This Canadian Running x New Balance six-part series is following five runners to the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon. These women and men aren’t professional runners; they’re just passionate about the sport. Their stories are your stories–each runner has come to the marathon with different reasons for running, different training methods, different running communities and different goals. And each exemplifies the idea that Run Your Way can mean something different for everyone.
“A runner is the epitome of human performance. Watching a good runner is like watching poetry in motion, and watching someone who is truly oneself with their body and their spirit. I am truly obsessed with running.”
Ali Aboubih of Mississauga, Ont., is an Egyptian-Canadian athlete who doesn’t just love to run–he lives to run. “I love running, and I can confidently say it has transformed who I am,” he says. The two-time marathoner believes that, when it comes to proving to yourself that you can do anything, there’s no feeling as powerful as crossing a finish line.
“Running has taught me how to push myself, how to ground myself, how to breathe,” he says. “The human body is amazing, and is limitless, and I enjoy running because it is rooted in raw performance.”
After years of racing triathlons in college, he realized his true love wasn’t the bike or the swim, it was the run. “Triathlon was fun, but I eventually found that I was sandbagging the swim and the bike every race just so I can have as good of a run split as possible, and I would only ever celebrate and focus on my running goals during training. It was then I realized that, deep down, I am a runner who enjoys triathlons.”
Not only does Aboubih love running, he loves the lifestyle that it’s pushed him to pursue–one where health is at the centre of all things. “Running has made me sleep better, eat better, recover better, schedule my time better,” he says. “I am trying to adopt the best habits possible in pursuit of personal running greatness. When I wake up, I plan my whole day around when my run is. When I run, I lose myself in the sound of my footsteps and the rhythm of my breathing. When I am done running, I find myself immediately looking forward to my next run. In my free time, I am reading about the art and science of running, studying running plans and training philosophies across distances, reading about amazing athletes past and and present.”
“I just want to see how far I can push my body. It sort of sounds dramatic, but I think it’d be fair to call it a lifestyle for me, because at this point, my friends think that running has become my only personality trait,” he laughs. “I plan gatherings around runs. I show up to gatherings sweaty in my running clothes. I’m hanging out with friends, and then, all of a sudden, I take my joggers off, and I’m wearing my running clothes underneath, and I sort of Clark-Kent-to-Superman it out of the gathering. I just love running!”
He’s also brought his wife along for the ride–she’ll be racing the half-marathon at the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon while he races the marathon in attempt to qualify for the Chicago Marathon. “The marathon is going to be awesome. Every time I go and run downtown, it seems like everyone I talk to is going to be racing, or volunteering, or supporting a friend who’s running,” he says. “The whole city’s showing up. I have so many friends coming to support me–I have friends from the States coming to race, and it’s going to be a huge weekend. I’ve heard that there’s a part of the race where you start running on the lake and it gets really quiet. I don’t think that quiet is going to be happening this year.”
With all that passion for the sport, what does Run Your Way mean to Aboubih? “It sounds corny, but running means everything to me. Running, for me, is about perseverance, discipline, performance, commitment, passion, obsession. It’s an outlet for many things. Running your way means that we’re all on an individual journey with running–mentally, physically, spiritually, whatever it is. But you’re definitely not alone.”
Featured image and video by Nick Iwanyshyn
