The Rich Roll Podcast - Hellah Sidibe Ran 3,000 Miles Across The USA (On Plants)— And Kept Going

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

How do you stay committed to your goals when sh*t gets hard? There’s an entire industry built on answering this question—and a litany of #lifehacks meant to assuage intolerance for hard work and discipline. But if you ask today’s guest, he’ll tell you the answer is found in consistently doing what you feel called to do—and doing it for something greater than yourself. It’s about making friendships along the way. And seeing the process of pursuing your dreams as a privilege—not just a self-serving opportunity. Meet Hellah Sidibe. Born in Mali, Hellah emigrated from to the States from West Africa when he was a teen, becoming a professional soccer player and now, a U.S. citizen and the first Black person to ever run 3,000 miles across America. It’s a truly extraordinary feat eclipsed only by his incredibly inspirational positive vibe and another noteworthy accomplishment: a 4+ year run streak. Hellah has run every single day, without missing one single day, for over 1500+ days in a row. I first came across Hellah’s story when my friend Robbie Balenger joined Hellah for a segment of his transcontinental run through the Navajo Nation. Captivated by Robbie’s Instagram Stories documenting the experience, I was immediately taken by Hellah’s energy. I followed his journey through the conclusion of his run in New York City, and immediately got to work trying to book him here as soon as I could. And so, here we are. We talk running of course, but this conversation is about so much more. It’s about reimagining your own personal potential. It’s about chasing dreams, taking risks, putting yourself out there, and of course, what it takes to accomplish seemingly outlandish goals. We also discuss Hellah’s decision to go plant-based. The impact this lifestyle has had on his running and, beyond that, his broader awareness. In addition, we talk about his work with Soles4Souls, a non-profit that provides repurposed shoes to empower the developing world. We discuss his relationship with social media, his growing YouTube presence, and the impact Casey Neistat has had on how he shares his personal perspective online. But mostly, this is about mindset. It’s about living with intention—and the beauty of sharing the journey to self-actualization unfiltered, in real-time. FULL BLOG & SHOW NOTES: bit.ly/richroll612 YouTube: bit.ly/hellahsidibe612 Hellah’s energy is infectious. It rubbed off on me. It will rub off on you too. Peace + Plants, Rich

With this Transcontinental, what I really learned is we're really much stronger than we think we are. When you're put in an uncomfortable situation, you'll find a way out. If you have no option, so my mentality is get comfortable with the uncomfortable. And this is what really taught me. It really reinforced that we are not limited. We have a limit right now within ourselves, but we can reach that breakthrough and find the next limit. So I feel like I found my limit doing this, and I through it because there was time where I thought it was impossible. I even thought 100 days was not even enough for me.

And then now I broke through that limit and now it makes me think that I can do other things. So if anyone who's struggling with anything right now, just stick to it because eventually there'll be a turning point. You just have to fight through, fight the day. And there's been many days where I'm just like, survive today.

I don't care about tomorrow, what happened yesterday, just survive today. So it comes down to that. If you feel like you're stuck in a bubble, that's telling you everything already. If you believe in God or the universe, if you feel like you're stuck, that's the sign for you to make that move. And it may be scary. And when I did that, I was very scared because I'm thinking that training is not guaranteed.

But the nine to five was guaranteed a weekly money that I was getting. But if you take the leap of faith, that's when you discover other things. And then when you know, again, when you get put in an uncomfortable situation, you'll find a way out. It might be brutal or whatever. You'll find that next thing that's going to help you sustain the life that you want to live. So just take a leap of faith. I think that's what it is. We're afraid to fail. Be okay to fail because it's not even failing. It's just a part of just progressing and learning. So I don't even see failure as failure anymore. It's just that, oh, now I know what to do better. I know what not to do.

What's up, my beautiful people? My name is Hela Sidibe, and this is the Rich Roll Podcast. Let's get it. Let's go. The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey, everybody. Happy Monday. And for those here in the USA, hope you had a fantastic 4th of July weekend. And in the spirit of said holiday, what better way to celebrate than with today's guest? A young man born in the country of Mali, who immigrated from West Africa to the States when he was just a teen, ends up becoming this professional soccer player and now a U.S. citizen, and recently the first Black person to ever run 3,000 miles across America. A truly extraordinary feat eclipsed perhaps only by his incredibly inspirational positive vibe and another noteworthy accomplishment, a four plus year run streak. In other words, this guy has run every single day without missing one

single day for over 1500 days in a row. His name is Hela Sidibe. He's here today and certain to put a smile on your face because like I said, Hela is positivity incarnate. It's coming up in a few, but first. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well

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I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you. Life in recovery is wonderful. And recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. Okay. the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. Okay, Hela Sidibe.

So I first came across this guy's story when my friend and friend of the pod, Robbie Ballinger, was sharing on Instagram as he dropped in on Hela's transcontinental run when he was going through the Navajo Nation. And I just remember being immediately captivated by Hella's energy. I didn't know who he was at the time,

but I immediately started following his journey through the conclusion of his run in New York City, which was completed just a couple of weeks ago and immediately got to work trying to book him here as soon as I could. So here we are. We talk running, of course, but this is about so much more. It's about re-imagining your own personal potential. It's about chasing dreams, taking risks, putting yourself out there,

and of course, accomplishing outlandish goals. But it's really about mindset. It's about living with intention and the beauty of sharing the journey towards self-actualization in real time. You can find Hella on YouTube at Hella Good, H-E-L-L-A-H. He's also on Instagram and Twitter at Hella Good 9, and he's right here right now. So let us delay no longer. This is me and the high spirited and ebullient, Hella Sidibe. I can't believe you're here, man. I can't believe I'm here.

I can't stop smiling my cheeks. It's starting to hurt now. You're smiling all the time anyway. Yeah. You know, it's an absolute delight to meet you. Thank you for coming out to hurt now. You're smiling all the time anyway. Yeah. You know, it's an absolute delight to meet you. Thank you for coming out to do this. I'm so excited to talk to you. Thank you for having me.

It's a thrill to meet you. Congratulations on the run and everything. Super exciting, man. I'm grateful to be here and in your presence as well. So thank you so much. Did you get your run in today already? Of course. How many days now?

Today is day 1,500 consecutive days actually, yeah. Today's 1,500 on the dot. Yeah, 1,500. Wow. Yes, yeah, no matter the circumstances, I gotta get out there and get it done. Another reason to celebrate. Yes. Another milestone. Exactly.

1,500, that's unbelievable, man. Thank you. So, so many things to talk about. Of course, we're gonna get into the transcontinental run and all of that. Just by way of background, I first became aware of you because of our mutual friend, Robbie.

I didn't know anything about you. And when he dropped in on your run, I think you guys were going through the Navajo nation. Yeah, we were in, he surprised me in Guymon, New Mexico, in the morning. Yeah, we were in New Mexico. He just showed up out of the blue. He just showed up.

You didn't know. I had no idea. I was like, wait, is this, am I going crazy? Cause I got out of the RV and I'm like, wait, it's Robbie. It was the best surprise. It was awesome to see him. How many days did he run with you? He was with me for that weekend, Saturday and Sunday.

So he did all Saturday, all Sunday and left that night on Sunday when I finished the day, Sunday. So that was my first exposure to what you were doing. And I was like, who is this guy? How is he so positive? This guy's smiling, you're always suffering. I was like, I need to know more. I started following you and I was like all in

on this adventure and this journey. And then when you were completing the run that final day, I tuned into Robbie's Instagram and everybody's congregated outside your house in New Jersey. That was cool. I'm like, oh, this is gonna be awesome. And then I was like, wait a minute, is that Casey? Yeah, Casey showed up.

I was, when I went out of the house, I was like, whoa. I know, he surprised you too. I thought Casey was in LA. That's what I thought. Well, I knew he was on the East Coast. I actually had texted him earlier that day about getting introduced to his brother because I wanted to meet his brother.

I got to see him on the podcast. I just saw that. So we were going back and forth on that. And he said something like, I'm driving on the freeway right now, but I'll get back to you. And then suddenly I see him in front of your house. I texted him again.

I was like, wait, you know, all these worlds are converging. I didn't know that you guys knew each other. It's insane. But I guess you had done some stuff at 368. Yeah, so Casey had his people reach out to me. I was actually on a flight from San Francisco. And when I first went to the YouTube space

to do a YouTube, a week event where YouTube invited us to help us create it, it was called YouTube Black. And we get there and then Casey was one of the people I'm always like, wow. And I see him in the YouTube wall of fame. He's special. I'm like, how do I meet Casey?

And one of the workers was like, whispering to me and says, Hela, I'm not supposed to probably tell you this, but I think Casey has a new space or something, but that's your best bet. And I just left it at that. So I'm flying back from San Francisco. And then my girlfriend at the time, Nafian, sent me a screenshot of the email saying, oh, we're inviting you to the first Thanksgiving party ever hosted by Casey Nass. I screamed on the flight.

And then I looked around quick because I was like, don't scream because they're going to kick you out of the flight. They might think you're crazy. And that was the first event I was invited to. And then I looked around quick, cause I was like, don't scream cause they're gonna get you out of the flight. They might think you're crazy. And that was the first event I was invited to. And I met Casey and then when he saw me, he said, I saw your video, you ran a video for a year. I said, yeah, this is really incredible. We gotta get a run in. So that's how the relationship started.

That's very cool. And it was so great that you made that vlog, that whole experience. That was really cool. When you guys were crossing the finish line, I don't know who in your congregation was doing the Instagram live, but I was watching that Instagram live.

And then the sound cut out, I'm sure you know that. Yeah, everybody was talking about the sound. And I was like, what is that? Cause I knew you were giving a speech, I couldn't hear it. And I knew something momentous was happening cause people were going crazy. So I called Robbie. Oh, that's perfect.

I was like, what is going on? You gotta tell me what's happening. He's like, oh, it's insane. He just proposed. Yeah. It was really cool. Yeah, it was my best friend that was driving the RV and Gary Jones, he was, I said, go live.

You gotta go live right now on my Instagram to get this. So my Hello Good family members could watch what's happening right now. Cool. Well, let's walk it back a little bit. I wanna hear the whole story. So let's start at the beginning, growing up in West Africa. Yeah, I grew up in West Africa, Mali.

So Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. People make less than a dollar a day, but I was very fortunate to be in a family where they kind of hide everything from you. I had no idea as a child that I was living in poverty. So that's the best part. And you just live your life. The only thing they ask from you is you go to school, you take care of your schoolwork and we play soccer all day. So living there, you kind of really see how much

happiness is happening there because no one really is like kind of burdening on what's happening, the poverty, the sense of nationalism, how we look out for each other and take care of each other, really help and mold and shape you who you are as a human being. So after leaving there, you look back and you can't be nothing but grateful for whatever lifestyle you're living after that. So I grew up there and 1995, my dad was in the US in Illinois to do his PhD

at Northern Illinois University. 97, my mother came to join him to do her master's at the time. My youngest brother was four. I was seven. My sister was nine and we were kind of old enough to be left behind. So we were left behind with my mom's sister. Unfortunately, half of the year into the school, she passed away. So there's no one to look out for us. So they got us visas to come and join them for like the rest of their school year, which was 98 to 99. So I was in the US 98 to 99 and we flew back home and that was it. So I picked up English a little bit.

I was in elementary. You were like seven at that point. Yeah, Jefferson Elementary School I went to in Illinois. And then after that, we're just there, just continue with schooling. And fast forward to 2002, my mom came back to the US to do her Fulbright scholarship to do her PhD.

And then we saw schooling in Mali was really like up and down. There's always strikes, teachers are not teaching. So it was best to get us here. So I came here, sort of the end of eighth grade and I started freshman year of high school here in the US. What was it like after doing a year in the US when you were super young and then going back? I had actually the biggest problem too

because language barrier. I'm starting to learn English. So when I went back now, I'd mix stuff with French because we speak French as an official language in Mali. And then Bam and I would mix everything up. So when I was actually at school, I was having a tough time learning compared to the rest of my siblings.

So that was tough for me. And, but having that experience was just like a bit, the biggest culture shock for me. I remember everything vividly. Yeah. Yeah, that age. Yeah. Well, to be going back and forth like that probably gives you an added layer of perspective

on the differences. Yeah, exactly, yes. But when you ultimately went back to begin high school, when you came to the United States, was that in Illinois? Is that where you kind of went to high school? Yeah, it was still the same town, DeKalb, Illinois, same town, yeah. Right, right, right.

And your parents are super accomplished. I mean, highly educated. I know. How are they doing now? A lot of pressures. Yeah, both of same town, yeah. Right, right, right. And your parents are super accomplished. I mean, highly educated. I know. How are they doing now? A lot of pressures. Yeah, both of them are retired now. And my mom was over 20 plus years as an English professor, dad also. So my dad has a PhD in the US, France, in England.

And my mom has a PhD here and she has two masters. So my older sister has a master. Wow. So there's a lot of education. You're the rogue. I'm the weirdo. I literally am the weirdo of all. And my younger brother, who's a mechanical engineer.

And so everybody, I was the only one actually that graduated high school at the normal age, at age 18, where they were all graduating at 16. Wow. Yeah. Wow. So I was the athlete. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah.

Cutting your own unique path. Exactly. Which, you know, under that kind of pressure, I'm sure hasn't been easy. It wasn't easy at all, for sure. But soccer was the thing. Soccer was always my dream. If you asked the 16 year old Hela,

what would you be by age 25? I had a goal in my mind to be playing in England for Chelsea FC. Chelsea was my team and soccer was all I wanted. And I realized toward the end of high school that I can go to school for free. So I started taking it serious to a point where like my school grades was falling apart.

And I was, came to the realization, hell, you could be as good as you want in soccer, but if you don't take care of your grades, you're not gonna go to college. So I started working well on both of it. I was able to get a scholarship to go to University of Massachusetts. Right, and you played there.

Yeah. And ultimately took a stab at being a pro, right? Which had its kind of ups and downs. Yeah, that was an interesting story to me because for me even to think that I could play professionally just all happened by, in terms of a kind of a event that I didn't kind of plan for it to happen the way it did. So I want to, I was playing for this team called Boston Victory.

So it's a PDL team, Premier Development or Professional Development League, where you can play at a high level and keep your college eligibility. So we were playing against a team called Worcester Hydro in Worcester, Massachusetts, and that was Boston Victory. And there's a kid that was playing there, I'll never forget his name, Charlie Rugg. Charlie played at Boston College. He was like ACC player of the year, scored 20 something goals a season.

So my coach said, Hey, Hela, I'm gonna have you play left back because I know you have pace. You gotta keep up with this kid because he's really fast. So I shut him down, didn't go anywhere. I was up and down the flank and had him even focused on defending me versus attacking. And if there's images of us, like literally I was glued to him.

I didn't give him any space, but Sporting Kansas City had a scout sent to go watch that game specifically for that kid. And after that, my little brother acting agent emailed some MLS teams and say, I have a brother playing division one. So Sporting Kansas City emailed me and said that, we came to watch a game and in fact,

we wanted to look at someone else, but we're interested in you. Yeah, forget that other guy. What's going on with Hela? We're curious if you can play left midfield. And I was like, in fact, that is my position. I was only playing defense that day. So I can shut down the player from BC.

And that's when the interest of professional started for me. And I was like, wow, I can play for it in the MLS, that's incredible. Wow. Yeah. So what happened in that? Cause there were some like fits and starts. I've read a little bit about this, but it sounds like you were positioned to do really well, but there were visa problems and other kinds of things

behind the scenes that really kind of prevented the trajectory going in the way that you wanted it to. Yeah, so back then they had the super draft and the supplementary draft. So the super draft was like the first top round and supplementary draft was the later rounds. And I was, they, Sporting Kansas City emailed me and said that we're looking at you in the supplementary draft.

So, which is like the later round. And then they said, our concern is visa issues. So the visa was the biggest problem. And to a point where they said that we can find someone as talented as you or even not as talented as you, but we don't have to worry about visa issues and we can develop them to be where you're at. So that was the factor. So I got invited to this combine and Sporting Kansas City was there. So many other MLS teams were there.

And I was with this coach who was a head coach for a kids at Puma in Seattle, which is part of the Seattle Sounders. a head coach for a kids at Puma in Seattle, which is part of the Seattle Sounders. And he realized the visa issue and he went to the Sporting Kansas City coaches and said, let me have Hela for one year and I'll even help him with the areas that you want him to improve. Hopefully within that year,

we can start out the visa stuff. And I signed my first professional contract in Seattle playing with the Seattle Sounders affiliate. So it was basically their farm team. We played against MLS teams. And actually my first start, first game was against the Vancouver Whitecaps in Canada. And I got to get my first assist.

I missed my graduation for that, which was cool. But the visa issue was the biggest for everything. It's interesting because foreign nationals, there has to be a lot of foreign nationals who are kind of entering into the MLS system, right? So the immigration thing has to be something that they're dealing with all the time. Yeah, and there's a roster cap.

I don't know if it changed until this point, but eight international roster space. So out of like 22 to 26 players, only eight players can be foreign. And I had this message sent to me by a coach in sporting Kansas City. He said, hello, listen, I'm sorry, but we rather have someone from Europe

and that can tell jerseys pick up that spot versus someone new coming in. So basically it's- It's like a commercial reason. It becomes even more of that. So if you're a foreign national, you have to be extra game. Yeah, big time and you get that spot.

So that got played out. I mean, how long were you part of that organization? For the team in Seattle? Just a season. And right away, actually I had my assistant coach from college had a roommate in college when he was playing in college at Temple University, where I think who was a agent recruiting players

to go to Europe. So I had a chance to go play in Germany with a bonus league or two, which had some US national team players. So nothing was guaranteed, playing time wasn't guaranteed, but to be there for a certain amount of time was guaranteed. And I had to make my way up. So I flew from Seattle, went to Boston,

and I went to the German embassy for my visa. They shut it. They said immediately, we're concerned you're not a US citizen. Let's say you get to Germany, the season's over, your contract is done. Are you going to go back home? You're an immigration threat in a way.

You're probably not going to go back to Africa. We don't want you to be an immigration issue in Germany. So they shut that down. Wow. Yeah, I was sad about that. Cause I was really like that. It has nothing to do with what, how good you are as a soccer player.

No, it's something that's out of your control. And a friend of mine that got connected, well, he's a friend, we were connected. We were going together. He was a US citizen, a goalkeeper actually from California. He went there and I saw him living his dream, playing in Europe, which is cool. But seeing that, I was like,

oh man, I could have almost been there, but Visa also. So you're a super positive guy. That must have left you with a little bit of a bitter taste or some- A little bit. Yeah, it got tough for me at that point. And you get to a point where you're like, you start pointing fingers and some of the excuses I was making back then

were very valid. I got shut down to play in the youth national team in the US. I remember I was invited to go to Sarasota to play with the youth national team when I was playing with the Chicago Fire, Chicago Magic back in Illinois. And they said, you got to go tell your mom

to get you your passport. I thought it was that easy. I went, mom, mom, give me my US passport. She's like, hell, it's not that easy. So all of that start coming back into your mind and you feel like you have zero control. So you get to a point where everything really bothers you. And then I was always a happy, exciting person. And that was really bothering me. At the time, I didn't know I was depressed, but if you were to ask me, then I would say to people, oh, I'm just frustrated. So there are things that never bothered me would start bothering me. And then now I look back,

I think I was really depressed back then. And I just got to the realization, which is with a run that made me feel like that to a point where I was like, hell, what can you control now? What are you in control of in your life? Cause those things are not. So that's when I started taking responsibility and say,

go do what you can do and focus on that. Put your energy there, not the areas you can do and focus on that, put your energy there, not the areas you can't control. And what was that? I mean, when faced with the prospect of your professional career not panning out, what's next? I literally told myself one day, I'm tired of making excuses.

I gotta do something that I can hold myself accountable for. And then fitness comes to your mind, you're an athlete. And I said, hell, whenever you tell yourself you're gonna go to the gym for a week straight, you go two, three days, you tap out. And I said, what is something that I'm afraid of? Running hit me immediately. So playing division one, even at the pro level running, I was always afraid of it. At UMass Amherst, the track team used to look at us. Are you guys the UMass track team? You guys run so much. Our coach was very proud. May he rest in peace. Sam Cook was very proud to say, you guys are going to be the fittest

team in the country. So anything you do, any mistake on the line, we want to play top teams the day before. He makes us run. So I was fitness test. I was afraid of it. I couldn't sleep the night before. I was playing. I could play 90 minutes, no problem.

Because with soccer, you're heading 50-50 ball. You're attacking, you're defending. It's not just solely focused on running. So I told my, I asked myself, what are you afraid of? And running hit me. And I said, you know what? I'm gonna go face my fear of running.

Let me just go 10 minutes a day for two weeks and zero pressure. It doesn't matter if 10 minutes mean you don't even get to a mile, that's okay. So I told myself that. Within the first week, I fell in love with it immediately. So I ran to Alexa Torres, my fiance. I was like, I think I can do this for the rest of my life,

but I don't wanna get ahead of myself. Let me do this every day for a year. So that's how the whole run streak started. Right, so it was really born out of this frustration and a little bit of confusion about what the next chapter was gonna look like. Yes, exactly, exactly. That's how it all started. It's also interesting that your frame on running

is through the lens of punishment. When you are on a sports team, it's not run specific. It's like that's, you know, being told to run is what happens when you get in trouble. Literally. You know, it's like run specific. It's like, that's, you know, being told to run is what happens when you get in trouble. Literally. You know, it's like the stick. If he has teammates of mine, I get so stressed the night before a fitness test.

They can see it. They're like, hell, are you okay? I'm like, I just can't stop thinking about that beep test tomorrow morning. Or like the Cooper test where you gotta run two miles under 12 minutes. And if you don't make this time, you gotta be in breakfast club,

which is extra fitness before the actual practice. And the actual practice has its own fitness in it. So it really got me all confused and scared and petrified. But you're super fit. So when you started this streak, I think you said you went out and ran 10 minutes or something like that. Yeah, it was 10 minutes a day.

That was the goal. But you're certainly capable of doing more than that. Yeah, way capable. And then that 10 minutes didn't even last. It was just the first week I was, ended up finding myself running even four miles. But the whole point of that idea of saying 10 minutes a day was to have zero pressure.

Cause I know if I were to tell myself, hello, you got to run at least five miles a day. That's something at that point in my mentality and physical ability for running wasn't something I was kind of capable of maintaining, but I knew it was something attainable to do 10 minutes. So it was a mental thing. So that made me feel like, okay,

you're doing this with no pressure, enjoying. Spring was in the air, it was May 15th of 2017. So it was just a perfect amount of time for me to be out there. So that's why I said 10 minutes. Streaks are so interesting psychologically, right? I think it's really powerful to talk about setting a really low bar

if you're contemplating something like that, making it doable so that you can actually learn to enjoy it before it becomes too challenging. Exactly. You're gonna pull the rip cord before you've even gotten out of the gate. But once you develop a little bit of momentum, it becomes like this self- self perpetuating thing, right?

I don't know why that is. It's that thing and I've said it many times before, when you're going to the gym consistently, it's just easier to go. Or if you're running every day, it's easier to get out and run. But if you break that cycle, if you interrupt it even once, you just create all kinds of anxiety

and strain on yourself that makes it so difficult. Yeah, the starting over thinking and all that. So it's very true exactly how you said it. Right, so when you first began this, was the idea of a streak even in your mind or you're just like, I'm gonna go out and run because I wanna be able to have some control over myself. It wasn't even a streak,

it was just two weeks that I needed to do. And the thing is to my knowledge, I didn't know what streaking actually was for running. I didn't even know it was a thing in the running community. I was so new to the running community. Just for the record, we're not talking about running naked. Oh yeah.

Yes, not running naked. Consecutively. Consecutively, yes. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a valid point. Yeah, so I was very ignorant to it, didn't know. And that was really good. I'm glad I didn't know about it

because also that would have been, oh, people shriek. That's another pressure that I didn't need. So I didn't even know. And it was just to get out there. And I just knew I wanted to do it every day now for a year. Is there a whole world of people who do these shrieks out there? I discovered, not document.

I think humbly we became hella good, like my YouTube channel and with my fiance, cause it's a team. We became basically the first people to really put it on the platform of running every day and running every day for a year, 365 days. And then now everybody that were actually been doing it started documenting it and push it out.

And which I'm so happy about, because I actually am happier for more people who are doing the streak compared to me, because a lot of question comes, oh, he's the lucky one, how is he able to do it? But when I see someone else, I'm like, see, it's not just me, look at this person did it. That person did it, so.

When you made your 365 day, your one year streak video, most of that video was clips of other people out running in different parts of the world. Exactly, cause I realized how much running brought us together and we started building a community. And I wanted to show that to people and talk about my story of how running every day changed my life and how people became a part of it.

So to me, it's all about the people. I think people make the experience. You could do a lot of stuff by yourself, but without the people, I feel like it's not the same. Right, well, at first it becomes this journey of self-discovery and an exploration of your own personal potential. But at some point it becomes rote

and it has to become about something else in order to maintain its meaningfulness. I agree with you, 100%. So you start this thing off, you're doing it, you're not sharing anything about it until you reach a certain point. And then you decide to kind of break public in this whole thing.

Actually, that's a good point to bring up because for me, this was not meant for social media. It was just for myself and it was called her Belle, my fiance. When I started this running streak, she was like, I think we got to do a YouTube video. This is really cool. You're running every day and you're going for a year. People need to hear about this.

I keep pushing it off. I was always pushing it off. So on day 163, she came to me and she said, hey, do you want to do a YouTube video on this? So I was like, all right, fine. You keep asking, let's just do it. I had just done my run for the day. So I said, can I just go to the barbershop and get my haircut, get this like nice fade so I can look pretty in front of the camera. And then I went

to get my haircut, came back, we did a video and the title was why I run every day, day 163. And I started explaining to people. So that video actually sat on YouTube for a month or two. Wasn't a lot of views, couple, maybe 20, 30 views. So one morning I woke up, it was like 2000 views overnight and I was like, Bell, look at this. This is really weird. Why is this catching on like this? And then we see 20,000 views overnight and that kind of went in mini viral and it got over 600,000 views really quick. And everybody's asking me, are you still continuing the streak? What's happening? Can you update us? So my DM on Instagram is getting flooded now. Comments on YouTube is getting up. So I said, well, let's keep updating people.

And I started doing updates day 254, day 365. And then we just became YouTubers by accident. So it's one of the things I was afraid of that turned into passion. And now that turned into something bigger than I ever imagined. And Belle really drives that, right? She, without her there's no hell of a good 100%.

So basically she dropped whatever she's doing to help me chase my dreams and goals. She never went to school for filmography or photography or anything. She just self-taught even editing. Just, we started doing it together as I'm running and sharing the passion with everybody and she's recording it and she got better with,

kind of get the content out to everybody. You can see the evolution from the early videos through the present, how much better she's gotten at it. And in fact, they'd be like, oh, this is awesome. We look back and I'm like, oh, okay. It looks, you definitely got so much better. Yeah, it's cool. And some of those videos have millions of views.

Yeah, a few of them went viral. We've had all the running every day for a year, the three years and 1,000 days, day eight or two. So we had a few of them over a few million views, which was really cool. So you meet the 365 goal, you did it for a year. You're like, I'm gonna keep going. So how long had you been doing it

before the idea of running across America came into your brain? So it was two years in. So after the first year, I knew I wasn't gonna stop, but the thinking was, can I do it again? Because now I know everything to expect this season, because the goal is to be outside no matter the circumstances, raining, sunshine, snow, I have to run outside. If I go run on a treadmill, it won't count. It's extra run, but it's not counting toward my streak. I

have to be outside. That was my biggest goal. So after that second year coming up, you knew what to expect. So it wasn't as joyful to the first year. Everything was new first year. You're like, whoa, this is happening, new discovery. And I got hurt the second year. So, but in the second year, I really hit me quick. Hello, this is bigger than yourself. You prove to yourself, you can run every day for a year.

You're going on year two. That's going to be a daily routine. Do it for something that's bigger than yourself. So, and I realized quick how running is a privilege that not everyone has. And I want to use that privilege of mine to do it for something greater. So the ideas of doing it for things, even doing races, I don't care about my own PR numbers. I want to have a reason to go fight for. So if I'm dying out there, I'm thinking about why I'm running. So I'm sitting home one day and came out of the shower and I said, I think I want to run across the country. Has anyone done that? And again, I thought I was going getting home one day and came out of the shower and I said, I think I want to run across the country.

Has anyone done that? And again, I thought I was going to be the first one. I have no idea, clueless. And she looked at me, she goes, oh no. Cause she knows when I try to do something now that point I have to do it. And her, she's like, all right. She started doing research for me.

And then that's when we discovered Robbie Ballinger. Right. And that's how the idea of running across the country came up after year two, when I said I needed to run across the country. Right, all right. Well, we're gonna get into that in a second, but I have to ask, during this couple years

when you're running every single day, there's some travel in there too, right? Oh yeah. Like you had to go to Australia, like how are you making sure that you're not missing a day? There's some tricky moments in there where it was touch and go, whether you were gonna be able to squeeze it in.

Yeah, so many times I've flown, I would get up two, three in the morning to run. So I wanna be in control of what I can do. I don't wanna go to the airport, get stuck at the airport, or I don't have a mean to get out to run. So I get up very early to run. So the Australia Opportunity Camp with GoPro, and I told GoPro, no, I'm not going.

To Australia. Yeah. And I said, I'm so sorry, this is great. But because of running- You can't break your streak. Yeah, because of running, I made you guys. It's very important to me to run. And then to go to Australia is like 27 hours.

I'm gonna miss a day. So they find a way, they're connecting with the travel agent. So I set up the trip where I don't mess up my streak. So I had to take a little more flights than everybody. So I can keep my streak alive. So you flew to LA first and took a day. So you do a run. Stayed in LA and then on midnight in LA,

the day before I went to Australia. So I got up at midnight. So it was the next day, it was midnight already. I kept everything at Eastern Standard Time instead of Western too, because I didn't want to get advantage of the extra like hours into the day, like three extra hours. So I wanted to make sure I get the same 24 hours as I left.

So I ran in LA, took a day. And the next day at midnight, I got up to run right before I went to the airport. Literally ran shower and ended up running to get to the airport because I almost missed my flight. So I ended up doing two extra miles that night to get to the international section of LAX. So now I landed in Brisbane

and Brisbane was from LA to Brisbane was about 15 hours. And then when I got to Broome, immediately I got off the airport, we got to the hotel, I went to run again. So we're still in the same time zone. And maintain the Eastern time zone as the anchor. And the cool part about that is though, it was still the same day in East coast,

but just later in Australia about to be into this following day. So it was really cool that- It's confusing. Yeah, it's confusing. I did a whole YouTube video to explain it to people. So that was how I kept my streak alive going to Australia. And what's the typical run?

The typical run in terms of distance. Yeah. So in the beginning by accident, The typical run in terms of distance? Yeah. Yeah. So in the beginning, by accident, I ended up averaging over seven miles a day. My first year was 2,800 miles. And then I had that mentality. Now I want to run seven miles a day. That's like the mile that doesn't break me, but it tests me, but it's just enough that I feel like I've done something. And second year I was injured. I just missed five miles a day average. And then at third year I was averaging over 10K and because of the transcontinental, I averaged over eight miles a day for the whole four years. So my favorite mile is going on a seven mile run

because something that kind of tests me, but doesn't break me. The sweet spot. Yeah, it's the sweet spot. Is that what you did today? Today, no, I did five miles today. All right, maybe you have to get out and do two more. We can go out right now. Do you have to get out and do two more. Yeah, two more, we can go out right now.

Do you have your shoes? I invited my car. Yeah. Cool, so the idea for the transcontinental run comes into your awareness. Yeah. A great opportunity to make this about something broader than just maintaining a streak.

A streak, exactly. How did you become aware of Robbie? So again, Bell, I'm telling you what I heard, I wouldn't even probably be sitting here talking to you today. She just started doing research, I had no idea. She goes, hey, hello, there's this runner who was actually plant-based running across the country.

He's gonna be literally in our backyard to start in New Jersey to go to New York. She said, we should go meet him. I was like, yeah, he's going to be literally in our backyard to start in New Jersey to go to New York. She said, we should go meet him. I was like, yeah, let's do it. So my goal to go meet Ravi was just to run five miles with him. I get there, his energy, I said, there's no way I can only do five miles. I have to do the whole 17 miles with him. So that's how I met Ravi. And when I first met him, I told Ravi right then, I said, hey, Ravi, I'm so-and-so, I run, this is really cool. And I said to him, I'm going to run across the country. And then he looked at me and he gave me the look of like,

you know what? The way this guy just said that to me, I think he's going to do it. Cause when you say something to somebody, you get the energy, how they might think, Oh no, you can't, or you're crazy. He was like, you know, the look that he gave me, it almost was like, I think this guy might actually try to do this. So it was the best time I interviewed him. I had my GoPro with running and then I asked him a bunch of questions and that's how the relation started with Robbie and I. And I was just like being there firsthand

to see what he was going through the last day kind of gave me even more motivation and more belief in myself that I can do it. So was that last run into New York City the same route that you took? Similar, very similar. So he ended in a park that wasn't far away from my house. Literally, if I were to run through the park,

I'd get to him in like five minutes. So we had to drive around, which was about 10 minutes. So we ended in similar area, but in the opposite of each of the area. And then a route that I took eventually kind of got into haze to finish into New York City. Right, it's so serendipitous. Like he's on your radar and he's literally gonna go

right through your backyard. And it was meant to be, it really was because what are the chances someone running across the United States ends up being where I live. Right. Yeah, and I had it in my mind. So you ran the whole last day with him. I ran the first day with him.

Yeah, he told me about that too. I knew of you already. I'm like, wait, wait, wait, are you telling me? Rich Roll came, he said, yeah, he told me about that too. I knew of you already. I'm like, wait, wait, wait, are you telling me? Rich Roll came? He said, yeah, he told me the whole story. And I said, wow, that is incredible. Yeah, that is cool. So we bookended it.

And then he becomes like this mentor who helps you figure out the logistics of how you're actually gonna execute on this. Exactly, and the thing is, you know the saying, it takes a whole village to raise a child. It's true. Even for me, without having Alexa Torres Bell to help me, my friend coming to drive, Robbie being there,

it would have been like almost impossible. So he basically told us his experience and we were looking at his route on Strava as well. He used the famous racing route, but it was easy to also just go look at his map instead of looking for that map itself. And we had to kind of find our own route within it at some point,

but we're basically using his blueprint to get through. There's so many different routes. Yeah. Your route took you pretty much through the, it's more of the Southern route, not the full South route. Yeah, toward the Southern. Yeah. Why did you decide to take it that way?

Well, first I thought coming from West to East, the tailwind would help, which we had zero tailwind, but also seeing that someone already done it that way, Robbie has done it that way. And it was kind of, it makes you feel better. Like, you know what, this is like, it's not like you're the first one paving this route. So you kind of have a little bit of a breathing room

to kind of follow a route. So that's why we decided to do it. And then looking at the Rocky Mountain area, the weather now was predictable. And when we actually started within a week, there was a huge snow storm where everything was shut. And we were always thinking what happened if the RV gets stuck in the snow in the mountains?

What happened that I can't even get through cause there's like walls of snow. So that was always in the back of the head. So it made sense for us to go in the Southern states. Also tons of vert. Yeah. Right? There's that too. go in the Southern states. Also tons of vert. Yeah. Right? There's that too.

That too, for sure. Not for nothing, do you know what Robbie's doing right now? Yes, Robbie is crushing it. The Colorado rush. It's literally called the Colorado crush. This guy is doing, he did the Leadville marathon the other day. Right now he's in the midst of conquering

the Colorado trail, which is 500 miles. Then he's gonna run the silver rush 50. Then he's gonna summit all 58 Colorado peaks over 14,000 feet. And he's gonna complete this challenge with the Leadville 100 on August 21st. Incredible. It's unbelievable.

I have to find a way to get to him. So Ravi, I'm gonna call him. He doesn't stop. I'm gonna say, hey Ravi, do you need me to come run with you or be next to you? Whatever you want, I owe you that. But he doesn't stop. That's the kind of people you wanna put yourself around because he just gets it done.

Did COVID have any influence on doing this now versus later just because everything was locked down? This is something that you could do or? Definitely did because I actually wanted to do in 2020. And that's when the whole, like literally the country was shutting down, nothing's happening. And for me, I wanted to make sure that people were involved.

I wanted to be not just about me, about creating a community, creating something positive, because all this stuff were happening in the world. So I wanted us to come together as humans and having running in common or not just being with each other. So when COVID started, I kind of was thinking, you know what, maybe we should wait and keep pushing it off because I want people to be involved with it. And actually I was saved for myself because yes, mentally I was ready, but physically not to think back at, I don't think I was really ready because within that year of COVID, I started doing more ultra distances.

So I did my second 50 miler, crushed the PR by 30 more minutes faster. I did a 245 mile week where I was running 35 miles a day. And that one really- That's a heavy week. Yeah, and then that's why I got the idea. Maybe I can do it a hundred days or less because with that, I didn't even do much,

like the way I would do five mile segments. This one I was doing 17 mile, 11 miles and get it done within three miles, 35 miles. So that kind of helped me be stronger and build kind of some kind of endurance and running strength for ultra distances. And then 2021 comes and we took things into full gear. Yeah, it's one thing to just go out

and run five, seven miles every day. It's another thing to prepare for a transcontinental run. How other than what you just mentioned, like how did the training differ from just maintaining that streak? Completely different. That's Ravi also, Ravi Ballinger is the man. I talked to him, he said, hello, run at zone two.

He said, run slow. And he even recommended me go walk for two hours and have your leg just be heavy and beat up. You want that feeling because that's what's going to happen. You always want to run on tired legs. Yeah, exactly. So I was, to me, I went out to run in zone two.

It wasn't slow enough. It was slow compared to what I was doing, really slow. And to myself, I'm always like, man, I'm going so slow. I could have done this many miles. You play this game with yourself and your head, it was much slower than compared to what I was doing.

I want to tell you build the true endurance and that aerobic energy, Exactly. That aerobic engine that you're gonna need. And then I'm glad I even did what I did to even get what I got out of it. I just, I could have even went slower than I did. So I made sure that I focused like two to three months

doing that prior to starting this. So it's not just like the pace that I run because it's not a middle distance or long distance sprint. This is ultra, ultra game is different. It's a totally different thing. Did you periodize the training at all? Not really. I just, yeah, I just went into it

and I made sure that I was gaining some weight and I started strength training more. I started lifting weights and usually I don't lift weights as much. I try to do body weight strength training, doing like even resistance work. So I started lifting weight. I added a few more pounds

and I was just making sure that I get out there and running. I was running like even a hundred mile week. I've had started doing that. I started doing mileage where I would never do, but that was about it. Just making sure that I was running and then having strength. It's interesting when you watch your videos,

especially the one that you did on technique, like run technique, to see the change in the evolution in not just your stride, but like your body. Yeah, everything changed. When we see you crossing the finish line in New York City, you're like a skinny lean, you look like a runner. I lost. Early videos you're like, this is a soccer player.

A soccer player buddy. With stubby legs and the whole thing. It's amazing to see the body transformation. Everything changed. And just the natural kind of stride that you have. You're like, that guy looks like he knows how to run. Yeah, everything changed. And that goes in with time too.

So I tell people, if you're getting into running, it's gonna eventually change, just stay consistent with it. Yeah, everything changed. Losing the weight is just gonna happen. You just gotta make sure you eat as much as you can. And I remember actually last summer I was training for a 5K PR. So I lost weight just because just sweating a lot,

just naturally, didn't even plan on doing it. And I remember someone on my YouTube channel actually, who has like a 10,000 something streak day. Yeah, he lives in Michigan. I can't believe I'm blanking out his name now. He's like a good friend of ours, like on YouTube, always commenting. And he said, hell, I have a race body now.

This is the race weight. So you just lose weight by just running. Yeah. So the idea is to try to get this done in under 100 days. Yeah, that was the goal. But secretly. I wanted 85 days. 85. Yeah.

You got it done in 84. 84, yeah. Which means how many miles a day? Just over 36 average. But the crazy thing for me to think about it, the first half to get to the first half of the country took me almost 50 days. The second half I did it in 34 days, which show how much I had really had to go through

in the mountain. The mountain areas were really be me up and slow me down. I was talking to Robbie a lot and he said, hell, my advantage was I lived in Colorado. I was always running in the mountains. I live in New Jersey, 92 feet above sea level. My whole almost three or four years of running every day, my elevation gain, I don't think total

was more than 4,000. Right, all pavement, no hills. And I call those hills not speed bumps. I don't think they're hills. They're not at all. So that- So you went through this acclimation phase of having to get fitter while also your body

trying to get used to the pounding and the vert and the different types of weather. I know your feet like swelled up and all kinds of stuff. You went from like a size 10 to 11 and a half. Wow, man. Yeah, and then knee was swelled up, ankle was swelled up and shins were flared, blisters everywhere and the running in there.

And me, I went in, Robbie warned me too, I've had warnings. And you kind of like, you learn your lessons. He told me, Hela, get these sticks, checking sticks. So I was laughing, I was like- Poles. I said poles, yeah. I was like, Robbie, who needs a pole to run? Cause we have like comfortable relationship, like we joke around.

And he said, trust me, it's gonna make a huge difference. So I get them, they're with me, didn't use it in California at all. So me being me, I was running up everything. And I was listening to Born to Run in the beginning. And it says in Born to Run for ultra racing, if you don't see the top of the hill, do not run it. It's wasteful energy. It's

not going to take you anywhere. You think the downhill is going to help at that point, your legs are beat up. You're not even making any progress. So I was running everything up. That's when I messed up my knee and then ankle became a problem. And then my hip was so out of line, it was like two inch above the other, my right knee versus the left knee. So I had to really, I called Robbie. I said, how did you do this? He said, what are you doing? I said, yeah, I'm running everything. He said, you're not supposed to be running everything.

Hell, you cannot run up these. And then you're gaining. I won one of my run. I gained three. You're not going any faster. You're not, I'm literally slowing myself down. So I kind of like got into the ultra, listening to Born to Run,

actually taking tips from then, calling Robbie if I have any question. And I got stronger as I was going, technique was changing, strategies were changing. And that's why I had a better, stronger April month compared to March, where I basically went from 876 miles in March to 1,225 miles in April with one day less.

And even the elevation gain was worse in April compared to March. It's amazing how the body can just get used to that. Literally adapt. Like originally you're having all these problems because it's like, what are you doing to me? Yeah, exactly. Make a few tweaks, keep going.

And suddenly those things get resolved. Comes together perfectly, yeah. So throughout that whole experience, I mean, hit me with some of the highlights. Yeah, the best is like going through the Navajo reservation and New Mexico was incredible. So the message travel, if I meet somebody,

by the time I get to a different part of the reservation, they already know I'm coming because someone will say something. And people are getting ready for gifts. Someone has made me a necklace. They were getting feathers, has a gift, like telling us what the meaning behind it, key chain and even Bell got a gift, Gary got a gift.

So, and I met my, the first person to come and run with me was on Zach from the Navajo reservation. He was a native and he came when Robbie came the same day. Oh, wow. So he said, can I run with you? I said, yeah, of course. So we ran 15 miles together that day. And then he said, can I get your number? And I said, yeah, sure.

So he texted me and said, can I get your location? I want to come back again. He came back the next day and ran 30 miles with me. So that was really cool. That's when people started coming in at that point. And it was just incredible. Just like the beauty of the reservation, the New Mexico and the people itself.

That was the biggest, one of the biggest highlights. Yeah. Do you have to, I remember talking to Ravi about going through the Navajo nation. I mean, it can be tricky, right? Like it's not just a free for all. Like do you have to alert them ahead of time? Like, hey, we're coming, is it cool?

Certain areas. Permission. Yeah. Just, you know, sort of shake the hands and make sure that, you know, sort of- Yeah, we didn't have to deal with that much, but there was one time that a lady stopped us and told me, you gotta wear a vest.

You can't be running on the roads without wearing a vest. So I only would put on my kind of safety vest at night, reflective vest at night so I can be seen by cars. But during the day, she's like, you gotta put this on. And she explained to me about people drinking and driving. You don't wanna get hit. And she was like, you have no choice. Like she's like, do this now.

So with respect also, we're like, well, it won't hurt me. It's just extra safety. So we put it on. But there's been areas where we've got invited to use people's land to have our RV park overnight. Yeah. Yeah. Cause there's nowhere to have RV park overnight. Yeah. Yeah. Cause there's nowhere to park. It's not safe.

And then those are open land that people owned. So they're like, we had a gentleman say, hey, can you come in? You can come in park your RV overnight. Cause I have no use to that space again. And was it just you and Bell? That was the crew? Yeah. Was there anybody else?

So it was me, Bell and Garrett, my friend. Yeah. So he was driving the RV. He would go every five miles ahead in the beginning. So Bell would be next to me literally, we're talking about eight to 14 hours a day in a support car driving a wrap for a crossover where she would be the one doing the direction. I'm not good with direction.

She'll tell me, turn when you get to this area. And I'm like calling her on my Apple, I'm like, hey, what street am I supposed to be turning? But she's next to me for that and like fluids and any snacks or food I need. And also for safety too, safety from dogs and some people as well. Cause I had some people.

Yeah, I wanna talk about that. Also shooting, editing and- And yeah, getting content. Social media the whole time as well. Yeah, doing all of it. So I think if you were to ask me even now who had the hardest job, I said she did. Cause my energy just had to be solely focused on running

and just feeling myself eating and running. Hers was like everything. She basically held everything together. She really did. There's an illusion that if you're crewing an ultra event that it's chill, you're just in the car and you're just listening to tunes, but it's full court press.

I don't think there's any time. There's so much to do. You have to be thinking ahead, you have to be thinking about tomorrow, where are we gonna get food? Do we have ice? Like anticipating what your needs are gonna be. And also you're gonna be so exhausted

that you're not the best arbiter of what you need. Like this guy needs to drink, he tells me he's not thirsty. You know, you gotta force yourself on him. All that kind of stuff. Yeah, to a point where I was thinking, make sure that she is not stressed. So my goal was to make sure that she is good because if she's not good, I'm in trouble.

So any little thing that's coming up that I could see could end up being bad. I make sure that, okay, are you good? Are you good? Are you sure? She gives me the thumbs up. Yeah, she's good. So we move on because without her,

I would have been in trouble. I'm sure you've heard the trope that you should never have people you care about crew for you for these things, because it gets dicey, it gets tense. You're a very optimistic, you've got this sunny disposition, but I would imagine you were in the pain cave quite a bit. Like do you ever break character

and go into that dark space? Actually, I tried and I don't think I did. So what really helped me before this, I told myself, Hela, anything that happens, any hardship that happens, you have to accept this because that's part of this. Even if you haven't done it, you know something's gonna come.

So the fact that I accepted that, so my thinking was always when something happened, Hela, soul for souls, think about that. The reason to doing this is much bigger than anything you're going to go through, whether that's pain or anything, any little problem, hiccups. So I will always remind myself that

and I'll do my little gratification in the morning when I'm doing my first mile, just telling myself that. So I always kind of stay away from that. And we did really well together as a team. We really never stepped on each other. And in fact, she kept me in line, like you have to eat. You don't want to do this. And she listened to my problem. Anything I like, oh man, my legs. I don't know if I can make it to 30 miles today.

She listened to me. I remember one day when I really realized she's not take anything easy on me. When I had to do 47 miles, we started the 47 miles. I get to 40 miles and I had six miles to go. And it was night pitch black. I look at her and like, yeah, I still got six miles to go. I don't know what to do. In my mind, I'm hoping she said, just do three more and we'll call it a night. She literally looks at me with no smile,

with a serious look, she goes, it is what it is. We gotta get six in. If that means it's gonna take you two, three hours, we gotta get six in. And then I was just like, you're not getting out of this hell lock. Start moving now because you're wasting time. So she wouldn't let me cave in.

Cause there's been, if she were to tell me, just shut it down there. That's all I needed to hear that day. That's how I exhausted and whatever I was. And I'm glad that happened because that gave us a little bit of a leading way later on in a day when I had other things come up. It was perfect, yeah.

You mentioned Souls for Souls. I know Buddy Teaster, I spent a little bit of time with that guy. He's an amazing person. So talk a little bit about that relationship and why that organization. Yeah, so I grew up in West Africa, Mali and having shoes literally is,

having shoes here is a luxury thing for people because you can have it and then it becomes luxurious. Like you just don't need shoes just to have a shoes. So you're safe, your feet are safe. It's more about more than that. And Mali, that's not the case. So we need shoes. It's a safety thing.

I grew up playing soccer in dirt, like grain, like pebbly. And then there's metal scraps here and there. So you would cut yourself. I have scars all over my legs, even the bottom of my feet. So not having shoes is a big problem. And when you get shoes, you have to take care of it. If you don't, the next one won't come out for two to three years, sometime even five. And sometime it's not even that you don't take care of the shoe, you outgrow it. And you got to wait till the next one, you have the opportunity for your family to get it because it's not about shoes. It's about you being able to eat and survive.

And I was very lucky to be one of the family that could get shoes for you. But it doesn't mean that I get shoes all the time too either. So I realized that and I'm thinking to go for a run, all you need is a pair of shoes and it can change your life. It has changed my life. And Belle again started searching what nonprofit really could relate to me as a person

that I want to run for. And she found Souls for Souls. It's like perfect. Yeah, it was perfect match in heaven. Literally, it was the best thing that we could have done for it. And we saw there's so many amazing nonprofit out there, but we want to make sure that something that relate

and something that could make a change. And what they do is they collect unwanted shoes, use their new, and they turn it into opportunity. And they're trying to use shoes to break the cycle of poverty. And what I really love about Soul for Souls that got my attention immediately was that not only did they help all over the world, third world country or whatnot, they also help in the US. Because living in the US, I'm very proud to say I'm a US citizen.

And I still see that sometimes we tend to forget that even here, a first world country, people don't have shoes to wear. So the fact that they cater to that, they look out for here and other places of the world, it's awesome. And it's not even being selfish in a way, because my mentality is if you take care of yourself, then you have the ability to take care of others. So I like that they're helping everyone in the world,

also here in the US. Yeah, it's a really interesting model because they have this distribution mechanism where all over the country, there are places that you can drop off your shoes, new or used. And they funnel all of these shoes into distribution outlets all over the world.

I mean, Africa is probably the most prominent continent where they distribute these, but they don't just give them to people. They basically donate them to entrepreneurs who then sell them at an affordable cost. So you're not just like, it's like the thing of, are you gonna give somebody a fish or are you gonna teach them how to fish?

They're teaching how to fish. You're giving these people a way to make a living by doing it. Exactly, yeah. And I saw this family's story in Haiti where this lady couldn't afford to feed her family, let alone pay for her kids to go to school. Now, because of Souls for Souls, she had a little business for herself,

can feed her family and can pay for her kids to go to school on top of that, which is really cool to see. Yeah, it's like the perfect organization for you to be affiliated with. And I know Buddy came and ran the whole day with you, right? Yeah, he came for a different occasion. Yeah, Buddy being the CEO, he wasn't the founder.

He came in maybe like five or six years ago. Yeah, he came in actually 2012. Uh-huh, okay, a little bit longer than I thought, yeah. Yes, I'm pretty sure that's when he came in. And being an ultra runner and having him with me too, having ultra runners with you was a game changer because you are getting these little like tips that are helping you to last

longer in the day to get these segment done quicker. And they pace you very well. And pacing doesn't mean to rush you to go faster, but they pace you where like these little idling time and things that you waste, you don't waste these anymore. And did you have a bunch of ultra runners dropping in on you throughout the whole thing other than Robbie? Robbie, buddy, Noah. Noah was an ultra runner from Pennsylvania. There was not many ultra runners, but a lot of runners. People actually are running and people who weren't running and they came out to put their body

through uncomfortable situation to help you. It makes you feel really grateful that people are doing that for you. Yeah. Well, you've had other mentors as well. I watched a video where I think maybe Jim Shark produced this video where he did a zoom call with Ross Edgely.

Oh yeah Ross. Who's like the best, right? Yeah, he's a friend. That guy, I mean, talk about another beast who's also just a font of positivity at all times. And he said something really interesting to you, which is that from his perspective, the differentiator was gonna be Bell.

Yeah, he was right. And he was right about that. He was a thousand. When he told me, I knew that she was gonna be a big help no matter what, but he was like super a hundred percent. It was just without her, I don't even know. Yeah. That's the difference.

I think he might be still on the road right now. So trying to get back to- She didn't come out with you to LA, did she? No, she didn't, yeah. I would have liked to have known. Well, we'll meet up for sure with her one day. Well, it's one thing, you know, I've had Robbie on the show, obviously.

I also had Ricky Gates on who shared his experience running across America, self-supported, which is a very different thing. But a key difference here is that these are two white dudes, right? And they're out there, they're vulnerable, they're in parts of the world, you know, and they're in so many ways, if you're gonna do this,

you're relying on the kindness of strangers, right? Yeah. You're, as far as I know, you're the first black person to do this, right? To do this solo, yeah. So I did research to figure out. So back in the, I think 1928, there was these, I think it was four, three or four runners, I'm not sure.

So they were running across the country, but they were doing a relay. So it was- Right. And it used to be a race. Yeah, it was a race. Like a long time ago. It's literally called Race America or something. Yeah, they're actually kicking out some of the black runner, color runners.

They're like, you're not doing this. But they did a thing where it was a relay. So like, let's say me and you did a relay together. You do a certain amount of distance. So I'm the first solo black person in the history of the country to run from LA to New York City. Did you know that going into this?

Going into it, I had a conversation with Robbie. Robbie actually brought up to me, say, hell, I don't know. I think you might be the first. I haven't seen. And Robbie was making sure he's doing his research. So we don't come out and make such statement and it's not true.

But yeah, I started thinking about it as I was going. And that's when I kind of got a little nervous with some of the things that's happening in the country. So I asked Robbie, so I call him one day. I said, hey, what was your biggest fear? So in my mind, I wasn't even thinking anything else, but I was just thinking about being a color person. So he was telling me about the dog situation right away.

And I brought up the whole, like, should I feel not safe for who I am? And then I knew that was something that I was concerned of. And you can see why you were concerned of it when you're in a certain part of the country. But overall, I tried not to put my energy into it. So my mentality is if you put your energy into something, that's what's gonna happen.

You're gonna manifest it. Yeah, you're coming into just positive people. And I would say majority of that 95% of the time, that was the case. Right, you did have a few run-ins though. Yeah, I had a few run-ins. The first one actually happened in Oklahoma, which was really scary for me.

So when we were in California and Arizona, I've had these awesome police officers. Hey, you're the guy on TikTok. I saw you on Instagram. Can I take a picture with you? I remember this officer, I saw him one day outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. And then 30 miles later, he saw me the next day. He goes, whoa, you're really making progress.

And he asked Bill, is it okay if I stop Hela to take a picture? Is he going to be mad? And I was like, no, I'm not going to be mad. So he came in, I was like, yes, thank you so much. I was always taking pictures with them. And one of the officer come in in Oklahoma and I thought it was similar thing.

Maybe they know what I'm doing. So I'm excited, I'm running. Actually I was cruising that day. I'm like, I have my stick, I'm like smiling. And then I see the officer come out. I thought he knew what I was doing, but everything kind of got serious immediately. I can see it.

So he just said, hey, sir, I just got a phone call. There's a runner on the road. What are you doing out here? And with the seriousness of the voice, I was like, I don't think he's very happy right now. And immediately- Is it a busy road? I mean, a charitable interpretation would be that,

you know, like, why is this guy out here? Like it's unsafe or something. It was in the middle of nowhere, not much traffic would be that, like, why is this guy out here? Like it's unsafe or something. It was in the middle of nowhere, not much traffic to a point where like Belle could be next to me for most of the time. If anything, she's a little behind or a little ahead. It wasn't that busy. It was in the middle of nowhere with the next time

being five miles ahead of me. And immediately he said, I got a phone call. There's a runner. What are you doing out here? What's the point of this? And I said, oh, I'm actually running across the country. He said, for what? So why got me scared when he put his hand on his gun?

And then, you know, there's like a clip. And then the little buckle. So I started panicking and I put my stick up. I said, oh, this is just a running pole. It helps me get up the hills and see, I'm wearing my safety vest. I want people to see me. I'm doing it for a nonprofit.

And I just started telling the story and I started waving bailing. And I was scared to wave bailing early because I didn't want him to think that I'm getting help. And now he has to be protective of himself. So I was scared. So I kind of waited even a little longer to wave her in

because she was actually thinking later to find out. She thought it was just an officer just seeing if I was okay. Oh, cause it's been the case. And then I see these couple far and these two couples. And I was like, this is weird. I think they're waiting for me. So they got impatient with my interaction with the police officer. At that point, he was asking, can I see your ID? I said, well, my ID is in my RV five

miles ahead. I got to get to that. And then he said, what's your birthday? Give me your name. And he's just started asking me all these things. He was a little annoyed, but these couple came in, these white couple came in and they're like, are you Hela? Or some told us about you. We were tracking you down. We want to donate. They had money for me. They want to take pictures. Then I see the officer buying into the story. I can just see, he's like, oh, he is actually doing this for real. Like you literally can see it. And I was like, thank God these people came in so they can attest to what I'm doing. Cause they've been tracking and following me. And I was waving bell at that point.

So she came in, she would come over to camera all the time to get content. And the officer asked me, can I also get a picture? Yeah, and I was like, it just turned into a positive. And I was like, thank God that happened. That was scary. It's kind of heavy, man. It's heavy that this, you know,

that a couple of white people had to come in in order for this guy to feel okay about what was happening. And when he left, it hit me, I was shook. I couldn't move for like 10 minutes. I was in the side of the road. I was like, wait, cause I just started thinking, why was he touching his gun? And the reason I raised my pull, cause I'm thinking,

I hope no one thinks that's a weapon or a rifle. I don't know. So you just start thinking all these things. So I was shook a little bit and that was tough. And also, and actually in around in California, I had this lady. I think the lady was a little cuckoo. She, this lady goes by in a Jeep and she offered me water. She said, Hey, do you want some water to drink? I said, Oh no, I'm good. Thank you. That's my support. I actually, I got my water in there. And this lady also is coming out. He was screaming at that car for offering me water.

And then she goes, what do you think you're doing? I said, I'm running across the country. She said, for what? I said, for a nonprofit called Souls for Souls. She goes, well, that's bullshit. You're about to get cut up now. I was like, wait, is she joking? So I was like, Belle, wait, wait, wait.

She's across the street. I was like, Belle, wait, wait. I don't know if she's joking or not. Unlock the car. And then I'm across the street and she's on the other side. And she started charging, sprinting. And there's a gentleman next to her. She's like, come.

I thought it was her boyfriend. She's calling her dog to come. So I just sprinted into the car and Belle did a U-turn. It was the fastest U-turn I've ever seen her do. And we just whipped around and she started to chase the car. And I see her and I'm turning around. She's chasing the car and she couldn't keep up. So I was kind of, I was thinking in my head,

there's no way she can catch me right now. My leg was good enough to run faster than her. But I'm like, if she has a weapon or a gun, I can't run that. So we call an officer and we waited two hours. The nearest officer was like almost an hour away. So we waited two hours. Officer Liker, that was her last name. So we waited two hours, officer Liker,

that was her last name, she's so close. Oh, Liker, I liked that last name. She came and escorted us. And by the time she got there, they were gone, but we just wanted to be safe and to get through that area. So that was in California. That was in California in the beginning. And a lot of people were warning us to be careful there.

And last sad story, don't like to talk about sad stories so much. Was Missouri. Missouri was one of those states where it was, to begin with, I was already like, I don't like Missouri because there's snakes. Literally, people were asking me, have you seen any snakes?

I was like, no, there's snakes nowhere. And we get into Missouri, snakes on side of the roads, on the grass, everywhere in front of you, you can see roadkill. It was really sad to see that. So I'm like, I don't wanna, one of them jumped in front of me too.

And I panicked and screamed and just took off. So that was already in the back of my mind. I'm running, I'm like looking at the side of the road. I hope there's no snake. And I go by Owensville High School and school was just getting, I was around 2.30, 2.40 PM. All a bunch of kids pulling out of the parking lot.

So me, whenever I see cars, I would always wave. Like I said, just give good energy. Some cars won't kind of, they kind of move so far over, even over the white line, you feel like you're going to get hit. So I'm always trying to keep tight and also waving at people. I'm here, but also, hey, hi, how are you doing? And I see these truck pulls. And then it was a bunch of teenagers, a bunch of boys in the back of the truck. And the pickup truck has a window that rolls down in the back windshield. So I saw one of the kids stick their head out

and call me the N-word. I was so shocked. I was like, wait, did this just happen? So I'm just like, come on, what was the point of this? So Belle across the street thought they were gonna hit me because sometimes that happens. So she just honks all the time to warn people. She just thought it was one of those.

And they just, and the kid ducks down and floors it and just took off. And I'm pretty sure her parents saw it because she definitely felt bad. She came back around to wave at me and basically say, hey, I'm sorry what that happened. So that happened in Missouri. So that was really, and I got flipped off a little bit

in Missouri prior to that. So that was not a fun day in Missouri. Yeah. I'm sorry that that happened. But overall people were charitable and awesome. What I realized is so many more good people in the world than bad. And it makes you feel like we have a promising world

because so many awesome people that don't even know who I am are offering me water. They're offering me rides to a point where like I was denying rides. One lady comes to me and say, well, I won't tell anybody. And I was like, no, that would be cheating. Like that's how good people were bringing Gatorade. They're like, well, I saw you. I'm like, you're running, you're doing, you're not just running a few miles. It looks like you're going somewhere far.

So they were bringing me water and so many good people. So many. Yeah. Did you watch Ricky Gates's documentary cross country? No, I don't know if I saw that one. You got to check it many. Yeah, did you watch Ricky Gates's documentary, Cross Country? No, I don't know if I saw that one. You gotta check it out. I mean, because he was doing it self-supported. Yeah, oh, he was the one holding the, yes, I saw it, yes, I saw it, I did. And so much of that movie, it's not about like,

it's less about the running part and it's so much about these encounters that he has with all these people along the way. And there's like one guy who wants to give him money. And like part of the impetus for him doing that run when he did it was, you know, being this like liberal progressive guy who grew up in Boulder, you know, in Colorado or whatever.

Oh yeah, he did a trans American. Yeah, I saw the whole, I watched that so many times. He wanted to really get a feel for what America actually is outside of your Twitter feed or what you see in your respective information silo. So I'm curious, outside of these bad experiences that you've had, like what your take is on the temperature of America.

Like we're gonna share this on July 4th weekend. We're celebrating America. America is in a situation right now that I would characterize as transitionary at best. We're very divided. And we're struggling with our ability to communicate with each other effectively. There are different worlds out there

that see things very differently. And it's easy when you're staring at a screen and kind of taking account of what people are saying online to form an opinion of what's actually happening. It's a very different thing altogether than be like, I'm here on the ground and I went all the way across America and I had conversations with all of these people.

And this is what my perspective is as a result of having had that experience. I think a thousand percent, America is much better than we see on social media. A hundred percent. I really, like, it's just, there've been many days where it's so filled with love and you really like to feel love,

like it's the energy. We're literally sitting in the RV in awe. Like, wow, this just happened. We saw a biker go by and then she asked asked Garen or V what I was doing. She baked vegan cookie, make sure it was vegan. Cause she went to research on me

and came in to even tell us the ingredient too. So we can trust her and came in and found us at a rest stop and in the Navajo reservation. And she was a doctor or a nurse, people giving, like you said, money, literally giving money. Oh, you're doing it for this. Here's money, Here's cash. And it's so much more better.

It's so much positivity and love and caring that I personally felt than I saw from being in New Jersey. And being there, you see it for yourself. And you can see some of these people don't even have much. And they're still trying to make effort to make me feel better, to donate, to support. Someone was even say, hey, you look like you can have some lunch when I was running across the country. I was like, no, I'm good.

He said, just take it. And I said, you know what? I'm gonna donate this money exactly to the nonprofit. I'm running for it. And he goes, it's perfect. Never seen me, doesn't know who I am, what I do, but they just wanted to help. And seeing that, that's what I said.

We have a really promising future. That's cool. That's encouraging. That's encouraging. It's beautiful. It is, and I said, 95% of the people, 97 that we've ran into, it was all nothing but positive energy and love, different background, different race, different gender,

or whoever had they wanna be accepted as, but you just felt like you were just one. And I would ask people questions without comes and run with me. And I realized we're all the same. We all have the same goal. We have passion, dreams and goals. We wanna accomplish.

We wanna be able to take care of ourselves, our family and friends. And it's just in a different way. So it's, I think we are doing a lot better than what we see right now. That's to my personal opinion. I hope so. Well, talk to me about the vegan diet thing.

It's the whole other like layer to this story. So me going vegan over five years now, it's five years late February. So Belle went vegetarian the year before, we watched earthlings together. She's bawling her eyes out. She said, I can never eat animals. So she went vegetarian.

So I grew up in West Africa, Mali, where I've seen people sacrifice cow, sheep, and even was part of holding the legs for it to happen as a child. They make you do that. And you're basically forced into this culture of meat eating without even having a choice to. And that didn't do anything to me, watching Earthlings. And then when I went back to look at it, I'm like, man, I was sick to watch this and not change my life. I was even sad watching it. But fast forward to a year later, she wanted me to watch this documentary

called Forks Over Knives. So I said, let's just do it. I got to start listening to her because every time I listen to do something, it ends up being amazing. And we watch it with- Why is that? I don't know.

She's just amazing. She's incredible. So 20 minutes into Forks Over Knives, I remember this vividly. I looked at her with my mouth dropped. She's just amazing. She's incredible. So 20 minutes into Forks Over Knives, I remember this vividly. I looked at her with my mouth dropped. She goes, are you okay? I said, I don't think I'm okay because I don't think I could ever eat meat

for the rest of my life, but I'm scared. I don't know what to eat. And she said, don't worry about it. We'll figure it out. So we went vegan together, cold turkey. So I made a decision right then on, I'm never eating animals. Seeing what it does to people,

seeing professional athlete being on plant-based and doing their stuff at the elite level. And I'm an amateur, if they can do it at an elite level, why can I not survive being who I am and not eat animal? So I became vegan for selfish reason. And now it's more than that, it's more ethical for me too as well. So I'm glad it took that for me to realize

what's happening in the world, even our climate, whatever. But the only thing I regret about going vegan, being plant-based is I didn't do it soon enough. That's the only thing. Yeah, it's interesting. So you were doing it before the run streak when you were still in the professional soccer world. Yeah, actually right when I turned vegan,

I went to play in Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma City Energy. They're in the USL, the lower division, just the division below MLS. And I got there. I used to get kicked out of practice. I'm not kidding you. I had this energy that my body just started feeling and I just couldn't explain it. And my teammate would look at me, are you crazy? Hello, what's going on with you? I remember one game at the locker room, halftime, one of our teammates goes, if you come in this locker room, you don't feel like you haven't left everything on the field. You're not exhausted. That means you didn't play.

So I humbly raised my hand. I said, I disagree with that because every game I've been giving all my all, but I still feel like I can play a second game. That's how much energy my body just felt. So just because I don't feel tired doesn't mean I didn't leave it all out on the field. That energy started convincing my teammates to go plant-based. They're like, how did you do this? I just don't eat animal. My recovery time is quicker and things like that. And I can feel it. How long before you had that experience?

It was like- After making the switch. I switched a month later, I went to Oklahoma to play. It was like about a month later. Wow. Yeah, literally. Switch in February, all March and the 1st of April, I was in Oklahoma. So recovery times are better, not running out of energy, not like petering out in the fourth quarter

or late second half or whatever. As being young, we would be up to two, three in the morning. We wake up, everybody's exhausted. Like, I don't know how we're gonna survive practice. I'm like, I feel like I got enough rest. And then when I started seeing them, I'm like, wow, I think it's my diet, it has to be. Cause I was a big chicken person.

In fact, I'd have leftover chicken from night and eat it as breakfast at morning, like eight, nine in the morning, which is really- It has to be, because I was a big chicken person. In fact, I'd have leftover chicken from night and eat it as breakfast at morning, like eight, nine in the morning, which is really- They want to kick you out of practice. Yeah, my coach would be like, hey, Hela, you're done for the day. Because the second team that doesn't play a lot,

they practice longer to get more fitness and game underneath them. Oh, because you had to play, he didn't want to burn you out. Yeah, that's why I got kicked out of practice. So I would go join them to do extra practices. And my coach would, or like an easy day where we don't play much and I want to stay long,

he's like, Hela, you're done. You have a game in two days and I want to stay, but I always get kicked out because I had that energy with me. I think because of, yeah, playing base. Do you know this soccer agent called Darren Flitcroft? Heard of him. Yeah, he's a friend of mine.

Oh, really? But he's super plant-based. Oh, wow. That's cool. He's a big mucky muck in the soccer agenting world or whatever, but he's like gung-ho plant-based guy. And a fun fact, actually. So my neighbor, Samuel, and his girlfriend, Roberta Grotner, who's actually was ranked in Doha for marathon

as he was rowing six in the world. So they saw, I kind of started telling them about the whole vegan thing. So they surprised me with your book, Plant Power. Oh, cool. Yeah, so I was literally consuming your book before the Transcontinental. Oh, that makes me feel good.

Yeah, I have your book at home. So they give it to me as a gift. I don't know if it was for my birthday last November, but it was, they say, here's a book. I was, oh, rituals. I didn't know you had that book. So superfoods. So there's a chapter with the superfoods.

So I was just saying, okay, hello, you're training to run across the country now. Yes, you're vegan. So now let's add more superfoods because now you wanna be, you're doing something that your body is not used to. So I need the food. So again, thank you for having that out there

for all the plant-based people out there. I'm glad that I was able to contribute some small thing to this from afar. So what did the daily nutritional situation look like when you were running across the country? So I had a sponsor, VLife, which is a 100% vegan and their motto is for the living. Like out of the UK.

Yeah, UK, yeah, for the living. And the reason I wanted to work with them because they plant trees every time someone buys something. So over 250,000 trees in a year from their sales. So they kind of asked me, Can you write out all the stuff you eat? So there was a nutritionist there. So I kind of did and they kind of put that in together

and I told them what I wanna eat. Some of the stuff I looked at in your book, this is what I wanna get myself. So we were doing like a practice, like stuffing myself, being uncomfortable, running with food in my hand to eat and train that. And so my biggest thing was bagel. I love bagel, but I got sick of bagels.

But I was eating a lot of the rice bowl. It's hard to eat. Well, you can pour water on them and they go down easier. Yeah, a little bit. While you're running, you eat a dry bagel. I don't know about that. Yeah, exactly. So I was eating a lot of the rice bowls,

the fresh veggies, avocado. Bell was really creative with the food to make me more interested in it because my appetite would change. I'd be obsessed with certain food. Within a few days, I can't even look at it or smell it. So my appetite would change. I'd be obsessed with certain food within a few days. I can't even look at it or smell it. So we were eating a lot of whole foods

and a lot of green, everything you can imagine and hydrating with electrolyte mostly then water. Yeah. Did you have a Vitamix on the RV? We had a blender, but not a Vitamix because we were scared. Is it going to be able to power it? Yeah, cause it requires a little bit more power.

But then you use a normal blender, it's not the same thing. Yeah, it's not the same thing. How much of the intake was liquid versus like solid food? I'm actually surprised, I was eating more solid than liquid. So my liquid, biggest liquid would be at nighttime. So we would do a Ben and Jerry vegan ice cream where she would pour that with oat milk, a thousand calories.

The Ben and Jerry was 990 calories and with would pour that with oat milk, a thousand calories. The Ben and Jerry was 990 calories and with oat milk, I'd get over a thousand calories. Blend it, I eat my dinner and I just chug that. So I was getting- The Ben and Jerry's vegan ice cream. Yeah, that was the best for me for liquid. And then we started having the electrolytes that has calories in it to drink that,

to making sure that when I'm drinking electrolytes, I'm not just drinking for the electrolytes, but I'm getting some calories off of it as well. And what kind of heart rate were you maintaining? I was trying, my goal was keep it below 140, do that. So people will come- Low zone too. Yeah.

I mean, I don't know what your thresholds are. Yeah, people would come run with me and then they kind of start pulling away. So I'd be like, don't do it, hella. Because you have to not just survive today. You have tomorrow and the next and the next. They're just here for the day. Because they don't do it on purpose.

They just like kind of ease. It just, you just drift away. Something when it's a group of people and I just stayed behind and said, yeah, you guys can keep going. I'll see you when I see you. But how was the sleep? I couldn't sleep.

That was the problem. I'd always wake up tossing and turning at night. It wasn't because the RV bed was uncomfortable. I thought that was the most comfortable bed. But it's just that you, I just can't sleep. I couldn't sleep. That was the problem. I'd always wake up tossing and turning at night. It wasn't because the RV bed was uncomfortable. I thought that was the most comfortable bed, but it's just that I just can't sleep. I wake up at two in the morning, up for two hours and I'd fall asleep. The alarm is ringing six there, you gotta get up.

So I think on average, I got less than five hours of sleep the whole time for the 84 days. Were you wearing like a whoop or any kind of tracker that could give you some data? I just use my Garmin and I used to wear Whoop, but I didn't bring the Whoop with me. I used to have that, but I just used the Garmin

and just went off of, cause to me, even when I was using Whoop, it would tell me to take a day off and there's no day off for me. Your strain score is 20 plus today. Time to give it a rest. Yeah, exactly. Not what you wanna hear. Yeah, I love- You got 47 miles ahead of you. Exactly, I love my Garmin is 20 plus today. Time to give it a rest. Yeah, exactly. Not what you want to hear.

Yeah, I love- You got 47 miles ahead of you. Exactly. I love my Garmin. I think it's the best purchase I've done. It does everything that I need to do. It also tells me all these numbers that I need to know for my body.

But every time I start to start a run, it says, I'm a suggestion. Take a day off. Yeah, and it will say to me, your fitness goal, take 12 days off. I'm like, wait, I can't do this. There's no day off in this. And it will say to me, your fitness goal, take 12 days off. I'm like, wait, I can't do this. There's no day off in this. You got to get up and go.

And so the technology will tell you, hey, you're doing too much training, but you just got to keep pushing through. I was talking to, did you follow the Iron Cowboy? Oh, he's amazing. James, I talked to him. Did you talk to him? Yeah, I talked to James. He actually DM'd me too.

And then he's like, he congratulated me. I'm like, wait, look, did you know what you just him? Yeah, I talked to James. He actually DM me too. And then he's like, he congratulated me. I'm like, wait, look, did you know what you just did? Yeah. And I was trying to see if I can, we were thinking, oh, is he going to be in my path? So I joined him and then we realized he's in Utah. So that was out of the question. So when I got back, I was trying to see

if I can get to him and do some miles with him, but I didn't get the chance. But I'm like, maybe I want to meet him one day. Yeah, I can hook that up for you. I showed up on day 91. I saw that, I was so jealous. I'm like, oh, Rich is there. It was pretty fun.

But he was telling me, cause I asked him about his sleep as well. And he said that his sleep was terrible. It was terrible during this thing. He would have night sweats and night terrors. He would sleepwalk, like he was all jacked up. Like he's like, I never have nightmares and night terrors. He would sleepwalk like he was all jacked up. Like he's like, I never have nightmares or night terrors, but it was like a really weird thing.

So even though he would be flat on his back, he wasn't really actually sleeping because his body was so traumatized by what he was putting it through. It was in shock for me too. I can't even imagine for him, because he's just incredible doing all that, getting up and repeating.

And you know what's fascinating to me about what he did? For me, what made it very fun too, you know you're making progress. I'm going east no matter what, every mile is counting. Except some days when you're climbing up, you're like, ah, I'm not even going east yet. But he has to do his in the same area over and over. It would be like you waking up in your house in New Jersey

and doing a 40 to 50 mile loop every day. I think huge props to him mentally, just to be able to sustain that because you're in the same area, it's not changing. It gets, it can get boring. It could be whatever. And he still did it. And he wanted a hundred and one, he went the next day.

I saw that, I'm like, what's happening? Cause he just wanted to blow people's minds. Yeah. And the point is made that even when you meet your goal, like even when you do the thing that you and probably nobody else thought was possible, you still have more in you. Exactly.

There's always one more. Yeah. There's always one more. And with this transcontinental, what I really learned is where I knew this, but like we're really much stronger than we think we are. Yeah. When you're put in an uncomfortable situation,

you'll find a way out if you have no option. So my mentality, get comfortable with the uncomfortable. And this is what really taught me. So if anyone who's struggling with anything right now, just stick to it, because eventually there'll be a turning point. You just have to fight through, fight the day. And there's been many days where I'm just like,

survive today. I don't care about tomorrow, what happened yesterday, just survive today. So it comes down to that. So when you would have those days, when you would wake up and you're like, there's no way I can do it. Walk me through the mantra or how you get yourself

into the mindset to be able to put one foot in front of the other. First, it's been cold majority of the time. So when you get up in the warm RV, you do not wanna get out. Literally, I'm like, I don't wanna go. I would get up. This is the time I actually, I guess,

when you asked the question, have you had your breaking point where you just, I would just talk to them, like, I don't want to go. I would get up. This is the time I actually, I guess when you asked the question, have you had your breaking point where you just, I would just talk to them. I'm like, I don't want to go. When I'm saying that, I'm not even joking. I'm like, I don't want to go. I can't do this. I don't want to do, I keep repeating it.

And then I would say, Hela, stop, wait a minute. Because you keep saying this, your mind is just going to keep believing, your body's going to react to it. But a lot of the morning I just get up. I'm just like, I don't want to do this. I don't want to go. And then I'm like, souls for souls, souls for souls. Then I keep repeating that in my head,

but getting out of the RV was the toughest. And even the hardest part after that, when bell brings me to where I dropped the pin, where we ended the run. And I would always make a sign and put arrow NYC. And we see a street. If I finished my miles and I don't see any street, I keep going till I see the next street sign and we drop a pin just to make sure we're there. When she brings me to drop me after the next morning, getting out of that, leaving the warm car, I like, I want to cry.

But as soon as you start going, then you're like, okay, this is not too bad. But that was the hardest to get up and get out. And was there one specific low moment that sticks out like your lowest moment? Two lowest moment for me was the first full day in Arizona. I got into Arizona at a later day where that night I finished.

But the first full day in Arizona, it was a switchback. And I gained 3000 feet in six miles, which is really weird. Think about that. 3000 feet in six miles. which is really weird. Think about that. 3000 feet in six miles. Yeah. How's that possible? That's a lot of gain. Yeah, and then it was, so the goal,

the thing was mentality for me is fall off the cliff or get hit by a car. That was like the only two option for me. I felt like it was, and it really was until we had to put me in front of Bell's car and she was holding up traffic. And I'm just in front of her. If you can get around, when you have the opportunity, go ahead.

If not, you're going to have to wait. Like having her go at six miles an hour in front of me. So it was a switchback in Arizona where I'm just climbing. And there's this cliff. You see cars that fell off of this cliff. You see them there, like old cars. Down in the ravine?

I don't even remember the mountain name. I can't believe I can't think of it right now. But it was our first day and we keep climbing and I went through everything. I went through rain. I went through hail, snow, wind, all season within that, getting out of that mountain. And I was in there for like 13, 14 miles.

But the first six miles, I think I get over 3000. And it was basically to a point where like, I felt like I'm going up. Someone is pulling me back and you're going to fall backward and you hunch to use your pull to get you up there. And the cars, it was dangerous for her, even with the cars. And I see these cars coming down and you can see cars on top, like look like a stair.

And so how did they get up there? And you just see how steep it is. And we Google later, why do they have switchbacks? That's even to help with the elevation. That's how tough that is. Yeah, it's too steep to go straight. Yeah, I killed my knee really like badly. Is that when you were still trying to run the hills?

Yeah, I was still in the running. Yeah, that's what did it for me. And Missouri, there's a raining day where 50 mile an hour head crosswind, and I would get out. It was freezing cold. I would get like soaked in water in my shoes. I can feel puddles in my shoes within two, three minutes. And I couldn't move forward.

I'm trying to progress forward. I can't move forward. It was very stressful. And I would get into the RV to get out because I'm shivering to get, I can't even get warm by running to get out of my wet clothes, to get into new clothes, which was a bad idea because as soon as I step outside, it felt like I didn't even change.

And that was tough. That was like really tough for me. That's the day Bill went on Instagram and say, hey, hella struggling today. Cause I want people to know the reality. It's not always sunshine and rainbows. If you guys just wanna send him a message, he'll probably appreciate it.

I'm glad she did that. Cause seeing people come in, sending me a message was really cool. But those two days I'll never forget. Cause that was, yeah, those two days was tough. What's the recovery routine? You have the Norma tech boots. Yeah, Norma tech was Theragun, Hyperice.

A Hyperice massage gun. And the Norma tech boot is really nice. And I had a machine called Kelvy. So I don't know if you've heard of Kelvy. Ooh, I gotta get you hooked to Kelvy. What is that? So Kelvy, have you ever heard of a game ready? It's like ice and water, how they wrap your leg.

So Kelvy is a machine that can go to 106 degrees within two seconds. And that can freeze to 39 degrees within four seconds. Whoa. And it could contrast. So you alternate back and forth between cold and hot. You can do contrast. It'll go hot for three minutes, cold for two minutes.

Or you can switch the times, or you can just keep it on cold the whole time or hot. So that was really helping me with recovery. And every time I cheated- Are they like boots, like Normatec? They're not boots. It's like a console. And it has like this wrapping

where you can wrap around your knee or your ankle. So it's completely different than Normatec. But every time I cheated Normatec, I felt it. Every time I didn't put it on, I'm like, why did you do this? You know, when you don't do it, you're paying for it. So many nights when I- Those things work.

It works, it's magic. It feels like you have a new leg. So I had this time in the day at 2 PM, 2 30, where I put on Norma Tech. So that's when I really cruise from 36 miles all the way to 47. Sometime I would do that. I've done that many times actually nonstop without breaking.

I would just go straight for it from 36 to 47 to call my day, yeah. But more often than not taking a Norma Tech break in the middle of the day for a little reboot. Yeah, it's a huge reboot. It really is. So I was so happy that I had that to my availability. So now that you have this in the rear view mirror,

like what else did you learn about human possibility? Like what, where did your mind change from before to after in terms of how you see yourself and how you kind of think about possibility in general? So I always like, sometime we sit there, we're like, wait, I just ran across the country. So it hasn't gotten old to me. I hope it doesn't.

You just kind of realize that we're not limited. And I think of Eli Kipchoge, when he used to say there's no human, he still says no human is limited. And sometimes I'm like, yeah, we're not limited. And I truly believe that because you find your limit and you break it. I cannot run Eli Kipchoge marathon time. It took him 20 some years to get there, but I have my limit, but I can break that and find another limit. If I want to do that, I have to spend years on it. So it really reinforced that we are not limited. We have a limit right now within ourselves,

but we can reach that breakthrough and find the next limit. So I feel like I found my limit doing this and I broke through it because there was time where I thought it was impossible. I even thought a hundred days was not even enough for me. And then now I broke through that limit and now it makes me think that I can do other things. So I wanna do Leadville 100.

I do, I've done that. I wanna do that. And I'm gonna actually train. Are you gonna show up on August 21st when the problem turns online? I feel like that might be a little too soon. My body is not still there yet, but I wanna focus my time.

I actually go in the mountains and train. So it really makes you feel like we are much stronger than we think we are. And whenever you think you're as strong as this, you're stronger than even that. So if I'm thinking I can do this, I can even go beyond that. Just always think even beyond that

because you'll be able to do it. Even if it takes a little longer than someone else has done it or whatever, but you'll be able to find the power and the will to get through it. Just like the Iron Cowboy doing 101. Incredible. I cannot wait to meet James.

I wanna ask him some questions and things like that. I'll introduce you to him. Talk to me about the mantra that's on the t-shirts and I wanna talk about the bus too. That was really cool. This phrase, no matter the circumstances. What is that about? Like, why did you hone in on that?

Being kind of like the touchdown or the moniker for the adventure. So when I started my run streak, I said, you're going to go outside and run 10 minutes a day, no matter the circumstances, whether that's the weather, whatever it is, if you, I was still having a nine to five, you want to get up early and run before work or you want to run after work.

So no circumstances is going to prevent you from getting out there. So the mentality was no matter the circumstances, from LA to New York City, whatever happens, you got to make it happen. And to a point I was thinking, even if I have to crawl like a baby on my hands and knees, if that's the only way I'm going to move forward, it might take 200 days now, but I have to make it happen.

So that's where no matter the circumstances, I wanted to preach that to everybody. Every single day I say, because if we want to do something, we can make it happen. So we just got to push through whatever circumstances come our way, good or bad, because circumstances don't always have to be bad.

It could be like, oh, I'm at a party. It's a great circumstance right now, but you got to get your work in. No matter the circumstances, you got to get out there and push through. Have you always been this guy who's inspiring everybody around him? Did you mature into this?

I mean, when you were a kid, were you like this? Where does this come from? I think the fact that I grew up in West Africa, I really quickly grasp on, I have it really good. I have my best friends, kids my age that are in Africa that do anything to be in my position. So what's not there to be happy about in life? Like to me right now, what is life?

I'm sitting across from the ritual talking. So there's little things and little moments in my life that I think about or major moments in my life that I think about, no matter I'm going through any little tough time and say, come on, hella, just a time frame that's going to go by. So what really makes me push through anything and just always have a smile on when there was times where I was really struggling, nothing was going my way. And I thought that was the end of everything. I literally thought like, your future is done. You have nothing to look forward to.

And I'm sitting here. So whenever I go through a tough time, I just laugh. I say, remember that one time you thought this is it? Look at that. And I vividly actually, when I signed my first professional contract in 2013, as a professional, you get paid, right? So imagine a professional that is signing a contract,

has no money in his bank account even to eat. And you don't have the gut to reach out to family members, to friends. How are you going to ask for money to go get grocery? You just signed a professional contract. So I remember one day playing in Seattle. I have a game coming up and I want to buy food. My card was declined. So I get home and I look at my bank account. I was $0. So I didn't know what to do. and I look at my bank account, I was $0. So I didn't know what to do. So I called my bank.

I said, hey, can you guys allow me to overdraft? I will get paid in two weeks because they will pay us biweekly. And I just want to overdraft. You can charge me the fee. And then the lady that was with me said, no, I can't do that for you. So I said, please, just allow me to do this. And she said, let me connect to your manager.

So the manager came on and I wish I can find who he is today. But I talked to him. He goes, I'm not going to allow you to overdraft. He said, you know why? Because if I allow you to overdraft, what happened if you don't pay? The fee adds up next thing you know, you're going to be negative and owe a lot of money. And he said, you know what I'll do? I'll give you $30 credit right now so you can go get food. So I went and go get a week worth of grocery. I had like an Aldi, it was a cheap store. And I think about that day because that day I was really like, I'm an athlete that have to perform, but I didn't have food.

I couldn't even ask my teammates. And so thinking back to all those times, nothing really, it adds more to you just want to smile because I really have it good. I'm able to run every day, realizing my dream, which is running every day. It's a privilege of mine. I have two legs, I have two limbs. And even running every day, realizing my dream, which is running every day. I have, it's a privilege of mine. I have two legs, I have two limbs.

And even running every day is a privilege because there's people who can't walk, let alone run. And back of my mind, I'm doing it for them too. It's not about me anymore. So I can do anything but be happy and be excited. And it's life, life is really beautiful. Even though we have these little bumps along the way, but overall having people around you, family, friends,

and having, because of social media, I have a big family now. Cause I'm like way, but overall having people around you, family, friends, and having because of social media, I have a big family now. Cause I'm like, I had know all these people around the world, cool people. I know you, I know James now, I know all these incredible, it's just, you cannot smile. You really can't. That's beautiful, man.

I love the gratitude and the appreciation. It's very infectious. Thank you. Yeah. Does the village back in Mali know what you've been doing? Yeah. Have you talked to anybody back there? Actually, yeah.

So the funny thing is my dad actually forbid me to run. He told me, he said, hell, I forbid you to run. What is this run nonsense? He said that to me. He literally said, what is this- How old were you when he told you that? He told me this in 2018, running, when I was just two years in.

Because I went back to Mali and I was still running. My sister's getting married. I was still, am I running? And he said, you're gonna, he was sending me videos of people dropping dead in soccer matches. And then he said, this is what running doing too. And it's funny because he was the biggest supporter

for me to play professional soccer. So I said, dad, what's the difference? If I was playing professionally, would you say the same thing? Because I'm still running. It's just that maybe you like one versus the other. And he basically told me, I want you to stop this running since he never was supportive. And my mom was more like, I'm concerned for my child. Don't hurt yourself kind of thing. But things turn around. And then my little brother would say, dad, I think Hela is doing something that is gonna be great because he's doing it for himself and other things. So now he's one of the biggest support.

He said, Hela, now I understand. He was so proud of the whole run across the country. He was so happy about it. In fact, he wrote a note to have my sister read it at the finish and basically saying, I have three PhDs. My grandfather, Hela, that's who I was named after. He said he was a peasant, but he found a way to get out of the situation and make himself who he was

before he passed. And then he said, you top all of us. You ran across the country. And he said, may the legend continue. And now he's like one of the biggest supporters. He goes, now I get it. And he goes, I don't even know where you got this genetic from, because it's not from me, because I can't run this much.

He couldn't believe that I was doing that many. We're talking about 1.75 kilometer in kilometers a day. So now he's fully behind it. But now the whole country, basically most of the people that I know in Mali are like, wow, this is incredible. But the biggest part for me for to have like kind of an understanding and not even have to be supportive,

just understanding it was my dad and now he's all about it. Well, given that he was such a tough sell, it's all the more meaningful, right? Yeah, he was not about it at all. He was not, but now it's completely different. He's always saying like, oh, this is awesome, proud of you. And then he's like, I saw this article.

So now he kind of see the bigger picture that I always had a vision to do something for others. Right. And not just about me. And now he can see that. He wasn't sold on the YouTube thing either. Oh yeah, YouTube, no, not at all. In French they say, is basically like a model.

He said, what is this modeling stuff you're doing? Showing your body running on YouTube. What is that? What is that gonna do for you? Yeah, he wasn't about that too. Now he binge watched my YouTube videos. He does. That's great.

Yeah. Even I make fun of my sister. There's no hard feeling at all. So my sister, the reason I'm telling this story is because people are not going to support you, even the closest ones to you are not going to understand what you're trying to do. My sister told me this, Fadima. If she's listening to this, she knows it's all love.

I love her. But I always joke around with her. She told me, why don't you start this stupid YouTube thing and get a real job? She said that to me one day. It really hurt because you're like, man, this is someone that's closest to you. And then I was able to get my plane ticket to go to her wedding, which is like a last minute notice. It was a month before. I'm getting married in Mali. Can you come? I used the YouTube money that we had. It was not mine. It's Bella and I, we do this together. She said, just deposit into your account.

We've never touched anything from YouTube. It was just enough for a plane ticket. So I bought tickets to go to my, so when I got to Mali, I was like, Fadima, how sad would have been that your own brother couldn't make it to your wedding because you couldn't afford it. But well, thank God for you too.

So- Has she come around now too? No, she's been super supportive. It didn't take long for her to understand. That was in the very beginning stage. That's cool. Yeah, she even came at the finish line with her husband and my nephew.

And you're making it work in terms of like making a living on YouTube and supporting yourself. You've got these sponsor relationships. Yeah, which is really cool. Like I couldn't, like even I remember one day, actually I was laughing really hard and Bella's looking at me across the road

during the Transcontinental. She said, are you okay? I was like, I'm just smiling because look at this. What is life? We're able to do this. We don't have to worry about anything. Like we're good or we have food to eat. We have a sponsor, Gymshark,

that gave us a mobile home, the RV. We have a sponsor, people like that, or that's paying for our food. This is incredible. Why can I not? Like, I can't just stop smiling about it. So I am grateful to say, because of my sponsors, I'm making a living.

I can do this full time. I can travel around the world and we can create content anywhere we go. And what I let people understand is it's not even YouTube because for YouTube, for us, this is the truth about it. You don't really make enough on YouTube. Well, I don't to live, you cannot. It's more about it. You don't really make enough on YouTube to live. You cannot.

It's more about because I love- There's a lot of illusion around that. Yeah, yeah. Like if it was for money in the beginning, we would have quit a long time ago. It's just, I love sharing my passion with people to let them know you can have your own journey, whether that's running or not or anything else

and just stick to it and get it done. But what YouTube did for us is brought the opportunity to be signed by Gymshark as their second ever runner and to be signed by Vivo Life. So those sponsors allowed you to be able to be a little more flexible with yourself and at least make a living in terms of you can eat, you can have a roof over your head.

And do the thing. Yeah. And then. Do the thing that you love, right? Exactly. Those guys showed up for you. I mean, that bus on the final day. Yeah, Gymshark really went all out. Go to his Instagram or his YouTube. Yeah. Watch the final day, I gotta talk about this bus. Really went all out. Go to his Instagram or his YouTube

and watch the final day. I mean, that bus is unbelievable. It's like this party bus, just cranking tunes. There's people on it, like riding into the city. They had the rap all done and they did the RV too. The rap, the circumstance, and in French also, and they had that whole thing.

They had a permit to shut a whole street down in New York City. They had police, NYPD escort. They warned them to get us. And my town really showed up, Rochelle Park, New Jersey. I had the town mayor show up, the deputy mayor. I didn't know that was happening. I go around, I'm like, wait, is this for me? What's going on? The firefighter with a big American flag, which was a prime moment for me because no matter what, America made me who I am now. Because of America, I got the chance to, to me, living the American dream because I came from a place where nothing very promising and now I'm living the American dream. So when I saw that flag, it hit me hard, like a big flag. It was like bigger than the whole fire truck. They had like

a ladder holding a hang down. So seeing the town show up and having Gymshark support, Viva Life support is just, you always think, wow, what, this is happening? And I was joking with everybody with Ravi. I was like, should I run across the country again? Cause this is exciting just to see them. I'm gonna have to do this twice again. Yeah. It was cool seeing you go into Manhattan.

The roads, were they shut down? Like which avenue were you going up where it was just a huge procession of you guys in the bus? So we turn onto second street and then our bell call me and say, we're gonna have a police escort so keep the left side of the road. I was like, okay, okay, we'll follow the rules.

So we turn and this police officer just pull in front of us with a siren and then slowing like trap, like literally opening the road to us. So it just became a whole party, literally. The music is blasting from that, the bus that Jim Shark had that cut off top. And-

You're dancing. We're dancing. Everybody's basically dancing on the road cause we would have to follow now the traffic light. So we get to a traffic light, we have to pause the run because the crossroads and the police would stop and we would stop and people would start dancing. Everybody bystanders, people like recording,

people are getting out of their car, like what's going on? They don't know what's going on. And it was just amazing. At one point, actually, we took over the whole street. No one could even drive on it. We stopped at a light. I saw the officer, the passenger officer

comes out of the car. I'm like, oh, we're in trouble. He's going to apply to us to keep one side because that's what I was instructed to. He comes out with his cigar. He goes, hey, gentlemen, I just want to let you guys know we're about to make a left on 50th Street. And that's what I was instructed to. He comes out with his cigar. He goes, hey, gentlemen, I just want to let you guys know we're about to make a left on 50th Street.

And that's where the finish line is. And everybody started cheering because we were not in trouble. He literally came out. He basically- That's New York cops. They're the best. Literally the best.

He came out to let us know that we're about to get to the finish line. And I thought it was because we literally took over the whole road. It was amazing having everybody come in. And when I was doing that last run, I called Robbie. I said, hey, Robbie, I want you to be next to me. Because I thought it was a full circle. I was there for his last day. He came out for me throughout the Transcontinental. And he's there

for my last day. I said, hey, Robbie, step up. Let's go. And then I had Garrett. I said, Garrett, get up here. So Robbie was like, Garrett, get up. You can hear in the audio that in the video, just wanted them to be in the front with me because it was really special. And then for some reason I found his strength. My legs, my Achilles was flared up. You look fresh. I don't know. You do not look tired at all. I know.

I was like, how does this guy have so much energy? I started booking it. I saw that, I'm like, okay, get to it right now as fast as you can. And I looked at my split later on my garment and it was 7.07 pace at that point from running 12 miles in a minute mile to 7.07. That's great.

Yeah, for the last push. And how long had you hatched the plot to pop the question at the finish line? I wanted to do it as soon as I started talking, thanking everybody and sponsor everybody for just being there and making this very special. So I told Robbie, as soon as I said, hey, Robbie, that's when he, Robbie had the ring.

Oh, he did. So I said, hey, Robbie. He's the ring bearer. Yeah, so I said, hey, Robbie, he just grabbed it and he actually gave it to the ring bearer. Yeah, so I said, hey, Robbie, he just grabbed it. And he actually gave it to a friend of ours, Lex, which she hosted Robbie in New Jersey his last day. And she had in her running backpack,

her running vest, hydration vest. And then Robbie grabbed it from her. And then I said, hey, Robbie, Robbie handed it to me. And then I went for it. Yeah, she was surprised. Yeah, she was, she had no idea. And actually I was like- But how did you hide the ring beforehand

so she didn't find it for the whole adventure? I didn't even have the ring with me. I had the ring- Was it New Jersey you had a friend get it or something? No, I was trying to figure out how I was gonna do this. And I called my guardian who came to see me a few days before I said, I was just letting you guys know,

I'm gonna propose to Lex and just wanted you guys know ahead of time since I won a few days before. I said, I was just letting you guys know, I'm going to propose to Lex and just want you guys to know ahead of time since I won't see you before. And then he goes, do you have a ring? I was like, no. He goes, all right. He drove to a jeweler and FaceTimed me and said, hey, can you pick one?

I said, well, I want it to be unique. And so we did a deal with a jeweler where we can pick the ring now. If she doesn't like it or the fitting is not right, we can go and fix it. So just to have a ring. It was either that or I was going to ask her mom for her grandmother's ring who had now if she doesn't like it or the fitting is not right, we can go and fix it. So just to have a ring. It was either that or I was gonna ask her mom for her grandmother's ring who had passed

if she had one in person. So I wanted to ask everybody. I didn't even ask the mother yet till the day before that I'm gonna propose. I asked her father the morning or cause I didn't see him until then. So she saw me talking to these people, like close people like her.

I didn't want it to be like, why is Hella doing that? So I would take my GoPro and say, I wanna interview people. I close people like her, I didn't want it to be like, why is Hella doing that? So I would take my GoPro and say, I wanna interview people. I interviewed her best friend, but I told her best friend while I was in the interview. And then, so for her to even fall for the interview thing, I called her over, now I'm time to interview you now. So I interviewed her too.

So she was like, oh, he's just interviewing everybody. But I was telling people that I'm gonna propose. So they're there at the finish line. So that's how I had to set up. How long have you guys been together? Nine years this past June 11th, it was nine years. I met her at UMass and college, UMass Amherst. Oh, you got way back.

Yeah, nine years ago. Wow. Yeah. It flew by too, really bad. That was the fastest nine years. That was the biggest party finish line that was just a run across America. I don't even- I think that ever was. Yeah, Gymshark really went all out for that to get that.

And then getting a permit for the road for us to get the finish line on. And it was just really fun. And it was even more exciting to have Casey Neistat there and to have like Robbie, to have just everybody that- How did that come together? Okay, so Gymshark asked me actually, hello, who do you want at the start

of your run across the country? I said, Rich Roll, Casey Neistat. You two came- I didn't know, nobody told me. I'm shocked actually, because they asked me, they say, hey, hello, is there anybody important that you really look up to you want at your start? You two were the first in my head immediately,

there's no doubt. I had no idea. I knew Robby was gonna- I would have joined you for the beginning. Yeah, I knew Robbie would have came. Robbie was, I talked to Robbie. Robbie say, hell, I'm there for you as a friend. I'm gonna be there for you.

So I know he was doing his thing. Eventually I was gonna meet Robbie somewhere or even if it's the finish. So they asked me and I said, you two immediately. Many times in many meetings, we had Zoom meetings. And so I thought- I hope there weren't emails that came in that I didn't see or didn't pay attention to.

Now I feel bad. No, it's all right. Cause I'm sitting here now with you. But I mentioned you two and then the same thing. And none of that could happen in the beginning. I didn't see either of you. So, but in the finish, as I'm finishing, I was asked again, who do you want at the finish line?

I said, Rachel and Casey. And those are some of the people I said. I definitely didn't know about that. But I completely forgot about it. Like I, to a point I was just so consumed, just get home. And then I see Casey and the next morning I'm like, whoa, Casey's actually here. But I had no idea he was gonna show up.

So to me too, they were just asking me if I can have somebody, maybe they'll try. I thought it was gonna be like how it happened in the beginning. And I knew you guys are busy. It was just that to me, when they asked me, who do you think, who would you, if you can pick anybody, that's my answer was you too.

Well, I can tell you that when I was watching it unfold on Instagram, I was like, why am I not there? I was like, I had huge FOMO. I was like, I should be there, everybody's there. This looks like so much fun. I can't- Maybe I should have tried to reach out to you. I should have DM you and say,

hey, Rich, can you come out too? You're here now. Yeah. You're here now. Yeah. You're here now. Yeah. I feel like you should also go to Mali and take a victory lap. They probably throw you a parade there. I definitely want to do that.

I'm thinking like around end of the year, December, go to Mali. That would be cool. Yeah. You could make an amazing video out of that. Yeah. I'm looking forward to going back home because I haven't been there since 2018.

So it's been a long time. It would also be cool to do a video with Buddy and track like the money that you raised and kind of help tell the Souls for Souls story and maybe see what kind of impact is being made in Mali. Wow, you just gave me a great idea. You're a content creator now. Yeah, there you go.

Full stop. That is it, there's no way back. There's no turning around, just going at it from now on. Well. Yeah, there you go. Full stop. Yeah, that is it. There's no way back. There's no turning around. Just going at it. Yeah, from now on. Well, before I let you go, I think it would be good to kind of pivot a little bit to talk about habit change and staying motivated.

You know, what you've done is so inspirational. And I feel like you do such a good job at communicating these ideas in a relatable way. So for the people that are watching or listening who are feeling inspired and know they need to get off the couch and do something, it doesn't necessarily have to be a run street, but perhaps, you know, are in the process

of rethinking their relationship to their body and their selves and the trajectory that they're on in life. Like, how do you speak to that person? I always say, do something that's pressure-free and do something that's attainable. Those are the biggest factor for me. And pressure-free meaning, don't do it because someone else is doing it.

Do it because you wanna do it and do it on your own timing. Don't feel like you gotta get it done. If it's a goal, whatever, you don't have to get it done in 10 days. If you need a month, a month is okay. So just do it pressure free. Because because of that, I fell in love with running.

I never thought there was no chance. And now I get excited to run. And I know running is tough. It has its brutal days, but like I'm still excited to go at it. So do it. You don't feel the pressure of maintaining the streak. Nope, zero pressure.

And I always say this too. This is how I feel about it. The day that I feel like it becomes more of a pressure and I'm not liking it, I'm gonna stop. I'll stop. And I don't know when that day is. Give yourself that permission. Yeah, and I know I'll find something else.

I'll find something else. So I know I don't have to go run to keep a streak going, but I just do it because it feels good. I enjoy it and I wanna keep sharing it. So pressure free, do it, something that's attainable. And just think about even spending five minutes a day goes a long way. If it's something you love already

or you're thinking about, you've been thinking about, that's all the signs to start doing it. So if that means just spend five minutes a day, it's about volume. Five minutes a day for seven days a week is going to add up. But if you just do it today and you take a few days off, that's not it. If you can do 10 minutes a day, that's also 10 minutes you can at least find out of your day if it's important enough to you. So as long as you want to do it and just pressure

free and get after it and don't think about anybody, even don't compare, even if it's running, don't compare yourself to these people who are doing hundreds of miles, these fast pace or these, whatever, everybody has their own process, their own journey. And if that's the goal, you'll get there just one day at a time. That's it. I love it, man. One day at a time. What about somebody who's stuck in a job that they feel like isn't heading in the right direction?

You've done this pivot, you've reinvented yourself from one career to the next. How do you think about, outside of running or fitness, making those kinds of pivots? Yeah, so there's two ways I think that may work, that kind of worked for me. So when I was starting to run streak, I was actually working nine to five.

And so- Just like a- A normal job. I was working at a place called Airbrook. It was a limousine company. I was data entry, cause I usebrook. It was a limousine company. I was data entry because I used data, but it was a rental car. So I was there literally.

So training, I started training people aside soccer speed and agility and soccer technique. And I was seeing that that's not guaranteed. I know the 40 whatever hours a week money is guaranteed, but that one is client cancel. I knew that week you might not get money. But what I started looking at during those hours, I said, you know what? Sometime you do a little bit that you don't want to do just to support your dreams, but making sure you're good with it mentally.

If it's not working for you mentally, you got to leave that environment. So I literally told myself, this is for now. And now you see that you're not really, this is not good for you mentally, because I really didn't like it. And I said, leap of faith, quit the job, focus your energy on the soccer training. And I quit the job. And that actually, the business literally doubled after I put my energy into it when I was scared of it. So it's one of those things when you're stuck in a bubble right now, I would say just the leap of faith. If you feel like you're stuck in a bubble, that's telling you everything already. If you believe in God or the universe,

if you feel like you're stuck, that's the sign for you to make that move. And it may be scary. And when I did that, I was very scared because I'm thinking that training is not guaranteed, but the nine to five was guaranteed a weekly money that I was getting. But if you take the leap of faith,

that's when you discover other things. And then when you know, again, when you get put in an uncomfortable situation, you'll find a way out. It might be brutal or whatever. You'll find that next thing that's gonna help you sustain the life that you wanna live. So just take a leap of faith.

I think that's what it is. If you're afraid to fail, be okay to fail because it's not even failing. It's just a part of just progressing and learning. So I don't even see failure as failure anymore. It's just that, oh, now I know what to do better. I know what not to do. So I hate the word failure.

Yeah, just take that leap of faith. It's more about having the courage to try. Yeah, that's exactly. And it's the courage actually, that's the perfect word because I had to have the courage to say, you know what? I need to just stop this and go do the training. And I was running on the side. And also when something is not working for you,

Belle said this to me, she said to me, she said, "'Sometimes you are really stuck into something you want it so bad it's not working out, but you have no idea it's preparing you for something better." I think that was perfectly for my story. I wanted soccer so bad. I keep holding onto it so tight

and I didn't wanna let go, but it was actually preparing me for what I'm doing right now. Well, often when you're holding on too tightly, you're myopic to the greater opportunity. You can't see it because you're stuck in a certain kind of pattern. And there is a mystical power to that idea

of the leap of faith. Because if you have one foot in one world and one foot in the next world, you're signaling to the universe that you're not ready for whatever the next thing is, because you're holding on to some illusion of security that that current situation or that past idea represents for you.

And it's only in the let going of it that you provide the space for the new thing to come in. And you don't know how capable or resilient you are until you are sort of chartering treacherous waters and your back is up against the wall. And it's in that being tested that I think you allow yourself to come into a greater capacity for potential.

Can you write another book? That was really good. That was so, that's literally it. That's literally perfectly said, honestly. It's hard though, man. And you gotta look at you and I'm like, I'm so much older than you. I'm like, you're so young, who cares?

Like, take the risk. You're super young too. What do you got to lose, man? You can go back to work at the limousine company. Yeah, exactly. Worst case scenario. And also I like to this thinking mentality. I used to think, oh, plan B. And I'm like, no, there's no plan B. There's only plan A for me. So plan A means if I'm planning to do something and it's not working, it doesn't mean I'm going to quit to go to, I'm not reverting to another't mean I'm going to quit. I'm not reverting to another one. I'm just going to reroute. Because if you have a fallback, now you're kind of like not going all out for that one thing you want. You're thinking, oh, if it doesn't work,

there's this thing also. But if you just say, I'm going to make it work. If plan A doesn't work, just reroute. Take a different route. And even the GPS thing, I don't know if you've heard of this, but I've heard this somewhere. I don't know who has said it. If you're going somewhere, you're on a highway, you miss the exit. Guess what the GPS does? It doesn't quit on you. It reroutes. It might take you in a longer direction, but it reroutes. So if planning isn't working, it doesn't mean it's not going to work. Just reroute. There's maybe another loophole that you got to find to make it happen. So thinking also worst case scenario, you'll find something will come, you'll survive. And that's everybody I speak to. And even reading books, even the likes of yourself, you can see this thing that you know, that everything that you guys have did not come

overnight. You worked on it, how you change your lifestyle, but people see what you're able to do right now. It's very amazing. It's very all, but do they realize you had to go through so much? You have to literally go through all these process to get to where you're at. So we also have to think that we see everybody on top of what they're doing right now and it's amazing, but they had to start somewhere. So it's okay if I'm still trying to figure it out

till this day. Yeah, in AA they call it, you can't translate something you haven't got. You have to burn in the fire, right? You have to emerge from some experience, whether it be a hardship or whatever, to carry a certain resonance that magnetizes other people. So when I look at you, your story, what you've accomplished,

I appreciate that it didn't happen overnight. Thank you. You've been doing this for 1, 1500 days of running in a row. Like you put in a lot of work and you strike me as somebody who's very self-actualized or integrated. Like, I don't know whether you've been to therapy, but whatever demons you may or may not have,

like you've dealt with them and you're able to stand in your strength in a certain way. Thank you. And there's something about the positivity that flows outward from you. That isn't just a guiding force for yourself. It's very attractive to other people. I appreciate that.

People see that. A lot of people have run across the country, right? But there's something about your experience doing it and the way that you shared it and the spirit with which you carried yourself throughout this experience that make people wanna know more. They wanna know more about you

and that attracts Casey to your front yard or all these things that are coming to you. Thank you. And that doesn't happen by happenstance. That happens because you've put in a tremendous amount of work and you're very intentional in the way that you're approaching these things. And it's very intentional in the way that you're approaching these things.

It's very commendable. The way that you- I appreciate that. I mean, it's cool that you ran across the country. It's cool that you've run 1500 days in a row. But when I look at you, like I wanna sit down across from you because I just like your spirit and your soul. Thank you so much.

That means a lot. Yeah, and I think that there's so much more that you're gonna be contributing and offering. I appreciate that. It's the same thing. Like, wait, I'm coming here to talk to Rich Roll. And let me tell you, I'm pretty sure you know how big you've impacted so many people,

especially plant-based across the world. But people saw my Strava location. Everybody's like Rich Roll. Oh, cause you ran from Strava today. People know, people are very, very attentive. And I'm like, wait, this is some detective stuff. I didn't say anything. I didn't mention anything.

And in fact, I'm like, I'm in LA. I'll let you guys know why I'm here if I can or not. But not even the people that are so impacted by what you've done is just incredible. Even my neighbor, when I told him, his jaw dropped, he said, there's no way. He said, dang it. He said, someone borrowed my book.

When you said, I want to give it to you so he can sign it and bring it back. He was telling me all this stuff because they have changed their lifestyle. They are going plant-based because of you. They are seeing what they're able to do. And they are seeing that it's not too late. And that all comes from what you've done

and showing and prove it to people that you could do amazing things with what you put in your body and push yourself as a runner on top of that. I appreciate that. Thank you. Because we're just here, we do our thing. It's like, I know there's people listening

and watching and stuff like that, but it means something to me that you would say that. So much love to those people. Yeah, and those are all factual. It's just how it is. You see it all over. Yeah. So I'm very excited to let people know I'm in this presence

because this is incredible. Thank you. What beyond Leadville is on the, like what are you thinking about in terms of the next? I definitely wanna run in every continent. I don't know when or how I'm gonna make it happen. Continent or country? Every continent right now.

And then maybe the countries after that, cause I've been in the North American continent for most of the majority of the time in the United States. But if I can run in every continent, which that means to run a marathon every continent, which if it means to meet the hella good family members, the people who've been supportive and just run with them. I think that'd be pretty cool.

That's cool. And just, and then I wanna do a hundred mile race. I said, not just to go run a hundred miles with myself, just to be actually in a high altitude. Cause I can go run a hundred miles in the area I'm at, but I wanna actually Leadville when I- There's altitude and then there's Leadville. Exactly.

It's a totally different thing. Exactly. So when I wanna do Leadville, I wanna dedicate my energy now into being trained well for it. I don't wanna just show, oh, I run every day. Let me go do, no, it doesn't work like that. So I wanna like take time off

and maybe live in that area for a couple of months just to get my body ready and training around that area and that altitude and then be ready for the race. So maybe we're looking at 2022. Yeah. Yeah, cause my legs are, I have the pace I've been running at, that area and that altitude and then be ready for the race. So maybe we're looking at 2022. Yeah. Yeah, cause my legs are,

I have the pace I've been running at, I can go 20, 30, 40 miles. But when I try to pick up the pace to a certain pace that I wanna just cruise in, it feels like there's like brick ties to both legs. It won't pick up. Well, your training has acclimated you to maintain a certain pace for an extended period of time,

but you never extend yourself past that aerobic threshold. So you have no anaerobic power at all. For that, yeah. It goes from like 140 beats a minute at like seven minute pace or whatever it is. But then you go just a little bit over that and you completely fall apart. Yeah, I completely fall apart.

So I'm like, I can't wait to get that strength back. And I'm kind of like in between where like, man, the ultra, I have so much like fascination about ultra runners and what they do. It's a complete different part of running that I really didn't understand until I did the transcontinental. And I'm like, do I wanna just be a long distance runner

or I wanna be ultra runner? I'm like, I wanna run ultras. Well, you are an ultra runner. You know that, right? You just ran across America. So it I want to- Well, you are an ultra runner. You know that, right? Yes, that is true. You just ran across America. That is true. So it's like this idea that you're not an ultra runner

is preposterous. Thank you. It makes you, I guess, do more ultra running and instead of like coming back to just my regular running, like I want to do more ultra distance. I want to do races that are just, but I want to have a reason behind it. For me, it is a reason behind it.

I want to dig harder because I don't want to do it for myself because I love what I'm doing. But also if I want to get a reason behind it. For me, there's a reason behind it. I want to dig harder because I don't want to do it for myself because I love what I'm doing. But also if I want to get comfortable with the uncomfortable, I want to have a reason to hold on no matter what, no matter the circumstances. Are you going to keep doing it with Souls for Souls?

I think I'm going to keep doing, yeah. And my goal actually truly is to be able to just help any nonprofit. And Souls for Souls was my number one. And if I can keep helping whatever I do and that goes to them or anywhere else, I would gladly do it. You've done some stuff for Charity Water too, haven't you?

Yeah, that was really, the cool story about that is I just put it on YouTube. I said, my goal in life is to just do things for a nonprofit and just help because a lot of people are helping me in my life. I've had so many helping hands and I want to give back. And Charity Water saw that YouTube video and they reached out and they said,

in fact, this campaign we're doing is for Mali, your country, and guess what? It was the village where my mom grew up. Get out. Yeah. It was, it literally worked out perfectly. And that's the village we were left in 97 when with my mom's sister sister where she passed away. So I live there.

And they said, we're trying to get water. And there was no water there. Trying to get water to 25,000. I called them, mom, guess what? Guess what? I'm trying to raise money to give 25,000 people clean water in Sigaso, which is a region in Mali.

It's one of the regions. And that's where you grew up. And literally her hometown. And I was like, I'm all for it. And it was really cool to be able to be part of something special to help people get water. But it kind of really, it really did hit home. It was like my mom's home.

Have they built that well yet? I don't know if they, cause COVID was happening, but I wanna be there. I don't need to tell you, you're a content creator. I don't need to tell you this, but you need to go to Molly and film the, if they haven't built it yet, you need to be there when they unveil it.

But we ended up doing enough to give more than 25,000 people clean water. And then my community raised a lot of money. My goal is just to raise a thousand dollars. We raised so much more than that. That's cool. And I couldn't believe this. I thank all the supporters for donating to that cause. Which that was my first biggest.

Have you met Scott Harrison? No. He's the founder and the guy that- I haven't met him yet. You got to meet, yeah. Yeah, I saw his stories and what he did, how he has to change his lifestyle too. It's unbelievable. And so-

It's super inspirational. Yeah, it really is. And it makes you think that whenever we think it's too late right now, we can change everything. You just got to stop. His course correct is crazy. Yeah.

Being in this wild party. Yeah and all that what he used to do. To becoming this unbelievable public service and just not just creating this incredible nonprofit, but really reinventing and re-imagining what giving looks like by making it aspirational. Yes. Like the brand of Charity Water is just cool.

And it just watered. And it's awesome what they do. For people to have clean water. And the impact is unbelievable. Yeah, and they literally get water having a well for forever. Yeah, it's just, cause Mali, there's certain areas that still don't have water.

And then I told my dad, of course my dad was like, can you do my village too? I said, dad, I thought you didn't want me to run. I'm using running to bring awareness to places. That was the joke I was joking with can you do my village too? I said, dad, I thought you didn't want me to run. I'm using running to bring awareness to places. That was the joke I was joking with him. You build a well in the village. That was just blowing his mind. Yeah, he was like, what?

And he said, you did that for mom's village? I said, it wasn't only me. It took a whole crowd of my followers to donate and things like that. It took a village to build another village and he couldn't believe it. So he was like reading the articles and stuff like that. That's cool.

Yeah, that was a proud moment to be able to do that. And also it all comes down to, again, an ability that not everyone has is to run. So I'm glad I could use my ability and having an audience that could participate in something like that. And anybody can say in my life, I've helped to a cause. The people who, you change someone's life

that you don't even know, you'll never meet or hear of, but you've changed their life forever. And wedding that thing that you love to service in a meaningful way is the real differentiator. There's nothing like it. It gives your own life such depth. Yeah, and purpose. And purpose.

Yeah, and purpose too. I always tell people, don't think that if you're not a big celebrity, you don't have a major platform that you don't have a purpose. I think we're all here for a reason. We all have a purpose. And your purpose could even be

just saying something nice to someone and you have no idea what they were dealing with. And they go home, they change their whole outlook or their whole energy and life. And you just save their life. You have no idea that you fulfill your purpose. So just because you're not on tabloids or you're not on social media with big followings,

or you're not getting articles written about you does not mean you don't have a purpose. We're all here for a reason. And we just have to keep doing what we love and then you're fulfilling your purpose without even knowing. Yeah, I believe that. I can't remember who said it, but somebody said,

there's two parts to your life. The first part of your life is trying to figure out what that purpose is. Yeah, that purpose is, yeah. And the second part is fulfilling that purpose or doing that thing. Yeah. Yeah.

And you're doing it, man. Thank you, thank you. And it's only just begun. Yeah, I'm excited for the future. You're a young man doing it, man. Thank you. Thank you. And it's only just begun. Yeah, I'm excited for the future. You're a young man with a bright future. Thank you. I love you.

I'm here to support you in any way that I can. Likewise, thank you so much. I love everything that you're doing. I'm just delighted that you took the time to come. Thank you for having me. I was, there's no doubt about it. That was not gonna be here. Yeah, when I heard it.

Thank you so much. You're very welcome. If you wanna hook up with Hella, best place to do that is online, YouTube channel, Hella Good. Hella Good on YouTube, Hella Good Nine on Instagram and same thing on Twitter. I'm not very active on Twitter, but yeah, those platforms.

Most active on Instagram and YouTube. Hella Good Nine. Yeah, Hella Good Nine on Instagram. And are you still raising money for Souls for Souls? Yeah, I'm still raising money for Souls for Souls and collecting shoes. And I feel like it's something that I don't even have to stop.

I could just keep going wherever I can. So I'll link up in the show notes, all of those accounts, of course, but also the link for people who wanna contribute to Souls for Souls and also the Charity Water as well, which would be cool. Yes, thank you so much. All right, man.

Come and talk to me again sometime. Definitely will. I'm coming out to New York soon too. Will you come into the city and go running with me? Let me know I'm there. I'm literally like minutes away from New York city. As long as you let me know, I'm coming over. Definitely.

Thank you so much. Appreciate you brother. Peace. Thank you for listening. I truly hope you enjoyed the conversation. To learn more about today's guest, including links and resources related to everything discussed today, visit the episode page at richroll.com where you can find the entire podcast archive, as well as podcast merch, my books,

Finding Ultra, Voicing Change in the Plant Power Way, as well as the Plant Power Meal Planner at meals.richroll.com. If you'd like to support the podcast, the easiest and most impactful thing you can do is to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and on YouTube, and leave a review and or comment. Supporting the sponsors who support the show is also important and appreciated. And sharing the show or your favorite episode with friends or on social media is, of

course, awesome and very helpful. And finally, for podcast updates, special offers on books, the meal planner, and other subjects, please subscribe to our newsletter, which you can find on the footer of any page at richroll.com. Today's show was produced and engineered by Jason Camiolo with additional audio engineering by Cale Curtis. The video edition of the podcast was created by Blake Curtis with assistance by our creative director, Dan Drake. Portraits by Davey Greenberg, graphic and social media assets,

courtesy of Daniel Solis, Dan Drake, and AJ Akpodiete. Thank you, Georgia Whaley, for copywriting and website management. And of course, our theme music was created by Tyler Pyatt, Trapper Pyatt, and Harry Mathis. Appreciate the love, love the support. See you back here soon. Peace.

Plants. Namaste.ナマステ Thank you.