Sirage Saudi had just started as an intern at his favourite architecture studio in the world — Richard Rogers' practice in London (EP 3).
The office had a squad of 12 fit people signed up for a half marathon. A pregnant team member dropped out. They needed a replacement and spotted the new intern — overly smiley, too excited, visibly eager to please. They threw a uniform at him.
Sirage asked how many weeks he had to train. They said: four days.
He had never run 10K before. He went for a 7K test run at lunch and came back half-dead.
He ran the half marathon anyway. At some point, a man in his 50s with diabetes overtook him. He survived it.
He got hooked.
The half marathon became the start of a running habit that eventually pulled Tariq Elmeri in. Sirage casually invited Tariq to a Parkrun — 400 people, lots of Australians, low-intimidation pitch. Tariq showed up and only then realised it was a real 5K race. He was dying by the first lap but finished.
Tariq went on to run 10K races. He called Sirage's mother afterwards to thank her — which made her cry.
A chain: one pregnant colleague drops out, a nervous intern says yes, and years later the host of a podcast is running 10Ks because of it.