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

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rich Roll?

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• 0:44Rich Roll?

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• 1:05Hellah Sidibe?

  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, 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, break through, 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 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.

• 1:50Hellah Sidibe?

  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 9-to-5 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, 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.

• 2:35Hellah Sidibe?

  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 Hellah Sidibe and this is the Rich Roll Podcast. Let's get it. Let's go.

• 2:55Rich Roll?

  The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey, everybody. Happy Monday. And for those here in the USA, I hope you had a fantastic Fourth 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 US 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,

• 3:40Rich Roll?

  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 1,500 days in a row. His name is Hellah Sidibe. He's here today and certain to put a smile on your face because like I said, Hella is positivity incarnate. It's coming up in a few, but first...

• 4:17Rich Roll?

  Okay, Hella Sidibe. So, I first came across this guy's story when my friend in front of the pod, Robbie Ballinger, was sharing on Instagram as he dropped in on Hella's transcontinental run when he was going through the Navajo Nation. And I just remember being immediately captivated by Hellah'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.

• 4:59Rich Roll?

  It's about reimagining 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 HellaGood9. And he's right here, right now, so let us delay no longer. This is me and the high-spirited and ebullient Hella Sidibe.

• 5:44Rich Roll?

  I can't believe you're here, man.

• 5:46Hellah Sidibe?

  I can't believe I'm here. I can't stop smiling, my cheeks are really, it's starting to hurt now.

• 5:50Rich Roll?

  You're smiling all the time, anyway.

• 5:52Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 5:53Rich Roll?

  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.

• 5:59Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you for having me.

• 6:00Rich Roll?

  It's a thrill to meet you. Congratulations on the run and everything. Super exciting, man.

• 6:05Hellah Sidibe?

  I'm grateful to be here and in your presence as well. So, thank you so much.

• 6:09Rich Roll?

  Did you get your run in today already?

• 6:12Hellah Sidibe?

  Of course.

• 6:13Rich Roll?

  How many days now?

• 6:14Hellah Sidibe?

  Today is day 1,500 consecutive days, actually, yeah.

• 6:19Rich Roll?

  Today's 1,500 on the dot.

• 6:21Hellah Sidibe?

  1,500, yeah, 1,500.

• 6:22Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 6:23Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes, yeah, no matter the circumstances, I gotta get out there.

• 6:24Rich Roll?

  Another reason to celebrate, another milestone eclipsed.

• 6:28Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 6:29Rich Roll?

  1,500, that's unbelievable, man.

• 6:30Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you.

• 6:31Rich Roll?

  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

• 6:44Hellah Sidibe?

  Robbie

• 6:45Rich Roll?

  I didn't, 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.

• 6:52Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, we were in, he surprised me in Guyman, New Mexico in the morning. Yeah, we were in New Mexico.

• 6:58Rich Roll?

  He just showed up out of the blue. You didn't know.

• 6:59Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 7:07Rich Roll?

  How many days did he run with you?

• 7:09Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 7:16Rich Roll?

  So that was my first exposure to what you were doing. And I was like, who is this guy? Like, how is he so positive? This guy's smiling through all this suffering. I was like, I need to know more. I started following you and I was like all in on this adventure and, and this journey. And then when you were completing the run, that final day.

• 7:37Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 7:38Rich Roll?

  I tuned into Robbie's Instagram and you know, everybody's congregated outside your house in New Jersey.

• 7:45Hellah Sidibe?

  That was cool.

• 7:45Rich Roll?

  I'm like, oh, this is gonna be awesome. And then I was like, wait a minute, is that Casey?

• 7:49Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, Casey showed up. I was, I, when I went out, I was like, whoa.

• 7:53Rich Roll?

  I know, he surprised you too.

• 7:54Hellah Sidibe?

  I thought Casey was in LA. That's what I thought.

• 7:56Rich Roll?

  Well, I knew he was on the East Coast. I actually had texted him earlier that day about getting introduced to his brother, cause I wanted to meet his brother.

• 8:04Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I got to see him. Yeah, which is cool. I just saw that.

• 8:07Rich Roll?

  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, 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.

• 8:22Hellah Sidibe?

  It's insane.

• 8:23Rich Roll?

  But I guess you had done some stuff at 368?

• 8:25Hellah Sidibe?

  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 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, Hella, I'm not so surprised to 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 um my girlfriend at the time, now fiance, sent me a screenshot of the email saying, oh, we're inviting you to the first Thanksgiving party ever hosted by Casey. And I said, I started, I scream on flight and then I looked around quick

• 9:10Hellah Sidibe?

  because I was like, don't scream because they're gonna kick 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 it running. So that's how the relationship started.

• 9:24Rich Roll?

  That's very cool. And it was so great that you made that vlog, that whole experience.

• 9:28Hellah Sidibe?

  That was really cool.

• 9:29Rich Roll?

  When you guys were crossing the finish line, I don't know who in your congregation was doing Instagram Live, but I was watching that Instagram Live. And then the sound cut out. I'm sure you know that, right?

• 9:41Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, everybody was talking about the sound, yeah.

• 9:43Rich Roll?

  What is that? Because I knew you were giving a speech. I couldn't hear it. And I knew something momentous was happening because people were going crazy. So I called Robbie.

• 9:52Hellah Sidibe?

  Oh.

• 9:52Rich Roll?

  What is going on? You gotta tell me what's happening. He's like, oh, it's insane. He just proposed. It was really cool.

• 9:58Hellah Sidibe?

  It was my best friend that was driving the RV on Garrett Jones. He was, I said, go live. You gotta go live right now on my Instagram to get this. So my hella good family members could uh could watch what's happening right now.

• 10:08Rich Roll?

  Cool. Well, let's walk it back a little bit. I want to hear the whole story, man. So let's start at the beginning, growing up in West Africa.

• 10:18Hellah Sidibe?

  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 essential 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 living there, you look back and you can't be nothing but grateful for whatever lifestyle you're living after that. So I grew up

• 11:02Hellah Sidibe?

  There in nineteen ninety five, uh, my dad was in the US in Illinois to do his PhD at Northern Illinois University. Ninety seven, my mother came to join him to do her masters. At the time, my youngest brother was four, um, 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 ninety eight to ninety nine. So I was in the US ninety eight to ninety nine and we flew back home and that was it. So I picked up English a little bit. I was in elementary.

• 11:38Rich Roll?

  You were like seven at that point, right?

• 11:39Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, 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 two thousand two, my mom came back to the US to do her Fulbright Scholarship to do her PhD. And then we stopped schooling and 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, um, sorry, the end of eighth grade and I started freshman year of high school here in the US.

• 12:03Rich Roll?

  What was it like after doing a year in the US when you were super young and then going back?

• 12:08Hellah Sidibe?

  I had actually the biggest, um, problem too because language barrier. I'm starting to learn English. So when I went back now, it mixed stuff with French. Um, because we speak French as an official language in, in Mali. And then Bama, 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.

• 12:32Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 12:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, that age.

• 12:33Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Well, to be going back and forth like that probably gives you an added layer of perspective on the differences.

• 12:40Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, exactly. Yes.

• 12:41Rich Roll?

  But when you ultimately went back to begin high school, when you came to the United States, was that in Illinois?

• 12:47Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I was still in the same town, DeKalb, Illinois, same town, yeah.

• 12:50Rich Roll?

  Right, right, right. And your parents are super accomplished. I mean, both highly educated. How are they doing now?

• 12:55Hellah Sidibe?

  A lot of pressures. Yeah, both of them are retired now and my mom was over twenty plus years as an English professor, dad also. So my dad has a PhD in the US, France and England. And my mom has a PhD here and she has two masters. So my older sister has a master.

• 13:12Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 13:13Hellah Sidibe?

  So there's a lot of education.

• 13:13Rich Roll?

  You're the rogue, like weirdo.

• 13:15Hellah Sidibe?

  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 eighteen, where they were all graduating at sixteen.

• 13:28Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 13:28Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. So I was the athlete.

• 13:30Rich Roll?

  Yeah. That's interesting.

• 13:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 13:33Rich Roll?

  Cutting your own unique path.

• 13:34Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 13:35Rich Roll?

  Which, you know, under that kind of pressure, I'm sure hasn't been easy.

• 13:38Hellah Sidibe?

  It wasn't easy at all, for sure.

• 13:40Rich Roll?

  But soccer was the thing.

• 13:42Hellah Sidibe?

  Soccer was always my dream. If you ask the 16-year-old Hella, where 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, Hella, you can be as good as you want in soccer, but if you don't take care of your grades, you're not going to go to college. So I started working well on both of them. I was able to get a scholarship to go to the University of Massachusetts.

• 14:12Rich Roll?

  Right. And you played there.

• 14:14Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 14:15Rich Roll?

  And ultimately took a stab at being a pro, right?

• 14:18Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes.

• 14:18Rich Roll?

  Which had its kind of ups and downs.

• 14:20Hellah Sidibe?

  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 Hydra in Worcester, Massachusetts. And I was Boston Victory. And there's a kid that was playing there, I'll never forget his name, Charlie Rogg. Charlie played at Boston College. He was like ACC Player of the Year, scored 27 goals a season. So my coach said, hey, Hella, I'm going to have you play left back. Because I know you have pace, you got to keep up with this kid because he's really

• 15:03Hellah Sidibe?

  fast. So I shut him down, didn't go anywhere. I was up and down the flank and had him even focus 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, my little brother, acting agent emailed some MLS teams and said, hey, 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.

• 15:37Rich Roll?

  Yeah, forget that other guy. What's going on with Hella?

• 15:40Hellah Sidibe?

  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 professionals started for me. And I was like, wow, I can play for in the MLS. That's incredible.

• 15:55Rich Roll?

  Wow. So what happened in that? Because there were some like fits and starts.

• 16:00Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 16:00Rich Roll?

  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.

• 16:11Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, so back then they had the super draft and the supplementary draft. So the super draft was like the first top rounds 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 rounds. 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 Kitzat Puma in Seattle, which was part of the Seattle Saunders. And he realized the visa issue and he went to the

• 16:56Hellah Sidibe?

  Sporting Kansas City coaches and said, let me have Hella for one year and I'll even help him with the areas that you want him to improve. Hopefully within that year, we can sort out the visa stuff. And I signed my first professional contract in Seattle playing with the Seattle Saunders affiliate. So it was basically their farm team.

• 17:10Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 17:11Hellah Sidibe?

  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 is cool. But the visa issue was the biggest for everything.

• 17:24Rich Roll?

  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.

• 17:35Hellah Sidibe?

  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, Hella, listen, I'm sorry, but we'd rather have someone from Europe and that can tell jerseys, pick up that spot. Versus someone new coming in. So basically.

• 17:59Rich Roll?

  It's like a commercial reason.

• 18:00Hellah Sidibe?

  It becomes even more that.

• 18:02Rich Roll?

  So if you're a foreign national, you have to be extra given.

• 18:04Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, big time. Yeah, big time. And you get that spot. So.

• 18:07Rich Roll?

  So that got played out. I mean, how long were you part of that organization?

• 18:11Hellah Sidibe?

  For the team in Seattle?

• 18:13Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 18:13Hellah Sidibe?

  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. Roy Fink, who was an agent recruiting players to go to Europe. So I had a chance to go play in Germany with the Bundesliga 2, 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.

• 18:56Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 18:56Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I was sad about that because I was really.

• 18:58Rich Roll?

  It has nothing to do with what, how good you are as a soccer player.

• 19:02Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 19:20Rich Roll?

  So you're a super positive guy. That must have left you with a little bit of a bitter taste or some.

• 19:24Hellah Sidibe?

  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 you, all 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. So and then I was always a happy, exciting person and that was really bothering me. At the time, I didn't know I was.

• 20:06Hellah Sidibe?

  Depressed, but if you were to ask me, then I would say to people, 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 the run that made me feel like that. To a point where I was like, Hella, what can you control now? What are you in control of in your life? Because those things you're not. So that's when I started taking responsibility and said, go do what you can do and, and, and focus on that. Put your energy there, not the areas you can't.

• 20:35Rich Roll?

  And what was that? I mean, when faced with the prospect of your professional career not panning out, what's next?

• 20:41Hellah Sidibe?

  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, Hella, whenever you tell yourself you're going 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, I mean, 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.

• 21:22Hellah Sidibe?

  I was play, 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 going to 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 want to get ahead of myself. Let me do this every day for a year. So that's how the whole run streak started.

• 21:53Rich Roll?

  Right. So it was really born out of this frustration and a little bit of confusion about what the next chapter was going to look like.

• 22:00Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes, exactly. Exactly. That's how it all started.

• 22:02Rich Roll?

  It's also interesting that your frame on running is through the lens of punishment. When you are on a sports team that's not run specific, it's like that's, you know, being told to run is what happens when you get in trouble, you know, it's like, it's like the stick.

• 22:17Hellah Sidibe?

  If you, if you ask 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.

• 22:42Rich Roll?

  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.

• 22:48Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, it was 10 minutes a day. That was the goal.

• 22:49Rich Roll?

  But you're certainly capable of doing more than that.

• 22:50Hellah Sidibe?

  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, hell, you gotta run at least five miles a day. That's something at that point in my mentality and physical ability for running wasn't, I 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.

• 23:27Rich Roll?

  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 and making it doable.

• 23:39Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes.

• 23:40Rich Roll?

  So you can actually learn to enjoy it before it becomes too challenging.

• 23:45Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 23:45Rich Roll?

  Where you're gonna pull the ripcord before you've even gotten out of the gate.

• 23:48Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 23:49Rich Roll?

  But once you develop a little bit of momentum, it becomes like this self-perpetuating thing, right?

• 23:56Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes, I agree.

• 23:56Rich Roll?

  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.

• 24:06Hellah Sidibe?

  Get it done.

• 24:06Rich Roll?

  But if you break that cycle, if you interrupt it even once.

• 24:10Hellah Sidibe?

  Oh, man.

• 24:11Rich Roll?

  And you just create all kinds of anxiety and strain on yourself. It makes it so difficult.

• 24:16Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, the starting over, thinking and all that. So it's very true. Exactly how you said it.

• 24:22Rich Roll?

  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.

• 24:31Hellah Sidibe?

  It wasn't even a streak. It was just two weeks that I needed to do. And the thing is to my, now 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.

• 24:42Rich Roll?

  Just for the record, we're not talking about running naked.

• 24:46Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes.

• 24:47Rich Roll?

  Running consecutively.

• 24:48Hellah Sidibe?

  Consecutively, yes. Yeah. That's a good point. That's a valid. 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 streak. 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.

• 25:08Rich Roll?

  Is there a whole world of people who do these streaks out there?

• 25:12Hellah Sidibe?

  I discovered. Not document. I think humbly we became hella good, like my YouTube channel and with my fiance, because 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, 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.

• 25:49Rich Roll?

  When you made your 365 day, your one year streak video, most of that video was clips of other people outrunning in different parts of the world.

• 25:57Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly. Because 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.

• 26:17Rich Roll?

  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.

• 26:31Hellah Sidibe?

  I agree with you 100%. Yeah.

• 26:33Rich Roll?

  So you start this thing off, you're doing it, you're not sharing anything about it until you reach a certain point.

• 26:39Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 26:40Rich Roll?

  And then you decide to kind of break public in this whole thing?

• 26:43Hellah Sidibe?

  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, call 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 out. So on day one sixty-three, she came to me and she said, hey, do you want to do a YouTube video on this? So I was like, alright, 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 barber shop 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 one sixty-three. And I started explaining to people. So that video I actually sent on YouTube

• 27:26Hellah Sidibe?

  for a month or two. Wasn't a lot of views, couple, maybe twenty, thirty views. So one morning I woke up, it was like two thousand views overnight. And I went, I was like, Belle, look at this. This is really weird. Why is this catching on like this? And then we see twenty thousand views overnight. And that kind of went, went in mini-viral. And it got over six hundred thousand views really quick. And everybody's asking me, are you still continuing this 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 five, two fifty-four, day three hundred and sixty-five. 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. Yeah.

• 28:08Rich Roll?

  And Belle really drives that, right?

• 28:09Hellah Sidibe?

  She, without her, there's no hell of good. A hundred percent. So basically, she dropped whatever she's doing to help me chase my dreams and goals. She was, 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.

• 28:30Rich Roll?

  You can see the evolution from the early videos through the present, how much better she's gotten at it.

• 28:34Hellah Sidibe?

  And then back, they'd be like, oh, this is awesome. We'd look back and I'm like, oh, okay. It looks, you definitely got so much better. Yeah.

• 28:40Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's cool. And some of those videos have millions of views now.

• 28:44Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, yeah. A few of them went viral. We've had all the, the running every day for a year, the three years and the one thousand days, day eight or two. So we had a few of them, over a few million views, which was really cool. Yeah.

• 28:57Rich Roll?

  So you meet the three sixty-five goal. You did it for a year. You're like, I'm gonna keep going.

• 29:02Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 29:03Rich Roll?

  So how long had you been doing it before the idea of running across America came into your brain?

• 29:08Hellah Sidibe?

  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? Cause now I know everything to expect this season. Cause 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, the second year. So, but in the second year, I really hit me quick. Hella, this is bigger than yourself. You proved to yourself you can run every day for a year. You're going on year two. That's gonna be a daily routine. Do it for something that's bigger than yourself.

• 29:51Hellah Sidibe?

  So, and I realized quick how running is a privilege that not everyone has. And I wanna use that privilege of mine to do it for something greater. So the ideas of doing it for things, even doing races, I, I don't care about my own PR numbers. I wanna 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 wanna run across the country. Has anyone done that? And again, I thought I was gonna be the first one. I have no idea, clueless. And she look at me, she goes, oh no. Cause she knows when I try to do something now, at that point, I have to do it. And her, um, she's like, alright. She started doing research for me and then that's when we discovered Robbie Ballinger.

• 30:30Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 30:30Hellah Sidibe?

  And, um, that's how the idea of running across the country came up after year two. When I said I, I needed to run across the country.

• 30:37Rich Roll?

  Right. Alright, well, we're gonna get into that in a second, but I have to ask.

• 30:40Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 30:40Rich Roll?

  During this couple of years when you're running every single day, there's some travel in there too.

• 30:45Hellah Sidibe?

  Oh, yeah.

• 30:46Rich Roll?

  Like you had to go to Australia. Like how are you making sure that you're not missing a day?

• 30:50Hellah Sidibe?

  A day.

• 30:50Rich Roll?

  There's some tricky moments in there where it was touch and go, whether you were gonna be able to squeeze it in.

• 30:55Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, so, 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, a mean to get out to run. So I get up very early to run. So the opportunity came with GoPro. Um, and I told GoPro, no, I'm not going.

• 31:13Rich Roll?

  To Australia.

• 31:14Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 31:15Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 31:15Hellah Sidibe?

  And I said, I'm so sorry, this is great, but because of running.

• 31:18Rich Roll?

  I can't break my streak.

• 31:20Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I, I, because. The running I made you guys, it's very important to me to run and to go to Australia is like twenty seven 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.

• 31:36Rich Roll?

  So you like flew to LA first and took a day, so you could do a run?

• 31:40Hellah Sidibe?

  Stayed in LA and then on midnight, on 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 wanna get advantage the extra like hours into the day, like three extra hours. So I wanted to make sure I get the same twenty four 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, showered, 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 fifteen hours. And then when I got to, broom, immediately I got off the airport, we got to the hotel, I went to run again.

• 32:25Hellah Sidibe?

  So we're still in the same time zone.

• 32:27Rich Roll?

  You maintained the Eastern, Eastern time zone as the anchor.

• 32:31Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 32:42Rich Roll?

  Gets confusing.

• 32:42Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 32:49Rich Roll?

  And what's the typical run?

• 32:50Hellah Sidibe?

  The typical run in terms of distance?

• 32:53Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 32:53Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, so in the beginning, by accident, I ended up averaging over seven miles a day. My first year was twenty eight hundred miles. And then I had that mentality, now I wanna 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 I, third year, I was averaging over ten K 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 kinda tests me but doesn't break me.

• 33:26Rich Roll?

  The sweet spot.

• 33:26Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, it's the sweet spot.

• 33:27Rich Roll?

  Is that what you did today?

• 33:29Hellah Sidibe?

  Today, no, I did five miles today. Yeah.

• 33:30Rich Roll?

  Alright, maybe you have to get out and do two more.

• 33:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, two more. We can go out right now. Do you have your shoes?

• 33:35Rich Roll?

  Light in my car.

• 33:43Rich Roll?

  Cool. So, the idea for the transcontinental run comes into your awareness.

• 33:48Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 33:49Rich Roll?

  A great opportunity to make this about something broader than just maintaining a streak.

• 33:54Hellah Sidibe?

  A streak, exactly.

• 33:55Rich Roll?

  How did you become aware of Robbie?

• 33:57Hellah Sidibe?

  So, again, Belle, I'm telling you, without her, I wouldn't even invite you sitting here talking to you today. She just started doing research. I had no idea. She goes, "Hey, hello, there's this runner who's 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, let's do it." So, my goal to go meet Robbie 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 Robbie. And when I first met him, I told Robbie, I said, "Hey Robbie, I'm so-and-so, I run. This is really cool." And I said to him, "I'm gonna 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 gonna do it."

• 34:40Hellah Sidibe?

  Because when you say something to somebody, you get the energy. They might think, "Oh, no, you can't. Oh, 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."

• 34:50Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 34:50Hellah Sidibe?

  So, it was the best time. I interviewed him. I had my GoPro with running and I asked him a bunch of questions. And that's how the relationship started with Robbie and I. And I was just like, being there firsthand to see what he was going through the last day, kinda gave me even more motivation and more belief in myself that I could do it.

• 35:09Rich Roll?

  So, was that last run into New York City, the same route that you took?

• 35:13Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 35:33Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 35:33Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 35:33Rich Roll?

  It's so serendipitous. Like, he's on your radar and he's literally gonna go right through your backyard.

• 35:38Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. 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.

• 35:44Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 35:45Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. And I had it in mind.

• 35:46Rich Roll?

  So, you ran the whole last day with him. I ran the first day with him.

• 35:48Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. He told me about that. I knew I knew of you already. I'm like, wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me Richard came? He said, yeah, he told me the whole story and I said, wow, that is incredible.

• 35:58Rich Roll?

  Yeah, that's cool. So we bookended it and then he becomes like this mentor who helps you figure out the logistics of how you're actually going to execute on this.

• 36:06Hellah Sidibe?

  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 Shrava 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.

• 36:37Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 36:37Hellah Sidibe?

  To get through.

• 36:38Rich Roll?

  There's so many different routes. Your route took you pretty much through the, it's more of the southern route, not the full south route.

• 36:44Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, toward the southern.

• 36:46Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Why did you decide to take it that way?

• 36:48Hellah Sidibe?

  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 is now was predictable. And when we actually started within a week, there was a huge snowstorm where everything was shut. And I 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 because 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.

• 37:31Rich Roll?

  Also, tons of vert.

• 37:33Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 37:33Rich Roll?

  Right?

• 37:34Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 37:34Rich Roll?

  There's that too.

• 37:35Hellah Sidibe?

  That too, for sure.

• 37:36Rich Roll?

  Not for nothing, do you know what Robbie's doing right now?

• 37:39Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes, Robbie is crushing it. The Colorado.

• 37:42Rich Roll?

  It's literally called the Colorado Crush. I mean, this, 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 going to run the Silver Rush 50.

• 37:56Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes.

• 37:57Rich Roll?

  Then he's going to summit all 58 Colorado peaks over 14,000 feet. And he's gonna

• 38:03Hellah Sidibe?

  Unreal.

• 38:03Rich Roll?

  Complete this challenge with the Leadville 100

• 38:05Hellah Sidibe?

  100.

• 38:06Rich Roll?

  On August 1st.

• 38:07Hellah Sidibe?

  Incredible.

• 38:08Rich Roll?

  It's unbelievable.

• 38:08Hellah Sidibe?

  I said, I have to find a way to get to him. So I, Robbie, I'm gonna call him.

• 38:11Rich Roll?

  He doesn't stop.

• 38:12Hellah Sidibe?

  I'm gonna say, hey Robbie, do you need me to come run with you? Or be next to you, whatever you want. I owe you that. But he's, he doesn't stop. That's, that's the kind of people you wanna put yourself around because he just gets it done.

• 38:24Rich Roll?

  Did COVID have any influence on doing this now?

• 38:29Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes.

• 38:29Rich Roll?

  Versus later, just because everything was locked down?

• 38:31Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 38:31Rich Roll?

  This is something that you could do, or?

• 38:33Hellah Sidibe?

  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 these stuff were happening in the world. So I wanted us to come together as, as humans and having, running and comment 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.

• 39:02Rich Roll?

  Mm hmm.

• 39:03Hellah Sidibe?

  Cause 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.

• 39:25Rich Roll?

  That's a heavy week.

• 39:25Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. And then that's why I got the idea, maybe I can do it 100 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.

• 39:48Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 39:49Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 39:49Rich Roll?

  It's one thing to just go out and run five, seven miles every day.

• 39:52Hellah Sidibe?

  It's a completely different world.

• 39:54Rich Roll?

  It's another thing to prepare for a transcontinental run.

• 39:56Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 39:57Rich Roll?

  Like how, other than what you just mentioned, like how did the training differ from just maintaining that streak?

• 40:03Hellah Sidibe?

  Completely different. That's Robbie also. Robbie Ballard is the man. I talked to him, he said, hello, run as 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 gonna happen.

• 40:17Rich Roll?

  You always wanna run on tired legs.

• 40:19Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, exactly. So I was, to me, I wanted to run in zone two. It wasn't, it wasn't slow enough.

• 40:24Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 40:25Hellah Sidibe?

  It was slow compared to what I was doing, really slow. And then 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 in your head. It was much slower than compared to what I was doing.

• 40:36Rich Roll?

  Yeah, but that's how you build the true endurance.

• 40:38Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes.

• 40:39Rich Roll?

  That aerobic.

• 40:40Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 40:41Rich Roll?

  That aerobic engine that you're gonna need.

• 40:43Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 40:50Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 40:51Hellah Sidibe?

  So I made sure that I focused like two to three months doing that prior to starting this.

• 40:54Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 40:55Hellah Sidibe?

  So it's not just like the, the, this pace that I run. Cause it's not, it's not a middle distance or long distance sprint. This is ultra, ultra game is different.

• 41:03Rich Roll?

  It's a totally different thing. Did you periodize the training at all?

• 41:07Hellah Sidibe?

  Uh, 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. Um, 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 a, 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.

• 41:36Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 41:36Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 41:37Rich Roll?

  It's interesting when you watch your videos, especially the one that you did on technique, like run technique.

• 41:43Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 41:43Rich Roll?

  To see the change in the evolution in not just your stride, but like your body.

• 41:48Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, everything changes.

• 41:49Rich Roll?

  When, when we see you crossing the finish line in New York City.

• 41:52Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 41:53Rich Roll?

  You, you're like a skinny, lean, you, you look like a runner.

• 41:56Hellah Sidibe?

  I lost.

• 41:57Rich Roll?

  In those early videos, you're like, this is a soccer player.

• 42:00Hellah Sidibe?

  Soccer player body.

• 42:01Rich Roll?

  With stubby legs.

• 42:02Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 42:02Rich Roll?

  You know, and the whole thing.

• 42:04Hellah Sidibe?

  Uh-huh.

• 42:04Rich Roll?

  It's amazing to see the body transformation.

• 42:06Hellah Sidibe?

  Everything changed.

• 42:07Rich Roll?

  And just the natural kind of stride that you have. You're like, that guy looks like he knows how to run.

• 42:11Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 42:19Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 42:19Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, everything changed. Losing the weight, um, is just gonna happen. You just gotta make sure you eat as much as you can.

• 42:25Rich Roll?

  Uh-huh.

• 42:26Hellah Sidibe?

  And I wanna, I remember actually last summer I was training for a 5K PR. So I, I lost weight just because just sweating a lot, just naturally. Didn't even plan on doing it. And I remember, um, someone on my YouTube, uh, channel, actually, who has like a 10,000 something streak day. Um, yeah, he lives in Michigan. Uh, I can't believe I'm blanking on his name now. He's like a good friend of ours, like on YouTube, I was commenting. And he said, hell, I have a, a, a race body now. This is the race weight.

• 42:53Rich Roll?

  Uh-huh.

• 42:54Hellah Sidibe?

  So you just lose weight by just running. Yeah.

• 42:57Rich Roll?

  So the idea is to try to get this done in under 100 days.

• 43:01Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, that was the.

• 43:02Rich Roll?

  But secretly.

• 43:03Hellah Sidibe?

  I wanted 85 days.

• 43:04Rich Roll?

  85.

• 43:04Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 43:05Rich Roll?

  You got it done in 84.

• 43:06Hellah Sidibe?

  84, yeah.

• 43:07Rich Roll?

  Which means how many miles a day?

• 43:09Hellah Sidibe?

  Um, just over 36 average. Uh, 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 showed how much I had really had to go through in the mountain. The mountain areas were what really beat me up and slowed me down. I was talking to Robbie a lot and he said, Hella, my advantage was I lived in Colorado. I was always running in the mountains. I live in New Jersey, 92 feet above sea level.

• 43:37Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 43:38Hellah Sidibe?

  My whole, almost three, four years of running every day, my elevation gain, I don't think total wasn't, was more than 4,000.

• 43:43Rich Roll?

  Right, all pavement, no hills.

• 43:45Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, and, and I call those hills now speed bumps. I don't think they're hills, they're not at all.

• 43:49Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 43:49Hellah Sidibe?

  So that.

• 43:50Rich Roll?

  So you went through this acclimation phase.

• 43:52Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 43:53Rich Roll?

  Of having to get fitter while also your body trying to, uh, you know, get used to.

• 43:59Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 43:59Rich Roll?

  The pounding and the vert and the different types of weather. I know your feet like swelled up and all kinds of stuff.

• 44:05Hellah Sidibe?

  Everything, yeah.

• 44:06Rich Roll?

  From like a size 10 to.

• 44:07Hellah Sidibe?

  To 11 and a half, yeah.

• 44:08Rich Roll?

  Wow, man.

• 44:09Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, and then knee was swelled up, uh, uh, ankle was swelled up and shins were flared, um, blisters everywhere. And the running and that, 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, Hella, give these sticks, checking sticks.

• 44:27Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 44:28Hellah Sidibe?

  So I was laughing, I was like.

• 44:29Rich Roll?

  Poles.

• 44:29Hellah Sidibe?

  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 gonna take you anywhere. You think the downhill's gonna 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 swelled out of line, it was like two inch above the other. Um, my right knee versus the left knee. So I had to really, I called Robbie, I said.

• 45:14Hellah Sidibe?

  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. Hello, you cannot run up these. And then you're gaining. One, one of my run, I gained.

• 45:23Rich Roll?

  You're not going any faster.

• 45:24Hellah Sidibe?

  You're not, I'm literally slowing myself down. So I kind of like got into the ultra, I was listening to Born to Run, actually taking tips from them, 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.

• 45:55Rich Roll?

  It's amazing how the body can just get used to that. Figure it out like originally you're having all these problems. Cause it's like, what are you doing to me?

• 46:03Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 46:04Rich Roll?

  Make a few tweaks, you keep going and suddenly those things get resolved.

• 46:08Hellah Sidibe?

  It all comes together perfectly, yeah.

• 46:11Rich Roll?

  So throughout that whole experience, I mean, hit me with some of the highlights.

• 46:16Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, the, the best is like going through the Navajo Reservation in 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 us, has made me a necklace. They were getting feathers, has a gift, like telling us what the meaning behind it, keychain, and even Belle got a gift, Garrett got a gift. So, and I met my, the first person to come and run with me was Zach from the Navajo Reservation. He was a native and he came when Robbie came the same day. So he said, can I run with you? Hello, 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 texts me and said, can I get your location?

• 47:01Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 47:18Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Do you have to, I remember talking to Robbie about going through the Navajo Nation. I mean, it can be. Be tricky, right?

• 47:24Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 47:25Rich Roll?

  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?

• 47:30Hellah Sidibe?

  Certain areas.

• 47:31Rich Roll?

  Permission?

• 47:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 47:32Rich Roll?

  Just, you know, sort of shake the hands and make sure that, you know, sort of.

• 47:36Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, we, 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 road without wearing a vest. So I only would put on my, my, um, 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 want to 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. Um, but there's been areas where we've got invited to use people's land to have RV park overnight.

• 48:13Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 48:13Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, because 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 and park your RV overnight because I have no use of that space again.

• 48:25Rich Roll?

  And was it just you and Belle? That was the crew?

• 48:28Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 48:28Rich Roll?

  Was there anybody else?

• 48:29Hellah Sidibe?

  So it was me, Belle and Garrett, my friend.

• 48:31Rich Roll?

  Oh, Garrett, right.

• 48:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, so he was driving the RV. He would go every five miles ahead in the beginning. Um, so Belle would be next to me, literally, we're talking about eight to 14 hours a day. On, in a support car, driving a RAV4 or 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 iPhone, hey, what's true? 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, because I have some people.

• 49:02Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I want to talk about that. Also, shooting, editing and.

• 49:06Hellah Sidibe?

  And yeah, getting content.

• 49:07Rich Roll?

  The social media the whole time as well.

• 49:09Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 49:15Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 49:15Hellah Sidibe?

  Because my energy just had to be solely focused on running and just feeling myself eating and, and running. Hers was like everything. She basically held everything together. She really did.

• 49:25Rich Roll?

  There's an illusion that if you're crewing an ultra event that's chill, you're just in the car and you're just listening to tunes.

• 49:32Hellah Sidibe?

  No.

• 49:33Rich Roll?

  It's full court press.

• 49:34Hellah Sidibe?

  I don't think there's any time.

• 49:35Rich Roll?

  There's so much to do. You have to be thinking ahead.

• 49:37Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 49:37Rich Roll?

  You have to be thinking about tomorrow. Where are we going to get food? Do we have ice?

• 49:40Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 49:41Rich Roll?

  Anticipating what your needs are going to be.

• 49:43Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 49:43Rich Roll?

  And also, you're going to be so exhausted that you're not the best arbiter of what you need.

• 49:49Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 49:49Rich Roll?

  Like, this guy needs to drink. He tells me he's not thirsty. You know, you gotta flush yourself on him.

• 49:54Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, that's exactly it.

• 49:54Rich Roll?

  All that kind of stuff.

• 49:55Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 50:15Rich Roll?

  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.

• 50:22Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 50:23Rich Roll?

  It gets tense.

• 50:23Hellah Sidibe?

  Uh huh.

• 50:24Rich Roll?

  You're a very optimistic.

• 50:26Hellah Sidibe?

  We, yeah.

• 50:27Rich Roll?

  You've got this sunny disposition, but I would imagine you were in the pain cave quite a bit. Like, did you ever, you know, break character and go into that dark space?

• 50:35Hellah Sidibe?

  Actually, I tried and I don't think I did. So what really helped me before this, I told myself, Hella, 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 is going to come. So the fact that I accepted that, so my thinking was always when something happened, Hella, 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 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.

• 51:20Hellah Sidibe?

  I don't know if I can make it to 30 miles today. She would listen to me. I remember one day when I really realized she's not taking anything easy on me. When I had to do 47 miles, we started at 47 miles. I get to 40 miles and I had six miles to go and it was It was night, pitch black. I look at her, I'm 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, "Oh." "You're not getting out of this hell out. Start moving now because you're wasting time." So she wouldn't let me cave in, because there's been, if she were to tell me, "Just shut it down there",

• 52:03Hellah Sidibe?

  that's all I needed to hear that day. That's how 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 the day, when I had other things come up, it was perfect, yeah.

• 52:14Rich Roll?

  You mentioned Souls for Souls. I know Buddy Teaster.

• 52:18Hellah Sidibe?

  Buddy.

• 52:19Rich Roll?

  I spent a little bit of time with that guy.

• 52:20Hellah Sidibe?

  He's awesome.

• 52:21Rich Roll?

  What an amazing person. So talk a little bit about that relationship and why that organization.

• 52:26Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, so I grew up in West Africa, Maldives, 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 shoes. So you're safe, your feet are safe. It's more about, more than that. In Mali, that's not the case. So we need shoes. It's a, 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 gotta wait till the next one,

• 53:09Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 53:35Rich Roll?

  It's like perfect.

• 53:35Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, it was a perfect match in heaven. Literally, it was the best thing that we could have done. And we saw there's so many amazing nonprofit out there, but we wanted to make sure that something that we And something that could make a change and what they do is they collect unwanted shoes, used or 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 that they help all over the world, third world country or whatnot, they also help in the US. Cause I'm living in the US, I'm very proud to say I'm a US citizen. And I still see that sometime 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 I.

• 54:19Hellah Sidibe?

  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 everywhere in the world, also here in the US.

• 54:27Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's a really, 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.

• 54:47Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 54:47Rich Roll?

  Continent where they distribute these, but they don't just give them to people. They basically donate them to entrepreneurs.

• 54:55Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 54:56Rich Roll?

  Sell them at an affordable cost. So you're not just like, it's like the thing of. Are you going to give somebody a fish or are you going to teach them how to fish, right?

• 55:04Hellah Sidibe?

  They're teaching how to fish.

• 55:05Rich Roll?

  People a way to make a living by doing it.

• 55:08Hellah Sidibe?

  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 Soul 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.

• 55:25Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's like the perfect.

• 55:27Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 55:27Rich Roll?

  Organization for you to be affiliated with. And I know Buddy came and ran the final day with you, right?

• 55:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, he came for a different occasion.

• 55:33Rich Roll?

  Yeah, Buddy being the CEO, he wasn't the founder, he came in maybe like five or six years ago.

• 55:38Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, he came in actually 2012.

• 55:39Rich Roll?

  Uh huh, okay, a little bit longer than I thought, yeah.

• 55:42Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes, I'm pretty sure that's when he came in and being an ultra runner, 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.

• 56:06Rich Roll?

  Did you have a bunch of ultra runners dropping in on you throughout the whole thing, other than Robbie?

• 56:11Hellah Sidibe?

  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 situations to help you. It makes you feel really grateful that people are doing that for you.

• 56:27Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Well, you've had other mentors as well. I watched the video where I think maybe Jim Shark produced this video, where he did a Zoom call with Ross Edgley.

• 56:36Hellah Sidibe?

  Oh, yeah, Ross.

• 56:37Rich Roll?

  Who's like the best, right?

• 56:39Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 56:39Rich Roll?

  I love that. I mean, he's a friend. 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 Belle.

• 56:54Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, he was right.

• 56:56Rich Roll?

  And he was right about that.

• 56:57Hellah Sidibe?

  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 100% right. It was just, without her, I don't even know. Yeah.

• 57:08Rich Roll?

  That's the difference.

• 57:09Hellah Sidibe?

  I think we might be so on the road right now, so trying to get back to Jersey.

• 57:12Rich Roll?

  She didn't come out with you to LA, did she?

• 57:14Hellah Sidibe?

  No, she didn't. Yeah, yeah.

• 57:15Rich Roll?

  I would have liked to have met her.

• 57:16Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. We'll meet up for sure with her one day.

• 57:20Rich Roll?

  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?

• 57:46Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 57:46Rich Roll?

  You're, as far as I know, you're the first black person to do this.

• 57:51Hellah Sidibe?

  To do this solo. Yeah, so I did research to figure out. So back in, I think, 1928. There's 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.

• 58:04Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 58:04Hellah Sidibe?

  And there used to be a race. Yeah, it was a race. Yeah. Yeah, it was. It's literally called Race America or something.

• 58:09Rich Roll?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 58:10Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, they're actually kicking out some of the, the black runner, color runners. They're like, you're not doing this. But they did a, 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.

• 58:25Rich Roll?

  Did you know that going into this?

• 58:27Hellah Sidibe?

  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 was doing his research, so we don't come out and make such statement, and it's not true. But, um, yeah, I, I started thinking about it as, 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 called him one day. I said, hey, what was your biggest fear? So in my mind, I wasn't even thinking, um, anything else, but I was just thinking about being a, a color person. So he was telling me about the dog situation right away. And I brought up the, 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.

• 59:11Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 59:16Rich Roll?

  You're gonna manifest it.

• 59:17Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, you're coming into just positive people. And I would say majority of that, ninety-five percent of the time, that's what, that was the case.

• 59:24Rich Roll?

  Right. You did have a few run-ins though.

• 59:26Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I had a few run-ins. Um, the, the first one actually happened in Oklahoma, which was really scary for me. Uh, as I, so when we were in California and Arizona, I've had these awesome police officers. Hey, you're that 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 thirty miles later, he saw me the next day. He goes, whoa, you're really making progress. And he asked, um, Bill, is it okay if I stop, hell, to take a picture? Is he gonna be mad? And I was like, no, I'm not gonna 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 officers come in in Oklahoma, and I, I thought it was a similar thing. Maybe they knew what I'm doing. So I'm excited. I'm running. Actually, I was cruising that day.

• 1:00:08Hellah Sidibe?

  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, I just got a phone call. There's a runner in the world. 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. Was 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. 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.

• 1:00:52Hellah Sidibe?

  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. Yeah, yeah, the little buckle. So I started panicking and I put my stick up. I said, oh, this is just a running pool. 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 Belle in. And I was scared to wave Belle in early because I didn't want him to think that. You're calling somebody else. 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, because it's been the case. And then I see these couple far, these two couples. And I, I was like, this is weird. I think they're waiting for me.

• 1:01:36Hellah Sidibe?

  So they got impatient with my interaction with the police officer. At that point, he was asking, can I see your ID? So when my ID is in my RV five miles ahead, I gotta 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 hella or some told us about you? We're tracking you down. We want to donate. They had money for me. They wanted to take pictures. Then I see the officer biting 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 because they've been tracking and following me. And I was waving Belle in at that point. So she came in. She would come with a camera all the time to get content. And. The officer asked me, can I also get a picture?

• 1:02:20Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, and I was like, it just turned, it turned into a positive. And I was like, thank God that happened. That was scary.

• 1:02:27Rich Roll?

  It's kind of heavy, man.

• 1:02:28Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:29Rich Roll?

  It's heavy that this, you know, that a couple of white people had to come in.

• 1:02:33Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:33Rich Roll?

  In order for this guy to feel okay about what was happening.

• 1:02:36Hellah Sidibe?

  And when he left, it hit me. I was shook. I couldn't move for like 10 minutes. I was on the side of the road. I was like, wait, because I just started thinking, why was he touching his gun? And the reason I raised my pull, because 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, 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 supporter. Actually, I got my water in there. And this lady also is coming out, 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?

• 1:03:21Hellah Sidibe?

  I said, for a nonprofit call. So for so, 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.

• 1:03:29Rich Roll?

  Shut up.

• 1:03:29Hellah Sidibe?

  Mm hmm. This, 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 we, 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 called an officer and we waited two hours. The nearest officer was like almost an hour away. So we waited two hours.

• 1:04:13Hellah Sidibe?

  Officer Liker, that was her last name. She's so close. Oh, Liker? I like 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.

• 1:04:23Rich Roll?

  That was in California.

• 1:04:25Hellah Sidibe?

  That was in California in the beginning. And a lot of people were warning us to be careful there.

• 1:04:28Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:29Hellah Sidibe?

  And last sad story, I 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 of 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.

• 1:05:12Hellah Sidibe?

  So me, whenever I see cars, I would always wave, like I say, 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 gonna 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, this 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 took their head out and called 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 sometime that happens. So she just honks all the time to warn people, she just thought it was one of those.

• 1:05:54Hellah Sidibe?

  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 that happened. So that happened in Missouri. So that was really, and I got flicked off a little bit in Missouri prior to that. So that was not a fun day in Missouri.

• 1:06:15Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I'm sorry that that happened. But overall, people were charitable and.

• 1:06:19Hellah Sidibe?

  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. 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 get ready. 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 water and so many good people, so many.

• 1:06:49Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Did you watch Ricky Gates's documentary Cross Country?

• 1:06:54Hellah Sidibe?

  No, I don't know if I saw that one.

• 1:06:55Rich Roll?

  You gotta check it out. I mean, because he was doing it self-supported.

• 1:06:59Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. Oh, he was the one holding the, the, yes, I saw it. Yes, I saw it. I did.

• 1:07:04Rich Roll?

  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, 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, Colorado.

• 1:07:26Hellah Sidibe?

  Oh, yeah. He did a trans Americana. Yeah, I saw the whole, I watched, yeah, I watched that so many times. Yeah.

• 1:07:32Rich Roll?

  He wanted to really get a feel for what America actually is outside of your Twitter feed or what you see in your respective, you know, information silo. So I'm curious, you know, outside of these, these bad experiences that you've had, like what your take is on the temperature of America. Like, we're going to 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. Like, 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.

• 1:08:12Rich Roll?

  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. To 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, you know, my perspective is as a result of having had that experience.

• 1:08:33Hellah Sidibe?

  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's asked Gary in the RV what I was doing. She baked vegan cookie. Make sure it was vegan, because she wanted 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.

• 1:09:14Hellah Sidibe?

  And it's so much more better, 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 saying, 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. 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 here.

• 1:09:54Hellah Sidibe?

  It's beautiful. It is. And I said, ninety-five percent of the people, ninety-seven that we've run into, it was all, nothing but positive energy and love, different background, different race, different gender, or whoever had, they want to 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 want to accomplish, we want to 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. Yeah. I hope so. Well, talk to me about the vegan diet thing. It's the- It's a whole other, like, layer to this- Yeah. -story.

• 1:10:36Hellah Sidibe?

  So, me going vegan over five years now, it's five years, um, late February. So- Belle went vegetarian a 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 cows, 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 when I went back to look at it, I'm like, "Man, I was sick to watch this and not change my lifestyle." I was even sad watching it. But fast forward to a year later, she wanted me to watch this documentary called Forks Over Knives.

• 1:11:20Hellah Sidibe?

  So I said, "Let's just do it." I gotta 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 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 athletes 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.

• 1:12:03Hellah Sidibe?

  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. Yeah, 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 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? Hella, what's going on with you?

• 1:12:46Hellah Sidibe?

  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 mean 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 playing base. They're like, how did you decide, 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, um, a month later, I went to Oklahoma to play. It was like about a month later. Wow. Yeah, literally. Switched in February, all March and first of April, I was in Oklahoma.

• 1:13:31Hellah Sidibe?

  So recovery times are better? Quicker. Not running out of energy? Yeah. 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, like, why, 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- They wanted to kick you out of practice? Uh, yeah, my coach, my coach would be like, hey, Hella, you're done for today. Cause the second team that doesn't play a lot, they practice longer to get more fitness and game underneath them. Oh, cause you had to play, he didn't want to burn you out? Yeah, that's why I got kicked out of practice.

• 1:14:12Hellah Sidibe?

  So I would go join them to do extra practices and my coach would, or like a, a easy day where we don't play much and I want to stay long, he's like, Hella, you're done. You have a game in two days and I want to stay, but I always get kicked out. Cause I had that energy with me. Um, I think because of, yeah, playing base.

• 1:14:35Rich Roll?

  Do you know this soccer agent called Darren Flickcroft?

• 1:14:37Hellah Sidibe?

  Heard of him.

• 1:14:38Rich Roll?

  Yeah, he's a friend of mine.

• 1:14:39Hellah Sidibe?

  Oh, really?

• 1:14:40Rich Roll?

  But he's super plant-based.

• 1:14:41Hellah Sidibe?

  Oh, wow. That's cool.

• 1:14:42Rich Roll?

  And he's a, you know, he's a big mucky-muck in the soccer agenting world.

• 1:14:45Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:46Rich Roll?

  Or whatever. But he's like gung-ho plant-based guy.

• 1:14:49Hellah Sidibe?

  And a fun fact, actually. So my neighbor, Samuel, and his girlfriend, Roberta Gronner, who's actually was ranked in Doha for a marathon, and she was ranked sixth in the world.

• 1:14:59Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 1:15:00Hellah Sidibe?

  So they saw, I kind of started telling them about the whole vegan thing. So they surprised me with your book, Plant Power.

• 1:15:06Rich Roll?

  Oh, cool.

• 1:15:07Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. So I was literally consuming your book.

• 1:15:10Rich Roll?

  Oh, good.

• 1:15:10Hellah Sidibe?

  Before the transcontinental.

• 1:15:11Rich Roll?

  Oh, that makes me feel good.

• 1:15:12Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. I have your book at home. So they gave 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 it's superfood. So there's a chapter with the superfoods. So I was just saying, okay, Hella, you're training to run across the country now. Yes, you're vegan. So now let's add more superfoods because now you want to be, you're doing something that your body is not used to. So I need the food. So again, thank you for...

• 1:15:38Rich Roll?

  You're very welcome.

• 1:15:38Hellah Sidibe?

  Having that out there for all the plant-based people out there.

• 1:15:40Rich Roll?

  No, 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?

• 1:15:50Hellah Sidibe?

  So I had sponsors, Vivo Life, which is 100% vegan. And their motto is for the living.

• 1:15:58Rich Roll?

  Like out of the UK, right?

• 1:15:59Hellah Sidibe?

  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, Hella, 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 want to eat, some of the stuff I looked at in your book. This is what I want to get myself. So we were doing like a practice. Feeling 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 bagels, but I got sick of bagels. So, but I was eating a lot of the, the rice.

• 1:16:34Rich Roll?

  It's hard to eat. Well, you can pour water on them.

• 1:16:36Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:37Rich Roll?

  They go down easier.

• 1:16:38Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, a little bit.

• 1:16:38Rich Roll?

  While you're running, eating a dry bagel, I don't know about that.

• 1:16:41Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, exactly. So I was eating a lot of the rice bowls, the, the fresh veggies, avocado. Belle 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 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.

• 1:17:04Rich Roll?

  Did you have a Vitamix on the RV?

• 1:17:05Hellah Sidibe?

  Uh, we had a blender, but not a Vitamix because we were scared. Is it going to be able to power it?

• 1:17:10Rich Roll?

  Yeah, because it requires a little bit more power.

• 1:17:12Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:12Rich Roll?

  But then you use a normal blender, it's not the same thing.

• 1:17:15Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, it's not the same thing. Yeah.

• 1:17:17Rich Roll?

  Yeah. How much of the intake was liquid versus like solid food?

• 1:17:22Hellah Sidibe?

  Actually, 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 oat milk, I'd get over a thousand calories, blended, I eat my dinner and I just chug that. So I was getting.

• 1:17:40Rich Roll?

  The Ben and Jerry's vegan ice cream?

• 1:17:42Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. That was the, the best for, 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 electrolyte, I'm not just drinking for the electrolytes, but I'm getting some calories off of it.

• 1:17:54Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:55Hellah Sidibe?

  As well, so.

• 1:17:55Rich Roll?

  And what kind of heart rate were you maintaining?

• 1:17:58Hellah Sidibe?

  I was trying, my goal was keep it below 140.

• 1:18:01Rich Roll?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:18:01Hellah Sidibe?

  Do that. So people will come.

• 1:18:03Rich Roll?

  Low zone two.

• 1:18:04Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:04Rich Roll?

  I mean, I don't know what your thresholds are.

• 1:18:05Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 1:18:15Rich Roll?

  You're playing a long game.

• 1:18:16Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, they're just here for the day.

• 1:18:17Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:18Hellah Sidibe?

  Because they don't do it on purpose. They're just like kind of ease, it just, you just drift away. Some, 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, when I see you.

• 1:18:27Rich Roll?

  But how was the sleep?

• 1:18:29Hellah Sidibe?

  I couldn't sleep. That was the problem.

• 1:18:30Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:31Hellah Sidibe?

  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 wake up at two in the morning, up for two hours and I'd fall asleep. The alarm is ringing six thirty. You gotta get up. So I think on average, I got less than five hours of sleep the whole time.

• 1:18:46Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:47Hellah Sidibe?

  For the eighty-four days.

• 1:18:47Rich Roll?

  Were you wearing like a Whoop or any kind of tracker that could give you some data on your sleep?

• 1:18:50Hellah Sidibe?

  I just use my, 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.

• 1:19:07Rich Roll?

  Your strain score.

• 1:19:08Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:08Rich Roll?

  Is twenty plus today. Time to, time to give it a rest.

• 1:19:12Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:19:13Rich Roll?

  Not what you wanna hear.

• 1:19:14Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I love.

• 1:19:15Rich Roll?

  Forty-seven miles ahead of you.

• 1:19:16Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly. I love my Garmin. I think is the best precious I've done. It does everything that I need to do. It also tells me all these numbers that I needed to know for my body. But every time I started, started running, it says, my suggestion.

• 1:19:28Rich Roll?

  Take a day off.

• 1:19:29Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. And it'll say, take, and it'll say to me, your fitness goal, take twelve days off. I'm like, wait, I can't do this. There's no day off in this. You gotta get up and go. And so the, the technology will tell you, hey, you're doing too much strain.

• 1:19:41Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 1:19:42Hellah Sidibe?

  You just gotta keep pushing through.

• 1:19:43Rich Roll?

  I was talking to, did you follow the Iron Cowboy doing his hundred?

• 1:19:46Hellah Sidibe?

  Ah, he's amazing, James. I talked to him.

• 1:19:48Rich Roll?

  Did you talk to him?

• 1:19:49Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I talked to James. He, he actually DM'd me too. And then I was, 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 gonna 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 wanna meet him one day.

• 1:20:13Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I can hook that up for you. I, I showed up on day ninety-one and then.

• 1:20:16Hellah Sidibe?

  I saw that. I was so jealous. I'm like, oh, Rich is there.

• 1:20:19Rich Roll?

  It was pretty fun.

• 1:20:19Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:20Rich Roll?

  But he was telling me, cause I asked him about his sleep as well. And he said that, uh, his sleep is terrible. It was terrible during this thing. He would have night sweats and night terrors. And 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 through.

• 1:20:47Hellah Sidibe?

  It was shocks 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.

• 1:21:09Rich Roll?

  It would be like you waking up in your house in New Jersey and then doing a 40 to 50 mile loop every day.

• 1:21:15Hellah Sidibe?

  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 won 101. He won the next day. I saw that. I'm like, what's happening? Good for him.

• 1:21:30Rich Roll?

  Because he just wanted to blow people's minds, you know?

• 1:21:31Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, he did.

• 1:21:32Rich Roll?

  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.

• 1:21:42Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly. There's always one more. There's always one more. And with this transcontinental, what I really learned is we're, I knew this, but like we're really much stronger than we think we are.

• 1:21:50Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:51Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 1:22:11Rich Roll?

  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.

• 1:22:23Hellah Sidibe?

  First, it's been cold majority of the time. So when you get up in a warm RV, you do not want to get out. Literally, I'm like, I don't want to go. I would get up. This is the time, actually, I guess, when you ask the question, have you had your breaking point where you just, I would just talk to them like, I don't want to go. When I'm saying that, I'm not even joking. And it's 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, Hella, stop. Wait a minute, because you keep saying this, your your mind is just gonna keep believing, your body's gonna react to it. But more, a lot of the morning, I just get up, I'm just like, I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna 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 the the the even the hardest part after that, when Belle brings me to where I dropped the pin,

• 1:23:06Hellah Sidibe?

  where we ended the run, and we, I would always make a sign and put Arrow NYC, and we see a a street. If I finish 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 wanna cry.

• 1:23:27Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 1:23:33Rich Roll?

  Was there one specific low moment that sticks out, like your lowest moment?

• 1:23:38Hellah Sidibe?

  Two lowest moments 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 three thousand feet in six miles, which is really weird. Think about that.

• 1:23:54Rich Roll?

  Three thousand feet in six miles?

• 1:23:55Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. How's that possible?

• 1:23:57Rich Roll?

  That's a lot of gain.

• 1:23:58Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, and then it was, uh, so the the goal, the 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 Belle'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 gonna 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.

• 1:24:27Rich Roll?

  Down in the ravine?

• 1:24:28Hellah Sidibe?

  It it it, I don't even remember the mountain name. It's, 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. Thirteen, fourteen miles, but the first six miles, I think, again, over three thousand. And it was basically to a point where like, I felt like I'm going up, someone is pulling me back and you're gonna fall backward. And you hunch to, 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. 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.

• 1:25:13Hellah Sidibe?

  That's how tough that is. Too steep to go straight. Yeah, I killed my knee really, like, badly. Was that when you were still trying to run the hills? Yeah, I was still in the, mm-hmm. Yep, that's what, what did it for me. And Missouri, there's a raining day where fifty mile an hour head crosswind. And I would get out, it was freezing cold. I would get 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, cause 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.

• 1:25:58Hellah Sidibe?

  That's the day Bill went on Instagram and said, 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 you a message is really cool. But those two days I'll never forget, cause that was. That's wild, man. Those two days was tough. What's the recovery routine? You have the Normatec boots. Yeah, Normatec was. Theragun or the HyperIce. A HyperIce massage gun. And the Normatec boot is really nice. And I had a machine called Kelvin. So I don't know if you've heard of Kelvin. Ooh, I gotta get you hooked with Kelvin. What is that? So Kelvin, have you ever heard of Gem Ready? It's like ice and water, how they wrap your, like, so Kelvin is a machine that can go to a hundred and six degrees within two seconds.

• 1:26:43Hellah Sidibe?

  And that can freeze to thirty-nine degrees within four seconds.

• 1:26:46Rich Roll?

  Whoa.

• 1:26:47Hellah Sidibe?

  And it could contrast.

• 1:26:48Rich Roll?

  So you alternate back and forth between cold and hot?

• 1:26:50Hellah Sidibe?

  You can do contrast or go hot for three minutes, cold for two minutes. So 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.

• 1:27:00Rich Roll?

  Are they like boots, like Normatec?

• 1:27:01Hellah Sidibe?

  They're not boots. It's like a console and it has like this wrapping where you can wrap around your knee, 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, Hala? You know, when you don't do it, you're paying for it. So many nights when I.

• 1:27:17Rich Roll?

  Those things work.

• 1:27:18Hellah Sidibe?

  It works. It's magic. It feels like you have a new leg. So I had this time in the day at two PM, two thirty, where I put on Normatec. So that's when I really cruised from thirty-six miles all the way to forty-seven. Sometimes I would do that. I've done that many times, actually, nonstop without braking. I would just go straight for it from thirty-six to forty-seven to call my day. Yeah.

• 1:27:36Rich Roll?

  But more often than not, taking a Normatec break in the middle of the day for a little reboot.

• 1:27:41Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, it's a huge reboot. It really is. So I was so happy that I had that to my availability.

• 1:27:46Rich Roll?

  So now that you have this in the rearview mirror, like what else did you learn about human possibility? Like what, what, 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?

• 1:28:04Hellah Sidibe?

  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 Illich Kipchoge, when he used to say, it's no human, he still says it, no human is limited. And sometime like, yeah, we're not limited. And I truly believe that because you find your limit and you break it. I cannot run Illich Kipchoge marathon time. It took him twenty-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.

• 1:28:47Hellah Sidibe?

  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 want to do Leadville One Hundred. I do, I've done that. I want to do that. And I'm going to actually train.

• 1:29:00Rich Roll?

  Are you going to show up on August 21st?

• 1:29:01Hellah Sidibe?

  I feel like that might be a little too soon. My body is not so there yet, but I want to focus my time. I actually go in the mountains and train. So it really makes you feel like we are much stronger than when we 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, whatever. But you'll be able to find the power and the will to get through it.

• 1:29:29Rich Roll?

  Just like the Iron Cowboy doing 101.

• 1:29:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Incredible. I cannot wait to meet James. I want to ask him some questions and things like that.

• 1:29:37Rich Roll?

  I'll introduce you. Talk to me about the mantra that's on the T-shirts and the, I want to talk about the bus too.

• 1:29:43Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes, that was really cool.

• 1:29:45Rich Roll?

  This, this phrase, no matter the circumstances. What is that about? Like, why did you hone in on that being kind of like the touchstone or the moniker for the adventure?

• 1:29:55Hellah Sidibe?

  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 had, 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 said, because if we want to do something, we can make it happen. So we still, we just got to push through whatever circumstance come our way, good or bad. Because circumstances doesn't always have to be bad.

• 1:30:39Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 1:30:48Rich Roll?

  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?

• 1:30:55Hellah Sidibe?

  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, say, come on, hell, I just saw time frame that's gonna 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.

• 1:31:40Hellah Sidibe?

  I say, remember that one time you thought this is it? Yeah. 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, and his bank account even to eat. And you don't have the gut to reach out to family members, to friends. How are you gonna 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 went to buy food. My car was declined, so I get home, and I look at my bank account. I was zero dollars, 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 would pay us bi-weekly. And I, just when I overdraft, you can charge me the fee.

• 1:32:23Hellah Sidibe?

  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 a 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 gonna 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 gonna be negative and owe a lot of money. And he said, you know what I'll do? I'll give you thirty dollar credit right now, so you can go get food. So I went to go get a week worth of grocery at like an Aldi or 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 adds more to you just wanna smile. Because I really have it good.

• 1:33:08Hellah Sidibe?

  I'm able to run 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 in my mind, I'm doing it for them too. It's not about me anymore. So I can do anything but be happy, 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, because I'm like, I 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.

• 1:33:44Rich Roll?

  That's beautiful, man. I love the gratitude and the appreciation. It's very infectious.

• 1:33:49Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you.

• 1:33:50Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Does the village back in Mali know what you've been doing? Like, have you talked to anybody back there?

• 1:33:58Hellah Sidibe?

  Actually, yeah. So the funny thing is, my dad actually forbid me to run. He told me, said, "Hella, I forbid you to run. What is this run nonsense?" He said that to me. He literally said, "What is this?"

• 1:34:08Rich Roll?

  How old were you when he told you that?

• 1:34:10Hellah Sidibe?

  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 so, get out, get my 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 do you do. 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 sense." He never was supportive. And my mom was more like, "I'm concerned for my child, don't hurt yourself," kinda thing. But things turned around, and then he, my little brother said, "Dad, I think Hella's

• 1:34:52Hellah Sidibe?

  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 supporters. He said, "Hella, 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, Hella, 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.

• 1:35:37Hellah Sidibe?

  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 was my dad. And now he's, he's all, he's all about it, yeah.

• 1:35:55Rich Roll?

  Well, given that he was such a tough sell, it's all the more meaningful, right?

• 1:35:59Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, he was, he was not about it at all. He was not, yeah. 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. And now just about me, now he can see that.

• 1:36:16Rich Roll?

  He wasn't sold on the YouTube thing either.

• 1:36:17Hellah Sidibe?

  Oh, oh, yeah, YouTube, no, no, at all.

• 1:36:21Hellah Sidibe?

  And friends, they say, Mano Ken, Mano Ken 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 going to do for you? Yeah, he wasn't about that too. Now he binge watched my YouTube videos. He does.

• 1:36:34Rich Roll?

  That's great.

• 1:36:35Hellah Sidibe?

  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, Fatima, 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 stop this stupid YouTube thing and get a real job? She says 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 be, to get my plane ticket to go to her wedding, which was 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 Bill and I, we do this together. She said, just deposit it 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 Mali.

• 1:37:20Hellah Sidibe?

  So when I got to Mali, I was like, Fatima, 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 YouTube.

• 1:37:29Hellah Sidibe?

  So.

• 1:37:30Rich Roll?

  Has she come around now too?

• 1:37:32Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 1:37:41Rich Roll?

  And you're making it work?

• 1:37:42Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:43Rich Roll?

  In terms of like making a living on YouTube?

• 1:37:45Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:45Rich Roll?

  Supporting yourself? You've got these sponsor relationships.

• 1:37:48Hellah Sidibe?

  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 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, we're good or we have food to eat. We have a sponsored Jim Shark that gave us a mobile home, the RV. We have a sponsor, Vivo Life that are paying for our food. This is incredible. Why can't I, 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.

• 1:38:33Hellah Sidibe?

  You cannot. It's more about because I love.

• 1:38:36Rich Roll?

  There's a lot of illusion around that.

• 1:38:37Hellah Sidibe?

  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, my passion with people to let them know you can have your own journey, whether, 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 Jim Shark 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.

• 1:39:04Rich Roll?

  And do the thing.

• 1:39:05Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:05Rich Roll?

  Do the thing that you love, right?

• 1:39:06Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 1:39:07Rich Roll?

  Those guys showed up for you. I mean, that bus on the final day. I gotta talk about this bus.

• 1:39:12Hellah Sidibe?

  Really went all out.

• 1:39:12Rich Roll?

  Go to his Instagram or his YouTube.

• 1:39:14Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:15Rich Roll?

  Watch the final day. I mean, that bus is unbelievable. It's like this party bus, just cranking tunes.

• 1:39:20Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:20Rich Roll?

  There's people on it, you know, like riding into the city.

• 1:39:23Hellah Sidibe?

  They had the rap all done and they did the RV too, the rap, the man, the circumstance. And in French also, quelles que soient les circonstances? And they had that whole thing. They had, they had a permit to shut a whole street down in New York City.

• 1:39:34Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 1:39:34Hellah Sidibe?

  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 like, wait, is this for me? What's going on? The firefighter with a big American flag, which was a pride 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, it, it was like bigger than the, the whole fire truck. They had like a ladder holding it hang down. So seeing the town show up and having Jim Shark's support, Viva Life support is just,

• 1:40:16Hellah Sidibe?

  you always think, wow, what? This is happening. And I, 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. Yeah.

• 1:40:27Rich Roll?

  Um, it was cool seeing you go into Manhattan. The roads, did they, were they shut down? Like what, which avenue were you going up where it was just a huge procession of you guys in the bus?

• 1:40:37Hellah Sidibe?

  So we turn into Second Street. And then our bell called 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 pulling in front of us with the sirens 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, the cutoff top and

• 1:41:00Rich Roll?

  You're dancing.

• 1:41:01Hellah Sidibe?

  We're dancing. Everybody's basically dancing in the road because we would have to follow now the, the traffic light. So we get to a traffic light, we have to pause or 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, we took over the whole street. No one could even drive on it. We stopped at a light. I saw this, the officer, the passenger officer comes out of the car. I'm like, oh, oh, we're in trouble. He's gonna 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 where the finish line is. And everybody started cheering because we were not in trouble. He literally came out. He basically

• 1:41:41Rich Roll?

  That's New York cops. They're the best.

• 1:41:42Hellah Sidibe?

  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 say, hey Robbie, I want you to be next to me. Cause 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 say, 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 this strength. My legs was, my Achilles was flared up. I, I, I don't know.

• 1:42:19Rich Roll?

  Now look tired.

• 1:42:19Hellah Sidibe?

  I numbed. I just started booking it. 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 Garmin. It was seven oh seven pace at that point from running 12 miles in a minute mile to seven oh seven.

• 1:42:32Rich Roll?

  That's great.

• 1:42:33Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, for the last push.

• 1:42:34Rich Roll?

  And how long had you hatched the plot to pop the question at the finish line?

• 1:42:39Hellah Sidibe?

  I wanted to do it as soon as I started talking, thanking everybody and sponsoring everybody for just being there, making this very special. So I told Robbie, as soon as I said, hey Robbie, that's when he, Robbie was, had the ring.

• 1:42:49Rich Roll?

  Oh, he did.

• 1:42:49Hellah Sidibe?

  Say, say, hey Robbie.

• 1:42:50Rich Roll?

  He's the ring bearer.

• 1:42:51Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 1:43:10Rich Roll?

  Yeah. She was surprised.

• 1:43:12Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, she was, she had no idea. And actually, I was like.

• 1:43:15Rich Roll?

  But how did you hide the ring beforehand? So she didn't find it for the whole adventure?

• 1:43:20Hellah Sidibe?

  I didn't even have the ring with me. I had the ring.

• 1:43:23Rich Roll?

  New Jersey, you had a friend get it or something?

• 1:43:25Hellah Sidibe?

  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 to know ahead of time since I won't see you before. And then he goes, 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 wanted 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 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 of, cuz I didn't see him until then.

• 1:44:07Hellah Sidibe?

  So she saw me talking to these people, like close people, 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, Liza, in the interview. And then, so for her to even fall for the interview thing, I called her over, now I'm time for 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, yeah. So that's how I had it set up.

• 1:44:33Rich Roll?

  How long have you guys been together?

• 1:44:35Hellah Sidibe?

  Nine years this past, on June 11th, it was nine years. I met her at UMass in college, UMass Emherz.

• 1:44:40Rich Roll?

  Oh, you go way back.

• 1:44:42Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, yeah, nine years ago.

• 1:44:44Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 1:44:44Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, it's been quite, it flew by too, really fast, that was the fastest nine years.

• 1:44:49Rich Roll?

  That was the biggest party.

• 1:44:51Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:52Rich Roll?

  Finish line.

• 1:44:52Hellah Sidibe?

  That was just.

• 1:44:53Rich Roll?

  A run across America.

• 1:44:54Hellah Sidibe?

  I don't even.

• 1:44:55Rich Roll?

  I think that ever was.

• 1:44:55Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, Jim Shaw really went all out for that to get that, and 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, to have.

• 1:45:07Rich Roll?

  It's pretty cool.

• 1:45:08Hellah Sidibe?

  Robbie, to have, just everybody that.

• 1:45:09Rich Roll?

  How did that come together?

• 1:45:11Hellah Sidibe?

  Okay, so Jim Shaw asked me, actually, Hella, who do you want at the start of your run across the country? I said, Rich Roll, Casey Neistat, you two came.

• 1:45:19Rich Roll?

  I didn't know, nobody told me.

• 1:45:20Hellah Sidibe?

  I'm shocked, actually, because they asked me, they say, Hella, 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.

• 1:45:31Rich Roll?

  I had no idea.

• 1:45:31Hellah Sidibe?

  I knew Robbie was gonna.

• 1:45:32Rich Roll?

  I would have joined you for the beginning.

• 1:45:34Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I knew Robbie would have came, Robbie was, I talked to Robbie, Robbie say, Hella, 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.

• 1:45:49Rich Roll?

  I hope there weren't emails that came in that I didn't see or didn't pay attention to, now I feel bad.

• 1:45:53Hellah Sidibe?

  No, it's alright, cuz I'm sitting here now with you. But I mentioned you two, and then the same thing, and not, 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, Rich Roll and Casey. And this is some of the people I said.

• 1:46:11Rich Roll?

  I definitely didn't know about that.

• 1:46:12Hellah Sidibe?

  But I completely forgot about it. Like, to a point, I was just so consumed, just get home. And then I see Casey 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 two. Yeah.

• 1:46:35Rich Roll?

  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.

• 1:46:46Hellah Sidibe?

  Maybe I should have tried to reach out to you. I should have DM'd you and said, hey, Rich, can you come out too?

• 1:46:52Rich Roll?

  Well, you're here now.

• 1:46:52Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:53Rich Roll?

  You're here now.

• 1:46:54Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:54Rich Roll?

  Um, I feel like you should also go to Mali and take a victory lap. They'd probably throw you a parade there.

• 1:47:00Hellah Sidibe?

  I definitely would wanna do that. I'm thinking like around the end of the year, December, go to Mali.

• 1:47:04Rich Roll?

  That would be cool.

• 1:47:04Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:05Rich Roll?

  You could make an amazing video out of that, too.

• 1:47:07Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I'm looking forward to going back home, because I haven't been there since 2018. So it's been some time.

• 1:47:11Rich Roll?

  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. You know?

• 1:47:26Hellah Sidibe?

  Wow, you just gave me a great idea.

• 1:47:28Rich Roll?

  Yeah, man.

• 1:47:28Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:29Rich Roll?

  You're a content creator now.

• 1:47:30Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:30Rich Roll?

  Full time, full stop.

• 1:47:31Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, that is it. There's no way back. There's no turning around. Just going at it, yeah, from now on.

• 1:47:37Rich Roll?

  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 streak, 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?

• 1:48:14Hellah Sidibe?

  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 want to 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. Cause because of that, I fell in love with running. I never thought there's 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.

• 1:48:47Rich Roll?

  You don't feel the pressure of maintaining the streak?

• 1:48:49Hellah Sidibe?

  Nope, zero pressure. And I, 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 is.

• 1:49:00Rich Roll?

  Give yourself that permission.

• 1:49:01Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah. And, 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 want to keep sharing it. So pressure free, do it, uh, 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 gonna 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,

• 1:49:45Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 1:49:56Rich Roll?

  I love it, man.

• 1:49:57Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, one day at a time.

• 1:49:58Rich Roll?

  What about somebody who's stuck in a job that they feel like isn't heading in the right direction? Like you've done this pivot.

• 1:50:07Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:07Rich Roll?

  You've reinvented yourself from one career to the next. How do you think about, you know, outside of running or fitness, making those kinds of pivots?

• 1:50:16Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, so there's two ways I think that may work, that kind of work for me. So when I was starting the Run Shriek, I was actually working nine to five. And so

• 1:50:26Rich Roll?

  Just like a

• 1:50:27Hellah Sidibe?

  A normal job. I was at a, I was working at a place called Airbrook. It was a limousine company. I was data entry because I use 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 forty whatever hours a week money is guaranteed, but that one is client canceling you that week. You might not get money. But what I started looking at doing 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 you're, you know, if it's not working for you mentally, you gotta leave that environment. So I literally told myself, this is for now.

• 1:51:11Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 1:51:53Hellah Sidibe?

  And then when you know, again, when you get put in 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, 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.

• 1:52:19Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:19Hellah Sidibe?

  I know what not to do.

• 1:52:20Rich Roll?

  I hate the word failure.

• 1:52:22Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, just take that leap of faith.

• 1:52:23Rich Roll?

  It's more about Having the courage to try.

• 1:52:26Hellah Sidibe?

  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, sometime 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 on to it so tight, and I didn't want to let go, but it was actually preparing me for what I'm doing right now.

• 1:52:59Rich Roll?

  Well, often when you're holding on too tightly,

• 1:53:01Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:53:01Rich Roll?

  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.

• 1:53:11Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:53:12Rich Roll?

  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.

• 1:53:21Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:53:22Rich Roll?

  Because you're holding on to some illusion of security that that current situation or that

• 1:53:29Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 1:53:29Rich Roll?

  past idea represents for you.

• 1:53:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes.

• 1:53:33Rich Roll?

  And it's only in the, in the let going of it that you provide the space for the new thing to come in.

• 1:53:38Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:53:38Rich Roll?

  And you don't know how capable or resilient you are until you are sort of, you know, 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, you know, a greater capacity

• 1:53:56Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 1:53:56Rich Roll?

  for potential.

• 1:53:57Hellah Sidibe?

  Can you write another book? That was really good. That was so, that's literally, that's literally it. That's literally perfectly said, honestly.

• 1:54:05Rich Roll?

  It's hard, though, man, you know?

• 1:54:07Hellah Sidibe?

  And you gotta

• 1:54:08Rich Roll?

  I look at you and I'm like, I'm so much older than you. I'm like, you're so young, who cares? Like, you know, take the risk.

• 1:54:13Hellah Sidibe?

  You're super young, too.

• 1:54:14Rich Roll?

  What do you got to lose, man?

• 1:54:15Hellah Sidibe?

  You're super young.

• 1:54:16Rich Roll?

  You can go back to work, work at the limousine company.

• 1:54:18Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, exactly, worst case scenario. And also, I liked 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, if I'm Plan A was to To do something and it's not working, it doesn't mean I'm gonna quit to go to, I'm not reverting to another one, I'm just gonna 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 gonna 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 it somewhere, I don't know who 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.

• 1:55:03Hellah Sidibe?

  So if Plan A isn't working, it doesn't mean it's not gonna work, just reroute. There's maybe another loophole that you gotta 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 changed your lifestyle. But people see what you're able to do right now, it's very amazing, it's very awe. But do they realize you had to go through so much? You had to literally go through all this 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 to this day.

• 1:55:47Rich Roll?

  Yeah. In AA, they call it, you can't translate something you haven't got. Like, 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.

• 1:56:11Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you, yeah.

• 1:56:11Rich Roll?

  You've been doing this for 1,500 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 you, whatever demons you may or may not have, like, you've dealt with them?

• 1:56:30Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:56:30Rich Roll?

  And you're able to... You know, stand in your strength in a certain way.

• 1:56:35Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you.

• 1:56:35Rich Roll?

  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.

• 1:56:44Hellah Sidibe?

  I appreciate that, thank you.

• 1:56:45Rich Roll?

  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 want to know more. They want to know more about you and that attracts Casey to your front yard or all these things that are coming to you.

• 1:57:03Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you.

• 1:57:04Rich Roll?

  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, you know, approaching these things.

• 1:57:14Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:14Rich Roll?

  It's very commendable, the way that you're doing it.

• 1:57:16Hellah Sidibe?

  I appreciate that, that means a lot.

• 1:57:17Rich Roll?

  I mean, it's cool that you ran across the country. It's cool that you've run, you know, 1,500 days in a row, but when I look at you, like, I want to sit down across from you because I just like your spirit and your soul and what you're all about.

• 1:57:29Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you so much. That means a lot.

• 1:57:30Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:31Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you.

• 1:57:31Rich Roll?

  And I think that there's so much more that you're going to be contributing and offering to the world.

• 1:57:34Hellah Sidibe?

  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 Planbase across the world, but people saw my Strava location, everybody's like, Rich Roll.

• 1:57:51Rich Roll?

  Oh, because you ran, oh, because you're from Strava Today.

• 1:57:53Hellah Sidibe?

  People know, people are very, very attentive. And like, 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, 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 from you, 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 Planbase 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

• 1:58:38Hellah Sidibe?

  on top of that.

• 1:58:39Rich Roll?

  I appreciate that, man.

• 1:58:40Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you.

• 1:58:41Rich Roll?

  It's wild, because we're just here, we do our thing. You know, it's like, I... I know there's people listening and watching and stuff like that, but you know, it's, it's, it means something to me that you would say that. So much love to those people.

• 1:58:52Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, and those are all factual. It's just how it is. You see it all over. Yeah.

• 1:58:56Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:58:56Hellah Sidibe?

  So I'm very excited to, to, to let people know I'm in this presence because this is incredible. Thank you.

• 1:59:02Rich Roll?

  What, uh, what beyond Leadville is on the, like, what are you thinking about in terms of?

• 1:59:07Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I definitely want to run in every continent. I don't know when or how I'm going to make it happen.

• 1:59:14Rich Roll?

  Continent or country?

• 1:59:14Hellah Sidibe?

  Uh, every, every continent right now.

• 1:59:16Rich Roll?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:59:17Hellah Sidibe?

  And then maybe the country is after that because 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.

• 1:59:35Rich Roll?

  That's cool.

• 1:59:36Hellah Sidibe?

  And just, and then I want to 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 because I can go run a hundred miles in the area I'm at. But I want to actually Leadville.

• 1:59:48Rich Roll?

  Yeah, there's altitude and then there's Leadville.

• 1:59:50Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly.

• 1:59:51Rich Roll?

  It's a totally different thing.

• 1:59:51Hellah Sidibe?

  Exactly. So I, when I want to do Leadville, that I want to dedicate my energy now into being trained well for it. I don't want to just show, oh, I run every day. Let me go do, no, it doesn't work like that. So I want to like take time off and maybe live in, 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.

• 2:00:12Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:13Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, because my legs are, I have, the, 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 want to just cruise in, it feels like there's like brake ties to both legs.

• 2:00:25Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:25Hellah Sidibe?

  It won't pick up.

• 2:00:26Rich Roll?

  Well, your training has acclimated you to maintain a certain pace.

• 2:00:29Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:30Rich Roll?

  For an extended period of time, but you never extend yourself past that aerobic threshold. So you have no anaerobic.

• 2:00:37Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:37Rich Roll?

  Power at all.

• 2:00:38Hellah Sidibe?

  For that, yeah.

• 2:00:38Rich Roll?

  It goes from like 140, you know, beats a minute.

• 2:00:42Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:43Rich Roll?

  At like, you know, seven minute pace or whatever it is. But then you go just a little bit over that and you completely fall apart.

• 2:00:50Hellah Sidibe?

  Yep, 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 completely different part of running that I really didn't understand until I did the transcontinental. And I'm like, do I want to just be a long distance runner or I want to be ultra runner? I'm like, I want to run ultras. I want to.

• 2:01:11Rich Roll?

  Well, you are an ultra runner. You know that, right?

• 2:01:13Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 2:01:14Rich Roll?

  Across America. So it's like this idea that you're not an ultra runner is preposterous.

• 2:01:18Hellah Sidibe?

  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, 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 uncomfortable with the uncomfortable, I want to have a reason to to hold on no matter what, no matter the circumstances. So.

• 2:01:43Rich Roll?

  Are you going to keep doing it with Souls for Souls?

• 2:01:45Hellah Sidibe?

  I think I'm going to keep doing, yeah. And then I'll, and my goal actually truly is to 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.

• 2:02:00Rich Roll?

  You've done some stuff for Charity Water too, haven't you?

• 2:02:01Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, that was really, the 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 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 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.

• 2:02:26Rich Roll?

  Get out.

• 2:02:26Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, it was, it literally worked out perfectly. And that's the village we were left in 97 when with my mom's sister where she passed away. So I lived there and they said, we're trying to get water.

• 2:02:37Rich Roll?

  There was no water there.

• 2:02:38Hellah Sidibe?

  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 Sicaso, 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.

• 2:03:03Rich Roll?

  Built that well yet?

• 2:03:04Hellah Sidibe?

  Because COVID was happening, but we, I want to be there.

• 2:03:06Rich Roll?

  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 Mali and film the, if they haven't filled it yet, you need to be there when they unveil it.

• 2:03:15Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, 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 was just to raise a thousand dollars. We raised so much more than that.

• 2:03:25Rich Roll?

  That's cool.

• 2:03:25Hellah Sidibe?

  And I couldn't believe it. So I thank all the supporters for donating to that cause, which that was my first biggest.

• 2:03:31Rich Roll?

  Have you met Scott Harrison?

• 2:03:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Uh, no.

• 2:03:33Rich Roll?

  From charity, he's the, he's the founder and the guy that.

• 2:03:35Hellah Sidibe?

  I haven't met him, yeah.

• 2:03:36Rich Roll?

  You gotta meet, yeah.

• 2:03:37Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I saw his stories and what he did, how he has to change his lifestyle too.

• 2:03:41Rich Roll?

  It's unbelievable. It's super inspirational.

• 2:03:43Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, it really is. And it really, it makes you think that whenever we think it's too late right now, we can change everything. You just gotta stop and start today.

• 2:03:51Rich Roll?

  His course correct is crazy.

• 2:03:52Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:53Rich Roll?

  Being this wild partying.

• 2:03:54Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, and all that, what he used to do.

• 2:03:56Rich Roll?

  To becoming this unbelievable public servant and just, not just creating this incredible nonprofit, but really reinventing and reimagining what giving looks like by making it aspirational. Like the brand of Charity Water is just cool.

• 2:04:12Hellah Sidibe?

  And it's just water.

• 2:04:13Rich Roll?

  And it's awesome what they do.

• 2:04:14Hellah Sidibe?

  For people to have clean water, like.

• 2:04:16Rich Roll?

  And the impact is unbelievable.

• 2:04:18Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, and they literally get water, having a well for forever. Yeah, it's just because Mali, there's certain areas that still don't have water. And then I told my dad, of course, my dad's like, hello, can you do my village too? I said, Dad, I thought you didn't want me to run. I'm using running to, to bring awareness to two places. That was the joke I was joking with him, yeah.

• 2:04:37Rich Roll?

  You build a well in the village?

• 2:04:38Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:40Rich Roll?

  That was just blow his mind.

• 2:04:41Hellah Sidibe?

  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, my followers to donate and things like that. Yeah, it took a village to, to build another village.

• 2:04:54Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:54Hellah Sidibe?

  And he couldn't believe it. So he was like, reading the articles and stuff like that.

• 2:04:59Rich Roll?

  That's cool.

• 2:04:59Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, that was a proud moment to, 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 don't, you've changed someone's life that you don't even know, you'll never meet or hear of, but you've changed their life forever. So.

• 2:05:23Rich Roll?

  And wedding that thing that you love. To service

• 2:05:27Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:28Rich Roll?

  In a meaningful way is the real differentiator.

• 2:05:31Hellah Sidibe?

  There's nothing like it.

• 2:05:32Rich Roll?

  That gives your own life

• 2:05:33Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:34Rich Roll?

  Such depth.

• 2:05:35Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, and purpose.

• 2:05:35Rich Roll?

  And purpose.

• 2:05:36Hellah Sidibe?

  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, to keep doing what we love. And then you're fulfilling your purpose without even knowing, so.

• 2:06:15Rich Roll?

  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

• 2:06:23Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, the purpose is there.

• 2:06:24Rich Roll?

  And the second part is fulfilling that purpose

• 2:06:27Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:27Rich Roll?

  Or doing that thing.

• 2:06:28Hellah Sidibe?

  Uh huh.

• 2:06:28Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:29Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:29Rich Roll?

  And you're doing it, man.

• 2:06:30Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you, thank you.

• 2:06:31Rich Roll?

  And it's only just begun.

• 2:06:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, I'm excited for the future.

• 2:06:34Rich Roll?

  You're a young man with a bright future.

• 2:06:35Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you.

• 2:06:36Rich Roll?

  Uh, I love you. I'm here to support you in any way that I can.

• 2:06:40Hellah Sidibe?

  Likewise, thank you so much.

• 2:06:41Rich Roll?

  I love everything that you're doing. I'm just delighted that you took the time to come here today.

• 2:06:45Hellah Sidibe?

  Thank you for having me. I was, there's no doubt about it, that I was not gonna be here.

• 2:06:48Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:49Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, when I heard it. Thank you so much.

• 2:06:51Rich Roll?

  You're very welcome. If you want to hook up with Hella, best place to do that is online.

• 2:06:56Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:57Rich Roll?

  YouTube channel, Hella Good.

• 2:06:58Hellah Sidibe?

  Hella Good on YouTube, Hella Good 9 on Instagram, and same thing on Twitter. I'm not very active on Twitter, but yeah, those platforms. I'm most active on Instagram and YouTube.

• 2:07:08Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:07:08Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:08Rich Roll?

  Hella Good 9.

• 2:07:09Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, Hella Good 9 on Instagram.

• 2:07:10Rich Roll?

  And are you still raising money for Souls for Souls?

• 2:07:12Hellah Sidibe?

  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.

• 2:07:19Rich Roll?

  Of course, right?

• 2:07:20Hellah Sidibe?

  If I can, yeah.

• 2:07:20Rich Roll?

  So I'll link up in the show notes, all of those accounts, of course, but also the link for people who want to contribute to Souls for Souls and also the Charity Water

• 2:07:29Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:29Rich Roll?

  Link as well.

• 2:07:30Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:30Rich Roll?

  Um, which would be cool.

• 2:07:32Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes, thank you so much. Yeah.

• 2:07:33Rich Roll?

  All right, man. Come and talk to me again sometime.

• 2:07:36Hellah Sidibe?

  Definitely will.

• 2:07:36Rich Roll?

  I'm coming out to New York soon, too.

• 2:07:38Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes.

• 2:07:38Rich Roll?

  Will you come into the city and go running with me?

• 2:07:39Hellah Sidibe?

  Let me know, I'm there. I'm literally like minutes away from New York City.

• 2:07:43Rich Roll?

  All right.

• 2:07:43Hellah Sidibe?

  As long as you let me know, I'm coming over.

• 2:07:45Rich Roll?

  Definitely.

• 2:07:45Hellah Sidibe?

  Yes.

• 2:07:45Rich Roll?

  All right.

• 2:07:46Hellah Sidibe?

  Yeah, thank you so much.

• 2:07:47Rich Roll?

  Appreciate you, brother.

• 2:07:47Hellah Sidibe?

  Peace. Thank you.

• 2:08:00Rich Roll?

  That's it for today. Thank you for listening. I truly hope you enjoyed the conversation. To learn more about today's guests, 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, and 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

• 2:08:41Rich Roll?

  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 Davy Greenberg. Graphic and social media assets

• 2:09:26Rich Roll?

  courtesy of Daniel Solis, Dan Drake, and A.J. Akpodiate. 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.

• 2:09:47Rich Roll?

  Plants Namaste