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Otago-raised Callan Moody jumps to 11^th on the all-time New Zealand marathon rankings after running 2:11:39 in Cheshire, England. 

UK-based Kiwi Callan Moody produced a top-quality marathon debut last month which catapulted the former national 10km and half marathon champion to a whole new stratosphere. Steve Landells caught up with the London-based athlete to find out more.

Few moments in our sport provide quite the same frisson of excitement as seeing or reading about a breakout performance.

And perhaps this calendar year, no performance by a New Zealand athlete sits in the same ‘pleasantly surprised’ bracket as Callan Moody’s sensational marathon debut in Cheshire, England last month, where the 33-year-old ran a sensational 2:11:39 – within an agonising nine seconds of the Olympic qualification mark.

It was a performance which hauled the Otago-raised athlete to 11th on the all-time New Zealand marathon rankings – ahead of such Kiwi distance running luminaries as 1968 Olympic Marathon bronze medallist Mike Ryan and 1967 Boston Marathon winner Dave McKenzie, among others.

Yet what was the reaction of Callan to the performance?

“It was a surprise,” he said. “After crossing the line, I don’t think I was sure how to react because I was so close to going under the Olympic qualification mark. My mind was trying to figure out if I was happy or annoyed. But slowly it sunk in. I was ecstatic with how it had gone. It was amazing.”

While Callan’s performance may have surprised many – the cardiac physiologist has not emerged from nowhere.

In 2014 he impressed to secure 1500m, 3000m and 5000m track bronze medals before later banking the New Zealand road race title. The following year he added the national half marathon title, but for the best part of three years he did not compete as he opted to take a lengthy break from the sport.

Relocating to live and work in London, travel became the priority and although he maintained some level of fitness in 2016 and 2017, running was put on the back burner.

After his two-year work visa came to an end, Callan was determined to extend his UK stay but in order to secure his sponsorship visa he returned back to Christchurch for 11 months in late-2017.

It was during this period back home when the New Brighton Olympic AC athlete re-engaged with running.

“I thought the time was right to start back again,” explains Callan. “Although, I do remember one of my first sessions back being destroyed by Oska (Inkster-Baynes) and Dan (Balchin). I was just not used to that level of running.”

Nonetheless, over time his fitness improved and by the time he arrived back in the UK in late-2018 he was in good shape – confirmation of which arrived in his first competitive race for three years in December of that year.

Lining up at the Telford 10km, he did not know what to expect but surprised himself to win in a time of 29:31 to register his first ever sub-30-minute 10km clocking.

It was a performance which offered Callan huge encouragement. Continuing to receive a weekly training schedule from his Christchurch-based coach Matt Ingram, whom he worked with during his successful years of 2014-15 in New Zealand, and jumping into weekly training sessions with a London-based training group, Cottage, he continued to make progress.

Living in London but working at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey, racking up the required mileage was not always easy. However, in order to fulfil his training goals, Callan ran the 50 minutes to and from the train station to work. When on-call at the hospital, he ran blocks around the hospital of no more than a 20-minute circumference so, should he be required for work, he could make the 30-minute deadline.

“I didn’t think I would get so fit with this type of training, but it actually worked really well,” he explains. “Having the guys at the Cottage training group, which included some sub-14 minute 5k runners was massive – it is amazing the effect a group has on your training.”

In 2019 he won selection to compete for New Zealand at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. Still in the relatively early stage of his second coming as an athlete, he admits he was left napping by the sheer speed of the race and the brutal climbs – on one of the toughest courses in the history of the event.

Callan wound up 109th in the race but has many happy memories of the event.

“Those hills still make me shiver because I hadn’t done a lot of hill training,” he admits. “It was a tough day, but just being part of an athlete camp and around top-quality runners was great.”

The training elixir gleaned more uplifting results during the 2019 UK summer season. He ran a 5000m PB of 13:59.36 – to dip under the 14-minute barrier for the first time in his career – and on his 10,000m track debut ran 29:45.95.

He then ended his competitive year back up in Telford, where he posted a 10km road PB of 28:57 to place third.

Living at the time with the 2012 New Zealand Marathon champion Tony Payne, Callan was often teased by his housemate that marathon would be his ideal distance.

Acknowledging the fact, in early 2020 his thoughts turned to potentially running a marathon. He loosely considered competing in London for his 42.2km debut only for the global pandemic to strike and the UK was put into lockdown.

In some respects, because of the nature of Callan’s work, life continued as normal. He was fortunate to life with Tony and another Kiwi runner Ben Anderson, so had ready-made training partners during this period. But with no races on the horizon, his motivation waned.

Naturally, given New Zealand’s response to the global pandemic in comparison to the UK, he was tempted to return home but he remained committed to life in London.

“It just didn’t seem right to leave the country at that point,” adds Callan, who last August took on a new role as Chief Cardiac PhysioIogist at Royal Brompton Hospital in South West London. “I had a duty of care to help people and I wouldn’t have felt good not to have stayed on.”

In late-December he tested positive for Covid – although, but for aching and sore limbs which he first identified on a long-run, he was largely asymptomatic.

It was during this period at home in isolation when Tony sent details of the Wrexham Marathon – which was scheduled to take place in North Wales in April.

As one of the only races planned at the time during a harsh period of lockdown in the UK, the Kiwi could not resist the challenge.

“Tony sent through the message and joked, ‘If you want to run at the Olympics, you should run here,’ recalls Callan. “As the only race on the horizon I thought I might as well give it a crack, and I signed up at the end of January.”

Initially running between 80-100km a week in preparation in late-February, he stepped up to between 130-140km. Callan admits piling on around 50km a week to his training load in just one week was “pretty stupid” – but his body did, however, positively respond to the extra demands.

Carrying out much of training with Australian Marathon runner Reece Edwards, Callan became excited about the possibilities of what he could achieve on his marathon debut after completing a 25km training run around Battersea Park three weeks out from the race.

“We had this date in mind to complete this session and on the back of that, this would give us some sort of indication as to what pace we would run at during the marathon,” he explains.

“We thought we were maybe in 2:13 or 2:14 shape but we went out at the Olympic qualification pace and kept on stringing together 3:07 kilometres. We were still a bit unsure of how it would go on the day, but we thought…we need to just go for it!”

Covid restrictions in Wales meant the race shifted at the last moment to the other side of the English-Welsh border to Pulford, Cheshire. A seven-lap course was set up and with a quality pace-making team – led by British distance running prodigy Jake Smith who finished 18th at last year’s World Half Marathon Championships – Callan had every opportunity to run a good race.

With the field started in separate waves to meet Covid restrictions, Callan enjoyed a smooth first half of the race – which was split in a time of 65:35.

He was aided by Smith, who would end up winning the race in 2:11:00.

“Jake was a really funny guy who every lap kept saying, ‘I’ll do one more lap’ until he reached the final lap and said, ‘I might do the entire thing to see if I can qualify for the Olympics,” adds Callan. “From my point of view, the longer he stayed in the race, the better.”

Comfortable through to 35km, Callan knew however that the final 7km was a journey into the unknown for him. His training runs had never extended beyond 35-36km, so he was unsure how his body would cope with the additional distance.

Frustratingly, over the final 7km his calves started to badly cramp to the point that whenever he attempted to pick up the pace, he felt excruciating pain in the lower leg.

“Looking at my watch for much of the race I thought I would get the Olympic qualifier, but the last time I entered the final straight seemed so much longer than when I ran this stretch on the other laps, and I saw the 2:11:30 just tick away from me. I was still super chuffed with my performance, though.”

Donning the Next% Nike shoes – which have allowed for a raft of so many outstanding marathon performances globally – Callan acknowledges that the footwear played an “advantage” in enabling his breakthrough performance.

Yet the shoes are here to stay, and it would be remiss of any marathon runner not to wear the best equipment.

Initially tempted to run an elite-only marathon in Vienna later this month in pursuit of the Olympic qualification time, he has sensibly decided two marathons in two months would take too much of a toll on the body and has set his sights elsewhere.

“Tokyo is off the agenda now, but I’ll probably have a crack at a 10km and build up for a half marathon,” he explains.

“Certainly, the marathon is a possibility later this year and next year we have some big comps with the World Championships and Commonwealth Games, and I’d love to have a good crack at qualifying for those.”

After his dazzling breakthrough performance in Cheshire, anything is possible.