Eilish McColgan is standing on a muddy enjoying subject at a major college in a housing property in Dundee. There is proof that occasions are altering, and never just due to the crisp, fiery, orange leaves scattered on the floor.
The shouts of excitable kids are starting to fade after she has handed on phrases of knowledge in her ongoing mission to encourage the next generation.
It is far faraway from the new — and glitzy — environment she now finds herself immersed in on account of the 12 months of her goals.
Eilish McColgan with her 10,000m gold medal and 5000m silver medal from the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham
Suddenly, the lady from Tayside has reworked into an athletics champion who mixes with baking and boxing royalty.
‘I went to the Pride of Britain Awards this week and I got my picture taken with Mary Berry, which was so embarrassing!’ laughs McColgan. ‘People were acting like she is UK royalty. It was really cool.
‘Randomly, I also got a picture with Frank Bruno. He was sitting next to us and I heard someone laugh. Straight away I said: “That’s Frank Bruno”.
‘I have a picture from when I’m perhaps three years previous. My mum is holding me up and Frank Bruno is in the image. I look petrified as a result of I used to be solely tiny.
‘Weirdly enough, we had been chatting about this picture a few weeks before. I texted my mum and dad: “Frank Bruno is here. Can we find that picture?”. Neither of them could find it but I went on Facebook. I’m like a detective. I can discover something.
‘So I showed him the picture. He couldn’t imagine it was him. He was zooming in: “I can’t believe it, this must be from 30 years ago”.
McColgan with Frank Bruno at the Pride of Britain Awards (L) and likewise as a baby with Bruno and her mum Liz (R)
‘Then I said it was me. Me and my mum couldn’t work out the place the image was from. So we bought an up to date image and I despatched that to my mum and pop.’
These are moments to cherish for McColgan they usually have been earned after a exceptional 12 months on the observe. The 31-year-old’s triumph in the 10,000metres at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer time offered one among the most iconic sporting pictures of 2022 as she set a Games report and adopted in the footsteps of mum Liz, who she embraced after the race.
She then claimed 5,000m silver at the Alexander Stadium earlier than transferring on to the European Championships in Munich, the place silver in the 10,000m was adopted by a bronze medal in the 5,000m.
Among her many achievements in 2022, McColgan has additionally set British information in the 5k and half-marathon.
The Scot’s new excessive profile in the sporting world could have led to her mixing with the wealthy and well-known, however she has additionally been drawn nearer to strangers who had been blown away by her golden triumph.
‘I’ve misplaced depend of the quantity of people that have stated: “I’d never watched athletics before in my life” — they usually had been shouting and screaming at the TV for the final lap of my race after which crying after it,’ she says.
The Scottish observe star with baking queen Mary Berry at the Pride of Britain Awards
‘And to hear they stuck out a 10,000m, which is always classed as the most boring race, is special. Not a lot of people get a moment like that. I feel grateful and lucky that it has happened the way it has.
‘Even if I go on to achieve anything above this in the rest of my career — in terms of the Worlds, Olympics or whatever — I don’t suppose it’s going to ever be the similar as that. I do know it gained’t be.
‘It almost felt like it didn’t occur to me. I used to be at a convention not too long ago in entrance of 300 folks from the monetary world they usually confirmed my final lap. I really cried which actually isn’t like me!
‘I hadn’t ever sat down and watched it earlier than then. My mum was with me as effectively. It was like watching somebody who wasn’t me. I used to be getting correct upset.’
McColgan is again dwelling in Dundee to satisfy kids who’re benefiting from the help of Giving Back to Track, the not-for-profit initiative she has launched with her companion and fellow athlete Michael Rimmer to take away the monetary limitations to younger folks turning into concerned in athletics.
Tomorrow evening, she will head to Glasgow for Scottish Athletics’ annual awards dinner the place she is in rivalry to be Athlete of the Year. She faces competitors from Laura Muir, who clinched gold in the girls’s 1500m at the Commonwealths and Europeans, in addition to successful bronze at the World Championships in Oregon and in the 800m in Birmingham.
McColgan has loved a exceptional 12 months on the observe
New males’s 1500m world champion Jake Wightman joins them as they purpose to seal the prime prize.
With winter approaching and tongues wagging as awards season comes into view, consideration naturally turns to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. McColgan, although, doesn’t fancy her possibilities in that congested subject and can classify an invitation as an achievement in itself.
‘I’ve been with my mum earlier than as a result of I begged her to take me one 12 months. I wished to satisfy Lewis Hamilton,’ she says. ‘I got my picture with him and was buzzing.
‘I haven’t been invited for years. There’s no manner that I’ll be making the shortlist. There have been so many achievements. The England girls’s soccer group have been unbelievable. Jake Wightman can be up there as world champion. I feel he can be the athletics consultant. I’ll be doing effectively if I get an invitation. We’ll see…’
After a manic summer time, McColgan’s tempo has — lastly — eased as she prepares for the 2023 season.
The predominant focus is her first London Marathon in April. She is on account of characteristic in the Seven Hills Run 15k in Nijmegen in the Netherlands on November 20 however will maintain off from confirming her look till nearer the time.
‘I’m going to attend and see,’ she provides. ‘I got sick on holiday in Egypt. I’m not fairly the place I want to be. I’ll see how coaching goes over the next two weeks earlier than making a closing resolution on that.
‘But it’s not a key race of the 12 months for me. I’m just getting back from time without work however I do wish to have a race to kickstart issues once more.
‘I’d additionally wish to get into more street racing, particularly over the longer distances. That one is good as a result of it’s 9, ten miles and that’s the kind of half-marathon distance that I actually need to construct as much as the London Marathon in April.
‘It will be my first-ever one. It’s a brand new problem. Then will probably be into the World Championships in Budapest. I haven’t determined what I need to goal there. It comes right down to how effectively London goes.
‘If it goes horrendously, I probably won’t be doing the marathon and I’ll strive for 10k. If it goes effectively, I’ve to determine if I’ve one other pop at a World Championship marathon or go for an autumn marathon.
‘But I’ve bought nothing main deliberate over these winter months. It’s just getting again into coaching and having health races.’