Hellah Sidibe lives his life in numbers. The miles he’s run so far this year (2,100), the watches he wears when running (four), the hours he sleeps a night on average (seven and a half), his age (33), his fitness age (27), his average daily step count (22,000) and, perhaps most importantly, the days he’s run consecutively since starting his more than seven-year run streak on May 15, 2017.
Today, a Wednesday in mid-October, is day 2,711. It’s already a busy one for Sidibe, who is training for a 100-mile trail race later in the month. By 1:30 p.m., one of his watches tells him he’s almost hit 15,000 steps. And that’s before today’s “official” run, which is slated for later this evening. And folks, this is a “rest day” for Sidibe, which consists of just a 5K distance.
“My rest day is no days off,” Sidibe tells Footwear News on set for his cover shoot in and around PMC Studios in Manhattan. He chuckles as he says it, knowing how he must sound to those around him. As a verified “run streaker,” he insists he doesn’t need a rest day, at least in the typical sense, yet he encourages other athletes to make that choice for themselves.
Watch on FN
The U.S. Running Streak Association, which was founded in 2000, defines a run streaker as someone who runs at least 1 mile every calendar day on a road, treadmill, track or hill for at least a year. Sidibe has his own rules. He runs a minimum distance, which has been as low as 2 miles, and bases his “days” on Eastern Standard Time, no matter his location. Those rules might not work for everyone. And he’s OK with that.
“Who are you to tell somebody that they must run at least a mile to count as a streak for them? What happens if their only capability is to run five minutes at a time and that doesn’t cover a mile? You’re going to tell me that they can’t be a runner or a streaker?” he said. “I want everybody to make their own rules about running.”
This approachability factor is one facet of Sidibe’s natural charm. He’s an elite ultramarathoner, but like the film character Forrest Gump, he’s also just a guy who likes to run. His goal is to eliminate the barrier to entry to be a run streaker. That’s part of the reason he loves Hoka, the Deckers Brands-owned running label he’s partnered with since 2022 that caters to a broad spectrum of athletes and nonathletes.
Erika Gabrielli, Hoka’s vice president of global marketing, explained that the two are closely aligned in their values.
“Our partnership with Hellah Sidibe is a great representation of the intersection of performance and joy found through movement. Hellah embodies Hoka brand values of inclusivity and optimism as he builds community in pursuit of progress,” she said. “He has grown a loyal following of runners motivated by embracing one’s own potential, and from the road to the trail, he continues to break down barriers.”
“We’re born to run, I really believe that,” Sidibe said. “Making that more accessible and more open and welcoming to people is what makes [Hoka] special to me.”
As he walks through Midtown Manhattan for his cover shoot, Sidibe sports several of his favorite Hoka shoes (he especially loves the bright colorways). The Mach line is his go-to for daily runs, while the Rocket X2 and Cielo 1 are reserved for when he needs speed. He gets double takes from passersby — a young boy and a man in a suit — who recognize the affable, energetic athlete from social media.
Since he started posting on YouTube on streak day 163, Sidibe has gained almost 300,000 subscribers on the platform and millions of views on his videos. They all start with the same cheesy, yet lovable refrain: “What’s up my beautiful people?” On Instagram, his 300,000 followers get daily glimpses of life as a super runner, often accompanied by encouraging words about setting and achieving goals. For Sidibe, these goals have included becoming the first Black man to run across the U.S. (3,061 miles) in 2021 and running the equivalent to the New York City subway system (245 miles) in one week in 2020.
It’s chilly outside today but Sidibe radiates positive energy, and his love for his sport is infectious. Watching him in his element, it’s almost hard to believe there was a time he dreaded doing the very thing that has become his career.
Starting line
Sidibe began his athletic career in soccer while growing up in West Africa. He eventually enrolled in the University of Massachusetts Amherst via a soccer scholarship, where he forged a negative relationship with running, associating it with a punishment.
“I created this phobia in my head about running,” Sidibe said, describing the sleepless nights he’d have ahead of a practice where he knew he’d need to run.
Despite broad interest from professional teams, a series of immigration issues prevented Sidibe from moving forward after college, a setback that landed him in a dark place mentally. To pick himself up, he turned to one thing in his life he knew he could control — and a fear he was finally ready to face. It started with a small goal: Run 10 minutes every day for two consecutive weeks. “I didn’t have any coach yelling at me, pointing fingers,” he said. “So I just went out there.” Two weeks turned into a month, which turned into a year, which turned into a goal with no end in sight. “I fell in love with it,” Sidibe said.
Early on, his footwear of choice was Hoka. Sidibe was naturally drawn to the brand’s bright colors and proven technology, well before signing as a partner in 2022. (Both parties recently renewed the deal for two more years.)
Once he realized the joy running brought into his life, Sidibe turned his attention to helping others via charity work and raising awareness for causes close to his heart. “When I was out there running, I was battling for somebody,” he said.
In 2018, Sidibe ran his first race with little training, to raise awareness for suicide prevention. In his second event, a half marathon, he raised money for the family of a girl with cancer. When he ran the New York City Subway Challenge in 2020, he raised money for victims who lost their lives due to racial injustice.
“I know what it feels like when you don’t have anything, and people have been there for me,” Sidibe said. “My way of giving back was to use my legs.”
Cross country
Sidibe took his run streak to the next level when he decided to run from Los Angeles to New York in 2021. He partnered with Soles4Soles and raised close to $30,000 for the nonprofit on his 84-day journey across 14 states.
“Hellah’s energy, focus and dedication are inspiring to so many people,” said Buddy Teaster, president and chief executive officer of Soles4Souls, who ran alongside Sidibe on three different moments in the race across the country. “His support of Soles4Souls then and in the years since has been powerful and meaningful. We’re honored to call him partner and friend.”
In addition to the rigorous pace he had to maintain, crossing the country brought other challenges to the Black athlete, who ran with the support and help of his best friend, Garrett Jones, and his fiancée, Alexa Torres.
“I did get called racial slurs in Missouri,” Sidibe said, adding that police were also called on him multiple times throughout his journey. “One police officer didn’t even believe my story that I started running across America. He touched his gun and he was about to unclip and I started panicking.” He was ultimately saved by a couple who recognized him and donated to the campaign.
His own experiences pushed Sidibe to engage more directly in conversations surrounding running safety for minorities and women. It’s part of the reason he emphasizes group runs and advocates for technologies like sirens or emergency detection systems that can protect people.
“Sometimes when you’re running, you’ve got to make sure you look like a runner, especially if you have the skin color that I have. I make sure I’m dressed like a runner, so it won’t be taken as if I’m running away from something or that I took something or did something,” Sidibe said. “But I also am privileged in a way, because no matter what, women are not safe when they’re running.”
Sidibe is also passionate about other causes like climate change and the rights of women to make personal choices regarding their bodies. He is conscious of having a large platform during a highly contentious election year but isn’t specifically tailoring his content for the event. Instead, Sidibe tries to incorporate his values into his platform and actions year-round.
“It’s not what you say, it’s what you do,” Sidibe said. “I try to live a life and really walk what I say to make sure that people see me doing these things.”
Finish line?
Sidibe’s running streak has given him a career and an audience, a blessing he is grateful for every day. But money and fame are clearly not the fuel in the tank keeping him going. He isn’t afraid to stop, if that should become necessary. Even after seven years, crossing that finish line doesn’t scare him. He’s pivoted before, after all.
“Now I know there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. I was able to discover running, which tells me that I can discover something else. It could be cycling, swimming, it could be something that’s not even sportsrelated,” he said.
And it’s never been just him on this journey. Sidibe said he’s grateful for his close circle of friends, his fiancée, brand partners and the other athletes in his network he has leaned on for support throughout his streak.
“There’s an African proverb: ‘If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together.’ I think going far has been because I have a bunch of people around my corner.”
