Mo Farah's blog by mo_farah

So a lot has happened in the last two weeks. I got back to the UK on 30^th May after a long, hard training stint in Kenya and it was so nice to be with my wife again as I hadn't seen her since our honeymoon. I was finally able to see the pictures from our wedding which it seemed everyone had seen except for me!

With less than 24 hours to go before my first big race of 2010, the BUPA London 10k I felt in great shape and really noticed the difference after coming down to sea level from high altitude. It almost felt like I wasn't breathing at all!

Bank holiday Monday arrives and for those of you who aren't already aware, I successfully defended my 2009 title as well as breaking the British Record for the second successive year. A huge relief to win this event again especially due to the competition I faced but an even bigger achievement to knock six seconds off my own British Record, something I did not expect and more importantly it showed all the pain endured in Kenya had paid off.

The World record holder, Kogo certainly didn't make it easy for me though as it was pretty much us two neck and neck all the way up until the last 200m. A comment I made post race which you may have already seen was ' I love London and I get loads of support - and with 200m to go I just went 'boom'!! That for me sums up the race. Sky Sports made it there quote of the week and although I wasn't thinking when I said it, I'm glad to have amused so many people!

With the BUPA London 10k out of the way and my confidence at a real high, I had to start focusing on my next race. Although I had broken the British Record over 10K and produced a qualifying time for this summer's European Championships, it didn't count due to the race being on the road as opposed to the track. Therefore, I needed to reproduce the same if not better time over that distance on the track. The race to do it was the European 10K challenge in Marseille just five days later....too soon after some might say, however in my opinion I thought this was the best time to do it as I still had the altitude in me and providing I rested and recovered well in the days leading up to it knew I could pull it off. My training leading up to the race included a few easy runs and just one session to allow for recovery. My diet consisted of lots of carbs to gain back energy and some protein to re-build my muscles.

I knew there wouldn't be a strong field of athletes in the race and so a pacemaker was provided to keep me on schedule for the time I was aiming for. Although the pacemaker was helpful, I was behind schedule at half way point and shortly after the pacemaker dropped out so I was out on my own with a 70m lead ahead of the chasing group which was difficult. On the final lap the gap maintained the same and a voice from the crowd shouted 'You only need a 59 second lap to clock a sub 27:30 time!' That's when the adrenaline kicked in and I went for it.

Crossing the line first wasn't a surprise but looking up at the clock to see a time of 27 minutes and 28 seconds made me ecstatic to say the least. I did it. I made the European qualifying time for the 10k, as well as clocking the third fastest time in British history! Considering the circumstances of the race, I believe I can go faster still so am looking forward to the European Championships more than ever.

I do have a couple more races beforehand, the next being the European Cup on 19^th of June so hopefully I'll have more good news to talk about soon!