Following her debut at the distance last year, four-times European track medallist Eilish McColgan is targetting a personal best in the women’s race at this Sunday’s (26) London Marathon.
As well as being a mainstay of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland athletics team since the London 2012 Olympics, McColgan will be one of the crowd favourites with a close emotional affinity with the race owed to her mother Liz winning the 1996 London Marathon.
Long touted as a future marathon runner, McColgan only made her debut at the distance last year, placing 8th in a creditable first attempt of 2:24:25.
The 35-year-old held the European 10km record for six weeks earlier this year with 30:08 clocking in Valencia, before British teammate Megan Keith clipped a further second off the record in Castellon and then Slovenia’s Klara Lukan revised the record to 29:50 in Laredo last Saturday (18).
Nonetheless, McColgan arrives in London fit and in good form looking for an improvement on her second race at the classic distance.
2:20 ultimate target
“I would obviously really like to run 2:20, but I don’t know how realistic that is on a London course,” McColgan told scottishathletics Instagram page.
“I know there are pacemakers, but those pacemakers are just really for that front group. Last year I ran totally solo. So it’s a really tough way to do a marathon and maybe that’s a time (2:20) that more suitable to a Berlin, Chicago, Valencia – one of those ones that’s a more faster course.
“But ultimately a PB is what I am looking for. You can’t argue with anything when you have run a PB.”
McColgan, who won 10,000m silver and 5000m at the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships, 5000m silver at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships and 3000m bronze at the Belgrade 2017 European Athletics Indoor Championships, has a big season ahead of UK events with both the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships and Glasgow Commonwealth Games also likely track targets.