Devotees of endurance running will tell you, the beauty of a 5,000 or 10,000 meter race is that those long, fast laps are the closest thing to a chess board that track and field offers. Physical endurance counts. An ability to compartmentalize pain helps. Raw speed matters. But it’s those long minutes of strategic survival...taking and relinquishing control, testing opponents’ fitness, staying upright in a jostling pack of spikes, and carving a path to the finish line. It’s that real time running mental game that thrills. Mohamed Ahmed has emerged as North America’s fastest 5,000m man. His duel with some legendary African names in the semi finals and then on to the capper, his silver medal 5000m race? That was a game changer for Canadian distance running. Which is why Anastasia gave in to temptation and went ‘inside baseball’ with Mo Ahmed. It's a rare, almost moment by moment technical breakdown of Canada’s finest 5000m race. You don’t have to love running to enjoy this talk from Tokyo, but it’ll help!