You ask the questions, the athletics star provides the answers and here we hear from a former marathon world record-holder who is witnessing the landscape of distance running changing markedly before her eyes

What was your reaction to Eilish McColgan breaking your European and British 10km record at the Great Manchester Run? 

I’d watched Eilish at the Vitality London 10,000 and miss the record [30:21] by a couple of seconds, so I think everybody knew that it was within her capabilities and the way the race panned out, in going off extremely quickly, meant that it was possible. Eilish ran extremely smart as she sat off the front from the beginning where she could close down at the end.

In the closing stages I kind of forgot about the time and was focused more on where she could catch Hellen Obiri because she was closing so quickly. I think Eilish was shooting for both [the record and the win] and at the end I think she thought she could have caught Obiri if she chased a little bit sooner.

It’s nice to see athletes – particularly ones like Eilish who I’ve seen growing up and that I know well – get the rewards for putting in that hard work. There have been seasons where it hasn’t gone her own way so it’s great to see that the stuff that Liz [McColgan], Michael [Rimmer] and the rest of her team have put in is working.

What is the one most significant piece of advice that you received as a young athlete, adhered to constantly and would pass on to a young athlete today? 

I think the biggest one was to set goals – to have a dream and set realistic goals. I used to write them down in my training diary at the start of the year. Some of them rolled on forever and when you achieved that dream goal there was no better feeling than enjoying that moment but then building on that to move forward.

It’s all about stretching yourself and I was so happy to get that advice as a youngster to aim high because there’s no such thing as failure when you’re aiming high. You’ll still achieve things that you would never have done if you didn’t set those lofty goals. That was the most important advice as a youngster.

How do you think Letesenbet Gidey will do in her debut marathon in December? 

I think she has the potential to run extremely quickly and certainly threaten Brigid Kosgei’s world record [2:14:04]. She [Gidey] has run over the half-marathon and has built her speed up over 3000m, 5000m and 10,000m so that will stand her in good stead. I could see her taking, and I’m being serious here, two or three minutes off the world record.

Whether Gidey will do that in her first outing or whether she’ll get to know the marathon distance a bit more remains to be seen, but I think she has the potential to take that record into unknown territory.

What time do you think you might have run in the ‘super shoes’? 

It’s a good question and I’d love to know the answer but we’ll never know. I do think the shoes do a huge amount in safeguarding the health of runners and enabling them to do harder training, race harder and recover better. That is the big advantage.

I think they have also changed the landscape of marathon racing because part of the skill was being able to hold your body together over the last 10-12km but, from what I’ve heard and experienced, with these new shoes your legs aren’t as dead or bashed as they used to be so it becomes easier in the closing stages and you can finish more strongly.

Due to the plate and the cushioning in the shoes I think you can also race the marathon more frequently. We would never train back in my day with the shoes that we’d race in for long runs but now it’s absolutely something that athletes do as they can train efficiently.

Who do you believe out of the current crop of excellent British female marathon runners will break the 2 hour 20 minutes barrier? 

I think there are probably several who have the potential. I think the one that stands out at the moment is somebody who isn’t even racing in the marathon. I absolutely believe that Eilish, with the half-marathon and 10km speed that she’s shown, has the potential to go under 2:20 by quite a long way. 

What’s exciting is that we’ve got a group of athletes like Charlotte Purdue and Jess Piasecki where they’re teeing up and inspiring each other to be better and run faster. They get on with each other very well and I know that one good performance then helps another break through that barrier.