head of PE, happened to be observing the class. When the last kid had completed the second lap, Graham called everyone together in a big group.
‘Right, you lot,’ he said to the other kids. ‘Get your diaries out. Not you, Mo.’
Everyone did as they were told. I stood there scratching the back of my head, no idea what was going on. Then Graham pointed to me and said to the others, ‘Mo is going to sign all your diaries. Keep them safe because they’ll be worth something in the future. Mo is going to be a star.’
Having to sign my classmates’ diaries was slightly weird. There are some people who’d let that kind of stuff go to their heads, but I didn’t think too much of it. That was one of the reasons I had so much love at Feltham. I didn’t go around acting like I was better than anyone else. That’s never been my style. Whatever I’ve done, I’ve always tried to follow the example of my family and be kind and humble. I mean, how hard is that?
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I trained. At the weekends I raced.
The way it works in athletics is this: first you win your school races; then you represent your school in the district competitions, racing against other schools from the same borough. When you win those, you get to race for your school in borough events. Win the boroughs and you get the chance to run in the county schools competitions. If you finish in the top eight in the county event, you’re selected to race in English Schools for your county, competing against all the other counties from across England.
When I was a kid, English Schools was like a mini-Olympics. You had all the best runners from across the country competing in the same race. The field of runners at English Schools was usually strong, and one or two were marked out as the Next Big Thing in British athletics. You’d hear people talking about the times some of these guys were posting at races around the country and you’d think, ‘That guy is looking good. I’m gonna have to watch out for him at the Schools.’
Having breezed through the school cross country trials, I was entered into the Hounslow Borough Championships, competing for Feltham. Sadly, my English still wasn’t up to scratch and I had great difficulty understanding the course route. Early on in the race I moved to the front of the lead group and took a wrong turn. By the time I looked over my shoulder and saw the rest of the pack heading in a completely different direction, I’d lost a lot of time on the leaders. I frantically spun around and gave chase to the other kids, clawing back on them metre by metre, fighting my way to the front of the group as we bulleted towards the finish line. A hundred metres to go, I’d managed to push my way to the front of the pack. All of a sudden, this huge kid sprinted away from me to leave me trailing in his wake in second place. I was pretty beat up about it at the time, although Alan told me I’d done brilliantly just to catch up with the others after going the wrong way. For me, I felt I should have done better.
I told myself, ‘No way am I gonna lose to that kid again.’
In the classroom I continued to struggle, but when it came to running, I was proving to be a quick learner. I’ve got what they call a good athletics brain. Simply by observing other people in training sessions at the club and trying out different things, I began to build up an idea of how to run a race, which tactics to use in which situations. I had this compulsive desire to improve – this determination to win. There are some extremely talented people who fall into a trap of believing that because they have talent, they don’t have to work hard. I was never fooled by that. I took the toughness and the work ethic that I’d learnt as a child in Gebilay and Djibouti and carried it with me into competitive running. The pain was no big deal. I could handle the pain. If it hurt, it didn’t really matter to me. I would keep on running, no matter
‘Right, you lot,’ he said to the other kids. ‘Get your diaries out. Not you, Mo.’
Everyone did as they were told. I stood there scratching the back of my head, no idea what was going on. Then Graham pointed to me and said to the others, ‘Mo is going to sign all your diaries. Keep them safe because they’ll be worth something in the future. Mo is going to be a star.’
Having to sign my classmates’ diaries was slightly weird. There are some people who’d let that kind of stuff go to their heads, but I didn’t think too much of it. That was one of the reasons I had so much love at Feltham. I didn’t go around acting like I was better than anyone else. That’s never been my style. Whatever I’ve done, I’ve always tried to follow the example of my family and be kind and humble. I mean, how hard is that?
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I trained. At the weekends I raced.
The way it works in athletics is this: first you win your school races; then you represent your school in the district competitions, racing against other schools from the same borough. When you win those, you get to race for your school in borough events. Win the boroughs and you get the chance to run in the county schools competitions. If you finish in the top eight in the county event, you’re selected to race in English Schools for your county, competing against all the other counties from across England.
When I was a kid, English Schools was like a mini-Olympics. You had all the best runners from across the country competing in the same race. The field of runners at English Schools was usually strong, and one or two were marked out as the Next Big Thing in British athletics. You’d hear people talking about the times some of these guys were posting at races around the country and you’d think, ‘That guy is looking good. I’m gonna have to watch out for him at the Schools.’
Having breezed through the school cross country trials, I was entered into the Hounslow Borough Championships, competing for Feltham. Sadly, my English still wasn’t up to scratch and I had great difficulty understanding the course route. Early on in the race I moved to the front of the lead group and took a wrong turn. By the time I looked over my shoulder and saw the rest of the pack heading in a completely different direction, I’d lost a lot of time on the leaders. I frantically spun around and gave chase to the other kids, clawing back on them metre by metre, fighting my way to the front of the group as we bulleted towards the finish line. A hundred metres to go, I’d managed to push my way to the front of the pack. All of a sudden, this huge kid sprinted away from me to leave me trailing in his wake in second place. I was pretty beat up about it at the time, although Alan told me I’d done brilliantly just to catch up with the others after going the wrong way. For me, I felt I should have done better.
I told myself, ‘No way am I gonna lose to that kid again.’
In the classroom I continued to struggle, but when it came to running, I was proving to be a quick learner. I’ve got what they call a good athletics brain. Simply by observing other people in training sessions at the club and trying out different things, I began to build up an idea of how to run a race, which tactics to use in which situations. I had this compulsive desire to improve – this determination to win. There are some extremely talented people who fall into a trap of believing that because they have talent, they don’t have to work hard. I was never fooled by that. I took the toughness and the work ethic that I’d learnt as a child in Gebilay and Djibouti and carried it with me into competitive running. The pain was no big deal. I could handle the pain. If it hurt, it didn’t really matter to me. I would keep on running, no matter
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