When you engage in your local community, you find all sorts of inspiring individuals. These people are not celebrities, but they undoubtedly deserve a place in the spotlight. While living their ordinary lives, they can have a tremendous positive effect on their community.
Alaa is one of these people.
He created a unique community of runners who do interval training together once a week, every week.
It's a group of like-minded people who run together and bond together. It's a community where great friendships are formed. The shared experience on the tracks is a springboard for other self-organized activities, like bike rides, coffee runs or open air festivals.
The "CoachAlaa"-concept by now is tried and proven: Meet at 9:50, start with warm up laps at 10:00, do some light exercises and running drills, work hard in the interval session, cool down and high fives, take a sweaty group picture, and finally migrate to a bakery close by for sweet or savory delicacies.
Back to the start
Before meeting regularly at the tracks, I met Alaa through the Brussels Run Crew about three years ago. And I met him for an interview on a rainy Sunday afternoon in February 2026 in one of the many cafés around Flagey to learn more about his journey to becoming a trusted hobby coach and an inspiration to hobby runners of all levels.
Beirut: Roots and sparks of inspiration
While his sister was already part of the university track and field team, the "Blue Stars", Alaa was just getting started.
He decided to run twenty laps around the tracks after overeating at a McDonald's after a regular football training session. He might have been 16 at that time, a teenager. When his Mum called him and he told her how many laps around the 400m tracks he did, she said "Good for you! Now it's time to go home."
Going home or not, Alaa's running journey started that day and over time running became more frequent and habitual.
Alaa was lucky to have university coaches who inspired and pushed him, but who also reminded him to rest every now and then. One of the coaches of the "Blue Stars", Coach Gaby, participated in Olympia in 1984 in Los Angeles. Alaa learned a lot from him, and Gaby's passionate way of speaking about sports impressed Alaa.
The training of the "Blue Stars" took place Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Sometimes the coach would also show up at the tracks on Thursday, to make sure Alaa wasn't training an additional day.
He still trained on Thursdays, just in the early morning, before one of the coaches could catch him.
Barcelona: Another city, another home
Alaa moved to Barcelona to extend his studies. He continued to run and went from shorter distances (800m - 1500m) to longer distances, 5k and 10k. His coach in Barcelona at that time was Coach Alan - the similarity of their names being a nice coincidence.
When you talk to Alaa, it stands out how much room he gives to other people in his stories; his coaches, his family, friends and fellow runners. I believe Alaa wants to make sure that every person gets the merit they deserve.
He understands that we all have our own journey. The roles we play in each others' lives, the support we can give, the obstacles we need to overcome in pursuit of our goals, they may all differ, but they are all worth to be recognized.
Brussels: A new home for running and community building
When Alaa came to Brussels, he joined the Brussels Run Crew. The friendships that emerged changed his running journey again: From 10k distances to half marathon, marathon and ultra distances.
While preparing for the Amsterdam Marathon in 2023, he started to pass on his extensive experience in running and training to his friends. It wasn't intended, but it was the start of "CoachAlaa".
"The intention wasn't really to create a group, the intention was to run with friends".
Alaa likes competition for itself. He wants other people to grow stronger, so he can also grow stronger. He wants to raise everybody up.
And what is a better way of running than running with friends? They say, happiness is most true when it is shared with people. I couldn't agree more!
Even (or especially?) when the happiness settles in at the end of a tough interval session, and one or two optional bonus loops.
Alaa and I talked for almost two hours that rainy day in February. When we parted, we already knew where we'll see each other again: At the tracks, to run with friends.
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