After spending most of his adult life earning a living on yachts and sailing around the world, George James is ready for a new challenge.
At the age of 18, a teenage James left college to work as a deckhand – which involves looking after the maintenance of boats – and, over the years climbed the ladder, eventually rising to the rank of second officer at 29.
Not only did his responsibility on the vessels increase over time – a second officer is in charge of navigation and management of the deck crew – but the size of the boats and breadth of locations he visited expanded.
Approaching his 30s, James had travelled to everywhere from Saint-Tropez and Portofino to Hong Kong and Borneo, witnessing a myriad of cultures and lifestyles.
Away from the hustle and bustle of working on the deck, he found comfort through running on a treadmill (if the yacht had one) and used the machine to destress. This wasn’t just a hobby but a searing passion. So now, at the age of 31, the Brit dreams of it turning into a full-time job.
George James (Sportograf)
This weekend marks a seminal moment in his life. At the inaugural European Running Championships in Belgium, James will contest the marathon (April 13), which starts in Brussels and ends in nearby Leuven.
The distance-runner was selected for the championships back in December, off the back of his 2:11:19 marathon in Frankfurt two months earlier. That time was the joint-fifth quickest mark over 26.2 miles by a Brit last season, with only Emile Cairess, Mahamed Mahamed, Phil Sesemann and Jonny Mellor having gone faster.
Remarkably, this upcoming marathon will only be James’ third competitive race in the distance – his other 26.2 mile run came at last year’s London Marathon, where he clocked 2:14:59.
With this being the 31-year-old’s British debut, he rightfully doesn’t have any expectations. This is a chance to showcase his worth to millions of people and it’s about enjoying every second of it.
George James (Sportograf)
“I think my journey is a bit of a story,” James tells AW in Brussels, a couple of days before the men’s marathon. “It’s pretty surreal wearing Great Britain colours. My expectations are pretty much to just go out there and just run the best I can because once again I’ll be running without limits. I didn’t have any expectations for London and the same went for Frankfurt, so we’ll see what this Sunday brings really.
“Breaking it down, I think once I get to mile 18 that’s sort of, as the saying goes, when the race starts. So if you get to mile 18 and you’re in good shape as well as being fuelled well, there’s no reason why you couldn’t just pick up the pace and carry on through to the 26-mile mark.”
To prepare for his British debut, James trained at altitude. Not in Font Romeu or Saint Moritz but in Bogotá, Colombia. From mid-February until last Wednesday – a spell of around seven weeks – he ploughed through mile after mile at over 8500 feet in South America.
James, who is living with his mum in Ashtead and currently self-funds his training, decided to book the trip to Colombia due to the fact there was a last-minute cheap direct flight from London. He hadn’t really intended on running at altitude in the first place but as soon as he got a taster there was no going back.
George James (Sportograf)
“I didn’t really appreciate how high it was until I was there,” James says. “Then I realised that Iten in Kenya is around 2400m (7800 feet) so I was basing things off of that. I think that extra 200 metres really does hit you hard, especially with recovery. You have to really take that very seriously. I was scheduling a few more rest days here and there and just listening to my body.
“You know, I’ve been self- funding my whole training for the past 18 months and I’m just trying to keep the cost down. I’ve been to Colombia before, I loved it, and I thought I’ll just go back for a whole new experience. I worked on the treadmill quite a bit and did some long runs, varying it up.”
“I don’t know how altitude training will affect me going into this race as it’s the first training block I’ve ever done at that kind of height, so it’s all to play for. I really don’t know what I can achieve off the back of that! I could have just stayed at home and just did the normal training, just built up the intervals on the treadmill and tried to have got a little bit quicker every week.”
James does train by himself but he is coached by Robert Russell, who has a number of Dorking & Mole Valley athletes – the club that the Brit is associated with – under his roster.
George James (Marathon Photos Live)
All in all, James tends to run about 80 to 120 miles per week, which is roughly double than what he managed when he was working on the yachts.
Around six weeks after leaving his job, he signed up to the Pisa Half Marathon – his first competitive race over 13.1 miles – to test his ability. The result? A first place finish in 66:28.
“That kind of opened up my eyes to, to where I could progress from,” James says. “So I then got my head stuck down and started training hard over the winter period, which resulted in that time [2:14:59] at the London Marathon. I think I crossed the half-way point about 65 minutes or something.”
“I was just trying to keep fit and destress on the treadmills on the yachts. It was never because I thought that I could be a good marathon runner!”
World Road Running Championships (World Athletics)
James does have a kit deal with Tracksmith but he is currently unfunded and, given he wants to eventually make a living out of running, is wishing for the best in the future.
If he performs well in the marathon on Sunday at the European Running Championships then who knows what it could hold.
“The amount of work and training that I’ve put in to all of this in the past 18 months has been crazy,” James adds. “I still don’t believe that I’m sitting here with a Great Britain shirt on but if I look back over what I’ve done in the past year and a bit, and the amount of money I spent on training and time at altitude, I can sort of semi- believe it.
“Ultimately, I’d like to try and revise my 10km [29:24] and half-marathon [65:00] marks but the ultimate goal is the marathon and I’d like to eventually get in and around the Olympic qualification times for LA 2028.”
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