Marathon Maverick - Jake Smith

Conversations About Running

In episode 30 of Conversations About Running Gavin & Callum talk to professional athlete for Nike and NN Running Team, Jake Smith. Jake is the 3rd fastest British Half Marathon runner of all time with a PB of 60:31 set when finishing 18th in the world championships in 2020. He has been running at an elite level for a number of years now, but shot to mainstream recognition when he won the Cheshire Elite Marathon in 2021 in 2:11:00, despite entering the race as a pacemaker with no intention of finishing. That day Jake earned the moniker 'Marathon Maverik' and today we discuss with Jake the pros and cons of his maverik approach to distance running. Amongst other topics, we discus the newly announced Olympic Qualifying standards, Jake's recent injury and his current comeback, his new coaching set up with Gavin and Jo Pavey and his time spent in Uganda training with world record holder Joshua Cheptegei. Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy this episode of Conversations about Running with Jake Smith.