Twin Ambitions - My Autobiography by Mo Farah

Author:Mo Farah [Farah, Mo]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2013-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

11

GOING IT ALONE

MENTALLY it was hard for me to focus after Beijing. I just wanted the season to be over. I was tired. My body needed to rest. Back in Teddington, Ricky explained to me that a rest would simply have to wait.

‘Your contract with adidas is up for renewal,’ he said. ‘And we have a problem. You haven’t run sub-13:15 all year.’

‘So?’

‘If you don’t run sub-13:15 at 5000 metres by the end of the season, the retainer on your new contract automatically goes down. You’ll be taking quite a hit.’

I should explain. A runner’s main income is through a shoe contract: that’s how you put food on the table and pay the bills. The way the contract works is that you get a retainer, a basic salary to retain your loyalty, but there are several bonuses built into it based on whether you win medals or perform well or race certain times. If, for example, you win bronze in a World Championship 5000 metres, that bonus kicks in for your next contract. Suddenly, you’re making more money. But if you fail to maintain those standards the following season, you don’t qualify for the bonuses and your next contract goes back down to the original retainer. In 2006 I’d run that 13:09 race at Heusden in the Netherlands, so the following year my contract went up. But in 2008 the fastest time I’d clocked at 5000 metres was 13:25.01 at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava in the Czech Republic. Nowhere near good enough, so we were talking about a big drop in income. Athletics isn’t Premier League football. Most athletes most of the time are on a pretty modest income. Coming so soon after Beijing, I wasn’t sure I had it in me to run a sub-13:15 race. Physically, I was wiped. Mentally, I needed a break. I was in nothing like the condition I wanted to be in. In Beijing I’d clocked 13:50.95 in the heats. Now I was being asked to shave more than 35 seconds off that time. I told Ricky that I didn’t know what to do.

‘Look, Mo,’ he said. ‘You may as well run one more race at 5000 metres. The Diamond League meet in Brussels is coming up. For the next two weeks just jog slowly, do some strides and get plenty of rest. Why don’t you go to Brussels, give it your best shot and see what happens? You’ve nothing to lose.’

If I raced and failed to make the time, then it didn’t make a difference to the contract situation. I’d still be dropping down to my original retainer. If I did clock a time under 13:15, then I’d keep the increased retainer for the following twelve months. Also, having to race so soon after Beijing meant that I didn’t have time to dwell on that defeat. Now I had to focus my mind on the event in Brussels. Two weeks after the Olympic Games, I took to the track again.

My last chance to run sub-13:15 in 2008.

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