Ep 6. / Amritpal Ghatora - Distance Runner, Coach, Tracksmith Community Manager

Amritpal Ghatora is a British-born Indian distance runner, coach, and inclusive community builder based in London. Amrit is the UK community and marketing manager for TrackSmith, shaping vibrant grassroots runs like speed workouts on the track and the famous TrackSmith Sunday Church of the Long Run. 

He has completed an astounding 29 marathons to date and is a proud six star finisher of the Abbott World Marathon majors. 

Amrit ran his first marathon in London back in 2008 with a time of four hours and 42 minutes and has since improved to a sub three hour marathon personal best of two hours and 51 minutes. 

He is an impressive athlete with an ethos that is rooted in the message of empowerment. 

He encourages representation in the running world and often reflects on being one of the few Asian faces in races and leading running communities. 

Amrit’s community at TrackSmith will be a must-have in my training calendar leading into the Autumn. 

Running has been a thread throughout Amrit's journey. And even if you are not a runner or an athlete, you will take away fabulous tools from today's conversation that can be applied to your life. 

Conversation Highlights:

Career Shift from Engineering to Running Industry – Amritpal transitioned from a decade-long engineering career in aerospace and automotive to becoming Head of Marketing & Community at Tracksmith, merging his professional skills with his lifelong passion for running after redundancy during the pandemic.

Running Journey & Achievements – Starting in 2008 with the London Marathon, Amrit progressed from a 4:42 debut to a 2:59 PB, completing 29 marathons (28 as World Marathon Majors), qualifying for and running Boston, and setting new goals like breaking 2:50 and eventually 2:45.

Building Tracksmith’s London Community – Since 2022, he has grown Tracksmith’s UK presence, leading events, coaching, and creating a space that attracts local and global runners, focusing on connection, inclusivity, and the “amateur spirit” ethos.

Resilience & Reinvention – Facing two difficult years without a stable income post-redundancy, he pivoted into brand partnerships, coaching, and running content creation, leveraging persistence, adaptability, and a strong personal network to open new opportunities.

Purpose & Legacy – Amrit defines purpose as showing up with integrity, intention, and adaptability—aiming to leave a lasting community legacy in London’s running scene while pushing personal limits and inspiring others through consistency and connection.

Social Media:

Coaching Website: https://www.amritpalghatora.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amritpalghatora/reels/

Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/37625515?oq=amri 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/amritpalghatora 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amritpalghatora 

Transcript

Kirstyn DeVries (00:01.134)
Hi, welcome Amrit. It is incredible to have you on today's podcast.

Amritpal Ghatora (00:06.16)
Hi Kirsten, thank you so much for having me on your podcast.

Kirstyn DeVries (00:10.318)
Amazing. Well, you and I know each other from the running world in London, and I'm really excited to talk about the momentum, not only of your journey in the sport of running, but also in the leadership of the incredible work that you do at TrackSmith and around the world of sport. So I know that there are a few different things that we want to hit on today, but I do know that the audience is going to leave feeling inspired to really add some momentum to their life. And I'm excited.

for today's conversation.

Amritpal Ghatora (00:41.85)
Yeah, super excited just to sort of delve into sort of where this has led to in terms of obviously everything I do for my role. Don't think it's a straight line. That's definitely not for sure. But yeah, we'll get into the weeds of how I am where I am today. And obviously what that entails from someone else maybe looking to go along a similar sort of pathway.

Kirstyn DeVries (01:03.48)
Right. And I know that we're speaking and we're in two different continents right now. And I know that London's come out of a crazy heat wave just now. So for runners, it sounds like it's been quite a hectic time for those who are trying to kick off their marathon training. So hopefully you're surviving over there.

Amritpal Ghatora (01:19.952)
Yeah, it's not, it's been not too bad. I had a couple of days away from London over the weekend. It almost felt like a bit over two days off from everyone while they were sort of suffering. I think it's not that hot for everyone else outside of England. They might think, we're just, it's just weak people, but you've got to come to, we live on an island. The UK is an island. We suck the humidity in and it's just different type of heat. So if you haven't experienced it, I'm not sure if I recommend it, but you got to try it at least.

Kirstyn DeVries (01:33.804)
You

Kirstyn DeVries (01:44.334)
Right. So for the audience, can you take us through your personal journey, Amrit, in your career and how that led to where you are today?

Amritpal Ghatora (01:53.326)
Yeah, so obviously today, obviously I work as the head of marketing and community for Tracksmith. And if anyone doesn't know what Tracksmith is, it's a independent running brand. They're based out from Boston, which is their headquarters. And they've got stores in Boston, New York and London. So actual retail stores in those main cities, but they show up at all six, sorry, seven now marathon majors.

Kirstyn DeVries (02:18.732)
Yes, now there's seven.

Amritpal Ghatora (02:20.3)
having done so they've done for the number of years. So they're one of the only brands that really uplifts the sport in terms of showing up for runners and being the for the runner more than anything. And obviously part of their brand's mottoes and part of the brand values is obviously championing the amateur spirit. So that's almost like the everyday person like myself, like you, like you who are working maybe in a nine to five, a corporate job, or even outside of that, doing things from a self-employed point of view, but also

trying to extract the best out of you. So that's obviously my current role, but it's nowhere been that for my entire career after sort of graduating from university, just sort of take a few steps from a number of years back, which is probably gonna expose my age. But I graduated from university with two degrees, a bachelor's in engineering product design. So very much looking at like,

aesthetically how things look and how they work and how they obviously function as a product and a service. And then I did a Masters in Engineering Design from Brunel and that sort of just specialised in a particular area. So naturally I always had the curiosity to A, being a problem solving environment first and foremost and looking at providing solutions to problems and

not creating more of them first and foremost and just a natural sort of things on how things work. I think naturally I kind of fell into it. My parents are super flexible in terms of what I wanted to do as a career. Never sort of pushed, never sort of said you needed to be in a certain industry. Kind of just let me choose naturally which is probably one of the best things and obviously I fell into

Kirstyn DeVries (03:41.742)
Mm-hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (04:06.724)
that typical Asian stereotype, Indian stereotype of like being an engineer, which is fine. I enjoyed it. It's something I had a natural curiosity and passion in and this where it sort of led me to. I didn't really, if I'm being honest with you, I didn't know any different. So it's almost like I went with what my strengths were. I went straight out of university to working in aerospace for a company called BAE Systems who are globally one of the biggest defense companies in the world.

Kirstyn DeVries (04:19.373)
Mm.

Amritpal Ghatora (04:33.148)
and I was working at one of their sites just outside of London in Kent and I was working as a contractor for one year because I struggled a little bit to try and find the right role straight coming out of university which I thought was crazy because I thought I was exceptionally qualified for whatever it might be. So I took a year of an experience just working as a contractor, just learning a few ropes, being in industry which I can assure you differs completely when you're in university. Some of the skills that you learn at university don't even get touched upon when you're in industry and I...

found that incredibly valuable. had a manager named Ian who was exceptional in terms of just developing me and being a really good mentor. I took a huge sort of value in leadership from him and he'd certainly learned as well as me as well being a runner. And obviously I was working in industry and at the same time, simultaneously, I was running. So this is like 2010, 2011-ish. I'd done my first London marathon in 2008. I think a lot of this stuff, yeah, I think.

Kirstyn DeVries (05:09.901)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (05:27.671)
which I want to come back to, by the way, because people don't just get onto marathons randomly.

Amritpal Ghatora (05:31.576)
Yeah, I think a lot of my up to date has kind of run in like two sort of career lines. One is like my career path that's sort of like in the corporate sort of world. And then there's like the other life is like the running world. like, essentially, have two parallel, they're two lines that just like transcend between like, and I'm in the middle of them, I control both of them. That's where it's sort of led to until I joined Traxmas where they both basically merged into one.

Kirstyn DeVries (05:38.124)
Okay.

Kirstyn DeVries (05:53.996)
I love that.

Amritpal Ghatora (06:00.656)
So I think that's the ultimate goal. obviously taking a step back, I worked for BAE for a year and then I found, then I was in another aerospace role working for a company that basically did like internal equipment for like your Airbus A350s, your flights that you take all the time. So was working on a coffee maker, the R &D for a coffee maker. Bearing in mind, I don't drink coffee. I used to basically brew buckets and buckets loads of coffee to try and fix this unit that they had and try and get it in.

Kirstyn DeVries (06:29.453)
So do we thank you for coffee on airplanes then.

Amritpal Ghatora (06:33.22)
I don't know if that's a compliment or not. don't know. Potentially. I don't know potentially. But we were on that R &D project and I did that for three years. And then obviously I went into the automotive industry for a year. Absolutely hated it. I resigned on a Friday afternoon and walked out and I was like, I'm not going to go for this. That was literally one of those uplifting moments for me. And then I went back to BAE because I was approached again to join them. And obviously I stayed there then for...

Kirstyn DeVries (06:35.403)
Right. All right.

Amritpal Ghatora (07:00.976)
for five years just prior to the pandemic. And I was, again, I stayed as a contractor, so I preferred it being that way. I preferred not getting myself involved in hierarchical changes, internal politics, and I just liked going to work doing something that I was very specialized in. And I also had a super close relationship with pilots, because I used to design their helmets and work out some safety estimates. So very sort of niche sort of role.

Kirstyn DeVries (07:30.839)
Yeah, really interesting. I'm still applying the design pieces that you were doing from university in your day to day. Yeah.

Amritpal Ghatora (07:30.856)
and then the pandemic.

Amritpal Ghatora (07:35.984)
Yes, definitely because I had like skill set in terms of some of the computer a modeling some of like the analysis stuff that we did. So some stuff definitely transitioned over and just having a basic understanding of like how things need to work and what sort of process you need to follow. So I think definitely that helped me sort of in good stead and like gave me a good opportunity to sort of develop that side of things. And then

Kirstyn DeVries (07:59.274)
Emmerich, can I ask what do you think you learned about people in that moment? For instance, you're working close with pilots there and having to do one-on-one conversations, user testing. What do you think that part of that job taught you?

Amritpal Ghatora (08:09.936)
It taught me that you have to be super reactive to a person's needs because it's not essentially what I need to give them, it's what they're asking me to do. And it's very sort of centric to a certain requirement. It's a position of safety, it's a critical item, it's something which cannot fail. Otherwise it's someone's life at stake here or someone's...

Kirstyn DeVries (08:22.762)
Well said.

Amritpal Ghatora (08:38.96)
life after something that could happen. So yeah, you're kind of delivering to exactly what they need.

Kirstyn DeVries (08:45.484)
Great. And then how did you move on from that job and where was the running thread during that time for you in your personal world?

Amritpal Ghatora (08:54.288)
Yeah, so obviously 2020 came and obviously the pandemic here and obviously being a contractor, I was naturally in a very precarious position because as soon as flights are grounded because of the pandemic, as a company BAE lost a lot of contracts or they're basically on hold because there wasn't a lot of things going on and my role got me redundant during like the summer period of 2020. I was, I'm being honest, I kind of thought it could happen.

Kirstyn DeVries (09:07.916)
Hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (09:23.728)
Just because of the nature of it, wasn't sure when we were going back into the office and I was just like, this is a bit tough. So obviously naturally being made redundant is not the best feeling in the world, especially if you haven't got something lined up. So that kind of put me in a scenario of like, do I do now? literally I have no fullback plan. And obviously simultaneously towards that, like up until like 2020, if I roll it back into like the running side of things.

2008 I did my first London Marathon. Hugely inspired when I was at college, just to become a little bit more fit, just to do something a little bit for myself from a physical point of view. Maybe I was a little bit heavier than I needed to be, so I wanted to move around a little bit more, being a bit lazy as a late teen and not being productive. I remember seeing Dane Kelly Holmes win her second gold medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004. I think the year before I saw

Kirstyn DeVries (10:18.518)
Yeah.

Amritpal Ghatora (10:20.944)
Paul O'Racliffe, break the world record. I don't know, said running was, that was my first sort of like visualization of running. And like I had to do this two, this two female leads who I just took so much inspiration from. And I was just like, you know what, I'm going to try this for myself. And I remember going, I used to live in East London at the time. And I grew up in Upton Park slash Plastow area, which is just around the corner from West Ham for any football fans out there. I could see the stadium from my window.

Kirstyn DeVries (10:25.558)
Yeah.

Amritpal Ghatora (10:50.542)
And I had a park near me which was aptly called West Ham Park. And I remember going there one summer and I like, you know what, I'm going to do a little loop around the little green area and then just come home and just sort of see how that felt, which was fine. I did it. And then the next day I did two loops and then obviously the loop the days after that, I did like maybe two, three or four loops. And then I remember being there at the time and I stepped into the park and I remember seeing, I think it was a coach or maybe like a father.

Kirstyn DeVries (11:07.532)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (11:11.99)
well.

Amritpal Ghatora (11:20.196)
figure type it was and he was like maybe he was training someone else and he obviously saw me running and bearing in mind I never saw anyone running that park it was very sort of quiet and he said to me like no pain no gain like and I was like okay I had no idea what he was talking about I had no idea and I just took it on board I never saw this guy again ever and I remember coming home and I quite enjoyed it I quite enjoyed that the running aspect and I started looking into maybe like getting like

Kirstyn DeVries (11:33.435)
wow.

Amritpal Ghatora (11:48.496)
pair of trainers and I remember going to like one of these stores which had like, you try all different types of shoes and I remember getting a pair of shoes and obviously naturally quite interested in tech. I remember at the time Apple and Nike did a collaboration with the little mini iPod where a little chip goes into the bottom of the iPod. One of the chips goes into the bottom of the shoe and you can see how far you ran in terms of your steps. was fascinated by that, I absolutely loved it.

Kirstyn DeVries (11:58.775)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (12:12.598)
Wow.

Amritpal Ghatora (12:15.844)
I've tracked every single run till that day. I think I've probably done like 40,000 miles in all my running and that aspect hooked me in in terms of being, seeing my metrics whilst I did something quite physically because I didn't have a GPS watch. didn't have like these Strava routes where you can sort of create the route and see how far you're running. Literally just walk out the door and go for a run and just come back. So that's kind of how I found running in a very natural, very organic way and I did it for myself.

Kirstyn DeVries (12:17.932)
Thank

Kirstyn DeVries (12:22.653)
So interesting.

Kirstyn DeVries (12:42.496)
Right.

Amritpal Ghatora (12:45.85)
First and foremost.

Kirstyn DeVries (12:46.06)
And when you and I met for coffee, you also said, you know, you were just trying to find out, how much could you run? So I love that part of the story where you just sort of started with one lap and then kept on adding on. And one of the things he said was, you know, he had this thought of like, you know, I would really love to put a number on my chest and do a race. At what point did you think that?

Amritpal Ghatora (13:06.064)
I think I'd been running for about seven months and not to the fact that I was doing it every single day. I would maybe go out maybe like once a week type of thing but it was something that I knew that I could do for myself and I remember because I'd been aware of like the tech and like the signed up to these like newsletters and that's when they were quite prominent in the city and they were doing all these sort of ad hoc events like every summer they'll do like

like a run nocturnal, like run Richmond Park. it's like a, it's like a run, it's like a run to a different type of event. And he kind of hooked me in like to, to that extent. And I remember seeing they had like a North versus South London race. And I was like, cool, this is sounds pretty cool. I'd love to be a part of this. It's my first sort of big event. And I remember being part of North London, we ran.

Kirstyn DeVries (13:49.9)
Cool.

Amritpal Ghatora (14:01.956)
10K in Hyde Park. And obviously they took the average of all those people that ran North and the average of everyone who ran South and whoever was the fastest got bragging rights. Very sort of cool sort of way. And that was my first medal. And I just, loved it. I just, I just really loved it. I loved getting a t-shirt. I loved getting the medal. I loved sort of being part of like something as like an event. I didn't really know anyone in running. I didn't know anyone. And I just turned up, just did the run and sort of went home and that sort of element.

led me to be like you know what I'm going to apply for the London Marathon. Obviously going back to what I saw with Willard Paul or Radcliffe and I remember applying in like early 2007 for the 2008 edition and I got a first-time ballot probably because maybe there was hardly anyone doing it at the time I don't know but

Kirstyn DeVries (14:36.256)
Well...

Kirstyn DeVries (14:50.301)
Yeah, it's really difficult. I guess for non-runners listening to the podcast, it's quite difficult to get a London Marathon ballot these days. In fact, I know people that have been waiting year on year and still haven't got in via the ballot. So I think maybe can you explain a little bit how it is now?

Amritpal Ghatora (15:04.535)
Yeah, so at the moment the London Marathon ballot is an open application. It's a free application for anyone that wants to apply for the London Marathon. It's usually open the day before the actual race on that year and it's open for a period of a week or so. It's free to enter and it's again, at the moment they've had an increase year on year, especially since the pandemic more than anything. And at the moment they had this year, they had 1.1 million people apply for the race. And essentially you're applying for maybe, I think it's like...

five or six thousand spots which is you can do them you can do the maths in terms of what the ratio is but at the time I did it I think there was 35,000 applications and I think for the same number of spots and I was in I mean I was incredibly lucky I mean I'm a huge believer in fate I'm a huge believer in like everything happens for a reason maybe it was my lucky win to have got that spot and I remember applying for the London Marathon getting it I was like I'm gonna do the London Marathon and I remember at that time I was working

in industry, I had a year in industry and I was working at a place in Victoria around the corner from the finish line and I basically sucked everyone in that was working in the department. I was one of the junior engineers and I didn't have a, because I had a ballot spot, I didn't need to run for charity but I wanted to. I ran for the British Heart Foundation, not because it was like someone in the, someone like, I just picked a charity that I felt I matched with the best and I ended up raising like 3,000 pounds for the charity.

Kirstyn DeVries (16:19.646)
Amazing.

Kirstyn DeVries (16:26.368)
Mm-hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (16:29.264)
everyone from my work came down to support and I had a really good experience although it rained on the day and I was wearing about 10-15 layers because I didn't know what to dress for I thought I going have a heart attack when I got home because I felt like my chest was compressed I was like is this normal? Is this what you're supposed to feel like? And I was supposed to feel like I can't move and I don't know I just had a really good experience I remember being in the queue for the bathroom at the start of the race and I remember

Kirstyn DeVries (16:38.089)
Ha!

Amritpal Ghatora (16:54.64)
I think people could sense my nervous energy because I literally wasn't saying anything and like I think you can spot first timers quite easily. I remember being, I remember sharing this with you in the coffee, when we had coffee that there's a couple in front of me and they asked me how many marathons I'd done, I like, my first one, I was like, is my first one, and I was like, how many have you done? They were like, this is my 10th. And I remember looking up and them thinking like, why? Like, why would you do that? Like, how do you get to 10 from one? I just couldn't really compute. But now looking back,

Kirstyn DeVries (17:00.949)
Mm-hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (17:16.234)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (17:20.553)
Mm-hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (17:23.62)
to that moment, I'm probably those guys times two or three. when I say that to someone else who's doing it for the first time, they must look at me thinking, you absolute freak. Like, what are you doing? So like, birthday, that's when you find you have a love for something. And I think that natural love kind of occurred during that moment.

Kirstyn DeVries (17:28.799)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (17:34.716)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (17:42.003)
Yeah, and interestingly, right, and now you've raced quite a lot of marathons. How many have you done now to date?

Amritpal Ghatora (17:48.405)
29 28 of them are majors which i find is even more mind-blowing

Kirstyn DeVries (17:51.723)
29.

Kirstyn DeVries (17:56.981)
That's incredible. And one of the things that came up when you and I were chatting about some of the running training in those early days is there was a moment sort of, and I think it was around the time that you had met some of those Nike folks and it occurred to you that to have a competitive edge, you sort of needed to start running with other people rather than just lapping West Ham Park on your own. And so when did that come into play? And then how did that lead into almost that time of your life where you've had two degrees, you were made redundant and you ride a crossroads?

Amritpal Ghatora (18:15.608)
Yeah.

Amritpal Ghatora (18:26.052)
Yeah, and think, I think obviously, naturally, obviously, like I went back to university, obviously, to study in 2011, 12, 13, I still ran the London marathon, like I still was part of it because having had such a good experience in the first one, I said to myself, whatever I can do to be there, I'll do it. Whether it's raise money, I raised money for charity four times. And having done that and know people who do that now, it's just not easy. Once you get after that first one, that hard sell of doing it again, like people are are you not going to run anyway? Like, why do I have to pay to support you to run? And it's really, really hard.

understand that but I was trying to do something good at the same time and obviously benefit out of it and obviously just do some good for charity and I remember getting to 2014 and I hadn't run the London Marathon that year I got married the year before and I took that spring off and then I was like I'd like to do Berlin Marathon because it's part of the majors, it's part of this series and I did Berlin in September and again new country first time racing abroad I had a really good experience I really enjoyed it and then I said is that

had a moment in time where from my first marathon, which was just literally under five, four hours, 42, I'd broken four and done around like 350. So like still learning, still like understanding like what it takes to be better and obviously how I could sort of hone in on my own sort of natural, my own ability for it. And at that point in time, I was like, I'd like to explore running with other people. And again, I had this huge close connection with like Nike being part of the brand. I was very sort of...

Kirstyn DeVries (19:37.163)
Mm-hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (19:54.936)
obsessed by everything they were doing, the brand campaigns, the messaging, the meaning, the product, the kit, like everything encompassed it. And they were doing a lot in London at the time. And they had launched the Nike Run Club, which even to this day right now, I still know a lot of people from that club, which I think is exceptional, because that's a testament in terms of how it pulls people together. And aside from...

Kirstyn DeVries (20:10.922)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, this sport definitely does pull people together.

Amritpal Ghatora (20:16.08)
Yeah, and aside from like run-dem crew in London, which I never went to, I never really was a part of, I went to Nike Run Club where I met some of the coaches that I still know today and some of the runners where I was able to just immerse myself in this competitive environment where I can run with other people, I can test myself, I can maybe switch different groups, I can push myself more than I ever could realize by doing that on my own. And it was that inflection point in like 2015 where I started to then...

be more attracted to the majors, starting running Tokyo Marathon around Chicago for the first time. I'd still done London many, many times every single year. I always said to myself, if I can, I'll do London Marathon every single year until I can't do it anymore. And as I started to sort of get into that 2014, 2015 sort of time, and I was still running like 345 at that time, 330-ish, then I started to awaken my eyes to maybe trying to run Boston because it was like...

Kirstyn DeVries (20:59.892)
Wow.

Amritpal Ghatora (21:12.592)
the most elusive major in my eyes. And I remember seeing in 2012 of, I went back to my camera roll actually. I had a picture of the Boston Marathon medal in my camera roll from 2012. I don't know why. I don't remember why I took a picture of it, but it was there. It was there in the backhand line. I think it was driving a lot of it. Not that I even realized it. Subconsciously, I started doing... Yeah, I think so. I'm a believer in integrity and I'm a huge believer in doing things on merit.

Kirstyn DeVries (21:27.69)
Mm.

Kirstyn DeVries (21:31.986)
It's like it was providing vision for you somehow subconsciously.

Amritpal Ghatora (21:42.919)
I wanted to line up in Boston knowing that I'd qualified on the day and knowing that I could stand with peers from the running world, complete strangers that we all earned our right here. I'm a huge believer in that. I know people who have gone the opposite route, which is fine, but that's not my journey. That's not my journey. I'm okay with doing it the way that I want you to do it. So then obviously got to like 2017. I had like a sub three attempt, failed it. 2018 was like the London marathon heat wave.

failed it, 2018, my third attempt in Berlin. I actually worked my backside off during that summer because I was so close and around 259, I had a day to spare to qualify for the... Yeah, it's like...

Kirstyn DeVries (22:25.258)
I've got a two year goal to run a 259, so we've to sit down and talk about how I can actually achieve that.

Amritpal Ghatora (22:31.248)
So I don't know, I was just so driven. I was just so driven that I wanted to get that time and I knocked off 18 minutes from the previous best to what I ran in Berlin on that day. And I remember taking the train out from Berlin to the airport. I put my application in Boston and about 10 days later I got accepted into the 2019 Boston Marathon, which I just felt like it was just meant to be. It was just meant to be. And I was just so pumped about.

Kirstyn DeVries (22:34.034)
Yeah. Wow.

Kirstyn DeVries (22:56.904)
Yeah, what a milestone.

Amritpal Ghatora (23:01.05)
going to Boston for the first time, because I see it as this mecca, this mecca of running and I had never been before and I'd sort of seen all the movies and the stories and et cetera. So that sort of culminated that part of the journey in terms of six stars. Obviously I still ran majors after that, but then they kind of line up to 2020 where like obviously I've been made redundant. I had this huge passion for running. I was a pacer for Nike for two and a half years. I was part of their run club.

helping people to become better runners and I was in that world anyway. Having that sort of influence on my own Instagram that I was sharing at the time. So I've been always doing that sort of side of social media. Came to 2020 and then I said to myself, you know what, I'm going to do my coaching qualifications. I'm going to do my running leadership, my coaching badges that I can potentially give back to other runners because I knew so much about the sport. I knew so much about coaching. I just wanted to give it a try.

And at that time I kind of fully immersed myself into doing a lot of stuff on social media like YouTube, putting more content out there, putting more educational pieces out there, making sure people can understand what my journey was like, how I've got to becoming running like from 442 to 251, like my aspiration, that sort of thing. I was definitely doing a lot more of that. And at that same time, simultaneously from like 21 to 22, I was still applying for roles in engineering. I think I might have had about 50 interviews and I got zero offers.

Kirstyn DeVries (24:10.877)
Yeah.

Amritpal Ghatora (24:24.816)
which I found at one point to I think about three quarters into that I said to my wife who backed me like every single step of the way and I think without that sort of support and help I don't think you can as a guy as a man like you can't really you need that someone there to be beside your side beside you and like I think it got to that point where I said maybe I'm not meant to go back to engineering and then I fully went into like running

Kirstyn DeVries (24:25.127)
have.

Amritpal Ghatora (24:49.872)
content and like doing stuff with brand photo shoots. And I kept saying to myself, if I can secure one photo shoot with a sports brand per month, it's okay. It's fine. I'm happy.

Kirstyn DeVries (24:57.769)
What did that transition feel like in terms of your emotional state and that feeling of risk that was a total shift from looking down the pathway of what would have been engineering job focused, you know, very much in the consulting world and then that 180, what did that feel like?

Amritpal Ghatora (25:15.664)
If I'm being honest with those two years from like 2020 to 22, probably the worst two years of my life, I'm going to be honest. I think I was at very rock bottom. I never took a salary for two months. Like that sort of pressure in terms of financially and emotionally, it's quite draining. And I'm probably a very good poker person. just don't, I don't, I just never let on the day to day.

it affects me and let other people's noise affect me. Whatever I could control, I'd control it. I just need a small circle. And if that's one other person, if that's my partner, that's enough for me. I don't need like all these other people to sort of weigh in because I just feel like it clouds my judgment a little bit. And I found being, yeah. I was okay. there's demand. There's obviously they want,

Kirstyn DeVries (25:55.562)
So you start doing the photo shoots for the brands and what did that inject into your life at that time?

Amritpal Ghatora (26:08.72)
different types of people from their previous sort of campaigns. And obviously I felt like what I was doing in the running space, it was resonating back to me. So like I was what I was putting in, there was something coming back and I felt valued from a point of that if I continued doing this, I just don't know what doors would open because I literally, it was like, hey, would you like to do this? Would you like to do this campaign? Would you like to do this campaign? Like, would you want to create this content? And it was very much.

You don't know what your next job or role type is. if I'm being honest with you, I'd always want it to leave engineering. I just didn't know what the right way to come out of it and what that monetization or that sort of career pathway was. I just didn't know until, I always think of it as a blessing in disguise. I know a lot of people who have sort of used the pandemic as a huge springboard and a leap board to do things maybe for themselves.

Kirstyn DeVries (26:54.653)
Mm-hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (27:00.686)
and where I sort of started sort of the conversation of having those two lines and those two pillars of like one being like a corporate sort of engineering sort of line and the other one being a running line in like 2022 they merged together where I've merged my career and passion together in terms of I got asked to become an yeah I got asked to I did a three month coaching gig thing with Nike getting more people onto the track

Kirstyn DeVries (27:14.505)
Okay, say more about that.

Amritpal Ghatora (27:27.344)
So I think one of the coaches, Lloyd Kempson, a good friend of mine now, we work together on a on a weekly basis for TrackSmith. And he got me involved with that. again, just because he knew me and he was just wanting to give other coaches a bit of background and bit of uplifting. So that was a huge way for me to coach people in person as well as those people that I was coaching online. And then from there, I got asked to join the TrackSmith ambassador program. Again, I was a huge fan of the brand.

I'd been to the track house in Boston in 2019. I remember making my first purchase in like 2018 for some of their stuffing kit. So I loved the aesthetic. I loved the brand values, the campaigns, the photography, all this sort of stuff. And I remember joining as an ambassador and I coached a couple of their long runs that were in London for the very, very first time in 2022, because I heard they were coming to London. They were looking to hire a London community manager at the time.

and the track house that they looked for was in Marlbone. Still nothing opened, but obviously they found a place and they were bringing a light version of this 100 Days to London program over the summertime because the London Marathon was still in October, the last one that was in October in 2022. And I led a few of those roles alongside another coach and that role couldn't be fulfilled by the other coach and then I went for it. And I remember saying in the interviews that...

Kirstyn DeVries (28:35.337)
Mm-hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (28:49.296)
you're literally not going to find anyone else who can do this role better than me. And at end of the day, you have to back yourself, you have to really sort of champion what you believe in. And I fully believed in myself and to... Yeah, I remember saying, oh, you regret not hiring me. And I mean, that could fall, it could be overconfidence. You could call that as ego. I don't know. I don't know what you want to call it, but it's, had to, I was so passionate about doing it. I was so passionate that I can do this job.

Kirstyn DeVries (28:53.949)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (28:59.613)
Wow. Like the bold statement of you'll regret not hiring me, essentially.

Amritpal Ghatora (29:17.966)
And I got the role two and half years later, obviously I've been leading the London community and sort of building Traxmas blueprint in the UK and as well as Europe, doing some stuff in Japan as well for that element. And I think it goes to show that if you feel strongly about something, if you feel passionate about something and you feel as if that you can stand above someone else, then why wouldn't you back yourself? Because the person down the street isn't going to do it because they don't know who I am. So.

That's where it kind of led to where I merged both of those two pillars together where I'm essentially hugely lucky, hugely sort of grateful. I still see it as a huge blessing that I get to do and be a part of the running world and community as a daily job. I get to meet some incredible people who've got some incredible roles and stories and have a huge group of paces and volunteers who help put these things on on a weekly basis. And yeah, I think it's incredible.

space to be in at the moment.

Kirstyn DeVries (30:16.284)
Yeah, and when we spoke, you said something along the lines of, it helped you almost pull out that strength that you already had, but that was sort of dormant with you as a connector and being able to give other runners something that's not in their life. And that's almost that sense of connectivity and community. And I love that because that's how we know each other as you leading actually the community that's there and the incredible pacers that have helped me actually in some of my trainings exists and actually show up because of the community that you've built. And so

I love that that connection is one of the main themes around what's driving you.

Amritpal Ghatora (30:50.34)
Yeah, I think it's essential because like I always say to myself and I think is probably put in this could probably answer another one of the questions is I'm a huge reflector. I reflect a lot on things that have yet to happen and I also reflect a lot on things that have happened. And I think also from a point of view where I'm also a perfectionist. I just want to make sure that anything that's got my name to it, anything that's got my my hallmarks on it, it's done to the absolute best. No, I want to make sure no stone is

Kirstyn DeVries (31:07.24)
Mmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (31:20.354)
turn and you hear these phrases all the time, got all dot the i's and cross the t's and but what does that actually mean? For me it means that someone else can come to something that you're a part of or that you've organised or you've led and leave a positive experience of their life and I feel like that is what that means to me and I feel like every time we whether it's a

Kirstyn DeVries (31:21.0)
Hmm.

Kirstyn DeVries (31:34.29)
Right.

Amritpal Ghatora (31:42.498)
a community event at seven o'clock on a Friday morning, which means absolutely nothing to the normal person. But for that one person that's maybe there for the very, very first time or coming back after a layoff or coming back to the city because they're traveling, they committed their time to be there with you. So you want to make sure it's the best time that they can experience. And if they enjoyed it, they'll come back if they didn't and they're not in the city and at least they remember it and say, hey, I went to this place and it was a great, a great two hours of my life.

Kirstyn DeVries (32:09.19)
Yeah, I actually know of people that work in as flight attendants, air hostesses that are coming to TrackSmith when they're on a layover because of the community that you've built. So really incredible what you're doing. Now for the audience, can you take us through a typical day in your life now that you are running the TrackSmith community? How are you managing your workload? And if we were to look at your calendar, what is on there?

Amritpal Ghatora (32:33.52)
So it's very, very flexible. I have a very flexible role. I'm able to work from home. I'm able to work from the track house in Marlbone. And obviously I have like set certain things that I have to do during the week that sort of map out what my roadmap is for the week. But generally like it's very...

Some things are process driven that I need to make sure I communicate. For example, getting like our weekly communication out about our runs, our scheduling, making sure that's all done from a programming perspective. Reaching new people, whether that's inquiring about like certain partnerships and certain connections. It's actually leading the sessions in person that I do. I commit time to doing that myself, but I'm very much like in a...

a strong position to who I can surround myself with people who can uplift everything that I do. So the structure itself, I'm not bound to a time. I'm not bound to a clock. I'm not bound to, as long as things get done from like a calendar perspective, I've hit my objectives. hit making sure people are coming to the club, making sure that it's well run, making sure that we have everything we need to make sure it's running well. And whether that's working at 11 o'clock on a...

Monday night or whether that's working at 6 a.m. on a Friday morning and having a couple of days to do what I need to do. So I think it's very, it's hard to describe that to a normal person that leads a normal sort of conventional sort of hourly job, whereas mine is just like, just get the stuff done and can get on with the rest of part of your life.

Kirstyn DeVries (34:05.628)
Yeah, so it's almost like you've actually learned sort of where the prioritization is and it actually surrounds the momentum that is coming through the actual programming within the track house, but also it sounds like you have this incredible intuition of sort of energy management and when are you able to fit the things in that take a little bit more cognitive power, those could work at a certain time of day versus the community-based things where you need to be switched on in a face-to-face engagement opportunity, for instance.

Amritpal Ghatora (34:30.19)
Yeah, definitely. also think that my calendar sort of reflects clarity of chaos more than anything. think it's...

Kirstyn DeVries (34:37.256)
Right.

Amritpal Ghatora (34:38.416)
very sort of driven to extract the best out of like for example on a Friday I take a lead around on a Monday, Friday morning and then I basically position myself at the track house for the day. I know that I can't get the best out of myself when I'm there because it's just a lot going on there's a lot of people to see there's a lot of people to sort of interact with and taking like five minutes to sort of five, ten minutes, half an hour to sort of step away on your laptop is sometimes quite tricky so I make sure that my weakest structure that

I'm able to sort of give back to other people on that particular Friday knowing that I've ticked off everything I need to do during that week and making sure that where my meetings are done, everything I need to do on a collaborative point of view is all ticked off and I'm not sort of leaving anyone sort of hanging because that's not the best way to but definitely do stuff and I definitely prioritize the most important things to get them done early in the week.

Kirstyn DeVries (35:28.552)
Yeah, and when you were telling your story earlier, you sort of talked about obviously that pivotal moment where you made that transition from the engineering and over into this role that you're now doing. And that was sort of that moment where you got thrown off pace. You were just talking about sort of the chaos of the calendar. Do you have a non-negotiable or a habit in your routine, Amrit, that pulls you back when everything feels off course? Is it that self-reflection piece that you mentioned, or is there also something else in there that you personally do?

Amritpal Ghatora (35:53.008)
Yeah, think running grounds me, first and foremost. think that's like a lot of us can sort of resonate with the fact that maybe getting out in the morning for a morning run and what if I'm being honest, what I really, really like to do and what makes me feel exceptionally productive is if I normally want to wake up, say I wake up at 7 o'clock, I like to do a couple of hours of work first, maybe have breakfast, let that digest, do a couple of hours of work.

Kirstyn DeVries (35:57.915)
Agreed.

Kirstyn DeVries (36:16.337)
Mm-hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (36:20.654)
then head out for my run because I feel like I've done two things before I really get stuck into things and I don't like to, I know some people like to get out the run nice and early, make sure it's the first thing that they do for themselves. But I always have this on the back of my mind. I went on if I need to send something, I want to get it out while it's like I've thought about it. And I think that grounding, that non-negotiable of giving something to the working calendar, as well as giving something to my own running.

whether it's interrelates, like I do the running first or the working first, either one of them will get done or simultaneously it will happen together. Sometimes I'm out on a run and I'm thinking about how I'll respond back to something when I get back home type of things. I can't use that time like a lot of people do because we switch off and we sort of go and runs, but I use that time as like the non-negotiable morning to set the rest of my day up.

Kirstyn DeVries (37:03.077)
Yes.

Kirstyn DeVries (37:11.983)
Yeah, yeah, I'm kind of the same. recently been choosing to run without my headphones, which has been really transformative. So that can be helpful at sort of setting up my thoughts as well. So as a connector of people, Amrit, know, it's reaching back into our networks is something that you and I both do quite frequently. And I'm curious, is there a person that has deeply impacted your journey and what have you learned from them that you still carry with you?

Amritpal Ghatora (37:36.09)
think it goes back to those first early days when I stepped into running with other people. Maybe I haven't said this enough to them in particular, but I always credit Rory Knight and Omar Mansour who were coaches for Nike at the time now, working together in their own running space and wellness apps and all this sort of stuff. But then they had a hugely lasting impression on me just because of the fact that

they were welcoming. They allowed me to come into this space and like explore what that meant. They also gave me the opportunities to join them as part of like the next level of that network. they didn't have to, but then obviously like they respected someone's sort of ambition to sort of want to learn and be a part of the running community. And they just taught me how like what it's like to be humble, to have humility in the running world, to be grounded, to be sort of respectful and just, I think...

That sort of like, you don't have to be perfect. Just being excellent isn't sometimes perfection, but it's just consistency. Being able to do that under pressure, I think is one of the things I learned a lot. And I think one thing I've always done since in my running journey is just being consistent. You could do the same thing, but if you do it over and over again, and you're just always consistent, it doesn't matter if it's the same thing. It's always gonna be there, and people really rely on that. And I think...

That's how it shaped me. That's how it was something that's ingrained in my sort of day to day and how I run my calendar, how I run my own running journey, like committing to a training plan, how I do programming and like certain stuff that I do for tracks. Because we do a lot of stuff at tracks. I'll just be honest, I do a lot of stuff in my, it's not just one fixed role. If there's something that needs to be done from the retail element, I can jump in there. If there's something that needs to be done from the other aspects of marketing, I can jump in there. Operational stuff, it's just, you can literally do quite a lot of stuff. It's very...

Kirstyn DeVries (39:22.567)
Mm-hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (39:33.104)
in a weird way, it is a 10 year old business. It's very entrepreneurial in the roles itself, which I think is quite cool. It's a nice place to be.

Kirstyn DeVries (39:38.854)
Yeah.

No, it's great. I mean, it's an entrepreneurial brand, but I also think the sport of running tends to attract not only entrepreneurs, but just people that like the momentum and actually thrive on consistency. so I've actually found in coming to any of the tracksmith events, it is impossible not to meet ambitious people. right. That's just sort of attracts that sort of person, the sport itself. And so is that I'm going to ask actually, you know, for you.

Amritpal Ghatora (40:00.144)
100%.

Kirstyn DeVries (40:10.34)
You've already spoken about a ton of things that you've achieved, but I would love to know, is there any vision or goal at the moment that you're working on that scares you just a little? And what does that stretch demand of you?

Amritpal Ghatora (40:22.448)
Is this like a personal one or just like in general like a career one or?

Kirstyn DeVries (40:27.096)
in whichever way you want to answer it.

Amritpal Ghatora (40:29.808)
Okay, so first and foremost, from a personal point of view, goal is to run a sub-245 marathon. I'm gonna go up 24, first and foremost 250, and then obviously ultimately 245, because that gets me close to being two hours under my very first original time, which I think, I mean, it means nothing, but it kind of shows that if I can do it, literally anyone can. so the first goal is to get into 250, which...

Kirstyn DeVries (40:35.472)
Sub 245.

Kirstyn DeVries (40:45.635)
Wow.

Amritpal Ghatora (40:53.296)
I think I'm probably on my eighth attempt now. So I'm going to keep going until I physically feel like I can't do it. But I feel exceptionally motivated right now in 2025. I think I surrounded myself with a very small group of people who are like very much accountable. We're keeping ourselves, each other accountable. We're already to a point where it's like we banner each other and it's just the smallest things. We're running together type of thing. So that's been a huge driver for me. And also being able to do the Berlin Marathon for...

Kirstyn DeVries (41:10.916)
Yeah, that's so important.

Amritpal Ghatora (41:23.216)
for the sixth time now. I'm not sure how many more times I'll do this race, but I've said to myself that if this is the last one for a while, I want to give it my all. I want to really get myself into good shape. think because I've been so occupied in my role in the last 18 months, I've kind of put my own personal running journey. I've still been running and training to my absolute best, but that does take a toll on the body where you can only give so much, especially if you're working flat out in another particular part of your role.

Kirstyn DeVries (41:52.795)
Yeah.

Amritpal Ghatora (41:53.146)
this time around I'm trying to make sure I'm healthy, I'm trying to make sure I eat the right things, just all the basic stuff that we all say to other people but I'm trying to do that for myself. From a career point of view I'm just the biggest thing that scares me, not scares me but like inspires me and like I want to have like a lasting impression is like I want there to be a legacy for tracksmith in London and like in the UK knowing that like

Kirstyn DeVries (42:01.687)
Yeah.

Amritpal Ghatora (42:18.992)
the roots of this brand, obviously sort of come over from Boston to London. And I'd love to be remembered as that pioneer for the brand for London and making sure that not people remember, but people, we all have shared moments in life. in 10, 15 years time, we may not be in the same cities. We may not be, we might be doing different things, different jobs and different stuff, but you'll remember those five years where you, I was in London, you went to this one place.

Kirstyn DeVries (42:22.66)
Mm-hmm.

Amritpal Ghatora (42:49.122)
and you felt that was like a homely pace and that's what connects us all because we were taking, we're not taking monetary stuff with us to the grave, all this sort of stuff, we take memories with us and I think that for me, having good memories, having good moments where you connect and share and the nice feeling of doing that over a 10 mile run or a five mile run, whatever it might be, that is what I think is scary in terms of like making sure that remains on a daily to weekly basis and monthly basis and making sure we can

Kirstyn DeVries (42:52.699)
Yeah.

Amritpal Ghatora (43:18.256)
keep doing that on a yearly basis. Because I always people say to me, year one, year two, year three, like what happens in the five years? And you want to keep continuing to grow the brand. You want to basically show up and have brand awareness, hand brand affirmation and making sure people understand what the community is. And to be able to keep doing that over one to five years, stands the test of time in my eyes. So it's also scary and daunting, but it's a huge sort of challenge and like an ambition of mine.

Kirstyn DeVries (43:38.235)
Yeah.

Kirstyn DeVries (43:44.517)
One of the things I believe, by the way, that that legacy is already created, because anytime I've seen something taking zero to one, so I have helped quite a lot of just different movements, different businesses over my lifetime sort of start from an idea and then get off the ground. And there's a unique almost energy that comes part and parcel with that where people don't forget that they helped you build something. And you think about the amount of volunteers and the number of pacers that show up every week unpaid.

just wanting to be there and build the community with you. You've already done half the work in the fact that all these people are showing up. So I'm so excited for the legacy that you're going to continue to create. Now, I'm going to jump into the very last question and it's what does purpose mean to you right now?

Amritpal Ghatora (44:34.028)
I think I've actually thought about this one. I think purpose is like less what I do but it's more about what I do to show up with integrity, with intention and the willingness to evolve and react to certain changing situations. And I think...

That's just my own internal compass and it's not derived by a title or my role. And it's about being meaningful, and intentional to everything that I want to do. Whether it's something that I maybe push onto someone else to do, maybe I'll get someone else to deliver something or it's a role that I assigned to one of our team, our community, one of our volunteers, et cetera, or it's something that I can lead myself. I always think that that purpose and that sort of...

That drive is what drives me and that's what's very sort of meaningful to me, not only in like the things I do for my job and my role, but also from a running perspective. I want to be able to stand on a particular day and have meaningful internal conversation with myself saying that I'm going to do this today. However hard it might be, I can do this. I can do this. it's whether it's something that you overthink or overcomplicate. I don't like to think I'm an overthinker, but...

Kirstyn DeVries (45:42.688)
yeah.

Amritpal Ghatora (45:49.782)
as runners, we overthink the smallest things. We get scared about doing a workout, how it's going to push your limits, how it's going to make you feel very uncomfortable. But I also say to myself that being uncomfortable is where you grow. So I think purpose means a lot of that and around that sort of conversation about sort of pushing yourself to extract the absolute best to sort of get you into the next version of being the best you can be.

Kirstyn DeVries (46:17.445)
That's great. So with this advice that you've put forward and the journey that you're driving with TrackSmith and the training for towards your race at Berlin, how can people follow your journey? If they want to find you, where can they go find you?

Amritpal Ghatora (46:32.272)
So obviously I have a website where I do my coaching for my website, which is www.AaronPowellGatora.com. So it's my first and last name, super easy. But mainly you can follow me and find me on Instagram again, which is my first and last name, AaronPowellGatora. And it's the same name across Instagram, Strava, YouTube, TikTok, it's literally all the places. It's the same name across, and you can find and follow me from there.

Kirstyn DeVries (47:00.399)
Great. Well, really looking forward to hopefully crossing over in some of our training runs once I'm back in London. It's been absolutely inspiring to speak to you today, Amrit. Thank you so much for your time.

Amritpal Ghatora (47:11.514)
Thank you for having me guys and yes, it's been absolutely great.

Kirstyn DeVries (47:14.544)
Thanks.