by Hellah Sidibe has been on a sequence since May 15, 2017. Rain or shine, and no matter what his body feels, he has done a race for the last 2,700 days.
Sidibe shines with joy. This presents itself in the videos he publishes on Instagram and Youtube about his race, which generally opens with him saying “What’s new, my beautiful people?”
But before 2017, the race was not linked to joy for Sidibe. He feared it because it was used as a punishment when he played football. He played professionally in Mali, where he grew up.
When he tried to continue his professional football career in America, his lack of American citizenship (he has acquired it since) embarrassed the teams that signal it. “I got to a point where I was so frustrated in life, I really didn’t know what to do with myself, because now professional football was not working, and I couldn’t find a job,” said -he. He thinks he had signs of depression.
He wanted to do something that would make him feel in control. He thought: “Why don’t you try something you are a little afraid?” he said. This something worked.
Sidibe started running for 10 minutes a day for two weeks. But after that, he didn’t want to stop. “I would be so happy when I am there, because I just think myself, I’m there for 10 minutes a day and I have no control, no coaches shouting on me or pointing my fingers,” And I can stop when I want, ”he says. “It made me feel whole again.”
Sidibe grew up in Mali as a happy child. “Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world”, but people tended to see the glass as half full, not half empty, “he says. He began to lose sight of the fact that after having come to the United States, where he compared more to others. The race made him feel again like him.
In 2021, Sidibe decided to cross the United States to collect funds for Soles4souls, which gives shoes to children in need in the world. He collected $ 50,000. It took him 84 days to travel 3,061 miles, and he would be the first black man to cross the American solo.
While finishing this race as a black man, Sidibe called the police on several occasions. He knows that people often have preconceived ideas for what a runner looks like.
Once, when Sidibe was in Boston, a black man ran towards him and said that Sidibe had given him the necessary confidence to start running. “He started to tear himself away and he told me his story,” recalls Sidibe. “He said:” When I saw you running, I thought I could run too, because where I live, in my neighborhood, I’m afraid of running, because people might think that I did Something bad … as if I flee to do something. “”
Sidibe remembers having told the man how he tries to make sure he looks like a runner – like wearing a colorful race shirt and an athletic hat. But he realizes that not everyone can do that. “We say that running is so accessible – everything you need is a pair of shoes. But it goes beyond having a pair of shoes, ”he says.
Most of the kilometers of Sidibe were on the roads, both in his race across the country and near the place where he lives in New Jersey. He ran four marathons. But he found that the trail race – which requires navigating varied terrain – was fun in a different way.
Run and jump into the woods, he says: “I just feel like a little child.” When he runs running on trails and looks at him later, he realizes that he is making noises while running, like children. “I just say to myself,” haaa! ” – These strange noises, I don’t even know that it happens at the time,” he said.
During the Sidibe race across the country, someone suggested that he was directing the 100 -thousand race at Leadville. He directed it in 2022 and then led the western state 100 in 2023. The management of these long trail or ultramarathon races is another type of challenge – it’s like playing a chess game with him- Even he said.
Now he’s looking forward to directing the Javelina Jundred 100-miler on Saturday. In this one, he plans to push himself stronger than ever on 100 miles. “I want to see if I can manage a big one [personal record]And I’m not talking about two minutes, but shaving my hundred hours, “he said. His sponsors, including Hoka, Bare Performance Nutrition and Tifosi Optics, support his race and race.
Sidibe says he loves the path of trails, where people support each other and turn to each other, and they are less focused on each other than road runners. But during these trails, blacks and other people of color are rare. Sidibe says that in Leadville, he did not see a single other black person on the route.
He hopes that his presence during these trails will show other people of color that they can also integrate into sport. But not everyone can easily go to a path to run, says Sidibe. People said to him, “I would love to execute trails, but I don’t know where to go, and also, if I go, I would feel welcome when I get there? … Is it going to be weird to see me in the woods? Will I be looked at? I’m a little nervous.
Entry fees can be several hundred dollars, plus the cost of accommodation and transport to races, putting them out of reach for many people.
Sidibe hopes to see the community that directs the path Improve accessibility to people of color, for example by covering racing costs and travel. He would like to create a program that invites people of color to run a trail race, to pay their shoes, their equipment, their racing costs and their travel costs.
Sidibe also made the race accessible to others in a different way: he did volunteer as a guide for a blind runner, through Achilles International. He learned to hold an attachment between him and the runner, and Sidibe guided the pair towards a marathon less than four hours.
Thanks to his race sequence, Sidibe learned two main lessons: “I am much stronger than I think” and “there is always light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. In his race through the United States, “there would be a day when you will be miserable, you can barely take your leg, then you survive that day. Then the next day comes ”, and you realize that you can spend that day too, he says.
Sidibe tends to think that he can do everything he gives him the mind. He therefore does not dwell on the challenges of running every day. But a challenge was to make sure he could run on a trip. When he flew to South Africa, he stopped in Germany for 15 hours so that he could go out and run without missing a day. Another challenge is to undergo injuries, as it can be painful and remove the pleasure of moving your body, he said.
He doesn’t know when he stops his sequence. “I give myself the permission to stop any day, and I don’t know when it’s going to be. The day I have the impression of getting up and I absolutely hate running, so I’m going to stop, ”he says. He wondered if this day would be sad. “But I don’t think so, because running has already brought me a lot in my life.”
