400m runner Philip Osei has been racing within the Toronto space since he was in highschool and found that the 400 metres was the place he excelled. However his life hasn’t simply revolved across the observe—he’s additionally a videographer, and balances his time between work, household and his deep ardour for operating. 

In highschool, Osei raced his buddies within the hallways and skipped class sometimes to look at observe meets in Etobicoke, Ont.’s Centennial Park, proper throughout from his highschool. He fell in love with the game and joined the college workforce, the place his coach turned a mentor. “It was my first time being coached in my life,” recollects Osei. “He constructed that love and basis for the 400m for me.” 

He excelled early within the 400m, and it began to repay: at 19, he was chosen for a workforce to race in Mexico, and it was his first expertise travelling by air. “I’ll always remember that, since you form of dream of that stuff, particularly the place I grew up. However there, I acquired to expertise that observe atmosphere, and I noticed some famend observe athletes racing and realized that I used to be amongst them. I felt like, I belong right here.” Since then, he’s raced in additional than 30 nations, and now, as he thinks in regards to the subsequent part of his life and profession, he needs to assist others expertise that life-style. 

Osei continued racing by school on the College of Guelph and signed with New Stability after college. Sadly, an harm took him away from racing, however he has since reconnected with the game he nonetheless loves. He’s again to racing, however he’s already occupied with his subsequent part of life—after he makes his remaining Olympic bid. 

Teaching and private coaching are on the prime of his thoughts as of late, whilst he pushes himself to be at his greatest for the approaching season. “As an athlete, you must be aware that your physique can’t final endlessly,” he says. “However whilst you acquired it, you bought it. I used to be blessed with this expertise, and I’m gonna hold doing it, if I can. However that doesn’t imply I’ve to kill myself and make the Olympic dream, as a result of I’m actually content material with what I’ve completed.

“Proper now, I’m bodily and mentally locking myself in as if I’m going to compete within the Olympics, and I’ll see the place that takes me,” Osei says. “I’m beginning to really feel fairly athletic.”

Mariah Kelly: Run Your Approach

And if it doesn’t occur? “That point off with my harm allowed me to essentially map out how I wish to dwell my life after observe,” he says. “I’ve a household now. I’ve a child lady and a good looking spouse at residence. Earlier than them, observe was it. This was all I had, in a way. However now I’ve a house exterior of the observe. And for me, observe is now changing into enjoyable once more.”

That’s what “Run Your Approach” means to Osei now. “To me, it means steadiness,” he says. “Monitor has supplied me the steadiness and taught me the right way to really feel inside my physique and carry out at a regular of excellence as an athlete. This sport has taught me a lot in regards to the physique dynamics, practical motion, energy and conditioning, health, resistance coaching, mobility, yoga–all of the elements of health and life. We get to try this, as professionals and as poets. Monitor is poetry: we get to show our artwork to the world.”