Gold medals may be second nature to the man feted by some as Britain's greatest athlete, but Mo Farah has acknowledged his career is not destined to end in a blaze of glory.
Farah maintains he has the motivation to continue running beyond the Rio Olympics in 2016 - and he will only hang up his spikes when injuries or extra-special opponents force him to accept his best days are over.
The 31-year-old double Olympic champion is in Newcastle where he will seek to add the Great North Run title to his list of honours on Sunday after being dramatically pipped by Kenenisa Bekele last year.
Farah said: "I still love running and when you're at the top you just want to keep winning medals and accomplishing new things.
"When the day comes to retire it will not happen at the top level - it will be when I'm suffering with injuries or struggling to get back to where I once was.
"But at the moment I still have that drive to succeed and hopefully I will still be on the top after Rio."
Farah endured a difficult 2014 by his own Herculean standards, finishing a disappointing eighth on his London Marathon debut in April, before missing out on the Glasgow Commonwealth Games with a debilitating stomach problem.
But he staged a remarkable comeback to win double gold at the European Championships in Zurich.
For Farah the startling recovery process taught him new things about his physical capacity and has only hardened his resolve to maintain his dominance of the long-distance track events going forward.
Farah added: "Obviously I would have hoped to have had a better season but you can't help getting ill or injuries and when they come it is about how you deal with them.
"I managed to get over it and get two gold medals and a British record, and if you had asked me six weeks ago I would have been happy with just one of them.
"It gives me a lot of confidence - to win having had a time where I did not know if I was going to be able to turn things around was obviously a great feeling."
Farah will join a small band of British Great North Run winners if he manages to see off the likes of Olympic marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich on Sunday.
Farah was just two years and three months old when Salford's Steve Kenyon won the race in 1985.
Farah added: "Last year was a close race and this year there are a lot of good Kenyans who should bring out the best in me.
"It's my last race of the year and I'm feeling strong and ready to dig deep."
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