His time of 1:09:32 was over a minute faster than the second-place finisher’s, with a blistering pace of 3:18 per kilometre.

When asked what he did to prepare, Yussuf noted that a lot of his training ended up being on his own, away from his teammates, which is far different than usual. During cross country and track season, the group typically becomes a close, cohesive unit.

“There was a lot of training that went into it. There were a lot of Saturday long workouts, 20-minute runs, and intervals,” Yussuf said.

“While the rest of my teammates trained on the track, I did maybe one day of the week on the track with them, and the other days would just be weights in the grotto or Max Bell, and then runs afterwards just to feel strong, and see how it worked.”

When discussing the race, Yussuf mentioned that he was initially on the fence about competing.

“I wanted to do a bit more road races and track races, and I wasn’t super sure that I wanted to do the half marathon, but I hadn’t done it since grade 11, so I just wanted to see what my time was,” said Yussuf.

Things didn’t necessarily go as planned for the speedster in terms of his normal routine.

“The night before the half, it was weird. I wasn’t feeling it, and it was raining so hard,” said Yussuf.

“Then the morning came, and we were trying to rush to the bathroom after we came here [to the university], and there was no time to warm up, so we just jumped in. I said I would just hold on for however long. It turned out pretty okay.”

Yussuf was definitely in his comfort zone on June 15. This was mainly because the half marathon course spanned over a large chunk of the city, and was not repetitive. It is for this reason that he also prefers cross country over track during the year.

“For me, I definitely love cross [country] season,” Yussuf said. “They are longer races, and there are a lot of people, so it’s super fun. We go into different places; it’s a huge challenge, because you’re not always running into those same spots, and it’s not repetitive.”

Yussuf is a humble athlete. He keeps his words reserved, and doesn’t boast, even when speaking of an impressive accomplishment. One thing he is sure of, though, is that his motivation and intensity is something that cannot be taught.

“I don’t think I could tell people what I tell myself,” Yussuf said with a chuckle.

“You kind of force yourself to run. If you want to get better at it, you’ve got to do the training anyways.”