Speaker 1: Welcome everybody, and it is officially underway. Dry January. Welcome everybody.
Speaker 1: Amy's TJ here Robes is doing this for the first
Speaker 1: time ever. It's a new year and a lot of
Speaker 1: people do dry January. You're doing it for the first time.
Speaker 2: You've inspired me. You do it. You've done it every
Speaker 2: year for the past ten years, except for last year,
Speaker 2: which is understandable.
Speaker 1: Why what was different about last January?
Speaker 2: It was a top January. So yes, but we're in
Speaker 2: this together now, and I have never done it. I've
Speaker 2: always done what I like to call a damp.
Speaker 1: January, which is it makes sense though when you.
Speaker 2: I reduce my drinking, but I wasn't willing to completely
Speaker 2: cut it out. But this year, this month, I have agreed,
Speaker 2: and I'm actually excited about it.
Speaker 1: I have agreed. I have agreed that it's a negotiation.
Speaker 2: I have agreed to have a dry January, and I'm
Speaker 2: excited because I do like a challenge and this will
Speaker 2: certainly be one for.
Speaker 1: Me, and it's more so it has been for me.
Speaker 1: Open now I feel great. It takes two or three
Speaker 1: days and you just forget about drinking. You get into
Speaker 1: a new habit and new routine. Of alcohol not being
Speaker 1: there when you have lunch or whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: But it's just it's an exercise in personal discipline. Is
Speaker 1: why I like it more than anything but the health metadit.
Speaker 1: I feel great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you told me in like three or four days,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna feel the best I've ever felt.
Speaker 1: You're gonna feel great.
Speaker 2: I cannot wait.
Speaker 1: But then you're going to be at a restaurants he's
Speaker 1: abody to order in April sprits and you say.
Speaker 2: Yo, TJ, this is killing.
Speaker 1: But that is a lot of folks out there, a
Speaker 1: lot of you that are listening. You have a new
Speaker 1: Year's resolution, and most people, the overwhelming majority, do, have
Speaker 1: something related to health fitness in some way. Google puts
Speaker 1: out their resolutions related searches. Their top searches and working out,
Speaker 1: eating healthy were the top two.
Speaker 2: So can you tell the fine folks what number three
Speaker 2: was because you shared that with me this morning and
Speaker 2: it was disturbing.
Speaker 1: Brushing teeth, you know, if it's brushing.
Speaker 2: Teeth more often or three times a day, but this
Speaker 2: is just in general brushing teeth.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe everybody has something different that they filled in
Speaker 1: the blank with brushing teeth more often brushing teeth every
Speaker 1: other day. I don't know what they put in there,
Speaker 1: but maybe just brushing teeth was the search.
Speaker 2: People deeply concerning.
Speaker 1: Okay, but working out, eating healthy. Go ahead.
Speaker 2: Well, I was gonna say, I love you had some
Speaker 2: really fun stats for me this morning. You also told
Speaker 2: me so. Strava is this app that we use a
Speaker 2: lot of runners, used to monitor how many miles we run,
Speaker 2: what our pace is. And it's fun. You can it's
Speaker 2: kind of like an Instagram for runners. You can follow
Speaker 2: other people, they can follow you, so you can get
Speaker 2: inspired by someone else's run. And they actually compiled a
Speaker 2: list of stats for last year and it was really funny.
Speaker 1: So well, it's funny that they are able to pinpoint.
Speaker 1: And I know this is just the first week of January,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to be a downer on some
Speaker 1: of you all's health goals and resolutions that you've made,
Speaker 1: but many of you listening to me are going to
Speaker 1: fail miserably here in just a couple of weeks, just
Speaker 1: three weeks. Yeah, they have proof, they have the evidence
Speaker 1: of this. They can tell in people's trends they go
Speaker 1: way up while right at the beginning of the year
Speaker 1: because everybody's working out and then they start to see
Speaker 1: them and that's usually the third week of January when
Speaker 1: people start to fall off.
Speaker 2: There's an actual date, right January nineteenth.
Speaker 1: This was one that was given years past. I can't
Speaker 1: remember which year, but yes, jov they put out this
Speaker 1: was the specific day that they saw this happen.
Speaker 2: People just said, I'm done.
Speaker 1: It's a wrap.
Speaker 2: They just say, I hate running.
Speaker 1: But it's not just running, it's gym memberships. This is
Speaker 1: the biggest month for gym memberships. A lot of you
Speaker 1: all have new ones. If you signed up for one
Speaker 1: in January, chances are in six months eighty percent of
Speaker 1: you are going to be done with your gym members July.
Speaker 2: You got Yes, they're done. You're done. So everyone, I think,
Speaker 2: know what it's like to have a goal, to try
Speaker 2: to be disciplined and then maybe to fall off the wagon,
Speaker 2: so to speak.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I mean, can I speak on that?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Because there was no you may remember it. There was
Speaker 1: something called fall off the wagon day. Oh okay, that's
Speaker 1: a different day. I can't remember. I'm sorry. I can't
Speaker 1: give credit to what organization put it together. But they
Speaker 1: looked at activity the trends in fast food consumption and
Speaker 1: the trends in working out and fall off the wagon.
Speaker 1: Day is when they noticed that the trends in fast
Speaker 1: food activity go up and the trends in working out
Speaker 1: go down. Wow, so we start to balance out again
Speaker 1: and people right go right back to the fast food
Speaker 1: and right back to not working out.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think we could all use a
Speaker 2: little inspiration. And there is someone here in studio with
Speaker 2: us who is probably the most disciplined person I have
Speaker 2: ever met. And there's no day of rest or saying
Speaker 2: I don't feel like it today, or any of that
Speaker 2: sort of mindset. And this is somebody who TJ and
Speaker 2: I met a little over a year ago and we're
Speaker 2: so amazed by and we thought, what a perfect person
Speaker 2: to bring onto the podcast today. He's here in studio
Speaker 2: with us because we could all use a little inspiration
Speaker 2: as we start our health and fitness goals. His name
Speaker 2: is Helicity Bay, and this is well, he's got a
Speaker 2: lot of really amazing fun facts that I think are
Speaker 2: going to blow your mind. First of all, he was
Speaker 2: the first black man to run across America from New
Speaker 2: York to Los Angeles. Took him eighty four days average
Speaker 2: thirty six miles a day. You're going to get to
Speaker 2: ask him in just a moment. He is a former
Speaker 2: professional soccer player. He was born in Molly. He also,
Speaker 2: and this is wow, he is what you call a
Speaker 2: run streaker. It doesn't mean he runs without clothing, which
Speaker 2: is where my mind went first. I'm sorry, am I
Speaker 2: the only one?
Speaker 1: You're the only ones? You actually are the only one.
Speaker 2: He's a run streaker, meaning he has run every single day,
Speaker 2: regardless of the weather, regardless of what he did the
Speaker 2: night before, since twenty seventeen, so that's over six years.
Speaker 2: His rules are that he imposed upon himself that he
Speaker 2: has to run outdoors woo, and he has to run
Speaker 2: at least two miles. But I believe he says he
Speaker 2: runs on average seven miles a day. So, without further ado,
Speaker 2: please welcome Hella into the iHeart Studios with us.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I feel really cool to be sitting with you guys.
Speaker 1: Oh please.
Speaker 3: The last time we were together was really fun. Love
Speaker 3: your energy. So it's a privilege to be here and
Speaker 3: I'm talking and chatting on with you guys.
Speaker 1: But it is so and I wish more people could
Speaker 1: see you right now because this is one of the
Speaker 1: things we walked away with when we first met you.
Speaker 1: That dude just makes you feel good. You want to
Speaker 1: be around, you said, have a smile and a joy.
Speaker 3: I really do. Since that interview, I was just like, Wow,
Speaker 3: these are the people I want to be around. No
Speaker 3: matter what happened, you leave, your chicks are heading. I
Speaker 3: remember saying, all laughter and fun, that's what I like,
Speaker 3: That's what life has to be about.
Speaker 2: And you have a real joy of running. But it
Speaker 2: didn't always start out that way. So can we ask you?
Speaker 2: I said you were a run streaker. I explained what
Speaker 2: that meant. How many days are you on right now?
Speaker 3: So after I ran this morning, so it's day twenty
Speaker 3: four hundred and twenty. Few consecutive runs.
Speaker 1: Every single day, no matter what. What's the biggest circumstances
Speaker 1: challenge you had, like like a logistic change, the logistical
Speaker 1: challenge you were traveling, or something that you could.
Speaker 3: So going to Australia in twenty nineteen, I had gorpro
Speaker 3: who had invited me. So I called him really sad,
Speaker 3: I said, I can't do this because I'm going to
Speaker 3: miss my streak. And I said because of running. I
Speaker 3: met you guys, and I don't want to compromise it.
Speaker 3: I was really sad because I wanted to go to Australia.
Speaker 3: It was twenty six hours. So they said, how can
Speaker 3: we make this happen. They connected me with a travel agent,
Speaker 3: so I took four flights so I can get to Australia,
Speaker 3: so I can stop and get off the plane and
Speaker 3: might run it. Oh, so we made that happen. So
Speaker 3: I broke it out. I did a whole full YouTube
Speaker 3: video on it, like explaining the whole scenario, had video
Speaker 3: clips how I kept the streak alive. So that was
Speaker 3: a little tough logistically, but after that I got the
Speaker 3: routine of it. When I went to South Africa, I
Speaker 3: stopped in Germany for fifteen hours so I can run.
Speaker 3: When I went back home to Mali recently, I make
Speaker 3: sure that there was plenty of time when I landed
Speaker 3: that I can run before the twenty four hour window
Speaker 3: was closed.
Speaker 2: So you don't like direct flights, I don't like flights.
Speaker 3: I can't do it lesson. It's like in the trans
Speaker 3: continental which is why I'll have plenty of time, but
Speaker 3: I have to stop now.
Speaker 1: You said those were some of your challenges what is
Speaker 1: kind of the you remember a wacky or a weird
Speaker 1: thing you had to do or a place you had
Speaker 1: to run that normally you wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Well running across America. And also with the first Black Man,
Speaker 3: it's unofficial, but for one hundred percent concept first African
Speaker 3: because there was all these like, well, these guys did this,
Speaker 3: so I was just like, Okay, I'm just gonna saity.
Speaker 3: Unofficial with that, but running through Arizona was really sketchy
Speaker 3: and really scary. Yeah, I was scared for my life
Speaker 3: and many times I went through some times where like
Speaker 3: literally there's like a black figure that's being you go
Speaker 3: through the day. It was just like whoa. And those
Speaker 3: areas I've never had to run so fast in my life.
Speaker 3: I'd be so disturant, so beat out. But I was
Speaker 3: just like, you got to pick it up so you
Speaker 3: can get out of those areas. Those has happened and
Speaker 3: getting chased by dogs and things like that. But there
Speaker 3: was a lot of more beautiful part than that. But
Speaker 3: there's been some sketchy areas during the chance what.
Speaker 1: He described, I've driven through some places in the South.
Speaker 2: Running is a little bit different though, right you're a
Speaker 2: little bit more exposed there can I ask you, what
Speaker 2: was the day that you said? Today's day one, and
Speaker 2: I'm going to do this.
Speaker 3: So day one I said May fifteen, twenty seventeen, but
Speaker 3: it happened three days before. I just don't have proof
Speaker 3: of it. So May fifteenth, I started using my watch.
Speaker 3: There's like run every single day from May fifteenth of
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen up until today. But I started like a
Speaker 3: few days prior to that. I just got to a
Speaker 3: point where I was just sick of everything that was
Speaker 3: happening in my life, and I just wanted to stop
Speaker 3: making excuses. I grew up playing soccer. I went to
Speaker 3: the University of Massachusetts playing soccer, and I had professional potentials.
Speaker 3: Pro Teams were coming after me, and then they always
Speaker 3: come down to hell, I we want you, but visa status,
Speaker 3: we got to try to sponsor you. It's a lot
Speaker 3: of money. We'd rather pick a domestic player who was
Speaker 3: a resident, even if they have less talent than you.
Speaker 3: We can develop them and get them to where you are.
Speaker 3: What are having to pay all of the money, all
Speaker 3: the visa stuff that's not even guaranteed. So I wanted
Speaker 3: to stop pointing fingers. So I was depressed. I was
Speaker 3: always been a happy person, but my dream was getting
Speaker 3: pulled away. The first dream was being a pilot that
Speaker 3: was pulled away since ninety eleven you can't be on
Speaker 3: a visa, and I had finished ground school already, it
Speaker 3: was ready for air school. One day, stripped out away.
Speaker 3: Soccer was my next dream, stripped away. So I just say,
Speaker 3: you know what, face something you're afraid of that you're
Speaker 3: scared and running. Hit me immediately because it was used
Speaker 3: as a punishment playing soccer, so I went for it.
Speaker 1: You use it, you said. Those were two dreams, yes, right,
Speaker 1: that were kind of taken away, pulled away for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: What did you have a third one? Right? Was there
Speaker 1: even something else that was a backup? Playing to back
Speaker 1: up my third one?
Speaker 3: That was the last one. That's why I just went
Speaker 3: into this dark space that I couldn't get out of.
Speaker 3: I was miserable. You would look at me amy, I'd
Speaker 3: be pissed for nor you would smile at me. I
Speaker 3: don't want to look at me, like, why are you
Speaker 3: smiling at me? That's how stuff I was. And I'm
Speaker 3: not a professional, but looking back, it was definitely signs
Speaker 3: of depression, signs.
Speaker 2: Of depression, and I recall you were you were in
Speaker 2: a tough spot financially as well. Correct.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. When I signed a professional contract in Seattle
Speaker 3: for one year, which was a US second division under
Speaker 3: the Seattle Sounders Kisse Hap Pumas, and I remember the
Speaker 3: first week we were going to do grocery with teammates
Speaker 3: and I had zero dow on my bank account and
Speaker 3: I knew that, so we went to a store similar
Speaker 3: to Aldi. We went to a cheap place. Everybody filled
Speaker 3: up their card. I did mine too, and I get
Speaker 3: to the checkout line. Something told me, my God told me,
Speaker 3: your card's gonna get rejected. Because I've had times where
Speaker 3: I purposely know I had zero dollars and I'll swipe
Speaker 3: the card, it'll charge it, and I'll be negative and
Speaker 3: I'll be charged the fee. I thought that was gonna happen,
Speaker 3: but something told me, hell and not today, So in
Speaker 3: a way, I was up. Next. I moved my card,
Speaker 3: I sneakly went into the aisle and started putting stuff away.
Speaker 3: And when we were finished releaving, my teammate said, hell,
Speaker 3: I you didn't get anything. I said, no, I don't
Speaker 3: think I like anything in this store. I'm not really hungry,
Speaker 3: but I was dying hungry. So I snugged my room
Speaker 3: and call Bank of America at the time. I said, hey,
Speaker 3: I know I have zero dollars in my count can
Speaker 3: you guys a lot overdrafting? So I'll be I'll charge
Speaker 3: I'll be charged with the fee and everything. And I said,
Speaker 3: I promise you I'm getting my first check the following friday.
Speaker 3: I'm a professional soccer player. You can google me. There's
Speaker 3: articles everywhere, and then this is how much I'm gonna
Speaker 3: get paid. I'll pay you guys. They didn't want to
Speaker 3: do it, so I asked for a manager. The manager
Speaker 3: came in and said, hey, I don't know if that's
Speaker 3: guarantee or not, even though you're showing, even if you're
Speaker 3: on the internet, but I'm going to give you thirty
Speaker 3: dollar credit so you can go get grocery. So that
Speaker 3: was life changing. Thirty dollar credit got me a week
Speaker 3: worth of food. It was like at the time I
Speaker 3: was in vegan, but I got turkey slices, I got bread,
Speaker 3: I got cereal bars. So that was a full week
Speaker 3: of grocery. So that day I was at the bottom.
Speaker 3: I was embarrassed to ask for family members, Hey can
Speaker 3: I give money? You're a pro? Who does that?
Speaker 1: You know? So?
Speaker 3: But to the lighter side, last year, Bank of America
Speaker 3: invited me to speak in front of six other people
Speaker 3: one percent top bankers said, what a full circle? Wow?
Speaker 1: Hell, how do you tell folks who listen? We got
Speaker 1: here for the inspirational story about your running. But a
Speaker 1: lot of people just listen to what you said. And
Speaker 1: we've all at some point in our lives had a
Speaker 1: scary moment at that grocery store, had that scary moment
Speaker 1: of this card going to go through. But for you,
Speaker 1: what is it about the embarrassment? Because I think we've
Speaker 1: all been ashamed to ask for help.
Speaker 3: Gentimes, Yeah, you get looked at and a weird way.
Speaker 3: I was on Facebook pages twenty players selected out of
Speaker 3: four hundred, so people expected you to have everything, and
Speaker 3: even having own family members saying why don't you get
Speaker 3: a real job. You're chasing this dream that's not real.
Speaker 3: And as far as and I tell my dad, my
Speaker 3: dad was like no discouraging even when I got into
Speaker 3: this run stuff. So people who were even closer to home,
Speaker 3: so it's like I can't even go and ask them
Speaker 3: because they don't even think I'm serious about life or
Speaker 3: I'm trying to better myself. So there's so much behind it,
Speaker 3: and you're kind of hiding it and bottle it up,
Speaker 3: and you don't know what to do, and you don't
Speaker 3: want to ask for a helping hand even though you should.
Speaker 2: Wow, and it's pretty incredible. You said for Full Circle,
Speaker 2: that's an understatement with the Bank of America. I love
Speaker 2: that story. That's phenomenal. I also love how you said
Speaker 2: you took something that was a punishment in soccer, which
Speaker 2: was running, and owned it. How did you get your
Speaker 2: mind to flip that.
Speaker 3: I being an athlete, I knew that I'm in control
Speaker 3: of my physical movement, even though it can be tough.
Speaker 3: So I just told myself, hey, do something that you're
Speaker 3: afraid of running hit me because it was like I
Speaker 3: couldn't sleep nice before fitness there, so it was just
Speaker 3: so bad. So I decided to just said, let's try that.
Speaker 3: Give it a chance, and ten minutes a day, no pressure,
Speaker 3: no coach is yelling at you. Why in the back
Speaker 3: of the line, it's just you that gets to decide
Speaker 3: if you want to stop or keep going.
Speaker 1: How it always works? You tell me, I have to
Speaker 1: do something. I'm pissed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I decided.
Speaker 1: Folks, we got Hella in studio with us, and you
Speaker 1: can tell probably already why we love this guy. We're
Speaker 1: going to continue with our conversation with him when we
Speaker 1: all right back here, Amy TJ with Hella in studio
Speaker 1: with us. A run streaker who is on what day?
Speaker 1: Tell me the day again? Three three days.
Speaker 2: Running twenty six? Right? You said you just can't prove it.
Speaker 3: I don't count it.
Speaker 1: You know. I was curious what happened that guy? Do
Speaker 1: you know whatever happened to that guy? And it? Did?
Speaker 1: You talk to him again? The Bank of America guy
Speaker 1: who gave you a thirty dollars credit I was.
Speaker 3: There with, literally was one of their CEO. I said,
Speaker 3: can you find somebody in Washington? I would love to
Speaker 3: thank him because that day, imagine you have to performance
Speaker 3: the highest physical being and you don't have any food,
Speaker 3: you don't have the energy. So he saved me that day,
Speaker 3: the whole week leading up till I got my first check.
Speaker 3: So I wanted to thank him. I said that to them,
Speaker 3: if they can ever find and I took some numbers
Speaker 3: down to follow up. But I would love to thank him.
Speaker 1: But again, this is a guy who this wasn't a
Speaker 1: matter of some Bank of America policy. He just made wow.
Speaker 3: And I know they can find it because they told
Speaker 3: me that I have history with them. If they look
Speaker 3: up my name, my Sulcer security, they can find my
Speaker 3: account and I'm sure they can track back and see
Speaker 3: the history thirteen yeah, ten years ago.
Speaker 2: Maybe he's listening. That would be pretty cool, Hella. I
Speaker 2: obviously you ran across America averaging thirty six miles a day.
Speaker 2: You were going through mountainous terrain. You've done ultra marathons,
Speaker 2: and yet we ran our first marathon, I believe, on
Speaker 2: the same year, in New York City Marathon twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: But you didn't train for it from what I've read.
Speaker 2: But you, the three of us all ran this last marathon,
Speaker 2: New York City twenty twenty three, and you were nervous
Speaker 2: before running it.
Speaker 3: This one that I guess you.
Speaker 2: I read that you trained for it for the first time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Boston Marathon. Oh, the Boston Marathon.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, How how would someone like you actually still
Speaker 2: have nerves?
Speaker 3: It's for running, because the one hundred mile race I
Speaker 3: had zero nerve. Both of them let the one hundred
Speaker 3: zero Nerve Western one hundred, which is the oldest hundred
Speaker 3: mile race zero nerve. Because I had experience running across America,
Speaker 3: you learn how to deal with your body and your mind,
Speaker 3: how to fuel when you need to, how to force
Speaker 3: feed yourself when you don't have any appetite because your
Speaker 3: body is still burning calories. We're talking about I've burned
Speaker 3: thirteen thousand calories over one hundred miles. So I had
Speaker 3: the tactic and logistic to figure problem solve because I
Speaker 3: did it for eighty four days, so that was nothing.
Speaker 3: I just know how to put the workout in and
Speaker 3: I'll be fine. But the Boston Marathon, I'm trying to
Speaker 3: run out of threshold pace. We're talking about holding no
Speaker 3: less than six minute thirty six miles six minut thirty
Speaker 3: six seconds per mile. So knowing that I have to
Speaker 3: hold that pace is another challenge within itself. So that's
Speaker 3: why I was nervous for the Boston Marathon. And as
Speaker 3: clearly as the course is that as more.
Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, six thirty I can't run from the
Speaker 1: cops the six thirty pace. That's what you say, now,
Speaker 1: we'll test that theory, and how.
Speaker 3: Did you do? I missed my goal by a little bit,
Speaker 3: and the sub through is by one minute thirty four.
Speaker 3: But I actually this is for the first time I'm
Speaker 3: going to say I was thinking, like, no slower than
Speaker 3: two fifty. I trained really hard. I went to the
Speaker 3: Boston course two times and ran on the course, went
Speaker 3: over Heartbreak Hill, the toughest part of the race, holding
Speaker 3: six thirty six for mye I did a twenty three
Speaker 3: mile long run. I did an eighteen mile long run,
Speaker 3: seven out of ten level. So I was fine that
Speaker 3: day of the race. I don't know what it was.
Speaker 3: I was just stuck in this space I can get
Speaker 3: out of. So this year's redemption year, and I'm going
Speaker 3: out there. I'm finding a flat horse and I'm going
Speaker 3: to I'm saying this publicly. I'm going to run a
Speaker 3: fast marathon. I'm preparing really well for it.
Speaker 2: I believe you, and I.
Speaker 1: Think you will you for you, what's a fast marathon?
Speaker 3: I needed too forty five. And I don't like to
Speaker 3: put my goal out there like that. I just like
Speaker 3: keep it quiet and then say hey, look, but I'm
Speaker 3: going to say it because I'm going to work hard,
Speaker 3: whatever it takes, if anything within my control, I need
Speaker 3: to get a two hour forty five.
Speaker 2: That's it's so funny that you say that, because it's
Speaker 2: probably the biggest question people ask when they find out
Speaker 2: you're running any race, a half marathon, a marathon, even
Speaker 2: a ten k. What do you want your finished time
Speaker 2: to be? And I never want.
Speaker 3: To say you save yourself from these Too much pressure.
Speaker 2: It's way too much pressure. And every race is different,
Speaker 2: the weather, the terrain, what you ate last night.
Speaker 3: I mean, it can be best prepared and then you
Speaker 3: get humbled. Oh I didn't know that's going to happen.
Speaker 3: Let's stop, make sing a little funny. Why does a
Speaker 3: little stomach.
Speaker 2: TJ actually had to stop. We were on such good
Speaker 2: pace this past marathon.
Speaker 1: We were crushing it, rushing it.
Speaker 2: Yet not by your standards, but by our standards and
Speaker 2: my stomach. At mile twenty two twenty three, I I
Speaker 2: actually threw up on myself and then I had to
Speaker 2: go off to the side and finish.
Speaker 1: I felt awful, and we with the two of us
Speaker 1: standing there, Hey, everybody, it happened. Get a look.
Speaker 2: My parents were tracking me and they were like, what happened?
Speaker 2: Five minutes and I was like, yeah, I might have
Speaker 2: been vomiting.
Speaker 3: We did finish, Yes, that's all that matters at the
Speaker 3: end of the day.
Speaker 2: And it was still my best time ever. But it
Speaker 2: could have been so much better.
Speaker 3: Yes, imagine, isn't that amazing to know if that didn't happen?
Speaker 3: So next time, we hope that doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: And hell please, this was not a quick little she
Speaker 1: We were on the side five plus minutes, maybe even ceased.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was seizing and I had to let
Speaker 2: it do it, you know.
Speaker 3: But it's not even just about the time you wasted.
Speaker 3: Is the rhythm that you just got, so you going
Speaker 3: back to picking up that rhythm, it's much tougher, So
Speaker 3: huge quotas to you because going back in there to
Speaker 3: that flow, because as soon as you stop, especially of course,
Speaker 3: like your leg starts to tense up, your muscles starts
Speaker 3: to and then it hunts you. So you guys are
Speaker 3: trooper to stop that long and resumed the run. Well
Speaker 3: that's why I don't even want to stop.
Speaker 2: I know, I was grateful. I was grateful to him.
Speaker 2: I was like, please keep going. He's like, obviously I'm not.
Speaker 2: But I would have been totally understanding if he had,
Speaker 2: because as a runner, you know what it means to
Speaker 2: have to stop your rhythm. In terms of understanding runners,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you get this A lot. People just ask
Speaker 2: why why? Because it's hard, it's not easy, and all
Speaker 2: of us have runs where we want to stop and
Speaker 2: we don't want to keep going, and a lot of
Speaker 2: ones where we don't want to start. Yes, why do
Speaker 2: you run? What's the joy?
Speaker 3: It's changed my life in so many ways, not even
Speaker 3: like the extras I'm talking about how I feel good mentally.
Speaker 3: I just find myself smiling because I feel like I
Speaker 3: conquered something that day. Even today was freezing when I
Speaker 3: started with twenty six degrees, but when I was out there,
Speaker 3: I felt like I was a trooper. You feel like
Speaker 3: a warrior, Like I can go out there and.
Speaker 1: Battle this cold that I.
Speaker 3: Get to just endure for an hour, which is nothing
Speaker 3: out of my whole day, and then when I'm done,
Speaker 3: I just feel accomplished. I feel in vincent. I feel
Speaker 3: like nothing can stop me. So that feeling alone was
Speaker 3: everything to me, and it makes me when I get
Speaker 3: out there every day to keep proving to myself. But
Speaker 3: what really helps me nowadays is running is a privilege
Speaker 3: that everyone has. There's people out there who can't watch run.
Speaker 3: I see it all the time. The more you run outside,
Speaker 3: you see people who are emputee by accident, by war,
Speaker 3: by birth. So it's almost like insult to me that
Speaker 3: I'm not using my privilege. They would do anything to
Speaker 3: have the ability that I have. So in my back,
Speaker 3: in my mind, I'm doing it for them every day
Speaker 3: because that would love to have what I have.
Speaker 1: You see the back of your mind. And I wanted
Speaker 1: to get to the mental part of all of this.
Speaker 1: The physical to hear you run an ultra marathon, you
Speaker 1: run one hundred mile. That's just insane to most people,
Speaker 1: right physically that you can do that, But the part
Speaker 1: about the mental still right, sometimes you don't want to
Speaker 1: even go. But then there are some times where you're
Speaker 1: out there you don't even want to stop. How does
Speaker 1: how do you have you tricked your brain? Even as
Speaker 1: much running as you do, How much tricking of your
Speaker 1: brain are you still having to do?
Speaker 3: You have to be crazy enough to tell yourself that
Speaker 3: you can do it. You got to literally tame yourself,
Speaker 3: be a child, imagine, oh I can do this. But
Speaker 3: also you got to be smart enough to do the
Speaker 3: training while tricking yourself in that way. But I always
Speaker 3: tell people, we go out there to do these races
Speaker 3: and we get mad and we complain, why who's you up?
Speaker 3: You did you do so? I said, I sign up
Speaker 3: for this. No one made me do this, so I
Speaker 3: better shut up and just keep going. If I want
Speaker 3: to stop, hang my bib up, and that's okay, walk
Speaker 3: off the course. No one's gonna come and say, hey,
Speaker 3: you sink, but you tried. At the end of the day,
Speaker 3: you try. So I have it in the back on
Speaker 3: my I sign up for this, and I have this
Speaker 3: mindset no matter the circumstances. If I have to crawl,
Speaker 3: I'll crawl. I have thirty hours to finish one hundred miles,
Speaker 3: which is good to know, but whatever it takes, I'll
Speaker 3: get it done. And then you have to also know
Speaker 3: with these races, as the high gets to the highest point,
Speaker 3: don't get too excited because it's gonna dip right back down.
Speaker 3: But low as low as you are, just know that
Speaker 3: hold on a little longer you're gonna get a new
Speaker 3: high again. So you just up and down. So whenever
Speaker 3: you're up, no you're gonna go down whenever you're downe No,
Speaker 3: you're not gonna stay there. So you just have to
Speaker 3: play that game. And sometime when you're down, you think
Speaker 3: it's coming soon. It comes forever, but there's a hope
Speaker 3: that it's going to come. So that's gonna get you. Oh,
Speaker 3: I just cover another thirty miles waiting for this. I
Speaker 3: had to come again. Now I see it. But you
Speaker 3: just cover thirty miles. But you were suffering, but you
Speaker 3: were expecting it to come, which helps mentally.
Speaker 2: And I know that you said among your rules they
Speaker 2: have to be outside. The run also has to be
Speaker 2: at least two miles. What's a two mile day for you?
Speaker 1: Are you?
Speaker 2: Did you have too much fun the night before? Did
Speaker 2: you not sleep that well for you to say I'm
Speaker 2: only going to do two miles today.
Speaker 3: So there's two example. One just happened recently. So when
Speaker 3: I was leaving Mali to come to the US. It's
Speaker 3: really tricky with the flights. So I got up five
Speaker 3: in the morning and there's a big field behind my house.
Speaker 3: So I did laps for two miles and I just
Speaker 3: did circles. I just want to make sure I get
Speaker 3: my run Downe so five in the morning and Maley
Speaker 3: was midnight here, so it's already the next day. So
Speaker 3: I wanted to be saved before I get on a flight.
Speaker 3: I get trapped in the tarmac for twelve hours. Next
Speaker 3: thing you know, I'm landing, it's already midnight. I don't
Speaker 3: want to compromise my run street, so I did that.
Speaker 3: And though crazy thing is in Mali you have to
Speaker 3: be at the airport for three hours before the flight.
Speaker 3: It's not like here you can show up you have
Speaker 3: like tsa pre check. No, you got to shove early
Speaker 3: like anybody else. So the earliest I could do was
Speaker 3: five am there, so it's at least midnight. If I
Speaker 3: want any earlier than that, it would be still the
Speaker 3: same day before. So when I did that, when I
Speaker 3: got to the US at seven thirty pm, I got
Speaker 3: home ate something and I got out there again at
Speaker 3: ten pm and did an extra two miles, so it
Speaker 3: was four total. So that got me to add a
Speaker 3: little more to it. And another example was when I
Speaker 3: had a wisdom teeth issue. So I had a wisdom
Speaker 3: tooth that was coming out and there was a molar
Speaker 3: going up that was the wisdom tooth was blocking the molars.
Speaker 3: The molars coming down on my jaw in the bone,
Speaker 3: so it's making the bone very thick and thin and fragile.
Speaker 3: I could crack. So I got the wisdom, removed the
Speaker 3: molar shape, and I had to do an endplant so
Speaker 3: there's no gap back there. So when I did that
Speaker 3: surgery before going in, I got up to run six
Speaker 3: in the morning. Surgery was at eight, and I told
Speaker 3: my dots. I told the author's surgeon, Hey, if I
Speaker 3: can't run, I'm not doing this. He's like, well, you're
Speaker 3: not going to have a teeth and you're going to
Speaker 3: actually lose sensitivity in your nerves and you can't talk anymore,
Speaker 3: so you decide. So I said, my paints sound was
Speaker 3: pretty high, so he only prescribed me high advil. And
Speaker 3: so the next day I waited till eight at night
Speaker 3: and I went out to run two miles. The reason
Speaker 3: I kept it at two miles because he did say
Speaker 3: something that blood pressure. So the more I was out there,
Speaker 3: my mouth was getting full of blood. So it wasn't
Speaker 3: about I couldn't handle more than two miles, but it
Speaker 3: was safer for me to stop the bleeding, so I
Speaker 3: just tapped.
Speaker 1: Ay, wow, nothing is going to stop this streak.
Speaker 3: That's my goal. Physical within my control, that's it.
Speaker 1: And you haven't had an injury issue that stopped you
Speaker 1: from the streak.
Speaker 3: I've had injuries, but it didn't stop me, and it
Speaker 3: was so bad. I've had pustration injury where lasted sixty
Speaker 3: plus days where I get home I'm in so much
Speaker 3: pain I go hide in the back of the room
Speaker 3: stopping myself from crying and pain. And I've had that.
Speaker 3: So the second time it happened, I cut my mileage
Speaker 3: from sixty miles a week to twenty one, which is
Speaker 3: three a days. That wasn't working. I cut it to
Speaker 3: two a days to fourteen miles away until I got
Speaker 3: rid of this injury. But there's no really way for
Speaker 3: me to say, hey, I'm going to because I look
Speaker 3: at running as life. I'm not going to tap out
Speaker 3: and throw my talent in the back and say that's it.
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna do my best with with it whatever
Speaker 3: circumstances I'm dealing with. So that's the goal.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you've had people come up to you and
Speaker 2: just say you're an inspiration, but I can't run even
Speaker 2: though they're not injured and they actually, we know physical,
Speaker 2: we can run. What would you say to somebody who
Speaker 2: wants to start a regimen nothing like yours, but maybe
Speaker 2: just to even run a mile a day or two
Speaker 2: miles every other day. How do you motivate someone to say,
Speaker 2: this is actually something that can be beautiful and joyful
Speaker 2: and beneficial in so many ways.
Speaker 3: Yes, So first, being peckable with your word. Whatever you
Speaker 3: say is what you're gonna do. So be nice to yourself.
Speaker 3: Say it may be hard, but I can try. You
Speaker 3: don't have to say I can't. I can try. And
Speaker 3: I said, do something attainable. You don't have to go
Speaker 3: out there and do ten miles. I know if I
Speaker 3: were to start five miles a day, I could have
Speaker 3: done that. I would have been done within a week probably.
Speaker 3: I said ten minutes. It was time. It was in distance,
Speaker 3: so I was covering at just over a mile. So
Speaker 3: do something attainable and do a pressure free. The pressure
Speaker 3: free was the biggest one for me because no coach
Speaker 3: was yelling at me. It wasn't anyone pointing fingers, Hey
Speaker 3: you're too slow. How come you're in the back of
Speaker 3: the pack, how come you're not up front? It was
Speaker 3: Milen will. So if you do it with pressure free,
Speaker 3: that's amazing, which meaning if you can only jog for
Speaker 3: thirty seconds at a time and you gotta walk for
Speaker 3: two minutes, I count that as a run, because not everybody.
Speaker 3: I can't tell somebody because you didn't do a mile,
Speaker 3: it doesn't count. If your capability is thirty seconds at
Speaker 3: a time and then you have to walk and repeat,
Speaker 3: that that counts. So this is why I love run shrinking.
Speaker 3: But there's a run strict association that I disagree with.
Speaker 3: I don't like that page. I hope it didn't exist.
Speaker 3: They said, if you don't run a mile a day,
Speaker 3: it doesn't count. And I said, who am I to
Speaker 3: tell somebody who is physically not able to do a
Speaker 3: mile without if they can only do five minutes, If
Speaker 3: that's not covering a mile, you're now going to tell
Speaker 3: me that. I'm going to go tell them, Hey, that
Speaker 3: doesn't count. Their capability is five minutes. So whatever pressure
Speaker 3: free is the best, and you do how you want it,
Speaker 3: You say your own rules, and when you do that,
Speaker 3: you find yourself going longer, further, being better because you're
Speaker 3: getting better and you're feeling comfortable and you don't have
Speaker 3: to worry about the outside notes, which is really hard
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 1: All right, we are here with Hella quick break, but
Speaker 1: when we come back, we're going to ask him as
Speaker 1: we wrap up, about two things when it comes to running,
Speaker 1: if you're just getting started, that are going to be
Speaker 1: key to your success. We continue in just.
Speaker 2: A moment, Amy and TJ back here with our good
Speaker 2: friend and constant inspiration for at least my running is Hella,
Speaker 2: and he is here to talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: how to motivate all of us to keep up maybe
Speaker 2: our own run streaks, maybe not quite the way you
Speaker 2: do it, but one of your tips. And I love
Speaker 2: this because TJ and I live this. Is it better
Speaker 2: when you have someone running with you.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I'd rather wrong with people than by myself. It
Speaker 3: just time. It might not be the fastest pace, but
Speaker 3: it feels like it was the fastest time. You could
Speaker 3: be running a ten minute mile pace for ten miles
Speaker 3: you're like, oh, we finished ten miles already. Because there's
Speaker 3: so many conversations going on, there's so many things that
Speaker 3: you get to share with each other. It makes the
Speaker 3: time just goes so much quicker, and you don't think
Speaker 3: about the pain of running, because there's you're with each other.
Speaker 2: There's that African proverb, right, if.
Speaker 3: You want to go fast, you go along. If you
Speaker 3: want to go far, you go together.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: She has that acts all the time.
Speaker 3: I love that. I live by that.
Speaker 1: You talk also ahead.
Speaker 2: I'll slow you down.
Speaker 3: So oh no, no, no, you're the one that.
Speaker 1: Got me out there in the first place.
Speaker 3: So it never has their own little things that they
Speaker 3: bring to the table.
Speaker 1: And I would much prefer always to run with somebody
Speaker 1: me too, always. And we were talking about Strava their stats,
Speaker 1: but one of them they put out is that their
Speaker 1: percentage of like ten and twenty percent people run, they
Speaker 1: go faster, and they go farther if they're with a group. Yes,
Speaker 1: they have statistics that you're.
Speaker 3: Much And I run with people who are faster than
Speaker 3: me and they pull me. I'm like, well, there's no
Speaker 3: out have been able to do that by myself because
Speaker 3: I just don't. I don't have that capability in my
Speaker 3: mind to pull myself because sometimes you hold yourself back
Speaker 3: a little bit. So it helps them so many ways,
Speaker 3: it really does.
Speaker 2: DJ's just asking me if he can now take the lead,
Speaker 2: and I follow him, so that he can pull me.
Speaker 1: But it is we run different. He's different, naturally. I
Speaker 1: always run behind her and we don't talk during the runs.
Speaker 1: You do like talking to people, okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah we did on vacation. Yeah, and it did go
Speaker 2: by very.
Speaker 1: Quickly always, but you don't like to talk during the runs.
Speaker 3: You know what it is, slow down, slow enough that
Speaker 3: you can have a conversation like this conversational pace, because
Speaker 3: that's also building a retal big strengths schedule on muscular strengths.
Speaker 3: You're not missing anything out of that. There's a saying
Speaker 3: run slowly, run faster. So if you feel like you
Speaker 3: don't want to talk because you want to focus on
Speaker 3: your breath, go much slower, then breath will be an
Speaker 3: issue and you will conversate and you're actually building a
Speaker 3: different type of fitness.
Speaker 1: See. That's when I first I think I told you
Speaker 1: it was Matt, Matt James. I went on a run
Speaker 1: with him, a friend of ours, and he wanted to
Speaker 1: talk and we ran five miles like I can't talk
Speaker 1: for five that five miles went through, we were in
Speaker 1: natural conversation. That's when I said, oh, maybe I'm in
Speaker 1: pretty good shape.
Speaker 3: Here, yes, yes, And I feel like you get so
Speaker 3: much different, like adrenaline through your body. We're like a
Speaker 3: pace like that. By yourself, you might be breathing a
Speaker 3: little heavier, but that also gets calmed down because your
Speaker 3: body is at a different state with people.
Speaker 1: The other thing they say is key to success is
Speaker 1: setting a goal. Not just a goal of I'm going
Speaker 1: to run a mile to their happ but some people
Speaker 1: if you set a goal of I'm going to do
Speaker 1: the five k that's in three months, yes, you have
Speaker 1: a much greater chance of success.
Speaker 3: I agree. My streak started with ten minutes of there
Speaker 3: for two weeks. It was a two weeks goal turned
Speaker 3: into six plus years, so I had to start somewhere.
Speaker 3: I didn't say I'm going to run every day for
Speaker 3: a year. After the two weeks ago, I'm like, I
Speaker 3: don't think I'm going to stop for at least three
Speaker 3: hundred and six five days. But I didn't jump to
Speaker 3: the three hundred and six five days at first. It
Speaker 3: has to be something small goal that leads up to
Speaker 3: the bigger picture.
Speaker 2: All right, we heard your Boston Marathon goal, but do
Speaker 2: you have any other goals for this year?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So I want to actually getting to rather down
Speaker 3: for this spring because I'll be honest, it's flatter. It's
Speaker 3: flat as pancake. So I want flat and fast. So
Speaker 3: that's the redemption from Boston. Yeah, redemption year. So also
Speaker 3: I want to do a run in Semany, France, which
Speaker 3: is the UTM. Have you guys ever been there?
Speaker 2: I have been to show it is one of the
Speaker 2: most beautiful towns in the world.
Speaker 3: I want two years back to back and it's amazing.
Speaker 3: During a UTMB, which is like the biggest ultra marathon.
Speaker 2: Weekend, are you running? So I climbed. I did some
Speaker 2: technical climbing on the MIDI is what they call it.
Speaker 2: You're not running up there, are you?
Speaker 3: You go through all the mountains I was talking about Switzerland,
Speaker 3: France and Italy and back into.
Speaker 2: Twelve thousand feet thirteen thousand feet.
Speaker 3: Yeah there, You're high up there and it's insane. It's
Speaker 3: a tough race. So I'm not going to do the
Speaker 3: one hundred and six mile race there. It will be
Speaker 3: like the fifty plus Klimeter So over thirty miles that's the.
Speaker 1: REA and then Gez come on.
Speaker 2: Massive elevation, elevation, that's what I'm considering that the elevation
Speaker 2: is anything over nine thousand, Yes, you have less oxy.
Speaker 3: I don't want to be a fool and then say
Speaker 3: I'm going a little shorter but higher elevation. But I
Speaker 3: will do one hundred mile race in October this year too,
Speaker 3: so it'll be two ultra marathon, one longer than the
Speaker 3: other in a marathon in the spring. So that's my
Speaker 3: ultimate goal, and I hope I can get out there
Speaker 3: for the Olympics and pairs just to be there.
Speaker 1: I just love any.
Speaker 3: Running events, so maybe I'll do their marathon. Because they're
Speaker 3: actually allowing regular people run marathons Olympics this time, so
Speaker 3: you can. Actually there's an app as well, where like
Speaker 3: you can do challenges. They'll say you have to run
Speaker 3: five k by a PM, so they'll select you and
Speaker 3: give you random bibs. So there's an app that I
Speaker 3: have signed up for. There's challenges that if you can complete,
Speaker 3: so they're gonna get I think it's gonna be like
Speaker 3: twenty thousand plus runners, so they at least are gonna
Speaker 3: take off like a regular marathon like the Olympians, and
Speaker 3: then US regular average runners are gonna go after so
Speaker 3: people can run the Olympics this year. That's amazing so
Speaker 3: I'm trying to, like, if I can get in, I
Speaker 3: don't care about time at that point, I'm just gonna
Speaker 3: say I ran at the Olympics. We're not gonna start
Speaker 3: an Olympian, but I run at the Olympics. There's connections.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to I'm exploring every option.
Speaker 2: Way. You just massively peaked our interest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that would be epic, and you can
Speaker 3: go yeah, and then you go do something like that.
Speaker 3: You can just be part of the world coming together
Speaker 3: every foty year. That's what's best about the Olympics. So
Speaker 3: and running is one of the biggest things that bring
Speaker 3: us together. So I hope I can get into that
Speaker 3: as well. That'll be like a side thing. Just do
Speaker 3: it for fun, just do it for fun and spectate.
Speaker 2: I mean, and I love what you said about running
Speaker 2: bringing us together. I feel like that at every race.
Speaker 2: I feel like that. Even when I'm running down the
Speaker 2: West Side Highway, you see other runners. There's just this
Speaker 2: there's a community, there's a camaraderie and you everyone's looking
Speaker 2: at each other knowing that you're probably suffering slightly, yes,
Speaker 2: but you're doing it anyway exactly. And there's some sort
Speaker 2: of I don't know, fun camaraderie to that commitment.
Speaker 3: Yes, and helping each other too is big, like pulling somebody.
Speaker 3: One of my best experiences on last year was actually
Speaker 3: not even my one hundred mile race or any of that.
Speaker 3: It was I helped a blind runner and finish the
Speaker 3: New York City Marathon. It was the most fulfilling thing
Speaker 3: I've ever experienced throughout this run streak. So it wasn't
Speaker 3: about me and my time, but the smile of his
Speaker 3: face that we hit his goal and the excitement that
Speaker 3: he had. Rolando is his name, was just like, Wow,
Speaker 3: this is bigger than me, and it reinforced that. So
Speaker 3: helping each other running does that. And we help each
Speaker 3: other in ways that we don't even know even, like
Speaker 3: you said, you guys running together, you're helping each other
Speaker 3: without even thinking about it. I think that's important too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in the past couple of years, I mean, on
Speaker 1: one hand, we could probably count how many runs we
Speaker 1: didn't do together.
Speaker 3: See that's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you you are into helping others.
Speaker 3: I know that you give back.
Speaker 2: This isn't just about your personal goals or what you
Speaker 2: can accomplish. You want to give back and I know
Speaker 2: you found it in organization Sols for Souls. Tell us
Speaker 2: a little bit about it because it really is inspirational.
Speaker 3: Yes. So, Social SOL is a nonprofit that take on
Speaker 3: one to shoes, newer youth and clothing and turn into opportunity.
Speaker 3: And their biggest goal is to you know, you feed
Speaker 3: up man. They live for a day, you teach them
Speaker 3: how to fish, they can live for it longer. So
Speaker 3: that's the goal. They've helped so many people by giving
Speaker 3: us shoes and new shoes that can turn into business
Speaker 3: and a lot of first world country and thorough all country,
Speaker 3: so it's not just like thorough countries. Even in the US,
Speaker 3: there's people here that don't have a pair of shoes.
Speaker 3: And the reason this worked out perfectly, I grew up
Speaker 3: in West Africa. A pair of shoes doesn't come often.
Speaker 3: So we're talking about you have one pair of shoes,
Speaker 3: you have to use it for five years, and we
Speaker 3: take care of it so much. I wouldn't wear my
Speaker 3: new shoes until if it's occasion, if it's like holidays.
Speaker 3: Otherwise it's not every day you're walking on barefoot or
Speaker 3: you have sandals on, and sometimes you outgrow their shoes
Speaker 3: It's not that you didn't take care of it, you
Speaker 3: just outgrew it and you don't know where your next
Speaker 3: pair is going to come from. So for running too,
Speaker 3: all you need is a pair of shoes. So it
Speaker 3: really works really well for me to say, you know what,
Speaker 3: this nonprofit is perfect to run across the country for.
Speaker 1: Hello. The last thing I want to get you out
Speaker 1: of here on is a lot of people might be
Speaker 1: curious a guy who runs as much as you do,
Speaker 1: what your gear is. Do you have a favorite type
Speaker 1: of your shoes? Agree, that's okay, But your shoe, your watch,
Speaker 1: the app you use, what is your go to? I
Speaker 1: just want to make this clear. To run, you don't
Speaker 1: need any of the stuff that I have. All you
Speaker 1: need is your shoes and have your body parts covered.
Speaker 1: You don't even need a watch. You can just go
Speaker 1: by field. But I love running shoes. I live by it.
Speaker 1: I dissected, I review them. I love super shoes, and
Speaker 1: I do think that they work. The shoe work if
Speaker 1: you work. If you don't work, it won't you have
Speaker 1: to work. It enhances your work.
Speaker 3: I love those. I wear four watches when I run,
Speaker 3: and the reason it is not to stay out four
Speaker 3: watches because I am a YouTuber, I review these watches,
Speaker 3: so about to rotate my watches and get new ones
Speaker 3: that no one really talks about. So sometimes you don't
Speaker 3: have to worry about buying a eight hundred dollars watch.
Speaker 3: Maybe there's like a one hundred dollars watch after that's
Speaker 3: doing their job. So I like to do reviews like
Speaker 3: that let my audience know this can work too. So
Speaker 3: I wear four watches when I run. I love my
Speaker 3: running fits because I think that running as tough as
Speaker 3: it is already. But imagine have you ever put on
Speaker 3: that sick running off and you're like, oh, I feel good? Yeah,
Speaker 3: So it is the accessories that makes it fun. So
Speaker 3: I love to try to look as fly as possible,
Speaker 3: maybe to be sometimes maybe someone look at you, this
Speaker 3: is not it as long as you feel good. So
Speaker 3: I love my running outface. I love my running shoes
Speaker 3: and my gadgets.
Speaker 2: What's your running shoe?
Speaker 3: I wear Hoka all day every day. I started wearing
Speaker 3: hook I told you guys about this when I started
Speaker 3: wearing it. When I did my first I did the
Speaker 3: New York City Subway System Challenge, which is two hundred
Speaker 3: and forty five miles. That's the length of the subway
Speaker 3: system New York City. So the goal was to start
Speaker 3: in Labor Day and start Morial day and finishing Labor
Speaker 3: day weekend. So it's two miles a day. So I
Speaker 3: did it in one week. So I was doing thirty
Speaker 3: five miles a day. And when I started this, I
Speaker 3: reached out to run and I heard about these shoes
Speaker 3: that's good for ultra. It was Hoka. I was the
Speaker 3: Clifton sixth. They gave that to me. I put one
Speaker 3: hundred and five miles on it and I fell in
Speaker 3: love with it. So I just started wearing Hoka and
Speaker 3: next thing you know, I'm sponsored by them. But it's
Speaker 3: my goal to shoes. If you want to shoes for comfort,
Speaker 3: the habit. If you want to shoot for walking even
Speaker 3: though it's running, shooes to have it. If you want
Speaker 3: to shoot to just train the habbit, if you want
Speaker 3: to shoot to go really really fast, the habit. And
Speaker 3: there's a shoe that's about to come out that is
Speaker 3: beyond super shoes. And you know you hear sports cars.
Speaker 3: There's like sports cars supercars, and there's hyper cards. I
Speaker 3: don't know if you heard of that. So the hyper
Speaker 3: cars are like like Ferrari, Bugatti, like Pegani Coeni Zags
Speaker 3: and then there's no such thing. Have you ever heard
Speaker 3: hyper shoes? So I just came up with this. So
Speaker 3: this shoe that I ran with this morning is going
Speaker 3: to be in hyper shoes is beyond. It's in bargod
Speaker 3: right now to us, so it will be available this year.
Speaker 3: But this shoe is extremely aggressive, extremely responsive, and I
Speaker 3: was screaming when I was running in it because how
Speaker 3: efforts I was moving for the pace that I was
Speaker 3: going at. But I love shoes like that because I
Speaker 3: depend on those. Two helped me hit my goals. I
Speaker 3: gotta get fit, but they helped.
Speaker 2: Oh and I have to ask one last question because
Speaker 2: I see that you're vegan, and diet is such a
Speaker 2: big part of running, and it's so difficult to figure
Speaker 2: out what to eat, what not to eat, and I'm
Speaker 2: blown away that you have been able to, yes, be
Speaker 2: a vegan and run the miles you run.
Speaker 3: I've been vegan. Actually next month it will be eight years.
Speaker 3: I started before even the run Streak twenty sixteen. So
Speaker 3: I went to school for public health and sociology. I
Speaker 3: learned stuff and then things that were taught to me
Speaker 3: that I learned after college. So I decided to take
Speaker 3: my diet very seriously. I want cold turkey. I watched
Speaker 3: that Folks of the Nights. That's all. It took twenty
Speaker 3: minutes in I was dumbfounded, and then I decided to
Speaker 3: clean up a little bit. And the one thing I
Speaker 3: regret about being vegan is that I didn't do it
Speaker 3: soon enough, because as soon as I went, it works
Speaker 3: different for everybody. Mine was instant energy. I couldn't stop,
Speaker 3: and some people it takes about two weeks for your
Speaker 3: system to get used to it. So I think the
Speaker 3: reason I can go out there every single day because
Speaker 3: there's less inflammation in my body. We'll talking about less
Speaker 3: animal protein and fat and things like that, so that
Speaker 3: causes inflammation. So my recovery is a little more efficient
Speaker 3: because of that, because of the plant based diet. So
Speaker 3: I think that's been a very crucial to my run streak.
Speaker 3: But being saying that, I'm not a vegan that's always
Speaker 3: so strict. I eat my fatty food. I love my cheeseburgers,
Speaker 3: I love my pizza. So I'm not gonna pretend here
Speaker 3: like I missed your perfect because even two days ago,
Speaker 3: I drove to Hoboken. I would have drove to New
Speaker 3: York City to go get the cheeseburgers, which is drill
Speaker 3: better burgers, the best burger you'll ever eat. You won't
Speaker 3: even know it vegan. So I did that. I drove
Speaker 3: forty minutes to come, eat two cheeseburgers and a milkshake,
Speaker 3: to go back home forty minutes.
Speaker 1: Wait, it was still a vegan burger.
Speaker 2: Cheating, you're staying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not cheating. I'm just saying I eat always healthy,
Speaker 3: because veganism is not always healthy too. It's about the ethics.
Speaker 3: You can be healthy, for sure, but also I want
Speaker 3: to also be transparent. There's on healthy vegan food. I
Speaker 3: also have my share for healthy.
Speaker 1: And you're not a drinker.
Speaker 3: I drink occasionally, I'm not. I can't. I can count
Speaker 3: in my hand how many time I've drink in a year,
Speaker 3: for sure. But if I do drink, I love Malibu baberries.
Speaker 3: That was introduced to you know, if you asked his
Speaker 3: uncle that drink is really cared And then I got
Speaker 3: stuck in my margery. Is the way with salted rims recently.
Speaker 3: They're delicious, aren't they those are delicious.
Speaker 1: Count on one hand how many times you yeah, in
Speaker 1: the year we didn't get exactly.
Speaker 3: Wedding, because that's the time where I'm like, okay, it's
Speaker 3: a wedding. We have to cheers. You gotta have agreed.
Speaker 2: Agreed, yes, yes, well, cheers to you, Hella. This has
Speaker 2: been so much fun. I wish we even had more time.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I'm taking that sip.
Speaker 3: Round three.
Speaker 1: It really hello. We will have you back for sure
Speaker 1: because you got a lot of things and the events
Speaker 1: and whatnot coming up, and we just always love having you, man,
Speaker 1: We love talking to you always always.
Speaker 3: You know what we should do. We should do a
Speaker 3: run club, ay TJ Hella, good run club in New
Speaker 3: York City.
Speaker 2: All right, we can talk the whole time.
Speaker 3: Five k easy, one and a half mile up? Want
Speaker 3: to have a mile back? And we call it a day.
Speaker 3: We chat, we hang out, we eat and this is happening.
Speaker 3: We can talk about Come check out this deal podcast.
Speaker 1: If Andy, why didn't you think of that? Man? All right, well, Hella,
Speaker 1: it's an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much. You all
Speaker 1: will be hearing from from Hella again here on this podcast.
Speaker 3: This is incredible.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Hella and everyone don't forget. You can follow us,
Speaker 2: follow our podcast at Amy and t J Podcast.
Speaker 1: Until next time, We'll see you Amy A.
Speaker 3: T J.
Speaker 1: Hem