My name is Manni O and I run with Trackmafia. I have been running with them for 7 years.
When I was growing up I wanted to be an athlete and really wanted to play football at professionally. This didn’t happen because I broke my ankle. When I was going to get treatment no one knew what was wrong and I got frustrated. I wanted to find out what was happening and why. I wanted to make sure other young people could achieve their dreams. I think people let me down and didn’t understand what was going on with my injury, I don’t think anyone should go through that. So I decided I would stop that from happening to anyone else.
I studied Sports Therapy first to learn the way we work with athletes, I then studied Physiotherapy to build skills in other conditions. All of this took me 5 years. My plan is to build and develop a way of people to find a career in Physiotherapy. I would like to improve the diversity of the profession, creating a company of Physiotherapists from diverse cultural backgrounds.
The most common running injuries are plantar fasciitis, runners knee and shin splints.
The most Beautiful run I did was on a beach in Denmark with my Patta family. It was raw and wild. We just ran hard, no time, no ques, no one else but us. Just us working hard on a beach and finishing with a party. It was dope.
Foday and everyone have to run their own race and if this ends up beating another person that’s ok. We’re all brothers so no need to worry. Bob Marley said “The day you stop racing, is the day you win”
I think Kabale town in Uganda is my favourite place to run in, it’s my home and to be honest it never gets old. I enjoy the streets and the mountains. It’s the best.