More Than a Coach

Every runner knows this and is probably encapsulated the most poignantly by the inevitable conversation we all have with ourselves at some point during the run: “Just to the next streetlamp. Just to the next block. Just to the marshes. Just to the half-way point. Just past the next streetlamp.” In some cultures, talking to yourself is considered a worrying sign, in running, it’s celebrated. It’s your own voice that carries you through those 26 miles and across that finishing line. It’s you, out there, with a laser-sharp focus, battling your way through the elements.

Or is it? Patrick Sang would tell you a different story.

Have you heard of Patrick? No, nor had we. We were introduced to him as the coach of Kenya’s running superstars Eliud Kipchoge and Geoffrey Kamworor. Nike had asked us to create a film to inspire runners training for the next London Marathon and had put us in touch with Eliud and Geoffrey as the potential leading men. Both successful athletes and charismatic and engaging individuals, they were obvious influencers of choice. But during our preparatory creative research and exploration phase it was their coach, Patrick, who really turned our heads. 

Patrick is himself an ex-Olympian with a serious athletic pedigree but you would never know it from his quiet and humble demeanour. He is the perfect embodiment of a team approach. A man with a heart of gold, who isn’t just chasing gold. He’s far more interested in digging for other things. Integrity. Human change. Community.

Patrick resides and trains his athletes on farmland near a small village called Kaptagat in Kenya, his home country. It’s a community as much as it is a training facility. He provides all the necessary equipment and facilities to his athletes at his camp, but the athletes manage their own life maintenance, working together to acquire skills off the road, so that they can then be reapplied in the run later. 

“The older athletes act as mentors. Disadvantaged and stray kids with potential are taken in and given a pair of shoes. And another chance. Humans emerging from the shell of talent. This is what Patrick is really after. Not just medals and breaking records.” 

It’s a modest, arid landscape and a far cry from the high-rise affluence of Nairobi (the more obvious location for the country’s athletic elite). But it’s the perfect earthy setting for living in connection with community and the landscape.

Patrick would say that in the same way it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to raise the bar of an athlete. And, more importantly, that it is also the job of the athlete to look after the community in return.

No More Parachute’s job is to bring sharp cultural insights and creative brilliance to every project we work on. But, always, in a spirit of humility and as part of a wider community and ecosystem of creativity and ideas. When Patrick spoke, we saw not just a kindred sharer of our philosophical approach but an individual who had a huge and important message to share. Once we had met him all we needed to do was point the camera in his direction and not get in the way of capturing the pure message of his wisdom. We were lucky to meet him and Nike was lucky to be able to provide a platform for his voice and, from that, share a soul-grabbing piece of humanness.

We think the whole world could do with a good dose of Patrick Sang right now.