Out in front Meadows on her glorious year setting the pace
Jenny Meadows has gone from World 800m medallist to a fresh career as a pacemaker
They stand on the same start line, but they have no rivals. No winning or losing; no euphoric highs or crushing lows. To most viewers, they scarcely exist beyond a commentator noting the moment their involvement ends and the race begins in earnest.
Throughout her career, Jenny Meadows, like most elite athletes, saw pacemakers as little more than a target to be followed. A human tool employed to help achieve her goal. Then, a few months before her competitive retirement at the end of the 2016 season, she did something that few global medallists have ever done – she stepped into their shoes. The champion became the rabbit.
Meadows, 36, chuckles as she ponders her year as the world’s leading middle-distance pacemaker. “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you’re going to have more time on your hands when you’re retired,” she jokes.
From Diamond League meetings in London to Shanghai, Birmingham to Lausanne, and Doha to Brussels, there was the same slight figure leading the way at the head of the women’s middle-distance field. Whether 800metres, 1500m or one mile, Meadows was the go-to woman, selected to pace the world’s best.
Just a few years earlier she had been a firm fixture in that category. A world and European 800m medallist, she could and should have been one of Britain’s most successful athletes of the modern era, only for drug cheats to rob her of glory.
As injuries and the natural effects of ageing took their toll, she slipped down the pecking order, lost her central funding and called it a day after failing to make it to the 2016 Olympics.
Perversely, after years of losing money in the pursuit of victory, it was the decision to end her professional athletics career and instead pace her former rivals that put her back in the black.
“For the years that I was doing very well, was on Lottery funding and picking up medals, it proved a very affluent job to do, which was great,” she says. “But you might have decades of work just for those three years of making money. After I got injured in 2012, the sport was costing me money to do it rather than it actually paying me. I wasn’t breaking even from the sport.
“So, it was a little bit unbelievable – and actually I couldn’t quite get my head around it – that I could run two-thirds of a race and finish the season with more money than I had when I was running full races.”
Away from the glamour of Usain Bolt and Mobots, the sums involved in professional athletics are notable primarily for their capacity to underwhelm.
Aside from international medallists, few athletes receive appearance fees to compete at Diamond League events, which Meadows struggled to do during the final year or two of her professional career.
Yet despite her pleasant surprise at the sums available to elite pacemakers at the biggest global meets – fees in the region of a few thousand pounds are common at the highest level – there was another issue for Meadows to overcome in her post-career career. For someone who had given their entire life in the quest for improvement, stepping off the track 550 metres into an 800m race resulted in an unavoidable sense of lack of achievement.
“There was nothing,” she says. “As a professional athlete, you have the whole
‘I couldn’t get my head around that I run two-thirds of a race and yet finish with more money’
build-up to an event and the nerves that go with it.
“If the race goes well, you wonder how that will affect your next race. If it goes badly, you have to change things. Everyone who walks away from a race can do so with something, whether it’s positive or negative, and I just had nothing. It was so strange.
“So many times I’ve been stood on the line this season and thought, ‘Why am I in this situation?’”
Instead, she was left to share in the joy of others, content in the knowledge that by hitting her time targets and – crucially – providing an even pace, she had done her bit.
“One of the best races I did this year personally was in Hengelo [IAAF World Challenge Meeting] where Sifan Hassan ran the 1500m world lead that stayed until the end of the season,” she says.
“There were three British girls in the race and they all achieved World Championship qualifying times – they were ecstatic.
“When people thank you, you do get a buzz from it. It’s nice to be a part of someone’s celebration.
“But then they carry on their journey the day after. I guess I’m not on any personal journey.”
That is only partly true. For Meadows, the end of the 2017 athletics season looks almost certain to have brought down the curtain on her running career for good. Although yet to make a firm decision on whether to continue as a pacemaker next season, she admits the training commitment required to maintain such a level means it is unlikely, with public speaking, coaching workshops and studying for a masters to do.
“Last year when I decided to pacemake I thought it would be the easiest thing in the world,” she says. “What a great way to transition from 28 years in the sport to finding my feet after athletics. It was a great learning experience, but I couldn’t believe how much I needed to train to be at that level. It was fun. But it’s actually damn hard.”