TV.
When we weren’t training on the track, we went to Disney World and got to go on all the famous rides: Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion and the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade. I loved every minute of it. Towards the end of our stay at the camp Brian Hall, the team manager, gave a speech to all the athletes. He told us that we’d trained well and shown great potential – that we were the future of British elite running. I took what he said to heart. As we checked out of the hotel and left on the coach for the ride back to the airport and the long trip home, something clicked inside my head. Being good at distance running had given me the opportunity to train in the US. I’d had a preview of what it meant to be a top-class athlete. Doors opened for you. Things happened. If it wasn’t for running, I would never have made that trip. Suddenly it was obvious: I’d achieved all this without being truly dedicated to athletics. So imagine what I could do if I put everything into running – to being the best I could be.
On the flight home I asked myself a simple question: ‘What is it that I need to do in order to come back here again?’ The answer was staring me in the face: ‘I’ve got to train more. I must train harder, longer. I’ve got to put in more effort in sessions. That’s what I’ve got to do.’ When I returned to London, Alan asked how my trip had gone.
‘Good,’ I told him. ‘I want to be a professional athlete.’
Florida changed everything for me. On the back of that trip, my attitude completely altered. Now I approached training with the right mentality. I’d say to myself, ‘This is what I’m going to do this year. I want to win X, Y and Z races, and compete for Great Britain. What do I need to do in order to get there?’ I trained with more discipline, pushed myself to go that extra mile. Before Florida, I had this habit of missing runs that Conrad had included as part of my training programme. He’d say to me, ‘Make sure you go for a run this weekend, Mo.’ And I’d nod and be like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ Then I’d play football instead. All that changed after Florida. I never missed a run or a training session again. I still loved football, but at the same time I knew I had to devote myself to athletics if I was going to fulfil my potential.
Alan noticed a big difference in my attitude when I came back. I stopped having kick-abouts in the sports hall before training. Athletics became my whole life. Before Florida I was restless. Now I channelled all my energy into athletics. I wanted to make it as an athlete and nothing was going to stop me. I had Alan to thank for getting me on that plane, for opening up my horizons and showing me what was waiting out there if I was willing to reach out and seize it. As a thank you, I brought him back a gift – a mug with ‘WORLD’S BEST TEACHER’ written on the side.
One of the good things about athletics is that there’s no downtime, no off-season. There’s always a race coming up to focus on. For a restless guy like me, that’s perfect. I don’t think I’d handle a close-season, with loads of time off, very well. When the cross country season was over, it was straight on to the track for the athletics season. There were races sponsored by Reebok, English Schools races, trials for the European and World Junior Championship. In July 1999 I won the 1500 metres at the English Schools Track & Field Championships in Bury St Edmunds. I started travelling more. Up to that point, I’d competed mainly across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. After Florida and my victories in the English Schools races, I had more and more opportunities to compete abroad. Unfortunately, I needed a visa for every country I wanted to travel to. Alan stepped up again. Over several months he took me to all the major embassies in London: Poland, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland. We got to know West London pretty well.
But there were times when even
When we weren’t training on the track, we went to Disney World and got to go on all the famous rides: Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion and the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade. I loved every minute of it. Towards the end of our stay at the camp Brian Hall, the team manager, gave a speech to all the athletes. He told us that we’d trained well and shown great potential – that we were the future of British elite running. I took what he said to heart. As we checked out of the hotel and left on the coach for the ride back to the airport and the long trip home, something clicked inside my head. Being good at distance running had given me the opportunity to train in the US. I’d had a preview of what it meant to be a top-class athlete. Doors opened for you. Things happened. If it wasn’t for running, I would never have made that trip. Suddenly it was obvious: I’d achieved all this without being truly dedicated to athletics. So imagine what I could do if I put everything into running – to being the best I could be.
On the flight home I asked myself a simple question: ‘What is it that I need to do in order to come back here again?’ The answer was staring me in the face: ‘I’ve got to train more. I must train harder, longer. I’ve got to put in more effort in sessions. That’s what I’ve got to do.’ When I returned to London, Alan asked how my trip had gone.
‘Good,’ I told him. ‘I want to be a professional athlete.’
Florida changed everything for me. On the back of that trip, my attitude completely altered. Now I approached training with the right mentality. I’d say to myself, ‘This is what I’m going to do this year. I want to win X, Y and Z races, and compete for Great Britain. What do I need to do in order to get there?’ I trained with more discipline, pushed myself to go that extra mile. Before Florida, I had this habit of missing runs that Conrad had included as part of my training programme. He’d say to me, ‘Make sure you go for a run this weekend, Mo.’ And I’d nod and be like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ Then I’d play football instead. All that changed after Florida. I never missed a run or a training session again. I still loved football, but at the same time I knew I had to devote myself to athletics if I was going to fulfil my potential.
Alan noticed a big difference in my attitude when I came back. I stopped having kick-abouts in the sports hall before training. Athletics became my whole life. Before Florida I was restless. Now I channelled all my energy into athletics. I wanted to make it as an athlete and nothing was going to stop me. I had Alan to thank for getting me on that plane, for opening up my horizons and showing me what was waiting out there if I was willing to reach out and seize it. As a thank you, I brought him back a gift – a mug with ‘WORLD’S BEST TEACHER’ written on the side.
One of the good things about athletics is that there’s no downtime, no off-season. There’s always a race coming up to focus on. For a restless guy like me, that’s perfect. I don’t think I’d handle a close-season, with loads of time off, very well. When the cross country season was over, it was straight on to the track for the athletics season. There were races sponsored by Reebok, English Schools races, trials for the European and World Junior Championship. In July 1999 I won the 1500 metres at the English Schools Track & Field Championships in Bury St Edmunds. I started travelling more. Up to that point, I’d competed mainly across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. After Florida and my victories in the English Schools races, I had more and more opportunities to compete abroad. Unfortunately, I needed a visa for every country I wanted to travel to. Alan stepped up again. Over several months he took me to all the major embassies in London: Poland, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland. We got to know West London pretty well.
But there were times when even
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