Emile Cairess said he had “mixed emotions” after he matched Mo Farah’s British record for the 10,000m in Valencia on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Leeds City runner ran 27 minutes 44 seconds to equal the time Farah ran in London in 2010.
“I was really excited to achieve such a quick time and match the record but it would have been nice to just to have taken it,” he told BBC Look North.
“It gives me a lot of confidence that I can make the next step.”
He added: “This summer I ran 27:53 on the track and my training was going better the past few weeks than it was before that race so I thought I could definitely improve by 10 to 15 seconds. For it to come to fruition was really nice.”
Cairess, who is now going to Kenya for a month of warm weather training, said his goal for the year is to compete in one of the major championships.
Olympic 800m silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson and triathlon champions Alistair and Jonny Brownlee are among the other athletes who train at Leeds City.
“It’s great to train alongside the team that are here,” Cairess said.
“There’s an Olympic medallist and an Olympic finalist and it’s really inspiring and gives you a lot of confidence that they’re training in the same environment and doing similar things to you so you hope you can achieve what they have.”
