Featured

Don Ritchie – The Stubborn Scotsman

July 24, 2018 Rahil Sachak-Patwa

If searching for the longest standing world records in athletics, you will most likely be pointed to Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 800m at the 1983 World Championships. If you dig further still, you may come across Donald ‘Don’ Ritchie, who, on 28th October 1978, ran 100 kilometres around the Crystal Palace track in 6 hours,10 minutes and 20 seconds. To put that into perspective, he averaged a pace of quicker than 6 minutes per mile, or just under 1m29s per lap for 250 of them. This record stood for just short of […]

Featured

The London Marathon – My Beautiful Race

May 1, 2018 Rahil Sachak-Patwa

I step through the archway into the Championship starting area. Whereas the mass start is abuzz with excitement, here the runners are reserved, concealing their enthusiasm for the sport that consumes their lives. Most are just sitting in the large tent, conserving their energy like predators about to go out on a hunt. They don’t want to burn through valuable fuel resources walking about in the sun; they know what’s ahead of them and that they’ll need every ounce of energy they can muster when it comes to the crunch. […]

Featured

My London Marathon: Part I

May 14, 2017 Rahil Sachak-Patwa

There was a nervous but hopeful atmosphere in the red starting area an hour before the London Marathon was to commence. It was akin to a music festival with big screens, portaloos and a sea of excited individuals in shorts. We were funnelled into the start zone and it was only when we were crammed into the pens that the scale of the race dawned on me. We stood there for an endless amount of minutes, making small talk and prepping ourselves for the quest ahead of us. Eventually the clock […]

Advice

How to train for a half marathon

December 11, 2016 Rahil Sachak-Patwa

Whether you’re an experienced runner or just just starting out, the half marathon is a distance which requires some specific training. A race of 13.1 miles is a long way and your preparation in the weeks and months beforehand should reflect this. The physical toll that running a half marathon has on your body should not be underestimated. The last few miles can be gruelling and the race is often just a case of desperately trying to maintain your pace until the end after an optimistically quick start. When training […]

News

Parliament Hill XC Race Report

October 29, 2016 Rahil Sachak-Patwa

With Autumn in full swing and the athletics season over, runners once again turn their attention to cross country. The first London Colleges League meet of the season took place on Wednesday 21st October at Parliament Hill, a course familiar to many runners around the country and the annual starting location for the league.             With a record 252 athletes competing, each club was keen to make a strong start. St Mary’s have had a stronghold over the men’s league in recent years, winning the […]

Advice

The Mindset of a Runner

October 16, 2016 Rahil Sachak-Patwa

At the elite level, there is a nature versus nurture debate in long distance running. Specifically, the question many people ask is, “why are East African runners so good?” Although many scientists have tried to answer this question, the running community is still unsure on the whole. Geneticists have shown that there are ‘athlete genes’, which predispose some people to be better runners than others, for instance determining how much athletes benefit from training. All thing considered though, we are all genetically very similar. If most people have the ability to […]

Advice

Run to Explore

September 30, 2016 Rahil Sachak-Patwa

When people ask me why I run, I can list many reasons; it keeps you fit, I like competing, it’s sociable and the list goes on and on. But perhaps the most appealing aspect of the sport for me is that whilst running I can explore. The word ‘explore’ is defined as travelling through an unfamiliar area to learn about it and that is exactly what running enables you to do. I tried to start running on a number of occasions before I joined my university’s running club, and I […]