MEET THE COACHES: INTISAR ABDUL-KADER
Published: 25/09/26 | By: Alex Courbat
It's the first night of Sports Direct x Nike's After Dark Tour 2026 training sessions. Under the August sun, a group of women are gathering on a track in North London, trainers laced and ready to go. And somewhere in the middle of it all, cracking jokes and keeping half an eye on everyone at once, is Nike Coach Intisar Abdul-Kader.
There aren't many people who can say they've conquered all six World Marathon Majors. She's the first Somali woman to complete the full set, finishing in Tokyo last year after taking on London, Boston, Chicago, New York and Berlin along the way, and she's built her coaching around that same dedication and self belief. As a long-distance runner and community leader, she's passionate about empowering runners, especially Muslim girls and women, to build confidence, break barriers and run their best.
Three years into coaching for Nike, Intisar knows what it takes to help other people chase their own goals too. Last year's After Dark Tour was a first for her in more ways than one: her first time coaching the London sessions, while training for her own PB. "It's beautiful to coach and see everybody's journey," she says, "and then on the day, obviously concentrate on mine, but also just be around for everyone else."
That instinct is the blueprint for All-4-1, the running community she founded in Battersea, which has just celebrated its third birthday. The name says plenty, and so does the motto: nobody gets left behind. Pace runners hold the back so nobody gets dropped, and even the fastest in the group loop back to finish with everyone else. "We're a space for everybody," Intisar says. They meet every other Thursday outside Millennium Gyms in Battersea, rain or shine, and three years in, it's less a running club than a second home.
That ethos matters most once the nights draw in. Running home in the dark is different with people beside you. "It's that safe space for anybody to show up," she says. "But we're also all here together, experiencing similar things in life."
She's just as clear-eyed about the barriers that keep women from getting to the start line in the first place, from confidence knocked by not feeling like they belong, to simply not seeing anyone who looks or lives like them on the other side of the tape. As a hijab-wearing Muslim woman who's raced some of the biggest events in the world, Intisar has become the kind of role model she didn't always have herself. Finding the right community, she says, "gives you space to shine". "Once you're there, the running community takes you in," she adds. "You're never alone. There's always a community somewhere."
Look around one of her sessions and you'll see exactly what she means: mothers fitting miles around childcare, professionals squeezing runs between shifts, women carving out time in already packed weeks. "And you're still out here running," she says.
Her advice to anyone thinking about getting started is refreshingly simple. "Please, let's make running fun again," she says. "Enjoy running. Running is so much fun. Yes, train mad and do amazing things, but have fun."
She's serious about running, serious about racing, and just as serious about getting more women onto start lines. But no personal best matters more to Intisar than making sure everyone gets to the finish together.
