Race day prep: Stepping into a student athlete’s shoes

To mark this year’s London Marathon, we take a look at what it’s like to be a competitive runner with Sports student Hamza Rob.

The TCS London Marathon 2025 takes place on Sunday 27 April. We spoke to Capital City College (CCC) student and Team CCC athlete Hamza Rob to learn more about how he trains throughout the year and prepares for competitive runs.

Hamza is a Level 3 Extended Diploma in Sports student who recently recorded a personal best at the recent AOC National Championships.

What distances do you run?

I run the 400m and I recently competed in the 5k at the AOC National Championships. I used to do a lot of distance running but I think 5k is the longest I do now.

How long have you been running competitively?

I’ve been running competitively since I was around 8 years old, and I’m now 17. 

What do you like most about running?

I love the independence of it. When I compete it’s down to me. How I run or what I achieve is down to how I trained or how I performed.

What do you find most challenging about your sport?

I think it’s quite hard because it’s quite an individual sport, so it’s hard to wake up and train every day.

What does your training programme look like?

I have a yearly training programme, and it’s broken down into different parts of the year to focus on different things. From September to November, we’ll be working on base building, which is aerobic work, so maybe doing a few 5ks and slower runs. Once we get into the indoor season in January, I start to focus more on speed work and power in the gym. Then I’ll take a little break and I’ll be going into the outdoor season which is more focussed on race models. So I’ll do a lot of 400m repeats, 60m sprints straight off the blocks and lots of power exercises in the gym.

Would you like to try a marathon?

I wouldn’t mind. With longer distance it’s a lot about repetition and continuous running. I used to run mini marathons in the London stadium and that was quite a fun experience. We started outside the stadium and ran around the stadium and went inside the stadium for the last 400 metres. 

What do you do to prepare for a 5k race?

I usually do lots of longer work, some fartlek training [a type of training that involves mixing up different running speeds] and then I still do a lot of speed work because 5k is quite quick – so I’ll do 200m and 300m repeats. Then, coming into the season I do a lot of 5k testing to see how I’m doing. At my club we have a VO2 max machine [a machine which measures aerobic capacity and shows how much oxygen your body can use during exercise] so we check that as well. With a week to go before a 5k race we cut down on all training for recovery and then two days before we do a little slow run.

I work on my diet a lot with some carb loading in the last two days before the event. About six weeks before a longer run, I’d cut out any sugar and unhealthy stuff. 

What advice would you have for anyone doing the London Marathon this weekend?

I’d say to enjoy it and have fun. 

This year marks the 45th London Marathon, and the event is sure to be as popular as ever. With more than 56,000 people expected to take part, this year’s event aims to break the world record for the highest number of people finishing a marathon.

British athletes such as Alex Yee and Eilish McColgan will make their much-anticipated marathon debuts, while eight-time wheelchair race winner David Weir will be completing the course for the 26th time.

The London Marathon celebrates sportsmanship, supports charities and brings together communities across the capital and beyond. The cheers and encouragement from the crowd help the participants to stay motivated as they completed the lengthy route. If you’re planning to watch the London Marathon this year, make sure you check out the essential spectator information to help your day go as smoothly as possible.

At CCC, we offer a number of Sport and Fitness Courses. We also support students interested in sports through our wide-ranging Sports Academies which offer professional individual coaching, access to exercise and nutrition programmes and opportunities to compete in events.

“I love the independence of it [running]. When I compete it’s down to me. How I run or what I achieve is down to how I trained or how I performed.”

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