having done it [won Commonwealth 10,000m gold] 36 years earlier… all of those things combined is why the Commonwealth is definitely that key moment. And the one that I remember for a very long time.”
» This article first appeared in the December issue of AW magazine
