Elson shines in silver at the World Road Running Championships
Callum Elson earns silver at the World Road Running Championships over the mile distance at the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia.
The hotly anticipated event included the road world record holder for the mile, Sam Prakel whose best of 4:01.21 minutes saw a solid 5 seconds taken off his time. Hobbs Kessler, the 20-year-old American, was crowned king, Callum Elson took silver, followed by the previous world record holder Sam Prakel a fraction of a second behind him.
The men’s mile and 1500m track races across the world right now contain the most stacked fields. In Britain alone, 5 athletes already have the Olympic Qualification Standard of 3:33.50 in the 1500m. Callum is ranked 6th, only 1.09 seconds behind the qualification standard. With many athletes drawing their seasons to a close after the Budapest World Championships, the 24-year-old continued to compete, earning himself a spot on Team GB after winning the British Road Mile Championship.
Elson hasn’t risen to prominence out of nowhere though. After a stint of training and competing in the NCAA system in the US, he has competed on the Team GB squad for the mixed cross-country relays at both the European and World Cross-Country Championships in the past 12 months. On securing his first solo vest for Team GB, I managed to catch-up with Callum before he flew to Riga to run against the world’s finest.
Having fun matters
Whilst on his cooldown jog, I jumped on a bike and asked him about the pressure of representing Team GB in the Road Mile, he seemed relatively unphased by the task.
“My best races this year have been when I’ve actually stuck my neck out and tried to win … who the hell knows how it’s going to be run … the field is stacked so it should be pretty fun.”
It is this attitude that arguably allowed Callum to come away with silver. Yes, of course, he takes racing at an international level seriously, but it is the emphasis he has on fun that is what I found the most intriguing.
As a runner myself, I know it is easy to get caught up in running times to achieve a personal best, then being disappointed when we’ve had a bad race or haven’t achieved the times we wanted. It is for sure Callum’s attitude towards running that is most inspirational. Under such immense pressure to perform on the world stage he looks to have fun, I think all runners can learn from this, whether you’re a hobby jogger or a world-class athlete like Callum, racing to have fun evidently pays dividends in the end.
The work-life balance
Since the start of the year, Callum commented that he’s “trying to treat it [running] like my day-job basically.” I questioned how he manages to create a work-life balance which allows him to perform at the top of his game whilst also working a full-time job. He mentioned that he does generate a small income from running, he’s sponsored by SOAR Running which allows him to pay for his flights and attend races, but it doesn’t pay his bills.
Currently self-employed with most of his clients in the US, Elson added “I do the data analytics for ads so, what’s performing, what’s not, creative recommendations, things like that.” His daily routine goes like this: “I respond to my emails, then I come out training, as I’m training, they [his clients] are waking up and then responding so it works quite well.” His determination to be one of the best athletes in the country allows him to create an environment that works for him.
Callum is just a normal bloke that does extraordinary things, in an interview with Athletics Weekly he commented, “I just rock up on a Tuesday night with the (Cambridge & Coleridge) boys, with whatever kit I can scramble for free, smash out some reps, go home and have my tea.”
For the rest of the year, you can catch Callum representing his club Cambridge & Coleridge where he will be racing on the roads and in cross-country.
