When you’re a runner with a time to beat, every second counts – and this is especially the case when you’re an ambitious elite shooting for a place on an Olympic start line.
For Phil Sesemann, six seconds made all the difference at this year’s Seville Marathon in February. Clocking a PB of 2:08:04, the 31-year-old Brit scraped within the men’s Emile Cairess: Britain’s Olympic marathon star of 2:08:10 for the 2024 Paris Olympics, falling over the finish line in dramatic fashion. As it stands, only four British men in history have run faster than this over the marathon distance.
But, more importantly, this seismic result secured Sesemann a spot on Team GB’s men’s marathon team for the 2024 Free marathon plans whatever your time goal, alongside training partner Emile Cairess and Mahamed Mahamed. Each athlete an Olympic debutant, the trio triumphed on the unrelenting 26.2-mile course that Paris presented, with Cairess finishing fourth, Mahamed coming 57th and Who is 10,000m Olympian Megan Keith Tamirat Tola breaks the Olympic marathon record.
Securing the Olympic qualifying time in Seville was, to Sesemann, ‘everything that I’ve ever wanted in running’ – and something that he had worked toward relentlessly. But, on the day of the race itself, he made sure to detox his mind, keep his thoughts light and focus on the main objective at hand.
‘In Seville, when I was really chasing the Olympic qualifying time and really close to not getting it, I was just thinking, “I want that Olympic tattoo!” Because if you try and think about too much at once, it actually requires quite a lot of cognition,’ he recalls. ‘And you start thinking, “Why am I doing this? Who inspires me?” And it’s a little bit too much in those depths of the pain and discomfort. So I was just thinking, okay: tattoo.’
Now a certified Olympian, Sesemann admits that he may not get inked with the famous five rings after all. However, what is certain is that his performance in Paris still only sits near the start of his stellar running career.
So, how did Sesemann become so successful at his sport? And what can he learn and savour from his first ever-Olympic experience?
Club runner roots
As a child, Sesemann first made a splash as a swimmer with his brother, and even became quite competitive in the sport. He moved to running a little later, when he realised that he was even more talented at putting one foot in front of the other than he was at doing lengths.
‘From swimming, I was able to develop quite good aerobic capacity and decent stamina and endurance,’ he says. ‘So then I jumped into the primary school cross-country races, and they went better than the swimming bits. I thought, this is what I reckon I’ll go into – follow the junior ranks and build myself up through those.’
Having set his sights on running, Sesemann then joined Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC on the outskirts of London. He later moved to Yorkshire to study Medicine at the University of Leeds, and became a member of Leeds City AC – the same club that Cairess represents.
While major international championships are now becoming more frequent for Sesemann, he still competes for Leeds City AC on the track, on the road and even on the mud, as year on year he pulls on his club vest for back-to-basics cross-country meets. ‘The club races are the stuff that I actually really enjoy,’ he says. ‘I find that you’re running for your team and your mates, and you can do those when you’re not even that fit – but the goal is very much, I’m running for other people.’
Doctor turned distance runner
Before reaching out to the roads, Sesemann specialised in shorter track events ranging from the 800m to the 5000m. He even ran for Great Britain in the 3000m at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships and outran Jake Wightman – the 1500m world champion at the time – to claim victory in the 3000m at the 2023 BMC Sheffield Grand Prix.
His first half marathon – The Big Half – arrived in 2021. He completed the course in a rapid 62:47 and placed fourth overall. With such a fantastic half marathon result under his belt, it made sense for Sesemann to then step up to the marathon at some point.
‘About six years ago, I sat down with my coach to fill in some forms for some funding, which asked what we saw as our long-term progression,’ he says. ‘And my coach said, “I think you’re going to be a marathon runner”. And I kind of looked at him, like, “What are you talking about? I’m doing 1500m races. That’s a three minute and 40 seconds event compared to a two hours and 10 minutes one, or whatever it is.” And he just said, “I can see that you love the high-volume training and you’re responding well to it, so I think that’s where you’re going to go.” And that love just kind of grew and grew, and I was doing more and more training – and to be honest, got slower and slower on the track! Fortunately, it turns out that I’m a lot better at the high-volume stuff.’
But running wasn’t the only thing on Sesemann’s agenda. At the time, he was juggling intense training with demanding part-time work as a qualified doctor. In fact, it was only in September 2023 that he relinquished his license to practice medicine in order to go full-send on his running career.
‘I really enjoyed my time working in psychiatry,’ he notes. ‘But I wouldn’t say that I ever felt the same way about medicine as I do about running. And at the moment, I just want to fully focus on the running and keep chasing that. And while that door [being a doctor] isn’t completely closed, it’s 99% of the way there.’
Gradual marathon gains
In October 2021, Sesemann made his spectacular 26.2-mile debut at the London Marathon, where he was the first Brit home in a time of 2:12:58. That’s quite a way to make an entrance – and clear evidence of his aptitude for longer distances.
He then clocked 2:15:17 in the marathon at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich, before running his second London Marathon that autumn in 2:12:08.
The 2023 London Marathon was Sesemann’s fourth stab at the distance – and third Sesemann was the first British finisher at his first-ever marathon in 2021. What’s more, it was the race that saw him out-sprint Mo Farah, the fastest British marathoner in history, on the final stretch.
‘It was the one marathon where I really felt in control of my effort and mental side of things,’ reflects Sesemann. ‘The entire race, I just felt really strong – just loving being out there. The support was brilliant. I had lots of loved ones out on the course at different points, and seeing them, and being able to actually smile and wave really late into the race, was amazing. I then remember that they kind of whisked us off on little golf carts after we finished. There are all the photos of Mo and Emile [the first British finisher], and they just put me on a golf cart and sent me off to the tent. I just kind of sat there, thinking, “That’s gone really well!”’
Having developed a taste and talent for the marathon, as well as a hunger to dip to 2:09-something or quicker, Sesemann followed up this London performance with a 2:08:48 at the Valencia Marathon in December 2023, narrowly missing out on Olympic qualification. Spain is clearly Sesemann’s spot, though, as his PB at the Seville Marathon – which booked his ticket to the Paris Games – came next.
Preparations for Paris
While Sesemann had attained his mighty goal of meeting the Olympic standard for the marathon, the work was far from done. In fact, the work arguably got even tougher as he trained for the event itself, which encompassed a lumpy route from central Paris to Versailles and back. To lessen the shock of the hills on the day, Sesemann scoped out some of the Olympic marathon route in advance with his coach.
‘In April this year, my coach and I did a 20km run around the hilliest part of the course,’ he says. ‘But the big one was the downhill – the uphills are tough, but it’s just kind of fitness that gets you up those. It’s not a cross-country course. You’re not running up mud and you don’t need any different technique. But for the downhill, you need to work on your technique. And I specifically remember on Saturday [10 August, the day of the men’s Olympic marathon] cramping a bit as we’re coming over the top of the steepest hill at 30km, looking up and seeing the road sign that’s the downhill one with the car – and it said 15%. I looked at that and thought, “That’s more than I thought it was!” You’re then trying to run down this pretty quickly while trying not to ping your legs, knowing that you’ve got another 11km to run once you get to the bottom.
‘Yeah, that was a rough one to be honest.’
Thankfully, he had diligently prepared for this undulating Parisian course – which has widely been considered the toughest Olympic marathon course of the modern era.
‘We [Sesemann and his training partners, including Cairess] did hill work while we were out in Italy before the Olympics. I did some back in Leeds as well. So we were doing hard training sessions up and down hills, getting used to how that would feel and how hard that would be. And then the big one was going into the race and being sensible – being conservative with my pacing strategy.’
Miles with the mutts
Sesemann doesn’t just train with clubmate Cairess – or other humans, for that matter. He completes many of his training runs with his two dogs, Kipchoge and Haile, a Spaniel and Vizsla cross and German Shorthaired Pointer respectively. Together known as the Mileage Mutts, they are themselves established canine athletes who – as the name suggests – rack up some serious miles with their owner.
‘I just always had this idea that I wanted some dogs and I wanted to run with them,’ laughs Sesemann. ‘It definitely dictates where I run. I don’t go out running on the streets – mostly tow paths or parks and trails instead. But, honestly, it makes a huge difference, because even on the worst days when you’re like, “I’m absolutely knackered – I don’t want to run”, they’re still bouncing against the walls. So you think, well, we’ve got to go out. The rain is coming down, it’s really muddy in Yorkshire and you’re just thinking, “No, I don’t want to do this!” And they’re just looking at you.
‘Obviously, we then go out. You go and splash around and a few miles later, you’re enjoying it again – and you’re glad that you got out to get your training done. It makes a massive difference.’
The road ahead
Enjoyment continues to play a fundamental role in Sesemann’s career – both as an elite runner and, increasingly so, as a coach.
‘I’m already doing a bit of coaching and seeing athletes progress, enjoying the sport as much as I do and feeling that kind of passion,’ he says. ‘I would love to see more British athletes compete at the level where I’m at in the marathon – and yeah, help them to get there.’
Back to Sesemann and he already has more races in the calendar and longer-term ambitions in mind (that’s you, LA 2028) – not to mention a baby on the way. In other words, this world-class athlete still has lots to look forward to, professionally and personally.
‘I could have another eight, nine, 10, whoever knows how many years in this sport,’ says Sesemann. ‘As long as I’m enjoying it, I’m going to keep doing it.’
