by Jo Pavey
During this busy time, I had to keep training too. I’d been selected to represent Europe in the Continental Cup in Morocco. When I arrived in Marrakech, I was surprised to learn that I’d been given the privilege of captaining the women’s team. This was a wonderful honour, but it was such short notice, and I was expected to give a speech at the team meeting the following morning. It was hard to know what to say to athletes who were so experienced; it’s much easier to address athletes who are just starting out. My main concern was to try to be encouraging but not patronising, especially as a lot of them had so many more medals than me! It went fine – and I took consolation in the fact that many of them didn’t understand English, so didn’t know what I was saying anyway. I finished third in the race, which I felt was a solid result, considering the busy time I’d had.
Later in the year I was honoured to receive awards that never in my wildest dreams had I ever thought I’d be considered for, including the British Sportswoman of the Year at the Sports Journalism Awards. The year ended on a truly surreal note: to finish third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year felt like a dream! It was overwhelming, and I will always be so grateful to all the people who voted for me. When I later saw the photos of me standing on the stage next to Lewis Hamilton and Rory McIlroy, it looked as though I must have been photo-shopped on to the image!
I might have occasionally let myself dream about winning races, and even medals, but I’d never, ever envisioned the fanfare that came with that gold medal.
CHAPTER 26
At the Age of Forty
Since the 2014 season, I have often been asked why I’m still running at a high level over the age of forty with two kids in tow. At the time of writing I am forty-two and still training hard, still with goals to aim for. Technically, I’ve been eligible for the past eight years to compete in the World Masters Athletics series! When I chat to people, they’ve often said that it was actually winning gold at such a late age that made my story interesting. After the European Championships, I might as well have been renamed ‘Jo Pavey-Forty’. It was as though I suddenly had a double-barrelled surname because my name was scarcely mentioned in any media coverage without my age. I enjoyed all the banter about my age, even when my GB teammates called me Granny.
So what do I put my longevity in the sport down to? It’s hard to name just one factor. Obviously there is an element of luck in your genetics, plus I’ve always made sure I eat well. I’ve learnt when it’s important to push myself and when my body needs a rest too. More important, I think, is having the attitude to not see age as a barrier. I try to continue as I always have, attempting to hit my times in training and focusing on goals to keep me going. I also have years of experience, as a result of which I’ve grown to know instinctively how to get my training mix right. But when I cast my mind back over my career, I realise that in many respects, my continuation in the sport comes down to not wanting to let go of my childhood joy of running. That passion and love for running I first discovered all those years ago is still there. Becoming a mum helped me rediscover the simple joy of running. The happiness it gave me, and the better balance in my life, has psychologically benefited my running immensely.
Since becoming a mother, my whole approach is about juggling priorities – with my kids always coming first. As soon as I was pregnant with Jacob, I decided against ever going abroad for winter training camps. I want to be a full-time, hands-on mum and there’s no time now to obsess about training or to worry about trying to follow the ‘perfect athlete’ routine. I’ve found I therefore make more sensible decisions about what levels of training I can handle and how many sessions I can fit in. I do what I can, when I can, and I don’t stress about straying from some idealised plan.
If it looks happy-go-lucky on the surface, I can assure you we have a well-thought-out, structured coaching plan with targets to hit, but it has built-in flexibility because my body doesn’t always allow it. On a day-to-day basis, I make decisions. Can I put one foot in front of the other? And at what pace? If I go to the track, I’ll ask myself whether I can run on the inside lane. No? I’ll do what’s realistically possible. People have the illusion that you have to be pain-free in order to compete. I know differently. For me, it’s not so much about being injured or not on any one day, it’s about making the right decisions to get some work done.
I enjoy my training and racing so much more now because I am happy. I feel life has come full circle on both a personal and a career level. I have rediscovered the simple joy of running I had as a young girl. In 2014, I was more in tune with that schoolgirl runner than at any point since I entered the elite athletics scene. I went back to the basics of pure running. There are so many ideas and gadgets out there, and some of them are great, but it’s so easy to get bogged down with it all. I admit that I’ve been resistant to some suggestions over the years, and I’ve had a lot of laughter and teasing over my stubbornness – which I do express politely! When I go out of the door now, I have a sense of being reconnected to my true self, believing in simple, straightforward, sensible hard work, backed up with good nutrition and strategies for injury prevention. After having kids, it worked for me to go back to basics.
I feel fulfilled. I love being a mum who happens to run, and I love being a mum who is a professional athlete but can still come second in the primary school sports day mums’ race. (Yes, a shocking halt to the winning streak I’d started at Jacob’s pre-school sports day – but this was running with a tennis ball under the chin!) It’s all good fun. My family unit is my training unit. I have a better balance in my approach to life. The perspective that parenthood gives me means I don’t stress about the small stuff. We simplified our approach, moving back to rural Devon, stepping away from the world of high-performance centres. It was just Gav and me working together. I was back running round the same country lanes that had helped me win those junior titles, passing the same landmarks, knowing the times I should be hitting at certain points along my routes. I rediscovered that free-spirited feeling I had at the age of fourteen when everything seemed less complicated. I make sure I do my training every day, including the weekends, but what time I do it can be quite random and will depend on the children’s needs.
I also owe a lot to circumstances. Had London not won the bid to host the 2012 Games, I may well have retired after Jacob’s birth. I had considered winding down my track career and turning my attention to road races, but the opportunity to compete in a home Olympics was too tantalising. It was a huge deal and I wanted to be part of that. So I didn’t hang up my spikes. I wanted to see if I could qualify for my fourth Olympics. Maybe it would be the swansong for my track career. And then, in finishing seventh twice behind the East Africans, I was on paper the best in Europe so – in hindsight, never along the way – my gold medal in 2014 seems a logical conclusion to a cycle that started with the goal of getting to London 2012.
Having said that, before those Olympics, Jacob was not yet at school. He was transportable and free to come wherever we went training. When Emily came along, we were managing Jacob at pre-school and Emily as a baby alongside my training with the added challenge of Emily refusing to take a bottle. With Jacob, Gav could take his share of night feeds, but I was up all night, every night, feeding Emily. She was never far from me on my runs and track sessions so I could break off and feed her. And then with the track in Exeter closed for resurfacing work, coming back from having a second baby was tough and I never would have thought that medals were a possibility. In one interview I was asked about possible scientifically proven benefits of competing after childbirth. I’m no scientist but the suggestion amuses me when I think of my own personal experience. Any supposed benefits cannot possibly compensate for the weeks and months you exist on a cycle of sleep deprivation – never mind the demands on your body of breastfeeding and the fact that, when you return to running (possibly after a C-section, which is classed as ‘major surgery’), your starting point is a completely unconditioned body.
My approach would not work were it not our approach as coach and athlete, husband and wife. I find it so much more rewarding working towards goals together. And I’m very lucky that Gav has been so supportive over the years. Our circumstances give me more hours in the day to potentially ‘work’ in. I often do my second run of the day when the kids are in bed, and Gav always does my physio last thing at night. I don’t go to the gym; instead I do exercises in the lounge often while multi-tasking or with children sitting on me. We never need to schedule a meeting or wait to have a conversation – we chat in the car, over the kitchen table or cleaning out the guinea pig hutch. We’ve known each other so long, and having met through athletics, the checklist of ideal work is almost intuitive between us. Gav would say that he’s always had to hold me back, stop me from overdoing my training, so our family dynamic helps him in that cause! We still have plans but don’t stick to them rigidly and we react to what is happening on a particular day. We know when I need to do 1,000m reps at a certain time or do 400m speed work off short recoveries. We’ve gained an understanding of what to do to get me in the best form we can for whatever goal we’ve set. I might need to do explosive speed work on a particular day, but I might also know that my body won’t hold up and it’s easier to be honest if your husband’s your coach. Equally, the plan might be to do ten reps and Gav will tell me eight is enough.
Between us, we have our coping strategies. The main one is to remember our priorities – and that means not worrying about the housework or domestic chaos. Gav’s mum kindly helps out regularly to clean the pans piled high in the utility room that are caked with food Gav has forgotten he’s left on the cooker. The amount of times I’ve come back in from a run to find Gav on his knees, searching the recesses of the freezer for something to replace the fish fingers he’s burnt . . .
One day we might have a house as immaculate as a show-home, but for now the kitchen cabinets remain unpainted and we have a messy house. We have mastered the quick tidy-up in the event of someone springing a visit on us – everything gets chucked into the understairs cupboard or thrown out of sight upstairs and Gav jokingly threatens to rugby-tackle to the ground any visitor who tries to go up the stairs. I take particular pride in the spare bed, which is piled with clean laundry that still needs ironing or putting away. Some days it’s so tall it’s ridiculous, but I take a sense of achievement from its height. It means I’ve been very busy having fun with Jacob and Emily, and training . . .
1. Me with my mum . . .
2. . . . and dad in 1975.
3. An early primary school photo.
4. With my brothers Matt and Jon.
5. Some of my earliest races, running for Devon in 1988 . . .
5a. . . . At the time I couldn’t imagine running in top level senior competitions.
6. With Gav and Tony White, my coach at Exeter Harriers who did so much to encourage me as a youngster.
7. On our trip around France in our Ford Fiesta in 1993 - it was mad but a lot of fun.
8. Our wedding day in 1995.
9. Enjoying some fun times in Bristol with my physio friends Dana, Ross, Kol and Mel.
10. Enjoying the views in Queenstown, New Zealand on our backpacking trip.
10a. After a tough training session in New Zealand, a very refreshing dip in one of the beautiful lakes.
11. Surveying the damage in Fiji after Cyclone Gavin. The locals joked about this English chap who’d brought his own cyclone, but the devastation was terrible.
12. Running in the 1,500m national trials in 1997 in Birmingham. I was so thrilled to qualify for my first international champs and see that my dream wasn’t that crazy after all.
13. Getting ready to line up at my international debut in the World Championships in Athens in 1997.
14. Enjoying the atmosphere with fellow GB athletes Rob Hough, Andy Hart, Paula Radcliffe and Diane Allagreen.
15. Very excited to be off to my first Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000!
16. I was thrilled and amazed to finish my first Olympic race in a personal best and qualify for the 5,000m final.
17. I could hardly believe that just a few years earlier I was peering through the fence as they built the Olympic Stadium, daring to dream I could one day race there.
18. Pushing hard in the 5,000m in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens - probably the only time I’ll start a race on one day and finish it on another!
19. On my way to silver in the 5,000m - my first outdoor major track championship medal - in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
20. Showing our medals; being on the podium is such a special moment.
21. The iconic view of Tower Bridge during the London marathon when I ran it in 2011. The atmosphere of big races like this is so amazing and I love seeing all the kids with their homemade banners supporting their parents.
22. I was really happy to do more road racing that year, such as the Bupa London 10,000.
23. I was asked to recreate the famous photo of Sebastian Coe running in Richmond Park, where I did lots of my training while we lived in Teddington.
24. Running in a home Olympics was very special. Here I am in the 5,000m, being roared on by the brilliant crowd.
25. The distance runners and the throwers, we joked that we looked like astronauts dressed in white and metallics!
26. Getting to spend some precious time with Jacob in the family lodge laid on for Team GB.
27. Jacob when he was just a few days old.
28. Taking Jacob for a little run in Bushy Park.
29. We were delighted to complete our family with the arrival of Emily, and we introduced her to the track early on . . .
30. I managed to sneak away from the athletes village during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow . . .
31. . . . to enjoy some family time on the beach in Ayr.
32. I pushed as hard as I could . . .
32a. . . . and was absoutely delighted to win a bronze medal in the 5,000m in Glasgow.
33. A very special welcome home at the airport and my bronze medal wasn’t my only precious cargo. To my fellow athletes’ surprise I had a baby with me too!
34. Arriving home to find the house decorated with England flags.
35. I was now ‘Jo Pavey-Forty’ in the media, here I’m doing an interview with the BBC, Devon-style.
36. Even as I crossed the line, I couldn’t believe I’d managed it - my first gold medal! And just days after my bronze in Glasgow, what a fortnight . . .
37. It was so special to win a gold medal in front of my children, I couldn’t wait to find Gav, the kids and my parents after the race.
38. Standing on the podium, hearing the national anthem being played for me was such a special experience.
39. Training is a bit different these days . . .
39a. It’s a family affair, running with Emily in the buggy and Jacob on his bike.
40. We try to make training fun for the kids too, Jacob has his own mini track on the beach.
41. Watch out Greg Rutherford - Jacob Pavey is hot on your heels!
42. Enjoying some family time after a run in Haldon Forest.
43. It’s amazing to think that all those years ago I ran on this track as a junior and now I have my children playing alongside it as I train.
44. My priorities are different now, I love running and having the opportunity to compete, but family time in beautiful Devon will always come first.
Acknowledgements
Thank you so much:
Gav, Jacob and Emily; Mum and Dad; David and Sheila Pavey; Grandad and Grandma (Alec and Stella Keightley); Grandad and Grandma (Den and Iris Davis and Auntie Babs); Gav’s Grandad, John Pavey; Matt, Lorna, Olivia and Tessa; Jon, Deb, Alisha, Carisse and Jasmine; Julie, Paul, Amy, Liam and Phoebe; Alison, David, Jack and George; Alex, Janice, Sophie, Sam and Annaliese; Howard, Carol, Carolyn, Emma, Sally, Claire, Wendy, Becci, Emma, Mike, Lucy, Laura and Lesley.
John and Hazel Kimbrey; Sue and John Bloomer; Becca, Ste
ve, Imogen, Luke and Samuel; Andy, Analie, Charlie and Lachie; Hil, Ramsay, Cher, Paul, Ciara, Lottie and James; Kathy, Andrew and Libby; Jo, Paul, Elodie and Olivia; Kirsty, Andy, Lily, Max and Iris; Denise, Niz, Zane and Ryah; Helen, Anthony, George and Samuel; Alison, Damian, Arthur, Susannah and Miriam; Julia Todd; Chi Man Woo; Ruth and Barry Godbeer; Paul Gregory; Tony White and Les Curtis; Mike Down and Chris Boxer; Mrs Sexty, Mike Gill, Eileen Mander, Penny and Dave Gibbs, Caroline and Jim Cousins; George Eccles; Tony Proverbs (Heart of Gold winner); my friends from the village of West Hill in Devon; my team mates from the past four decades; Alan Storey; Trevor Hunt; Sarah Edworthy, Frances Jessop, Matt Phillips, Ceri Maxwell Hughes, Phil Brown and Tim Bates.
