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 monitor—he’s additionally a videographer, and balances his time between work, household and his deep ardour for working.
In highschool, Osei raced his buddies within the hallways and skipped class sometimes to observe monitor meets in Etobicoke, Ont.’s Centennial Park, proper throughout from his highschool. He fell in love with the game and joined the varsity crew, the place his coach grew to become 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 crew to race in Mexico, and it was his first expertise travelling by air. “I’ll always remember that, since you sort of dream of that stuff, particularly the place I grew up. However there, I acquired to expertise that monitor setting, and I noticed some famend monitor 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 international locations, and now, as he thinks in regards to the subsequent part of his life and profession, he needs to assist others expertise that way of life.
Osei continued racing via faculty on the College of Guelph and signed with New Steadiness after college. Sadly, an damage 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 ultimate Olympic bid.
Teaching and private coaching are on the prime of his thoughts as of late, at the same time as he pushes himself to be at his greatest for the approaching season. “As an athlete, it’s important to be conscious that your physique can’t final eternally,” he says. “However when you acquired it, you bought it. I used to be blessed with this expertise, and I’m gonna maintain 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 accomplished.
“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.”
And if it doesn’t occur? “That point off with my damage allowed me to actually map out how I wish to dwell my life after monitor,” he says. “I’ve a household now. I’ve a child woman and a wonderful spouse at dwelling. Earlier than them, monitor was it. This was all I had, in a way. However now I’ve a house outdoors of the monitor. And for me, monitor is now turning into enjoyable once more.”
That’s what “Run Your Approach” means to Osei now. “To me, it means steadiness,” he says. “Observe has offered me the steadiness and taught me find out how to really feel inside my physique and carry out at a normal of excellence as an athlete. This sport has taught me a lot in regards to the physique dynamics, useful motion, energy and conditioning, health, resistance coaching, mobility, yoga–all of the facets of health and life. We get to try this, as professionals and as poets. Observe is poetry: we get to show our artwork to the world.”
