Nearly 40 minutes on the clock in Riga, Samantha Harrison hits the front once more. On her right, the familiar beat of a rival turned friend, both in pursuit of World Championship glory.
Calli Thackery and Harrison head an eight strong pack. Four Kenyans, two Ethiopians, two Brits have separated themselves from the best of the rest the world have to offer. It could be just another training run in Sherwood Forest with a few special guests.
Harrison and her training partner would go on to finish ninth and seventh respectively, anchoring their Great Britain quartet to team bronze.
Yet a few weeks on, sitting outside her hotel ahead of a Valencia Half Marathon where she would move second on the British all-time list, Harrison still sees that day in the Latvian capital with a pang of regret.
Facing stomach issues from mile eight the 28-year-old kept it together enough to secure a top-10 placing, but her body allowed her no response to the increasing pace over the final kilometres.
“If you don’t put yourself up there, you just don’t know. People have bad days, nobody is superhuman so I think give yourself every opportunity.
Put yourself out there. It might not work and you might really suffer, it might really not go to plan but you never know unless you try.
I just don’t want to look back at my career and in years to come say I could have really put myself in that situation but you know I was too scared or too anxious. I just don’t want to look back and regret it really.”
Borrowed time
It’s the sort of words you’d expect of someone who thinks their time in the sport is borrowed. That the days are counting down till they take to the roads no longer. But they come from the mouth of an athlete barely half a decade into their sporting journey.
Five years, one day separate Harrison’ first race and towing the line at the World Road Running Championships in Riga.
In 2018 the then 23-year-old set herself the challenge of the 13.1 miles of the Robin Hood Half, finishing in 84:10 for fourth woman.
The first goal simply completion, Harrison was quick to set herself the next task. Join a club, one she fulfilled by joining Charnwood AC. Then maybe win a race, this one took some convincing.
Reason to believe
“It wasn’t until I met Vince (Wilson), my coach, and he was like you’ve got something here. You’re super talented. And I was like I’ve got no running genes and no genetics. I’ve literally never surrounded myself with any runners. My friends aren’t runners, my family aren’t runners.
He was just like, no. He completely just showed me my potential. And I just kind of went with the flow. I didn’t have a clue where I was gonna go, what I was gonna do. I just sort of put my trust into him, knew I had the mindset. So it was just trusting his training and I was completely committed.”
Harrison’s progression within a year was nothing short of phenomenal. Her first 10k in 2019 in 36:47, by the end of the year she had lowered that to 32:31, winning Telford 10K in the process. And within less than two years she had earned GB selection for the 2020 World Half Marathon Champs, her best lowered to 71:01.
“I’m one of those people where, once I have a hobby or I’m committed to something, that’s it. Everything around just becomes irrelevant and I’m just focused on one thing. It came before most things.”
Life stresses
At the time Harrison was working as a dental nurse five days a week, whilst also moving towards running 100 miles a week.
“I think your body, I mean I might be completely wrong. This could be an individual thing, but my body adapted to being up at five am training, going to work long-hour days, being on my feet then going to train again in the evening, not getting home till nine or ten at night.
I think your body just gets used to all that volume, although it wasn’t volume in running, it was volume in a day. So essentially, you know, it’s like a 12, 13, 14 hour day of working hard and running.”
That approach has been aided in recent years by Harrison’s professional contract with Adidas allowing her to step away from full-time work. And she is keen to stress she has been cautious with just how she has increased the volume. She emphasises the importance on keeping healthy.
It would still be fair to say, however, her journey defies convention. The ability to absorb such hard training so quickly. Those long days and lack of sleep. The prodigious results so early into a career.
But convention has also seen British athletes far from heights of the best in East Africa. Convention would see an athlete delighted to finish top-10 in a global championships.
Harrison keep her cards close to her chest
Those gaps do appear to be closing. Five of history’s top eight British females over the marathon currently compete. Though 2:26:50 is the Olympic standard, already three athletes have bettered 2:24 this autumn alone.
One of those is training partner Thackery, now the second fastest British woman ever thanks to the 2:22:11 she ran in winning the McKirdy Micro Marathon in New York state.
Harrison knows the bar has risen that little bit higher.
“The last few weeks, that’s really sort of pushed and motivated me to go even quicker than anybody else because that’s how competitive it’s getting. If you want a spot, you’ve got to push that little bit more than what everybody else is. It’s getting very competitive, but that’s the sport and that’s how it goes. I guess it just motivates you to try and run even quicker.”
Harrison currently sits eighth on the all-time list at 2:25:59, ran in winning the British title at this years’ London Marathon. She will reveal her hand at the Seville marathon in February.
The prize? Not just a step closer to a place in Paris but for Harrison the far more appealing prospect of genuinely competing on the global level.
“The times that British distance runners are running at the moment, they should absolutely put themselves up there and have that confidence. We’ve seen it in championships now, whether it’s on the track or in the marathon or the half marathons. We can be competitive. It’s just putting yourself out there and believing in yourself and just going with it. It can absolutely happen.”
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Featured image by Mark Hookway
