Hello! Welcome back to The Footprint – and happy Tokyo Marathon weekend. Best of luck to everyone running on Sunday.

📬 Today: Ahead of the first major marathon of the year, former New York City, Tokyo and London champion Liz McColgan on her history, and her daughter’s future, in the sport.

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Liz McColgan has run the London Marathon eight times. One of Scotland’s greatest distance athletes, she came third in 1993; fifth in 1995; first in 1996; second in 1997 and 1998; and ran a few times for charity, to boot. 

This year will be different. “I won't enjoy it, that's for sure,” she laughed in a recent interview. This year her daughter will run the marathon for the first time. “It's really difficult to stand and watch.” 

Eilish McColgan, like Liz, enjoyed a stunning career on the track (four Olympics; European and Commonwealth gold medals; and a string of British records) before this transition to the marathon. 

Liz would rather be running than watching. She’d certainly be less nervous. She knows the determination required to tackle this course; the disappointment of coming up short; and the unqualified delight of victory. 

For her, 1996 “was like a comeback race,” she said. “I suppose I was a bit angry that a lot people had written me off, and really not given me a lot of respect.” 

She had won the New York City Marathon, in 1991. She had won the Tokyo International Women's Marathon, in 1992. But this was London, four years later, on home soil. Crowds lined every mile, cheering her on. 

“The joy of winning is sharing it with those who you love,” said Liz, 60. “As an athlete, you don’t actually appreciate how many people support you.” 

Despite navigating London – from Blackheath to Buckingham Palace, via the Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf, and an electric stretch along Embankment – more than most, she didn’t pay much attention to the city during her years at the front of the pack. 

“When I run, I just look 10 meters in front of my feet,” she said, recalling how, after taking the lead in 1996, she glanced up with a mile to go, spotted Big Ben and thought: “Oh my days!”

“You’re kind of in a zone,” she explained. Half a mile later, closing in on one of the most remarkable moments in her career, she’s not even sure she noticed Buckingham Palace before turning towards the finish.  

It will soon be her daughter’s turn to enter that zone. This marathon debut has been years in the making for Eilish, 34 – and postponed from 2023, when she was forced to withdraw with a knee injury. 

Eilish will be part of an extraordinary elite line-up, including defending champion Peres Jepchirchir, world record holder Ruth Chepngetich, Olympic gold medalist and 2023 winner Sifan Hassan, and Olympic silver medalist and two-time Berlin winner Tigist Assefa. 

“It must be the biggest field for the fastest woman of the world ever assembled in any, any marathon,” said Liz, who admires her daughter for “taking on the challenge,” but might have gone for somewhere a little bit quieter. 

Eilish “hits it hard, and she's willing to jump in there with the very, very, very best in the world,” she added. “And it's going to be a big learning tool.” 

Her advice for Eilish is the same as for any other first-time marathoner: run your own race, don’t get carried away, and avoid getting “too caught up” in what anyone else is doing. 

“The marathon is a rollercoaster,” she said, built around a series of physical, mental and emotional climbs and drops. “And it's not until you actually put the marathon together that you can establish exactly what that feels like.” 

Liz, who retired as an athlete in 2001, today coaches and mentors runners vying to follow in her footsteps. She still runs herself. “If I didn't go for run I think I would be a completely different person,” she said. “It helps me mentally. It keeps me on the right track. It keeps me alert, not depressed, all that kind of stuff.” 

Running – as a hobby, sport, and career – has “given me life, really,” she said. “It let me dream. It gave me ambition. It opened doors for me.” 

And her pace is still turning heads. A few days before our interview, after running 10k on a treadmill, she was approached by a young guy who asked how fast she had been going. “You can run faster than me,” he said. He had no idea.

AROUND AND ABOUT

🤘 Who's in charge? Former music journalist Raziq Rauf recently interviewed a Zara designer about the brand's expansion into running. The response prompted him to recall the time he tried to walk into a heavy metal bar wearing a suit, and was asked to name three Slayer songs. “There are similar gatekeepers in every corner of the running world who just don’t really want non-runners (or different runners) polluting the sacred space they’ve built,” he wrote in Running Sucks.

🎧 Keira D'Amato runs her own race. The former US record holder in the marathon, currently training for Boston, spoke to the Fast People podcast about finding the right approach – and not trying to be anyone other than herself – in the second chapter of her career.

⏱️ Can a woman break the four-minute mile? Seven decades after Roger Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes, Alex Hutchinson reported in Outside on a study which considers how a woman might do the same. Faith Kipyegon's world record, set in 2023, is 4 mins 7.64 secs.

🏅 The indoor track season continues. George Mills broke a 39-year-old record at the British Indoor Athletics Championships, winning the men's 3000m in 7 mins 40.16 secs in Birmingham... Nikki Hiltz won the the 3,000m/1500m double at the USATF Indoor Championships in New York... and Josh Hoey lowered his own American record in the 800m, winning in 1 min 43.24 secs.

📍 Chicago, IL: A chilly run along the Lakefront Trail last weekend, fueled by deep dish pizza.

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Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think: just hit ‘reply,’ or email me.

Have a great weekend.

– Callum