Emile Cairess: The heir to Mo Farah with a throwback approach to his sport

When Emile Cairess raced at the 2023 London Marathon, where he crossed the line sixth as the first British finisher, he looked like any other elite runner - lithe and powerful, dressed in the usual singlet and race shorts.

However, if you glanced down at his right wrist you may have noticed something hardly ever seen on the bodies of modern elite athletes: an orange Casio stopwatch.

Nowadays, most runners on the starting line of a marathon - from amateurs to professionals - are guided by data. The watches they wear measure everything from race pace to VO2 max and heart rate zones, giving them real-time access to intricate information about every step of their running effort.

But Cairess is a throwback to simpler times, leaving aside the complexities of modern science and running by ‘feel’.

So far, his approach to running has worked brilliantly.

“I think just wearing a stopwatch takes some of the pressure off,” Cairess told the Runners World Podcast in a recent interview. “A lot of people get too tied up in the exact pace of an easy run, a steady run – when all that really matters is that it’s easy or steady.

“I have my routes and I know how far they are, so I do know my pace in the end, but while I’m running I’ve not really got any idea of the pace. I think it’s good for you mentally to be a bit disengaged sometimes, rather than feeling stressed about things that don’t need to be stressed about.”

Even before his marathon debut in London where he finished three places ahead of British legend Mo Farah, Cairess had proven his immense potential by equalling the hero of London 2012 and Rio 2016’s British 10k road record and beating the British and European record for the 10-mile.

Last year, he also produced a momentous run to take silver in the European Cross Country Championships, finishing only behind Norway’s Tokyo 2020 1500m gold medallist and Olympic record holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

His progress - and simple methods of achieving it - is a breath of fresh air in a sport that seems to be more and more governed by science while almost forgetting about the basic joys of running.

Emile Cairess and the return to a simple approach to athletics

It’s not just data that Cairess takes a less analytical approach to.

His ideas around fuelling would shock many runners who count calories, measure protein intake and exist on a carefully planned diet of carbs.

Cairess, in contrast, takes an approach that is more similar to the legendary British runner Ron Hill, who famously ate fish and chips every Thursday and drank nothing more than water during his marathon runs.

“It’s more that I need to eat as much as possible,” Cairess said when asked about his diet. “Because I’m doing so much training, I need to eat a lot to fuel it. It’s simple: if you don’t eat enough, you’re not going to have enough energy to train properly. I think people get caught up in weight and body fat, etc.

“When you’re training properly, I think you just need to eat as much as you can… Some people will think they’re doing the right thing by having salad for tea, when actually a plate of fish and chips would be better for them if they’ve run 20 miles that day. Although obviously, it’s even better if they have rice and chicken and broccoli.”

The slow rise of Emile Cairess, Great Britain’s next great distance runner

Cairess hasn’t always looked to be destined for the top in athletics.

In his first ESAA Cross-Country race he finished 74th. He even ran the mini London Marathon on five occasions and “ended up walking it twice and it was only three miles too!”

And while he has had the guidance of some of the world’s best coaches in recent times, including Farah’s former mentor Alan Storey, Cairess has also spent periods of time coaching himself.

His novel approach to his sport also extends to the goals he sets for himself. “I have a view of the long term and improving steadily,” he told Athletics Weekly after equalling Farah’s 10k record.

All of this doesn’t mean the Yorkshire-raised runner lacks confidence. Far from it.

Before the London Marathon, he spoke about beating Farah, unfazed by the reputation the four-time Olympic gold medallist came into the race with.

“I don't know what shape he is in, but I am a racer and I am trying to beat as many guys as I can,” he said. “If Mo is one of them, then it just so happens to be.'”

Travelling to Kenya to learn from the greats

In many ways, Cairess and Kenya seem like a perfect fit.

While many would struggle with the culture shock of the simple lifestyle that so many elite Kenyan runners adopt, Cairess seems like he would thrive on the change.

And his recent training camps there certainly seem to prove the point.

“It’s really inspiring and humbling when you see how they achieve such success through a minimalistic lifestyle,” he told Runners World about his time in East African country. “In Britain, so many people get caught up in the minutiae of training and all the technology and specific food... they overcomplicate things. In Kenya, life is really simple. Many Brits could learn a lot from Kenyan people’s attitude: just enjoy running and work really hard; do the basics such as sleeping and recovering well and that will lead to good performances.”

It seems like a mantra for Cairess himself, the next great British distance runner with an old running soul.