Pollock puts front-line duties first but Treacy record is still his goal
THE TOWN of Wetherby in west Yorkshire was historically important as a staging post. As a break on the arduous route between Edinburgh and London, Wetherby grew into a pretty settlement. And only days before the UK Government introduced a lockdown last month, it became home to Paul Pollock and his family.
He competed in the marathon for Ireland at the Rio Olympics, finishing a creditable 32nd. Pollock should be now in the thick of his toughest training for the Tokyo Games.
Instead, he is dealing with a journey interrupted. His own arduous road between Olympic marathons has been abruptly halted.
The 34-year-old from Holywood in Co Down is following a centuries-old tradition in breaking his journey in Wetherby. But he is not sitting and waiting for life to resume.
Pollock is a qualified doctor and working as an A&E locum in Britain as part of the global struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic.
It means his days are filled with more than wondering about when his next race will be held.
‘There has been pressure building on the NHS for the past few years, and this is an added pressure on top of all that existing pressure,’ he says.
‘You see it every day: there is a list of people waiting to be seen and the waiting rooms are always full.
‘While in the past that kind of pressure may not have been there at all times, now it’s always pressurised, people are always there.
‘The system is coping, thankfully, at the minute, especially up in Yorkshire where I am. The hospitals here are very well organised and they are not near capacity.’
Pollock had been living in Guildford outside London with his partner and 10-month-old child before the move, made to be closer to his partner’s home place. Where once his concerns might have revolved around finding a balance between his training and medicine, worry is now a much more profound matter in his life.
Every day, he says the fear in people is easily detected.
‘There is definitely fear among people – and I think it’s justified. If you look at all the statistics and the science that is coming out, it’s justified.
‘So of course it’s there. Everyone has parents, everyone knows elderly people, and they are the ones being most affected.
‘It would be idiotic not to have fear.
‘I’m young and I would consider myself relatively healthy, but going out to work I would be worried. “Am I going to pick something up and bring it back to my family?”
‘That is there, but then there is also a sense of community and looking out for one another.
‘You see wonderful news stories showing that every day, and that is one big positive coming out of it all.’
The temperament required of a doctor working in an emergency department as a pandemic kills hundreds in the country every day, has stood to Paul Pollock as he deals with athletic concerns, too.
Races have been cancelled for the foreseeable future, training camps are an impossibility, and ambitions to consolidate his place on the Irish team for Tokyo with an autumn marathon may not be realised if restrictions remain in place.
‘I’m lucky working in A&E, because you learn to adapt your plans very quickly,’ he reasons.
‘Nothing is set in stone. So when this started happening and postponements started, you do wonder what’s going to happen, not just with the Olympics but the world halfmarathon and the world cross-country championships (due to be held in Dublin in December).
‘They may all be in doubt but I just want to keep training so that whenever races do start again I’ll be ready to go for them.
‘It looks like marathons are lined up for September and October now, and you’d be foolish not to train for them and not be ready to prepare for those races.
‘Olympic qualification is out the window until after December 1 (World Athletics decreed that races after that date will count towards qualification for the re-fixed Olympics), but I want to target an autumn marathon.
‘If they go ahead, great, but if not I’ll still be a lot fitter than I am now, which is always the goal for a runner.’
Even if he didn’t race again between now and July next year, when the rescheduled Olympics are due to begin, Pollock’s place should be secure.
He ran a brilliant race in Valencia last December, finishing the city’s marathon in a time of 2 hours, 10 minutes and 25 seconds. It was, to that point, the second-fastest marathon ever ran by an Irish person, second only to John Treacy’s longstanding record of 2.09.15.
Pollock’s friend and training mate Kevin Seaward then ran the Seville marathon in 2.10.10 in February, beating his friend’s record and also taking the third available men’s marathon slot, with Stephen Scullion making up the team.
However, if another runner was to get inside the Olympic qualifying standard between now and July 2021, it would leave Athletics Ireland with a very tricky decision.
The designated qualifying time is 2.11.30, a daunting target for any aspirant. The postponement of the Games does crack open the window of possibility wider, though, and Pollock was part of the decision that had to be made before Rio.
He was one of four Irish men who hit the standard, and only three could be chosen for the team.
‘Myself, Kevin and Stephen have shown what’s possible,’ says Pollock. ‘I wouldn’t say the three of us are certainties by any means and none of us would think that.
‘A lot can happen, especially now the window is a lot larger. But I want to run a faster marathon, regardless of the Olympics. I want to target another fast one and hopefully that will be enough.’
Pollock is a high-quality distance runner. His strong showing in Rio backed up a tremendous performance he put in at the world championships in Moscow in 2013, when he was the second European across the line, and 21st overall.
Injury has been his biggest difficulty.
‘I’ve never really had an extended period of running pain-free,’ he says.
‘From last January, I started working with a new strength and conditioning coach. It’s worked wonders, and all of last year I was feeling very good and in the shape of my life. Then I did pick up an injury at the end of August; I got a stress fracture in my foot again.
‘That knocked me back, and in my mind the autumn marathon was over. But I kept up cross training,
‘EVERYONE HAS PARENTS, IT WOULD BE IDIOTIC NOT TO HAVE FEAR’
I cycled a lot every day. Thankfully I didn’t lose that much fitness, and after four weeks out of running I started a slow build-up and going into Valencia I wasn’t really expecting to run fast.
‘It was one of those days where everything came together and I felt amazing crossing the finishing line. I did wonder, “What just happened there?”
‘I fell in with a nice group, I felt good and the kilometres went by quickly. Since then, I bounced from that into the next phase of training and I do feel in fantastic shape.
‘But with all of this going on, I’m just trying to keep ticking over so
I’m ready when things start again.’ And as well as Tokyo, his other ambition is chasing down Treacy’s record, set in Boston in 1988.
Seaward’s brilliant race in Seville sharpened Pollock’s ambition: he wants to overtake his friend, and then run down Treacy’s daunting time.
‘It does give me that added incentive that in my next marathon I want to run faster. Kevin does too, and we both have our eyes set on John Treacy’s record.
‘That’s the goal.’