Relaxed Farah ready to mix it in marathon
LONDON: Whether months of 190kmaweek altitude training will be enough to transform Mo Farah into a worldclass marathon runner will be revealed on the streets of London on Monday but the switch already seems to have transformed his state of mind.
Farah has endured a prickly relationship with the media, suing one British journalist this year for repeating IAAF concerns over his blood passport values, but he seemed a changed man as he looked ahead to Monday’s London Marathon.
‘‘I’m more relaxed. The change from track has given me a massive boost and I’m enjoying it more than ever,’’ he told a news conference yesterday, two hours after arriving from Ethiopia.
‘‘On the track I’ve won most of the medals I could win, so each year to motivate yourself gets more difficult. You have to find a new challenge, something that gets you out of bed.’’
Having spent close to a decade lining up as the favourite to bag multiple world, Olympic and European titles over 5000m and 10,000m, Farah goes into Monday’s race not even ranked in the top 10.
His only previous marathon, in London in 2014, produced an eighthplaced finish in just over 2hr 8min, not even good enough to challenge Steve Jones’s 33yearold British record of 2hr 7min 13sec.
Twelve men in the field have run faster than Farah. Kenenisa Bekele and Eliud Kipchoge, the second and thirdfastest men in history, are among those a full 3min quicker and defending champion Daniel Wanjiru is one of four with a 2hr 4minsomething to their names.
Olympic champion
Kipchoge’s best of 2hr 3min 5sec equates to him finishing more than 1609m ahead of Farah and the Briton was somewhat contradictory when discussing his approach to the race.
On the one hand he said ‘‘there’s only one way to run and that’s mixing it with the guys’’ but he also described the race as part of a learning process in which the British record was his aim.
Farah’s longterm goal is the 2020 Olympics in marathonmad Japan and the 35yearold Briton knows he must improve dramatically to be in the medal mix.
‘‘Through my years on the track I was learning and improving step by step and it’s the same in the marathon,’’ he said.
‘‘That’s what it will take for me to medal in Tokyo. If I can do two marathons a year and learn from them, if everything goes well, if you’re strong and you learn, I think I’m of capable of 2hr 4min or 2hr 3min in the right race.’’
Since switching to the marathon last year, Farah is no longer coached by Alberto Salazar and his Nike Oregon project, which is still under investigation by United States antidoping authorities.
Farah has previously said the split had nothing to do with accusations Salazar bent and abused antidoping rules and was because he wanted to return to England where he is now coached by Gary Lough, the husband and former coach of women’s marathon world recordholder Paula Radcliffe.
Farah, who yesterday described Lough as a genius, is still working with strength coach Dave McHenry, who has never featured in the allegations being investigated by Usada but who has been involved with the Oregon Project for more than 10 years.
Farah said he had not spoken to Salazar and not seen McHenry since October.
‘‘Through British Athletics he [McHenry] sent me a lifting and strength guide and that’s all,’’ Farah said. — Reuters
❛ On the track I’ve won most of the medals I could win, so each year to motivate yourself
gets more difficult. You have to find a new challenge, something that gets you out of bed