Going for Gold

National Prison Radio: You were just eight years-old when you first arrived in the UK from Somalia and you didn’t speak any English. How did you cope with the culture shock?

Mo Farah: It was really difficult you know, being at school but not speaking a word of English – being taken into a classroom where everyone speaks another language. After a while I got used to it by watching TV, but I definitely did struggle through school. I was lucky to get into sport, which was what helped me… The only way I could make friends was by playing football and doing sports. It’s something you do as a group and you get to know people. Sport has helped me big time.

NPR: In 2001 you won a silver medal at the European Junior Cross Country Championships, but when did you first realise you had a talent for long-distance running?

MF: I’m a massive Arsenal fan and as a youngster in Somalia I used to run around and play football. But it wasn’t a football, we used to make one out of elastic bands. Because the roads were all concrete, normal footballs would just pop. It was when I came to Britain that I started running. My PE teacher throughout high-school spotted me and took me to a local club. I didn’t want to go at first, I wanted to play football. He took me aside and said that ‘Look, if I come to the gym, you can have half an hour kick-about in the sport hall and then I’ll take you to running club.’ That’s what did it for me… From there I joined the running club and I was good. Because we had potential
 hey took us to Disney World Florida – there was myself, John Lewis-Francis, Tim Benjamin, a lot of people who are in the Great Britain team right now – and I had so much fun that when I came back I wanted to be an athlete, rather than somebody pushing me. That’s what really did it for me. I started training, going more regularly to the club and in 2001 I
won my first gold medal… It was the support of my PE teacher more than anything else which helped me though – he’s the one who
took me to the local club and told me to believe in myself.

NPR: 2010 was a big year for you, making history by becoming the first British man ever to win gold in both the 10,000m and 5,000m
at the European Championships in Barcelona. Can you put into words the emotions you were feeling as you crossed the finish line?

MF: Yeah 2010 was my breakthrough year – winning two gold medals was amazing. But you know, what people forget about leading up to it is that I had to make a lot of sacrifices. I had to go to Kenya for training and spend 6 or 7 weeks away from my family and my daughter, be isolated there and run around 100 miles a week – just eat, sleep, train. Sometimes the media don’t quite see it, but it’s a lot of hard work… But if you want something you have to work so hard for it.

NPR: You’ve been picked out for some time as Britain’s best hope for a gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics. Do these things put you under pressure or do you block them out?

MF: You definitely have to block these things out. I enjoy athletics – I love waking up in the morning and going for a run. You’re definitely going to get a lot of pressure, but it’s what I enjoy every day so as long as you can put that behind you and just keep working hard and grafting and get as many medals as you can… 2012 is really big you know. It’s every athlete’s dream to go to the Olympics but we’ve got it on our doorstep, so I want to get close to a medal and keep working hard… The Olympics
is where it’s at.

NPR: What is a typical day of training like for you?

MF: A typical day is hard work. I wake up about 8 o’clock and have breakfast and do a session at around 10.00 or 10.30, because you
have to wait until the body gets warmed up a bit and the sun has come out to warm you up. A session will be on the running track, we’ll do an average of maybe 12k or 10k, which is about 25 laps around the track, but at different intervals – so we might do 3 laps on [fast], then jog a lap, 2 laps on etc. It’s always quite hard work. Then in the afternoon I’ll have a bit of sleep and run again in the evening knowing that you’re still tired… So a typical day for me is no less than ten miles average, but most days it’s about 16 or 17 miles.

NPR: You recently won the New York Half Marathon. Can we expect to see you moving on to marathons sometime in the future?

MF: Oh yeah, that’s definitely every athlete’s dream to go from the track to the road. I really enjoyed New York… I’d never done a half marathon before so my aim was to go because I like New York and wanted to see the race and see how it goes. I won the race and beat Gebre Gebremariam who is world cross-country champion, so it was a good performance and a great feeling. After 2012 I would definitely like to step up to marathons and half-marathons, but for now I’m concentrating on track.

NPR: To train and compete at your level, you have to be mentally tough, focused, determined. How do you motivate yourself and what advice would you give to people in prison who are going through tough times?

MF: You definitely have to motivate yourself. There have been times when I’ve been down, going through a bad patch and I’ve tried to be
mentally strong – you’ve got to be strong. What really motivates me as an athlete is that I know my opponents are training twice as hard as me so if I don’t get up in the morning and train and do what I have to do, I know I’m going to get beat. Losing is hard to take in, but you’ve got to be a sportsman and take it and ask yourself what you could’ve done. So to all the people who are having a tough time I’d say: think about more positive things than negatives; think of your loved ones who are waiting for you and looking forward to seeing you; if you feel stressed, maybe go for a run or go to the gym and try to be more positive… Keep your
head up, keep training… Life is not easy, but I see that I’ve been given an opportunity in life – I came from Somalia, had nothing and now I
have a good life, a wife and daughter. If you work hard at what you do, you’ll get there.

Tune into Porridge at 7.00 on Friday 27 July for an Olympics Opening Ceremony Special, including more exclusive interviews with Olympic hopefuls Mo Farah and British Taekwondo athlete Jade Jones.
Listen out for Olympic sports bulletins every day at 7.30 and 12.30 and for inspiring features throughout the games on Porridge (7.00) and Prime Time (17.00).