How Hellah Sidibe’s 3,350-Day Run Streak Rebuilt His Mind

31:58So I'm going to answer this question, but I'm going to start with this area. So I got the portion 9-11. And in my caption, when I posted, I didn't even want to. You could have told that guy too, like the guy who said, you said I'm rich. Like, I'm not rich because of this, but I do have a 9-11. Yeah. And I thought about, do I even want to post it on social media? But I wanted to post it to show people what's possible. And even in the caption, I said, happiness doesn't come from material. It's who you get to spend it with. so I put this on my TikTok I had two people who who had different perspective in life one of them said was oh man you're just gonna rub this on our face and while you're giving people a reason to resent you and then someone said the future is bright and then I love that because he saw it in a way where he said my future is bright he saw it in a way where like I want to can have something that I want whether it's a 9-11 or I don't know what he's thinking about but the fact that he said my future is bright.

32:54I commented. I was like, yeah. So the other person was like, you're just trying to rub this on people's face. And I commented kindly because I'm trying to not, I don't want to come off because he says something because I don't agree with, you can disagree with people and still be respectful. So I said, where I grew up, where I come from, I didn't think this was a possibility until I came to a world where you get opportunities. I love the U.S. because it gave me so many opportunities. And I said, because when I saw that it's possible, I didn't know how I was going to do it. I just knew it was possible.

33:22And I just kept doing what I love and it became possible. So those are the two things. People are seeing stuff from different light. So to your question, how people can find this way to see how they can be somebody or be hopeful or get the things that they want. I think it comes down to just self-realization and just talking to yourself and see how far you've come. So, you know, we've all had challenges in our life. I feel like all of us in this room, we can name moments or if not at least one moment where things were tough in life and you didn't even know how you're going to survive it. And we're sitting here today.

33:53So you have to remind yourself, you know what? I survived this battle in life. So I made that happen. So there is a possibility where I can come up to be something, not saying I'm nobody, I'm nothing. I can't make this thing happen. So it made me think about the car. It's all about the mindset. So me giving advice to somebody that's thinking like that, I'm never going to be somebody. I'm never going to make it. I'm never going to be this. And I said, you are correct. First of all, I'm going to say that because you said it already. But if you change your mindset, you are going to be somebody and you don't know how.

34:22You're just going to keep working hard and keep your head down. And then hard work doesn't come to me as like, oh, how hard I work. It comes from passion. You know, sometimes we do something where like I'm working really hard. To me, hard work is passion because if you're passionate about enough, you're going to work hard. If you are super passionate about you're passionate about this podcast, you work really hard. I'm passionate about running. I work really hard to make my running goals a reality. but if you don't have passion for it hard work is only going to last to a certain degree and then it's just you're going to do enough just to get by enough to just get to to where you feel comfortable mentally so everything always starts in the head and it doesn't mean it's guaranteed it just like i heard something from steve harvey's show he was saying if i do something today this is paraphrasing it there's a chance that it's going to happen but if i don't do anything it's guaranteed that nothing is going to happen so to me life is risky when you do something there's a risk factor that something could happen.

35:16If you don't do something, there's a risk that nothing is going to happen. So I want to pick the risk of possibilities versus not something happening. So I just live by that. The person with the negative affect or the lack mindset will respond to what you just said by saying, well, that's all well and good, but like you're different from me. Like you're living a charmed life. Like it's easy for you. You don't understand how hard it is for me. It must be nice to have a career and a life where you wake up excited about what you do. But my relationship with work isn't like that. I hate my job and I'm in a cubicle and I don't really have any skills.

35:53And when I look around, I don't see a lot of opportunity. And I'm just sort of resigned to have to, you know, kind of accept my life on the terms that have been given to me. I guess two things with that. First one, I would say I grew up in West Africa, Mali. People make less than a dollar a day now it's about two dollars a day I the reason I came to the US it was because of tragedy I was left with my mom's sister and she died we were left homeless somehow we got to the US so by the grace of the universe or God whatever you believe in came to the US and then when soccer didn't work out I was cutting grass making$250 a week and I actually in fact cutting that grass the person who was writing me the check you know when you get a check written to you you go deposit it back in a day you'll get like certain amount of the check back until it clears you get both so whatever amount i was getting before it clears i was using that and then to be negative nine hundred dollars because her check never cleared so i hold over the bank nine hundred dollars and they actually shut my bank account so i was in a area where i couldn't even open up a bank with bank of america i couldn't open a bank with td i was put in a file where like because i i had a delinquency with the bank so the only bank that would accept me at the time was pnc and so naming all these things i'm saying like if they're saying like you love the life that you have.

37:06This life is easy. You love this. I didn't start at that point. So I can only say I started from where I had no option but to try the way to get up. And when I was doing those things, now I see that it worked. I didn't know it was going to work, to be honest. I have no idea. Now that you see something happening, you can say, if you do this and that. But before that, I had no idea. But second, I think it's good to talk to a professional therapist. I think mental health is very important. Speaking to someone who understands how our mind work and then let them know how you feel and i think it should be normalized that we go talk to somebody with our mind and i don't know how i was able to talk to myself but i said to you in a previous conversation i think i was depressed i didn't know but looking at it back now i think i was depressed even though i'm not a medical professional because all those signs of depression were there so maybe if i did talk to somebody i would have gotten out of that rut quicker than i did but it still happened because i eventually stopped pointing fingers and took responsibility but there's so many ways we can start from the bottom it doesn't mean we can't be successful and somebody who starts from the top doesn't mean they'll stay there so there's a saying in my my language it says be maasai shinin join today's king is could be tomorrow's peasant and then be join shinin maasai today's peasant could be tomorrow's king so you just have to stay the course you never know what will happen in life and everything is impermanent and none of this exactly it's all maya it's all illusion it is it is like sometimes i sit there i'm like well i'm enjoying this while i while i can because you're here today and then tomorrow you're gone yeah are you in therapy now i'm in this field therapeutic peter because speaking your mind is important and i'm speaking how i feel and i think that's important one other thing i learned from lex that's huge she said to me one time and i never forget it this is years ago your feeling is never wrong the way you feel is never wrong to somebody it might look weird but you're feeling it it's never wrong you can have somebody understand how you're feeling could could be like you understand in a way where like oh okay maybe i shouldn't think it that way because i'm actually but you can never say that somebody's feeling is wrong because that's something they're actually feeling that's what it's called feeling so when i started thinking that to myself your feeling is valid it's okay attend to it and then find a way to move on that has helped me and one of the things that helped me with that was the book four agreements uh-huh four agreements is the best book and i have to go back and read it again because sometimes i forget that's your go-to it's my go-to even my sister was telling me about it the other day she's like that changed my life because i made her read it because we take so many things um personal we we we make assumptions we're we're not we're impeccable you got to be impeccable with your words and we're not always trying our best and your best is different every day i said that so your feelings are never wrong it's your body and your intuition trying to communicate something to you uh where we get in our own way is the story that we create around the feelings and then the actions that we take in response to those feelings and i think it's important to see if somebody can call you out because so many times i go to lex can you tell me if i'm crazy or if i'm wrong like if i'm am i thinking too much about this and she'll tell me how she feels about it from her perspective her lenses and i'll be like you know what you're right i'm done with this yeah because i need somebody to tell me because sometimes you just think you you're good you got it you got it yeah but i need and i know i don't really got if i'm asking that question i knew something about it is not 100 true yeah i already know but i just needed her to tell me am i crazy what are the what are the issues that come up in your relationship yeah where are the problems the flash points and relationship yeah like with with lex and everything yeah i not i'm trying to think like what would she say what would she say what would she say about this whole thing what's her what's her what's her primary beef with you primary beef with me i think i'm pretty pretty perfect no i'm kidding this is the this is probably the beef no what would she say this guy thinks he walks on water.

41:02No, to me, the only thing she knows, when I don't have good - You can't be in a relationship with somebody for 14 years without like there being stuff. Like relationships are hard. Yeah, 100%. And it's not perfect, but we communicate so well. You know, we communicate so well. If anything bothers me, I feel so confident and comfortable that I can speak about it. And it doesn't make me scared. Oh, what if I hurt her feelings? But she knows it's my feeling. and vice versa. I think we communicate really well. But she taught me that, by the way. I think I didn't grow up with that because I didn't see my parents do that.

41:39I never did. I've never seen my parents like solve stuff in front of me. And I've heard both sides of the stories, but I have never seen them actually do that. So I didn't know that. You didn't have a model for healthy communication. I didn't know that. And then I saw my sister, we're changing our, they call it generational curse. I said, we're changing everything. And it's a blessing that we learn it that way because we know what not to do now. I always said that. But one of the things that she always, whether it's around with her or anybody, she always say, speak how you feel. And don't wait.

42:09Do not wait till days later because that means you're holding on to it. And then you're blowing up days later. If it happened in that moment, even if it's not exactly, you kind of check out the scenario where, oh, maybe I can't say it now. Let me wait. Speak about it. And even me, she gave me a voice. Back in the day when I used to train people soccer, people used to ask me, Rich, and I was a little shy. And I felt a little embarrassed because I thought people didn't look at it as a career. Hey, Hela, what do you do for work? I coach here and there. I'm like a little calm and a little like scared or a little shy.

42:41Lex called me out one day. She goes, just own it. Just tell them what you do. Like, be proud about it. And since that day happened, what do you do, Hela? I'm a coach. I coach kids. I love it. And I used to play soccer. And now I'm teaching kids and I make a living off of it. But she had to tell me that. And I knew she was right because every time I'm like, I feel embarrassed to tell people because what I was taught by the world was that's not a career. How is that? It's not. It's nothing guaranteed because the only way I was guaranteed to be paid if that kid comes to training, if they don't. So they didn't see it as a career.

43:11You went to college for four years and this is what you're doing. So I had all that because the society that I was telling you about the world we live in. But she has taught me that. So, yeah, sometimes you can step on each other still, but it's nothing crazy. Nothing like, oh, wait, it's so bad that you know. So you're 35. Yes. You have quite a presence on social media, TikTok, Instagram, always posting this positive content. And you are a very positive role model for all kinds of people, but particularly young men. And, you know, I think a lot about the young man who is confused and is looking around and maybe doesn't see a lot of opportunity and the vulnerability that that creates online that then funnels them towards some not so great influences out there, like this whole manosphere sort of situation.

44:10Do you think about that at all? Because there's so much energy around the kind of grifter personalities out there who are taking advantage of these vulnerable young men. You're presenting an alternative, a positive alternative, and it's super powerful. The algorithms tend to favor the negative and the controversial and the contrarian and the conspiracy addled, et cetera. So you're kind of swimming upstream against the current of culture. But what you're doing is important and it's impactful and it's meaningful and we need more people like you because there are a lot of people in need of your kind of influence.

44:53Thank you. Yeah, I think it's a tough situation to be in. one of the things that I noticed right away was within the first year of my run streak I had this young he was 12 years old DM me about that he was having issue of wanting to be staying in this world and I kind of panicked a little bit I'm like shoot I got to figure out how to help this kid so we did some digging and found his sister-in-law and on social media and then they had no idea and then they communicated with him so like since that day I've been thinking about the youth the people who are watching me and i also let them know anything you see flashy on social media take it with a grain of salt because it's a world that we're in where people are selling in front of the private plane yes people are selling stuff and if you don't see it as a source of motivation leave it alone if you see it if it's putting you down leave it alone if it's motivating you then that's great you're like you know i too one day could be like that whether that guy's doing it for real or they're just doing it for social media you got to come in in that way also the people who are who don't know anything they're they're vulnerable buy this package buy this thing and it's just getting people into the top of some funnel to sell them courses yes a bunch of nonsense and one of the reason i love uh if i work with a sponsor and they have to understand this and i love hookup for that bp and also that allows me to do this if i'm working with you you just let me live my life because my goal is not to sell a product to somebody my goal is to share my job with someone.

46:24Hello, what's your favorite running shoes right now? Racing, Cielo X1 3.0. Why do you love it? I tell you why I love it. Do you recommend it? Absolutely. But what kind of running shoes are you looking for? Ooh, the Cielo won't work for you. I think you should try this kind because the kind of way that you explain to me my work, that's my only way. But I will never be like, hey, you need to get this because, you know, I don't build trust between you and I and then trying to sell something to you based on the trust. So I just sell to you. You don't have a transactional relationship. Yeah, mine is just sharing joy.

46:52So like you can talk to the team, RxR. I'm always telling, whenever we do something, I'm not trying to sell anything. I don't want to do any links or anything because then it doesn't seem right. It's not me. I feel awkward. And you can even tell in my body language. And I try to stay out of that 100 % of the time. So these young kids. You're just modeling an aspirational life. Yeah. These young kids, when they see flashy stuff with me, and I actually met somebody. Do you know Dylan Efron? Yeah. So Dylan Efron is a friend of mine. Yeah. We hang out last week in New York City and I met some younger kids.

47:24They're just graduating college and I was talking to them. And one of the things I made them realize, they keep asking me the number one question. I'm not kidding you. Dylan, you're the man. How are you a friend with Dylan? How did you guys become a friend? Every time they come and talk to me. And one of the things I made them realize is that you see me, I'm a normal person because I'm not big or anything in my mind. So I'm regular to you, right? I said this to this kid. His name is Ty. He's like, yeah, I said, think about everybody just like that. We're all human. We all have capability. Yes, we all have level of what we're at in profession, but we're all human at the end of the day.

47:59You see this big person, this big CEO or this big celebrity or this big person, that could be you. They're human. If you sit down and talk to them, they're human like you. So don't feel inferior. Yeah, you can respect people. I respect levels. I know there's level to the sports that I do. I respect the elite level. I respect the coaches. Just because I run every single day. I don't tell somebody, this is how you should run. I share with them, this is how I run. Maybe you can use that. But always remember, you being that young person, that you are somebody. It's just that we're in just different avenue, different lane of life right now.

48:30And you find your own road. And if you want to use us as an example, as a blueprint, go for it. But you'll find your way as you go. So I always let the younger generation know that you have to be okay with who you are and don't think you're not enough because of what you don't have. And show that you can actually have all of this because i didn't think i have all of this i have it you can have that and more when somebody said i want to be like you i always say i want you to be more than me because i'm already happy with what i am so it's not even a competition i want you to win i want you to i want you to be bigger than me i literally want you to be bigger than me because i i'm not going to miss out on anything because i'm already enjoying what i have yeah what i do you have an abundance mindset yeah like it's not a zero-sum game no it's not we can all win i always tell people too can we can all win in life sometimes actually i used to get so sad rich i'm not an emotional guy i used to get so sad we're like not crying but like i'm so sad because i'm looking at people i'm like i feel this happiness and i feel guilty and i look at somebody and i'm just assuming sometimes how they're looking they look sad they're sitting i want them to be happy like i am like how do i make that happen i don't know how to make it happen because i i feel like there's this happiness that we're not far away from we can all get to but i've discovered it and i need this person next to me to discover it because when they do nothing matters it doesn't matter if uh somebody come and just smack them in the face and walk by.

49:47They're just going to look at them. You know what? I feel bad for you. Maybe you're crazy or something. I hope you get better. And I used to get sad about when I see people. I get sad when I see people sitting. They can't move physically. I still do because I'm thinking that we can all have this joy. We can all have this win within our own right. And a win for me is doing what I love. A win for somebody. If it's like I want to be a multimillionaire, if that's what makes you truly happy, like deep down, not because of money, you love that hustle. I want that to be for you. You know? Yeah, but most people who want that think that it's going to answer all of life's questions.

50:21Yeah, that's true. And you have to go on that journey to realize that it won't. Yeah. But you're a deeply empathetic, sensitive person. I mean, you know, to feel that pain and want something better for that person. Yes. Is a beautiful, like it's a beautiful emotion to have. Thank you. You know? Thank you. And if you can unlock that for people. That would be amazing. You know, what is the answer? Yes. You know, that was really my question. Like, how do you help that person who's suffering see a different way and start to take contrary action to, you know, build a different life? Hang hanging out with people and then doing what they like doing.

50:58Because what I noticed when I do like, what is your favorite activity? I mean, I have lots of different. If you have to pick one thing or you're like, I can do this all day or I can do this every day. Well, running, swimming or cycle, like physical movement. Yeah. Things. but there's also nothing better than being around your kids when they're when they're happy and laughing you know like there's different types of yeah joy so let's go to physical and doing what i'm doing right now yeah like this is my happy place so i want to be so if i know that like let's even just pick cycling or swimming or even running and i know you enjoy that and i see that you're really are struggling a little bit we know each other enough where i can see something is not right hey rich you want to go on a bike ride today i would go cycling with you because i know that's what you like and then now it makes it easier because you have somebody to go cycle with so me helping with that is like i want to do the activity you enjoy doing i already do the activity i enjoy but let me go do your activity with you swimming i want to do because i can't swim yeah no we gotta go we gotta go to the pool i'm gonna give you a swim lesson i'll go sit by the pool and say hey rich show me how to backstroke but that's something that i would do and i i noticed like certain things that I do now that I see that people that I'm getting into that people really love I reach out to them so I'm in this car world and then I the one of the reasons I met this guy gentleman he's the reason I got a good deal on my car because he advocated for me he's a Porsche enthusiast he has so many 911s and cars and I realized that this guy when he gets his car he wants to share with somebody he picked up a brand new Porsche literally less than a month when I got mine and he wanted to come to my house right away and I didn't want to shut him down say come over because he knew that I appreciate, he wanted to share it.

52:35When he showed up, he was so happy that he got to share that with someone. I was happy that I was able to let him come share his joy with me so he feels some type of way about himself and his life. Whatever that may be because I can just tell he loved that. So he always, whenever something, he would call me, hey, hell are you around? Because I feel like I want to be that friend to him. So I think that to answer that question, I would go do something, an activity with someone because to me, it doesn't take much energy. I don't feel like, oh, I have to do this. I just feel like I love being active anywhere.

53:07I love cars. I'll just go share your moment with you because it doesn't hurt me, but it helps you. So I get joy out of that. Autonomy wasn't something I was thinking much about when I recently got behind the wheel of a Rivian R2 with founder and CEO RJ Skaringe. But when RJ started talking about where Rivian is headed with it, I couldn't stop thinking about it after. What's your latest thinking on the short and long term future of autonomous driving? I think short term it's going to continue to get better. For us we get to a place by the end of this year where we'll do hands-off point-to-point navigation so meaning you could plug the address in and say tell it to go and it'll drive there on its own.

53:51Today we have hands-off what we call universal hands-free where you can take your hands off it can drive but it essentially stays on the path it's on. But the next step is to integrate that into navigation. So it navigates through turns, obviously stop lights, stop signs, everything, and that's this year. And then next year we get to that plus eyes off. So we'll start with eyes off on highways so you can be completely removed. It doesn't beep. It doesn't beep. Put your hands back. Yeah, you can do whatever you'd like. Yeah, you can do whatever you'd like. The autonomy and assisted driving features on the R2 today and the ones on the horizon are just part of what makes it such a compelling vehicle.

54:28You can learn all about the Rivian R2, watch the rest of our conversation, and even book a demo drive at stories.rivian.com slash richroll. This episode is brought to you by Whoop, the wearable health and fitness coach that for five and a half uninterrupted years has delivered me tremendously valuable, highly personalized insights into how my habits impact my sleep, impact my recovery, and stress levels so I can up-level those habits and make more informed decisions about the strain I impose upon myself. It keeps me on an optimal growth trajectory and sets me up to show up as my best self more consistently, which is even more urgent for me these days as I rebuild my body in the aftermath of spinal fusion surgery.

55:20And one of the key lessons Whoop has helped me learn is that pushing harder isn't the answer. It's knowing when not to, and humbling myself to hold back when my instinct is to hit it like I always used to when I was 23, or even 43, all of which is a long way of saying that Whoop saved me from myself by decoding my body's reactions to my decisions. Now I adjust my training and my work output but to ensure I don't exceed what my body can absorb by knowing when a hard day is the right call and when the right call is rest. By doing that, I've actually accelerated my recovery because I'm not breaking down and that's really priceless.

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56:11When we first spoke, you talked a lot about some goals that you had set for yourself, you have achieved most of those goals. You've run Western States, you've run the Javelina, you've run Leadville 100. Do you think about goals? Do you have goals now? Yes. What are you looking forward to? What do you want to achieve? Where are you taking all of this? I love goals and I love achieving the goals. And I am currently working on a goal and I want to run. I'm going to run, not want to. I'm going to run two hour, 45 minutes at the 2026 Chicago Marathon. So that's what I'm training for. Your current PR is?

56:46255. So we're taking 10 minutes off. 10 minute drop. But you know, the thing is, Rich, that 255 was supposed to be a 245 for me. Something didn't click. And I think I'm going to figure it out because I was fitter. Most people thought I could have run a 240 that race. I either went into the race with too much miles on my leg, close to 40 miles, or something didn't work out. Maybe I needed to incorporate a little bit of hill, even though it was a flattered race. So I'm trying to figure that out. So a coach is helping me with that. but that's one of my goals right now and i haven't raced a marathon in two years so i'm very hungry and very motivated and so excited and i'm changing everything i'm cycling i love cycling i'm cycling so much more cycling is part of the prep i have to cycle like i cycle twice a week sometimes three times in the prep so i have to cycle uh i have to cycle on on wednesday i have to cycle on sunday it's a must a one-hour spin and my coach will tell me how crazy to go with with the side the cycling coach uh his name is mario oh mario really yeah you know mario no i know mario his name came up who we talked oh we had malcolm gladwell here the other day chris chavez i think yeah i think chris chavez like brought him yeah his coach too yeah oh yeah mario and i just started working with him and i've been on his podcast 2022 so i didn't know so this is the funny thing i'm at western state i'm shopping for coaches looking for coaches and I'm speaking to I talked to Tim Tolson and I talked to a Hoka engineer and they both mentioned Mario I'm like I need this Mario's number didn't put two and two together that I knew who he was you had been on the show yeah and then they're like it's Vincent Vincent who won the Western Western State 100 race coach I'm like I want Vincent's coach Vincent broke Jim Wamsley's record 13 hour 46 and I need a coach that's helping that maybe I'll be a Vincent on the marathon course so to find out it was Mario and I was like oh my gosh small world so we talked And we have the prep going on.

58:37So we're full weekend. So that's one of the goal I'm working on. And he believed I can do it. I believe I can do it. So I'm excited and hungry to be back at the marathon. It's been too long. I know you have some other exciting things that are cooking right now that you can't talk about. Yeah, we'll tease it. It's going to be something that no one's ever seen. Yeah. And I'm super excited about it. That was very cool. Yeah, once it's ready. I want to talk about it so badly. Should we do a trifecta? Yeah, for sure. Once that gets through? Dude, you're meant. You can come on whenever you want. Thank you.

59:04Yeah. Thank you. I could podcast with you weekly. Yeah, let's do it. That's exciting. Super excited about it. A fast marathon. What do you think is the biggest thing that people misunderstand about you and this run streak and what you're doing? Oh, you don't ever get sick or injured. every time i post like a run streak like uh five years ten years nine years or for three thousand something days the comment like so you never get injured or sick i'm like i'm not bionic man or robocop i do get injured and i rarely do get sick and one of the biggest thing that happens to me when i get sick is like my headache will be pressure but as soon as i feel pressure anywhere i go running the pressure literally release so i use running as a medicine to get rid of headache.

59:54And I've talked to my doctor about it. She's like, you're just getting the blood circulating. You're getting rid of the pressure by moving your body. The body works in a beautiful way. So the injured part, I do get injured. Am I smart about the injury? 100%. So don't do what I do. I don't recommend anybody running every single day. It is possible. But I get injured and I minimize it as much as possible because it's just bound to happen. You're pounding your body every single day. And sometimes it doesn't have to be like you step on the wrong rock and you tweak something a little bit so i just make sure i'm on top of it right away i back off like i was saying earlier recovery pt so people think that i never get injured or sick because i run every single day you've also become a running correspondent of sorts like you were doing the the western states live stream so you're you're you're kind of a uh commentator at large like that's a different role also.

1:00:48Yes. That's so fun because, you know, I love the sports so much. I love talking about all the participants in the sports and I love highlighting them. And I think that's really important to see what they're doing. And we tend to see podium finishes, but it's cool to know a little background of these athletes as they're racing. And, you know, when you love, you love interviewing, talking to people, you can talk all day. I love being in this sport. I can talk about the sports all day i can talk about running all day shoes all day cars and bikes i mean getting into bikes which is really dangerous crazy i can go there with you and yeah i bang this drum all the time but i think more runners should do more cycling i think cycling is an incredible uh tool to develop your aerobic capacity without the pounding you know like you can go out and ride your bike for hours and hours and hours like you can't run as much as you can ride and you can be in that zone two state and and build that engine over time without exhausting yourself and setting yourself up for injury and also strengthening the stability muscles that make you more injury resistant as a runner.

1:01:55I feel my glutes activated getting used and Lex always laugh at me. I would do something two times like, oh, my God, I feel I feel the difference. I'm already fit cycling for this week. I feel like I feel the difference in endurance. You don't have to run as much. And you can go eat. Rich, people forget about the social side. I rode with my friend 50 miles one day. We stopped at a coffee shop 25 miles in, got these vegan, delicious muffins. And I stuffed myself with it and drank coffee. And we hopped on the bike again for another 25. Nothing. I said, running, there's no way I could do that. So the social part, I was getting a good work in.

1:02:27We were averaging like 16 miles per hour. That was work on me because I don't cycle. I really felt that. But I was able to do that while enjoying the social aspect and while enjoying the food. and I still got good work because my legs were shot the next day but I got the work Do you do 9W? Like where do you ride in Jersey? So we've gotten we parked at Fort Lee rode across the George Washington Bridge and then stay on the Hudson and then went up towards Yonkers and you can this little path can go all the way to Canada I heard if you want to also have a local park where I live Everybody in Manhattan is crossing the bridge to go to Jersey to ride and you're coming the other way Yeah I've done that and then also I have a beautiful park in my neighborhood that's 18 miles long you can get in with water stop and bathroom, which is pretty fun, but it just gets crowded in the weekend with people.

1:03:13So I know when you started the run streak, every year had a sort of theme. The first year it was self-discovery. The second year, because you were injured, it was about mental toughness. Going into your third year, it was about joy. Have you labeled each year with a different theme that you've tried to live up to? What are the themes in those subsequent years and what is the theme for uh this 10th year so every year had to have a theme because as i'm going through it you already live you already the first year it was joy i'm like i mean i'm not self-discovery i'm like discovering myself i'm like this is happening this is cool but then again now you know what's gonna happen so the next one being mental toughness i'm getting injured now because I'm pushing a lot more and I know exactly what to expect that high that was coming in is not so new anymore and then the year of joy and I had to go back and bring that feeling back from the first year working on it purposefully and not caring about the distance anymore not caring about if I hit seven miles in a day I can just go run three miles and be fine so keep going and I had even racing theme I had the renaissance year so the renaissance year was rebirth for me so a rebirth is coming as another person as another runner this is why i wanted to run so much faster because i didn't care about racing much but now i want to see how fast i can really go and i didn't want to use run trick as an excuse because you can technically on paper say hello if you took a couple days off and allow your body to heal with your cardiovascular you will be a fast runner but that's not a priority to me but i want to use running every single day this is why you're going to be a fast runner versus have it the other way because i could easily have an excuse why you didn't hit the 245.

1:04:56So that was the renaissance year. I wanted to rebirth myself. And then now the 10th year is going to be literally like the glory, the glory meaning like almost like I want to put it away where everybody come together. I got to find the right word for it. Like a community thing was, it's all about the people, the people year, because the people got me to where I'm at. So this is the year of the people. So the year of the people, yeah, we're celebrating my 10th year, but it's all of us coming together as a community because you guys have been part of the hella good family, the hella good community.

1:05:24And it's not only me that have done it. You know Nathan from the team. Sure. So Nathan was at my house on Monday. And one other thing I said to Nathan right away, because he's so smart. He makes me understand stuff in a way. I said, Nathan, it's crazy when people always said to me, and I said this to Lex, I said it to many people. Oh, I did it on my own. I said, how far on your own did you do it on your own? Yeah, you have to take action. You have to move. But if you look at the bigger picture, there's so many people that come to help me. If it wasn't for Lex, there's no hella good because she told me we need to put videos out.

1:05:56And she edits videos. She do everything to this day. She's still doing all of that? Grish, I don't know how to edit a YouTube video. I don't. And I try. It's so hard. I do my Instagram stories 100%. The feed, TikTok, YouTube, 100 % has been here since day one. And then I say, without you, Nathan, you help me with certain things. without the team or without my sponsors, there's no, like it's a village thing. We always say it's a village thing in my country. It's literally a village thing. So I want this year 10 to be like, it's about the people. I got to find the right word for it. But we have a few months still till we get into that.

1:06:31You have great partners. You've worked with Hoka for a number of years. You've done some stuff with Apple. You've been with BPN, the hybrid athlete. Have you been to the ranch? like what's that's a whole scene i haven't been to the ranch but i was like i see those video you know like those guys dan churchill max joloff yeah i might have to host because i did talk to nick about going to the ranch to do like a training camp for my marathon prep and they said you can do that so i might have to actually set that up and you haven't done a backyard race no i haven't either and i i want to nick because i said huh if you sign up 2027 i'm there but i need you to sign And I said that to his face because I said, I don't want you to just be sitting there.

1:07:15You need to feel what everybody's feeling. I'll sign up if you do. But I did get the answer. If you are the race owner by the backyard rule, you cannot participate. So that one he can do. Yeah. So, but the backyard, it doesn't interest me, but I also want to do it. And just to say, I know I can do it. That's ego speaking. Because I know the thing about the backyard, I've done a hundred mile race. I can get to a hundred mile easy in my head. I think I can and I get to sit down for a few minutes and I know it gets harder as you go because like you sit down and you go it gets harder and harder you go slower but anyone that has done 100 miles I think this is from the hellish perspective you know what that feels like on the body and that's continuous there's no sitting and if you sit it for a minute or two just to change something and go the first few lap the first 15 mile you're probably sitting you're getting yourself 15 to 20 minutes yeah but if you're getting into Harvey Lewis territory that's different 300 350 miles oh no i'm not getting that territory i think me if i do this my goal to get was to get to 150 miles 150 that's it harvey lewis is another level i wouldn't even name myself in that breath he's insane harvey is insane speaking of another vegan uh runner do people give you grief around the vegan stuff no you know the thing is i actually vegan you know I never talk about veganism on my social media like that.

1:08:36But if you ask for my diet, I go into it. But some of the things that people love to say about vegan, your protein, I'm sure you had that conversation. Where do you get your protein? Where do you get your protein? And I said, if I had a protein issue, the fact that I ran across America, I would have been done. I would have been done. I would have been done. I would have run across America and done Red Bull and done all of these. And I started teaching them about photosynthesis, you know, how photosynthesis work. And I said, you know how black animals are eating plants and how they get their protein.

1:09:01And they're like, oh, okay, I didn't know. all of that. So they think that because I'm not eating meat, I'm deficient. But it's still working for you. Yeah. And I still do blood tests. I'm always making sure everything is good. You must be the only vegan on the BPN. 100%. Nick Bear team. And I told Nick Bear, you got to hold on to that vegan protein. And I think I won't say I'm the reason. I'm definitely one of the reasons where that protein started because when I first met him back in 2021 and then the company was still on the come up. It's not where it is today. we talked about it I said there's nothing really for me to want to use from the brand and they didn't really have they had electrolytes but they didn't have gels I'm a runner we need protein so when that started coming around I was actually buying the product myself because I liked it so when they asked me to be an athlete with them that was easy for me to decide because I like the product so the fact that they have vegan protein they have the electrolytes and stuff that's really nice.

1:09:56I said, Nick, would you ever go plant-based, go vegan? He said, you know what? I would love to eat the vegan food, but I don't think I can do it. I said, he's like, I'll come to you. You take me to your favorite restaurant. I'll be down to eat it. So that's what I used to say too, a decade ago, but look where we are right now. Yeah. Well, if you could get Nick Bear to dip his toe into the plant-based lifestyle, like that, that's no small feat. That'd be a nice challenge to try. There you go. Do it for the views. Yeah. I'm going to try to get in. Yeah. Is there a brand out there? Like what's the brand you're not working with right now that you were like, oh, that's my dream brand to work with these guys.

1:10:32There's two brands. One of them you already work with, Rivian. There you go. And the reason Rivian, I'll tell you the whole background. I knew Rivian before Rivian became popular by the general public. You have to be a car enthusiast to know what Rivian was. The history, Jonathan told me more about the history because years ago, four years, five years ago, I went to Jonathan's house. I drove his Rivian. Jonathan is our manager for people. Yes. Pickup truck. The Rivian. He let me drive. I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is insane. So when Rivian came out, all the auto, the car enthusiasts, like auto news people, they were just doing the reviews.

1:11:09And I'm watching this. I'm like, this is interesting. This is something we've never seen. And I thought it was really cool. So I got into digging into the car. And I learned about the history. And I learned about what it's about. And I'm like, this would be a really cool car to have. And I knew they were one of the first people to even have their own network in terms of charging. The first one was in Colorado. They put the first charging. It wasn't Electrify America. It wasn't like the other chargers. It wasn't ChargePoint. They started their own. And I was wishing Ford started their own. But we have to rely on the third party.

1:11:35I do have an EV. It's not a Rivian. It's a Lexus car. It's the Ford Mach-E. But I've been so interested in the Rivian because once you drive an EV, you can never go back. Like once you drive a Rivian and the practicality because of the pickup truck. And I saw they came up with a little smaller one. I saw the R2. Yeah, the R2. It looks really cool. They're launching right now. Yeah. And it's fully dialed. Yeah. It's like the evolution. I mean, it's a little bit smaller than the R1. Yes. But it feels like a more mature product. Like they've worked out whatever kinks and like everything's super tight and it drives amazing.

1:12:07It's super fast. You don't feel like you're in a truck. It's a unique experience. and RJ is just one of the most impressive people I've ever met and the obstacles that he has had to overcome to realize this vision and to see you know how this brand is being embraced by people and he's just got this premium product that's a wonderful you know it's just wonderful and uh and he's just one of those guys that you want to win you know absolutely and the experience of driving this car is incredible like yeah you should you should you should be working with Rivian. That'd be sick. And if not, you need a car.

1:12:43I mean, being a car guy, either that or like you need to, you need a Porsche sponsorship. You need to train for Le Mans and you and Michael Fassbender can get into a team. I love my Porsche. Porsche would be also sick, but also I need an EV. I know Porsches also make EVs, but I have the 911. If I have Rivian as an EV, that'd be pretty cool. and I think the thing about you know we see ourselves I trail run I don't run as much as that than I have on the road but how cool it is we're talking about like being environmental friendly you know we don't have to go all the way into the detail but bring a zero emission car onto the trail park it you have enough range you pop the trunk you take your trail shoes out you take your mountain bike out you go on a ride you cruise you come back and you have that car sitting there that's not you don't have to worry you can have it on while you're taking a nap in there you to worry about exhaust, none of that.

1:13:36I think that's pretty cool. And we talk about having preserving nature. So if you like being in nature and you need to get up to nature and having something that is zero emission in terms of letting go of CO2 exhaust, I think the best way to go is EV. It really is. All right. Well, let's end this with a few inspirational words for the person who is still struggling, the person who's on the couch, is hearing you or watching you and is thinking, I'd like a little bit of that energy. I just don't, I don't know what to do first. How do I interrupt this pattern that I'm in? How do I get out of my negative cycling thoughts, my inner monologue that's defeating me while I sit here and eat Cheetos and watch you on YouTube?

1:14:19Okay. So if you watch stuff, even reading books, if you don't take action, it's just like a movie to me. You're just watching to be entertained and you put it away. So the first thing I would say is it's the simplest thing we hear about it all the time. Gratitude. You know, you're eating Cheeto. Oh, man, I'm so happy and grateful that I'm sitting on a couch, actually, because I have a couch to sit on. I'm so happy and grateful that I actually, even though it may not be my favorite food if I have to eat Cheeto to survive, I'm so happy and grateful that I have a Cheeto. So even my thing is when I say I love doing dishes, it's my favorite thing to do.

1:14:53It's a sports for me. I compete doing dishes. I look at the time at the stove. But when I see a sink full, my mindset is, man, how lucky are you to be able to eat so much food that your sink is full? So coming from a place of gratitude, if that person's sitting in there right now, just trying to revive yourself. Like, you know what? Things are really bad right now, but there's little lights at the end of the tunnel. Some of the little lights is, I have a roof over my head. Or if you sadly don't have a roof over my head because homelessness is a thing, I'm happy and grateful that I can have a friend to talk to.

1:15:25or somebody who's next to you on the street. And then now you make little steps. And you're going to get to a point where you need a professional because we all need pros. The reason I have a running coach, it's not that I can't do it, but I need somebody to take me to that level. So you're going to get to a point where you need somebody. But before you get to that level, you got to pick yourself up a little bit. Picking yourself up is self-talk, self-motivation. It's really hard. It's easier said than done. But once you start talking to yourself, you start believing. because I, reading books, I believe, or brains are, brain believe anything you tell it.

1:15:56You really can trick your brain. When you start telling your brain, I'm good enough, I do this, eventually you're going to see yourself trying to do stuff to prove to yourself that you are right about it. And you make the efforts to show that you are right about it because you're tricking yourself. I do it all the time. It almost work 100%. Unless if I get into my conscious like, oh, you're just trying to trick yourself right now. But when I let go of that, I can trick myself to believe things. So self-talk, gratitude to get yourself going. And you're going to have to get to a point professional.

1:16:22I tell people to reach out to me. I hope I can see your DM and answer. And if I can't do it, I'm not a pro. I'll say, go see a professional. If somebody asks me, this hurt on my body. Oh, I've experienced that. This is what I do. But you should go see a physical therapist also because there's people who are in line with that. Oh, you don't have access to physical therapists. Let me see if I can talk to my physical therapist, if he can give me some advice and I can give it to you. I've done that so many times. If you can't afford a physical therapist, I'll go talk to my physical therapist for you and your issue.

1:16:49And then they can tell me something that I can bring to you. You're the best, man. I mean, I think we're all great. Well, we're all just trying. I think we're all trying. I think that's what's important. We have to realize that when you see somebody in the street, they're trying too. You might not see it, but they're trying. You just have to remember that. You're trying. They're trying. We're all trying. Everybody's just trying to get through their life. And if you have something, nothing nice to say, just walk away. You just got to walk away. That's the best solution. And you will be happy you walk away.

1:17:16It just made me remember one thing that I have to say. I've had a situation where I come to a stoplight this is before the four agreement and after the four agreements where like somebody's standing at the light or you get caught off and I just hit the hunk like I'll be like what are you doing you're about to hit me because you're scared you're gonna get hit and then I feel really bad after it I'll look at like something like I feel bad I don't know why I did that it's so embarrassing I'm like I feel really bad I just did that to that person because I come to my senses and then next time Lex will be like okay before you react remember how you're gonna feel after so So that's when I say, you have nothing nice to say, walk away.

1:17:49Because I know how I'm going to feel after. I'm going to feel bad. Especially like somebody's at the light. And then I try to do the baby honks to let them know it's green. Would I be like, you're trying to, sometimes you overhit it because the baby honk, you're not giving enough pressure and you end up overhitting the honk. Right. So, and then you see, you get to the light. It's an old lady. You're like, oh my gosh, why did you do that to her? Why did you honk? So I always say, don't act because you're going to regret it. So that's why I say you have nothing nice to do or say. just go just go about your day it's a good policy you keep mentioning the four agreements like what is your media diet like what are the books that you return to what are the things that you consume what kind of information i love that you're asking those questions okay the four agreement okay by uh don miguel ruiz yes um you are the placebo joe dispensa you are the placebo and you i learned about the history of the placebo how the sugar pill happened and you are the placebo That's why I always say the mind.

1:18:45You can trick yourself of believing what you want to see. You are the placebo. And then also, I think I'm trying to, this is a tough one. Is it You Were Born Rich? Maybe it might have been that one. I think it's a Napoleon, is it Napoleon Hill? Napoleon, one of those old Napoleon Hill books. Or Think and Grow Rich is also a good one. Think and Grow Rich. Sometimes when people hear the word rich, it scares them. I see richness, not material, not money. I just see richness of peace of mind and happiness. Because when you read these books, it kind of shows you everything starts about having good energy.

1:19:28You don't have good energy. You're going to find things that makes you feel the way you're thinking. If you have negative thought, you're going to find things that's going to enforce that. Because you find what you're looking for. So these books allow me to change. I like self-help books. i love those books the secret have you heard of that the secret is so great i read all the secret secret love yeah the secret um you're a manifester yeah i'm a big manifesto big manifest i'm a big manifesto i'm too cynical why i want to elaborate on that actually i'm interviewing you elaborate real quick you know like we'll go down like a you know like we'll take some weird uh you know kind of uh trajectory down a dark alley but like all of my like spidey senses kind of get alerted uh when we when we start to tiptoe too close to some of the more oh like mystical self-help yeah i see i see i see i understand that like the idea the reductive idea that uh all you have to do is like you know manifest your dreams and they happen no it's not all that kind of idea it's more than just that yeah it's not just that i guess that's the way of putting myself in a positive mindset that it can be good so that's a good way to to put it like it can be good you can change your mind and change your life because if you don't take action nothing's gonna change you know you're not just sitting there and be like sure like or what is it was your boss click your heel three times and then wish something happened but i guess putting you in an area where your mind is not at fight or flat risk like mode all the time like okay something's stress stress level stress level thinking like you know what it could be good i saw something about um uh alexis pappy oh alexi pappy alexi pappy yeah alexi pappy and this was years ago she goes you know what when i'm having a bad day i go take a nap and get up and it's a brand new day and i'm like oh good morning she posted this i'm like this is genius this is genius and i want to give her credit she's part of the on the podcast she's got a million of these yeah like little things like yeah yeah no she's in the family yeah yeah so i had to i'm giving her a shout out for this because have you ever met her i met her multiple times multiple times especially we've seen each other on race course she's guiding i'm guiding we'll say hello to each other but she said this when i'm having a bad day i just go sleep and i wake up and pretend it's a new day i'm like i like that but also that stuff of like all these book i'm saying it's about changing the mind your mind creates your reality is basically what you're saying.

1:21:54And your brain comes up with all of these stories and we buy into them and assume that they're true and not understanding that we can rewrite those stories and tell different ones that are going to move our lives in a better direction. Exactly. And that is something I can buy into and I feel 10 % less cynical. Yeah, there you go. See, I'm getting him too. Yeah. This was amazing. Thank you. This is awesome. This is fun. I met it when I said it. Like I literally could do this with you every week. Let's do more of this kind of stuff. Absolutely. And anytime you have any news you want to share, I'm going to be spending more time in New York.

1:22:29And so it can be easy. Awesome. Yeah. And I have to let you know more when I'm in the L.A. area because I travel there a lot and see if you're not busy. Go for a bike ride. Yeah. Next time I'm here, I think I'll be in a situation where I actually could run with you. And at a minimum, I would love to go on a ride with you. I'm going to take you up on that, my friend. And I need to know all your crazy bike advice. I'm getting some sick bike nowadays. But I will get you in a pool. I'm going to make you get in a pool. It would be great fitness for me. Perfect. It's a deal. I'm already going to do that with Dan Churchill.

1:23:00So maybe you can join and we can do a double team on that. Perfect. Perfect. You're the best. Thank you. I love you. Thank you. We need more Hella energy in the world. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It's going to help amplify it a little bit. It was an honor. It was fun to be here. We're always laughing and having a good time. This is fun. where should people go to find you Instagram, YouTube, TikTok everything hella good everything is hella good it's a unified brand it's a hella good group thanks to Lex thank you to Lex she definitely made this life happen sometimes I'm like thank goodness I listened to her because I was fighting it I was like I don't want to do a video she's like come on this is really cool you got to share with people you're doing a run streak and the world is a better place peace my friend thank you appreciate it

1:23:50Thank you.