IT is officially 100 days and counting until the European Indoor Athletics championships hit Glasgow. So you would have thought someone might at least have given Eilish McColgan the guided tour by now.

As the reigning continental indoor 3000m bronze medallist and new outdoor European 5,000m silver medallist met the media in the company of her countrywoman Eilidh Doyle at the atmospheric surroundings of Kelvingrove Art Gallery yesterday, she reflected upon the strange anomaly where she hasn’t competed in Scotland at all since the 2014 Commonwealth Games and has never even got beyond the foyer of the Emirates Arena.

In fact, with her mum and coach Liz McColgan-Nuttall now based out in Doha, where the World Championships will take place in late September, you could say McColgan Jnr is more accustomed to visiting the Emirates than the Emirates.

“I’ve not even seen it [the Emirates Arena],” said McColgan. “I’ve only ever raced at the Kelvin Hall. I remember I went there one day because I wanted to go and train but there was squash or badminton or something on.

“We don’t get many opportunities on the track to race in Scotland,” she added. “The only chances I have ever had are at those Muller Grand Prix events [which now alternate between Glasgow and Birmingham] and I can’t remember if it was 2016 or 2017 but I was sick and I missed it.

“Fingers crossed, I get to see the Emirates and compete in it this time around. My family also have no excuses not to travel the hour and a half or whatever to watch me race so that is quite nice too.”

McColgan’s kith and kin are sprinkled between Scotland and Doha these days, a rather happy co-incidence considering both those venues will loom large in her year. Yet, with her brothers and sisters back in Scotland with her dad Peter, and her mum and coach Liz McColgan-Nuttall based in the Gulf, the crowning moment of McColgan’s career to date was somewhat bizarrely shared with a couple of random echoes of her past life. As she did an emotional lap of honour in Munich’s Olympiastadion, her eyes fixed on an old Dundee Hawks team-mate and a teenage cross-country rival.

“It wasn’t really an anti-climax ... but you are so excited that you run around and there was no-one really there for you to run to or to hug,” said McColgan. “Although, weirdly enough, there was a girl I used to train with at Glasgow Hawks, who was there in the crowd. I just saw her face, out of all those thousands of people, and she was just standing on the stairs, cheering me on. I almost started crying - just seeing someone who reminded me of home got me quite emotional.

“Then when I got to the bottom corner, there was another girl I used to race cross country against, I think she maybe now lives in Germany,” added the 27-year-old. “She messaged me afterwards to say ‘I’m so proud of you. Even though you have had some pretty s****y times when it hasn’t gone to plan, you’ve still stuck at it and I’m so happy to see you reap the rewards’.

“Glasgow 2014 didn’t go the way that I wanted, again I was sick, so while it was great to be with my friends and family afterwards I was disappointed with my performance so I didn’t have the same buzz and excitement. If I could have what I had in Belgrade and Berlin, but actually have my friends and family there too, it would be pretty special. It will be so much better having them there in person rather than having to scramble to a phone to call them.”

A driven athlete finally fulfilling her potential after long years spent specialising in the steeplechase to the detriment of her body, McColgan simply isn’t the sort for self-congratulation. But that dramatic silver medal in Berlin, the product of 15 years in the sport, allowed her to get off her own back for once. You may recall her running bravely from the front, wearying the legs of many sprint finishers, then holding her nerve when Israeli athlete Lonah Salpeter wrongly felt eventual winner Sifan Hassan was going for the line rather than accelerating into the final lap.“I was able to step back and say ‘yeah, I am proud of what I have achieved,” said McColgan.

It was also as good an excuse as any for an extended break from athletics – as she crammed in whistle stop tours to places such as Jamaica and Venice during the off-season – but not until she had soldiered on manfully through five late season races whilst suffering from a virus. “I am lucky it is such a long year now [with the European Indoors in March and the World Championships in Doha in September] that I can afford to take an extended break rather than get back into things too early,” she said. “I went to Jamaica for a week, but it was a little bit too hectic for me. There were a lot of Americans just partying and I felt like a wee old woman who wanted to just rest.

“People were trying to sell my wine on the beach, saying I had to go to this party or that party, a pool party or a paint party, I was like ‘no, I just want to say on this beach and chill out’,” she added. “Then I went to Venice for two days, I managed to get flights for about £19. I was just ticking off all the things I wanted to do, but had never had the chance to.”

The hard work is beginning again now, though, Liz keeping tabs on things remotely as Eilish shares her training times, heart rate readings and feedback via Whatsapp. While the pair have “got into a good groove” with this rather unorthodox coaching relationship, she jets out to Doha imminently for a three-week stint which might also involve a training run this Christmas Day.

“Christmas is a little bit different in Qatar,” says Eilish. “There are no Christmas trees or decorations anywhere because it is obviously a Muslim country. We have to order in our Christmas dinner from one of the big hotels because they are the ones who have turkey and everything so it is a bit weird, not a normal Christmas dinner.

“Last Christmas we actually went out for a run which shocked me. My whole family came, which shocked me, my mum and her entire running club too. That was about 20 families, all running on Christmas morning, some with Christmas hats on or little elf suits. Obviously I was doing it because it was my job, but I was like ‘what are you guys doing?’

A Team GB warm weather camp in South Africa will follow in January - alongside Laura Muir, who could yet form part of her competition for one of up to three spots for the 3000m. “The first thing is securing that spot in Team GB,” said McColgan. If you can get on the GB team then I think you have a good chance of a medal.”