Jack Rowe on transitioning from track to the road

We speak to an athlete who is intent on finishing his track career with a flourish before moving on to the roads

As Fiona O’Keeffe raced to an historic victory and fastest ever marathon debut by an American woman (2:22:10), Rowe and his team-mates were watching with interest from their base in Albuquerque. “It was awesome,” he says. “You never quite know how an athlete will react to the last three or four miles, but she killed it.”

Rowe enjoyed his own standout performances during the winter. He opened his season with 7:38.35 for 3000m in Boston on January 26. It was the sixth-fastest British indoor mark of all-time, and a big improvement on his three-year-old previous best (7:42.15), but it was over 5000m he wanted to make a significant impact. “Every year I’ve got a few seconds faster [in the 5000m], but I need 15 seconds this year,” he said in early February, confirming his goal of achieving the 5000m Olympic qualification standard of 13:05.00.

He duly delivered with a time of 13:04.75 in Boston on February 16. Not a bad outcome for the 28-year-old described in FloTrack’s 3000m race commentary as a “half-marathoner taking the lead on the track boys”.

Jack Rowe (David Hicks)

A lot has changed for the London-based athlete in the last four years. A post-graduate student at the University of Washington (Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership) – which followed a Sports Management masters at the University of San Francisco – he was forced to cut short his US experience due to the coronavirus pandemic and returned to the UK to work as a delivery driver for Amazon Prime.

His athletics goals, however, stayed the same. Throughout that period he remained committed to making a Great Britain team at the Olympics or World Championships at 5000m and he was moving in the right direction.

He was a European Indoor Championships 3000m finalist in 2021; signed a professional contract with Puma in 2022; reached a second European indoor 3000m final in 2023; and ran a 5000m PB – at the time – early that summer (13:20.00). He also excelled on the roads with a series of impressive performances, including victory in the 2023 Big Half (61:08 PB) and a 30th place in the World Road Running Championships’ half marathon (61:39). FloTrack, on that evidence, were not entirely wrong with their description.

The sport also moved on following his return to the UK in 2020. In a year-end Instagram post Rowe acknowledged that while he’d moved forward in 2023, 2024 was the ‘time to level up’. “It’s about taking some risks,” explains the Tim Eglen-coached athlete.

Jack Rowe (Mark Shearman)

“I need to do that just to keep up. My 7:38 3000m was brilliant, but then I stayed and watched two Brits run sub-13 for 5000m. Competition is a good thing, though. If someone had said to me: ‘Are you gutted that two guys just ran the Olympic time?’, I’d have said: ‘No’. I was really encouraged by that. No one did it last year, so it was vindication that Brits can run that time. It was like: ‘You can get there’. It was more a confidence boost if anything.”

Rowe admits he felt torn through the last quarter of 2023 about what his goal should realistically be. Despite dedicating his last four years to making a 5000m team, his performances on the roads have opened up new possibilities, but so too have the achievements of his team-mates.

Jack Rowe (Mark Shearman)

“I’m going to be best on the roads,” he admits. “I’m a big guy; I run fast in straight lines and the shoe tech has improved massively. I definitely have a future on the roads and I’m excited for that, but my ego is still on the track and wanting to make teams. I’m never going to be a world level 1500m runner and that’s fine, I’ve accepted that. The 5000m is the fastest/shortest distance that I think I can compete at on world level, so I’d like to take that on before I move up.”

»This article first appeared in the March issue of AW magazine, which you can buy here

Jack Rowe on transitioning from track to the road appeared first on AW.