Leeds City runner is tempted by cani-cross and ultra-running races but has unfinished business over 26.2 miles

Phil Sesemann is known for doing much of his training with his ‘mileage mutts’ Haile and Kipchoge. Such is his love of running with dogs, he fancies tackling cani-cross one day in the future. For now, though, he has unfinished business in the marathon, starting this weekend on the streets of London.

“I’ve been top 10 twice in a row so I’d like to make it three in a row although the field looks a bit stronger in depth this year,” he says. “So I could end up running quicker but end up in a lower position. But I don’t want to be on a marathon start line aiming to be fifth best Brit or something like that. I’d like to be first Brit home but it’s mainly about running my best possible marathon on the day and to see where that takes me.”

Sesemann made headlines in 2021 when he finished first Brit in the London Marathon and it emerged he had done lots of training with a Spaniel and Vizsla cross called ‘Kipchoge’ and a German Shorthaired Pointer called ‘Haile’. The self-styled ‘mileage mutts’ even have their own Strava accounts and Sesemann says they join him for around two thirds of his own training with friends like runner Josh Dickinson taking them for a spin if he is racing or training abroad.

He admits he likes the idea of one day doing a cani-cross event. The standard at top events is not poor either with cani-cross champion Ben Robinson completing 5km on a bumpy trail in an amazing 12:24.

Sesemann also enjoys the idea of testing himself in an ultra-running race too. But not for a while. “Running around London Marathon is so much fun so I can imagine myself doing that for a while yet,” he says.

The 30-year-old adds: “If you look at Eliud Kipchoge, Mo Farah, Thommo, Sinead Diver, they’re into their 40s and running at their peak for marathons,” says Sesemann, “so I don’t see it’s a three to five year career for me.

“A lot of it is a mentality thing. You speak to some runners aged 35 who think they’re ‘done’ but then I train with athletes like Graham Rush and he’s still smashing it on the track and competing well.”

After growing up as a member of Blackheath & Bromley, he moved to Leeds around 12 years ago and is thriving in the area with training partners such as Emile Cairess, although the Cairess has stopped doing easy runs with Sesemann and his dogs after being tripped up by one of their four-legged friends in a training run.

Sesemann is also a junior doctor and currently does part-time work at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds: “I pick up odd shifts if they fit around training or races,” he says. “It’s enough to keep my hand in.”

Why abandon his marathon plans when they are going so well too? After his 2:12:58 debut in London two years ago, he improved his PB to 2:12:10 in London last October, whereas in January he delivered an eye-catching victory when out-kicking world 1500m champion Jake Wightman to win a BMC 3000m in Sheffield.

Did that 3000m win not tempt him to give the indoor track season a crack? Not particularly, he says. “I knew I was doing London and I was doing testing at Leeds Beckett which suggested my VO2 max needed improving and the 3km was a way to make the training more fun and to have a target. The testing results the week after (the race) showed the VO2max had improved. So that was the end of my indoor season. It was very short and sharp!”

Sesemann is also an Adidas sponsored runner and was recently backed by watch company COROS too. “I was really pleased that COROS took me on board. When it came out it was the lightest GPS watch on the market. It’s very simple with tactile buttons. The watch face is really easy to use. I’ve run for years so have trialled quite a few watches and it’s definitely the one that I’m finding easiest to use. I’ve had some watches in the past that jump or freeze, which is annoying if you’re doing 200m reps for example, but this watch doesn’t do that.”

Eamonn Martin didn’t wear a watch at all when he became the last British man to win the London Marathon in 1993 but times have changed. “On the training analysis and the metrics that COROS use is definitely interesting to look at and can aid the training planning and decision making,” says Sesemann.

One thing he won’t be doing with the watch is tying it to his dogs’ collars. He has tried this in the past in order to record their efforts on Strava but it’s resulted in one or two expensive devices being lost due to being pulled off in long grass and brambles!