Patrick Obolgogiani (00:07)
Andre, great to have you here. Thank you, Patrick. Thank you so much. It’s a huge pleasure. Why don’t we start with, in some ways, like the original story of your journey so far, which is the running at, it was in 2018, from France to Morocco. Yeah. Well, can you tell the story behind that run, is, 3000 kilometers? Yeah. How did that change you? Sure, for sure. Can I start? This story actually starts with my father.

So is that okay if we take a few minutes to share about it? I believe it’s important. Yeah. I believe right now, like I try to carry a 50 year plus 50 years legacy because my father wanted to migrate from his worthy cause that I call, you know, it’s where the goal was to migrate from Cameroon to France in the 70s. So he didn’t know how long it was going to take him, but it took him four years from walking from Cameroon to Mauritania. Then afterwards, I was pretty intense because he got to

the coast in Mauritania was night with a friend and they were on the beach over there. Mauritania is a country between the U.S. Navy in the south and the Morocco in the north, that people can know. Then my father was like, well, we’re gonna get to Europe. He saw offshore a big super tanker, a big ship, and look at his friend and was like, we’re gonna swim there. And his friend was like, what? What do mean we’re gonna swim there? It’s pretty crazy, right? His friend was like, sorry, man, I don’t wanna die.

You want to do what you got to do. And my father, you know, accepted him. So he got on his knees, he prayed. He got up, his Bible on a plastic bag and some cookies and start swimming in the dark. And after a lot of hours, you know, he got like the fish nibbling on his skins and stuff like this. Few hours, five hours later, got close to like the wall of the, know, for when you’re in the sea level surface, when you see a big supertanker, like the walls of the boat is like a steel ball, right? So, you know, if I want to get there, he climbed by the anchor chain.

We got caught by one of the crew members on the top deck because he tried to sneak in to go to Europe. They detained him, they attached him. The captain of the ship came with a knife to try to, yeah, mean, we could actually intimidate Madame, but we even killed him because what difference will he make, right? You know, it’s illegal immigrants here, aliens here, so what the heck? He took his way out of it, negotiated with them. He came back down the same way that he came in. Then one of the guys had pity on him.

crew member, he threw him a float in the water and he started swimming again all the way back. Long story short, it’s very important that you know this, then afterwards, know, he did another attempt where he, something similar but didn’t swim, but that time the boat was decked, the ship was docked on the port, so he’s sneaking into the top deck, into like life right, hiding there with some cookies in water.

After three days at sea, Cookies and Water ran out. He had no choice to stay here because otherwise if he gets caught, then this time if he gets thrown overboard on the sea, then that’s death, right? So after eight days, total journey, he got to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Then he walked to all the way, then, story is compact here, all the way from ⁓ Rotterdam to Belgium, then to Paris, become a ⁓ qualified welder. Started working in nuclear power plant, met my mother.

great time and so on. Then I’m born in France in 19… He met my mother first, of course, got my siblings, then I got married before, then he moved to north west of France and normally when I’m born in 1986. What I’m talking to you about this Patrick is very important because it’s a legacy that I carry and this race called La Migrant in 2018. That was from 2010 of March 2018 to the 22nd of June 2018.

He was to pay tribute to my father and all honest refugees. He wants to come to a place, integrate the country, the culture, of course, but still integrate what they are. So that’s why I try to carry this legacy wherever you go. I’m in Finland right now in the Nordics, so carry it. So this race was plus 3000 kilometers-ish. that was 77 marathons in a row.

in three months and 13 days with a 10 kilogram backpack. At time, my back was bleeding because of course, you know, like I started on 10th of March and when I got to, because normally it’s it’s not like north of France, but it’s like, it’s way more up north compared to west or south. ⁓ Then I want to go to southern France in the Pyrenees and in the Spanish coast on the, because I went east afterwards because of the sweat.

because it start to be above 20 degrees, so gets hot and I start to come some clothes, right? So because of the sweat of the backpack and of my skin and stuff, friction. So sometimes my back was, I had to stop running, know, it was, yeah. Then yeah, then afterwards, then I got to long, I’m sure we can talk about more stuff here, but long story short, I see long story short a lot because there’s so much stuff to say.

But I got to Morocco after a really long journey in the 22nd of June. Yeah, in 2018. Yeah. How did that journey change you? Like, if think about Amr before. Of course, this I like the really good question. It did change me a lot because before, I mean, wasn’t like I said, a bad person. I mean, I wasn’t bad person, but I was. It’s a different lifestyle before. Yeah.

that didn’t really line up with my ⁓ standard that my parents taught me and stuff. And I was like, no, you don’t have to change this. So definitely that journey before and after, it was like ⁓ cross caring. In Bible, Jesus Christ says, if you want to follow me, take your own cross and follow me. And that’s kind of like…

And what I did, because what I did, it was extremely hard at times for me was extremely violent, know, was painful and stuff. I cried, I screamed a lot. A lot of internal things that you need to deal with, right? Because when you stay comfortable, you need to go deep inside that heart of yours and clean the bottom. And when you move stuff from the bottom going up, it can cause a of… It’s a trauma inside. Of course, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess maybe…

Just take a step back, like even thinking about doing such a journey requires to have some self-belief that… Yeah. …it’s fully solved. What did that look like? Was there a moment before that where you’re like doing at least one marathon or maybe, you know, three before you set up to 77 of them in a row? Yeah. Well, just curious to hear like what gave you the self-belief before it that I can probably pull this off. Well, the self-belief, right, it goes back again to bringing this back to my dad because… Yeah.

when I would think about him and he was like swimming in the ocean, imagine that in the dark. And of course you have fears, but he’s worthy because of that goal, worthy because of the talent, the passion and the goal, Ways more than he fears, for his future unborn child, for his family back in Cameroon, and him himself now.

You imagine swimming in the ocean and stuff. I was like, he must have some freaking fears. For sure he did, but because the Atlantic Ocean, open water, it’s not a… You have shark there too. But the fact that he swam like that, I really realized in my head that if he did this and you grow up with that, right, you hear the stories, the stories, the stories, and you just… Like this, override the conscious and the subconscious mind. That’s why I really decided me to start doing that.

And of course at the beginning of that 2017 when I talk about it, were like, some people like, like, know, like, look, look my size. not, I’m not, I’m not built to be a marathon run, right? I’m a sprinter originally. So I started to do my first marathon and the idea that I’m going to do that as well for, for, for, because of, because of his experience and because of, uh, for better, for the better purpose, also for my daughter and so on. It was, it just gave me strength to go a little bit by little bit, you know?

That’s how we run like one marathon. was a really long year, like a long process, like 11 months. I started to train on end of April, 2017. You want to came back from working on cruise ship and into all the way to 10 of March, 2018. But of course a bit before that, but there was a long, long process, little bit by little bit. Once for the first month, three jog of one hour, 15 minutes, pretty short, right? Second month.

Same stuff, but now I my first two and a half, two and a half hour race. ⁓ Third month, then here we go, first marathon, five hours and 30 minutes, freaking long. But you know what? I did it. One month later, month and a half later, ⁓ 50, 50K, 60K, 110K, 250K, seven hours straight running nonstop, even when I was need to use the bathroom, right? So yeah.

It’s like building up. Yeah, you build up the tolerance. Yeah. And also like you have that worthy cause that stuff in your mind that the cause of why you do it, you know, a little bit, a little bit because of all the why I mean, what the heck would you go, you know, to do such a to such torture because it can be torture. Yeah, definitely. I guess a lot of people would have been off towards like once you arrived camera on your back is like hurting or everything is hurting. And a lot of people might have been like, OK, that was, you know, worth doing it, but I’m done now.

And yet, a couple of years later, the US… Actually, it one year later. One year later. So, what’s going through your mind? Were you like a week after like, this was like amazing, I want to it again. What was going through your head? Which means two races? Well, thing is, it’s interesting. It’s like you’re reading through my mind right now. It’s interesting because that’s how I show what I do and stuff. Well, you know, when I finished 2020…

like 22nd of June, 2018. I was like, I’m happy, of course. But sometimes, ironically speaking, when you think about this, it’s like, should I do something more? That’s it now? So what’s next? So I thought about it a lot. Also in my 20, 20, 18, I was thinking, should I do this, should I not do this?

I had good time, was the time when friends won the football things and I was with my brothers and friends, partying and stuff like that, gathering, doing boot camp, talking. I’m like, nah, man, I have to do the other things. And after, that’s when I decided to do the race across the state. So really by the end of 2018, that’s when I was like, by the 1st of November, 2019, I’ll be in Brooklyn, New York to…

Wow. To Astahuego. That was pretty the west, yeah. So it was four and a half thousand kilometers across the US, right? Yeah, yeah. Well, I wanted to do five in five thousand seven hundred, but we cut off because I was supposed to go more south. I cut off through Vegas, but we can talk about it later. So maybe when we start with like, I’m sure you had a lot of experience. Sure, sure, sure. What was like a dark moment and how do you come across like

You yourself across that dark period time during the race. During the race in the US? Yeah. Well, know what’s a lot of tears and I feel definitely from the race across France to Africa and the rest of the US, it was a big switch. Really? Yeah, yeah. Because I felt like I stepped forward a bit. And to be honest with you, and actually that’s the truth, is that in 20… How can I say? In…

Sorry, I lost my my butter on thoughts which will which will come back. No problem. Did you ask me question again, sir? Yeah, so like if think about the the US race, yeah What was a difficult time the most difficult moment? Yeah, sure sure. Yeah, you’re gonna come back So in 2018 when I did this, of course, he was shorter than the US right but the race across the US was

was easier than the race from France. Yeah. Why was that? Why was that? Well, it’s pretty straightforward because like, you know, like internally, I did a lot of internal work, which I’m still doing now, what we’re all doing till probably my last day on earth. But internally, ⁓ in the US, there’s some stuff, some value that align with things and that was value gave me freaking boost. And of course, if you talk purely physically speaking, psychologically speaking, because when I ran across France to Africa.

The thing like my body is the first time so my body is like what the freak are you doing to me yeah and in the states like I know what you’re doing here so you know and then he’s like are you I know what you’re trying to do here go back to that like that that come back mode you know but in the u.s.a of course had some hard times well say when I was in them difficult I yeah dark I will know I won’t I don’t know if it’s a really dark dark time but 20 been a

You know, when I was in Pennsylvania, in the state of Pennsylvania, it’s like 250 kilometers away west of New York in the Appalachian Trail, you can say. I was riding with like a 30 pound, 15 kilogram backpack because it was like, oh, no big deal. You know, I ran across the US, I ran across Central Africa with 10 kilogram. Now I’m going to run with 15 kilogram. Oh, it’s only five kilometers. Big mistake. Really? Because everything passed there, right? It’s a…

And I made a mistake because I take things for granted. Oh, I did this. So, you know, right? And like, and that’s five kg, like any kilogram above what I did in France to Africa, that every kilometer, every kg more, it’s exponential and it’s torching on the body. I remember after one or two days when I was already in New Jersey still, and I was coming pain, talked to a few people who were in contact with me in Europe who helped me and stuff. I was like…

I’m in pain, man, I’m tired, my knees were sore. I have those little cramps, like normal severe cramps and stuff. And then after, in a rich fence of any one day, I met a friend of mine, a fellow from the race, he’s telling me a friend, but in the US, between friends in the US, and he joined me here and he looked at my face. He was like, dude, you got a continent, because the state is the country, but it’s freaking, it’s big continent, right? You get a big, you get a continent to cross, And I’m like, I know. And I could look at your face.

Are you sure you’re gonna last long to go there? like, we need some solution. What can I do? I have a bit of money with some sponsors, go for me and stuff. that money, had to kept it no matter what. Precious because I was about to enter in the US. In winter, you get some hardcore storm over there. Yeah, because you were in January, right? No, no, no, it was like first November. I’m going, going, going. So I was like, what can I do? And that guy, he came like an angel out of nowhere.

He’s like, know what Andre, ain’t much, but I’m going to, I’ll tell you another moment after this. He’s like, I’m gonna buy you a running stroller. So we order one online. I mean, you order one online and add a running stroller. Like there’s a lot of like those women’s over there. Oh, I don’t know if it’s too much in Europe. Maybe here it is now. They put the baby in the US, Canada, they put the baby in the stroller and they run, you know, and stuff. And I had my stroller, you know? So he was very, very good. I was so grateful to him because when you,

put your backpack into the stroller. was like, then I was like, ⁓ big smile. Of course, you know, like my wrists were really swollen because let’s be honest, come on. it’s stress strain on the body, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then when I reached Kansas City, so Kansas right now you’re like close to 18, like, like 1,000 kilometers away from New York. You didn’t cross like you, enter in like deep

in central mid US. west of Kansas, like in Topeka, so that was like another hundred kilometers away from insert going toward the west, right? Then I gave a speech there, I gave a few speeches and stuff there and I was a bit worried there because I was like, the thing is in the US, once you pass the west of the Mississippi River, you have less town, it’s less things, less habitat and things. I’m like, how the heck I’m gonna do that? Because of course the winter in Wyoming that I was about to cross.

It’s like Alaska. People told me you’re gonna die. It’s suicide. They told me you should take the southern routes going through Oklahoma, western Texas to Mexico and stuff. But I was like, nah, I’m like the pioneers. People who they went through Wyoming, they die. I’m a stubborn, yeah, I’m a bit stubborn. Anyway, long story short, after that speech in local congregation, there’s a guy.

And a woman, you know, and a couple approached me, they’re like, how the heck you gonna do that? And they saw that I was really determined, so they didn’t try to persuade me and stuff. Like, you know what, Andre? I’m gonna be your chase car. Out of nowhere, So for me, was definitely, it was dark before it got brighter. And he was, yeah, and seven to eight hours later, he was there, more like in Kansas States. And later, like Abilene.

like deep like after New Year’s Eve, first day after New Year’s Eve 2020 and he was there with a car, souped up, magnet, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road, on-road,

but actually stick all the way from freaking Kansas all the way to California. That’s why I did the 4,400 kilometers and on 5,700 because the deal is when we’re already in Wyoming, getting closer to Utah, I like, I would love to come. He was like, yeah, I have to go back, but I would love to come and we need to find a compromise because first when I was in, because if you see them after the US, you have like Utah, have Salt Lake City, then you have Phoenix.

Phoenix is literally like 1000 kilometer self. I want to go to Phoenix and do all the way along the Mexican border, like the States, all the way there. He was like, yeah, but if I follow with you, I’m going to have to do only, we all got to go cut through Vegas and stuff. And he told me some story before that if you go through alone in the desert, because he was a former bounty hunter. And he told me, yeah, you don’t want this crazy stuff happening by the border. I’m like, no, no, no, no, okay. You know what? No.

So only 45,000. Yeah. Yeah. I’m curious like, cause like that is such a, like a show of what humans are capable of up there. sure. Like has your perception of human beings changed? Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. Absolutely Patrick. Absolutely. Right now I don’t see, I mean, please, you know, I’m not dumb of anybody else or I don’t judge. Welcome coming to this podcast. I want people to like this.

it’s cold, it’s cold, it’s like this. I’m happy because I know I like the heat. I look at me. I mean, am French and Cameroonese, right? Yeah. I also live in Cameroon. I live in a lot of hot places in the Earth. But when I see the snow and the I’m happy, you know? So it did change for sure. I don’t think the same anymore. Maybe it’s a good bridge to the cold because like there’s a lot of, let’s call it like…

ultra marathon as runners, do these crazy stunts, maybe not as crazy as you, but still, you know, and they stick with that. They stick with running. However, you then switched to, the next thing was the immersion in ice, right? Yeah. Yeah. Can you like, how do you go from running to that ice exposure? Of course. Like world record. That’s for sure. Really good question. So, know, after I went across the, you know, if you remember 2020, COVID, things went really hard. Yeah.

And for what I’m doing, I I was a felt a bit down, I will say, because I mean, I didn’t want to really get what I wanted to get across the US. I it’s going to be more opportunities, but it’s life. You know, sometimes it is. Yeah. So, you know, in the time with my daughter’s mother, like we got closer and like cross you intimately, but closer for for my for my daughter and stuff. Yeah.

And yes, and I was like also going through what I worked at the time in Switzerland, in Zermatt, I was going through really, really hard time. Some people were worked for really, yeah, they thought that you frame this business sometimes, but they were really mean and stuff. I’m not saying that being a victim, but it’s just a fact. And I was like, dang, I’m like, people are so freaking wicked. Even after when I ran across the USA, they don’t give a shit about this. They don’t respect you.

Oh, so you just think about it, interest, human nature is a sick, twisted things. And I was like, Andre, stop right there. Come on, get yourself together. They can put you on your knees. They will never do what you do in no disrespect. I’m like, they don’t have any jealous or whatever, I’ll do. And I’m like, you know what? And I was living in Zermatt. So you have the beautiful Matterhorn. There’s a lot of pictures sometime when I post, I’m like this, because that’s where I discover.

You know what, I heard a bit about that WeMouth method and stuff like that and read about history and breath work as well because I’m sure we’re gonna get there, right? Because breath work without breathing, then forget about it. And yeah, I started to do ice bath. First ice bath, I I was in the dam in Switzerland, 400 degrees water. I was like, the mine is so strong, 15 seconds. was like, yeah, a little bit. I couldn’t breathe. It was impossible. But after I built up to it, you see.

Then afterwards I started to build up and I started to bring a lot of people through the cold exposure. My former employers and stuff, when they saw me, they were a bit like, hating, but I could sense that negative energy, I was all jealous, but they could see I was just rising and that they couldn’t touch me. So I knew I was doing something right, you know? And then after like doing, like I said, like my daughter’s mother with tongues, things got closer and she told me that her daughter, Kira, was an autism spectrum.

I was like, you know what? I’m getting better at the ice bath. I’d run across America. You know what? Let’s do a world record for my daughter and everyone else with dysneurodivergence. What the heck? And I trained for it over three years. A lot of ice bath, over a thousand. Sometime even, I think I once I caught the COVID or I was really sick in 2021, really sick.

But you know, I kept on going and stuff and I mean I’m saying that despite adversity because I stay human like everybody else right? get sick and stuff and I trained and I built tolerance So I went from hey from like I say 15 second one minute and a half four seven 30 I’m 10 30 20 40 and I wear one I don’t know in three I don’t win 11 an hour 17 an hour 21 an hour and 31 running like 22k barefoot on snow

Running in Canada for two hours at minus 30 degrees, minus 35. Swimming in the dark, of course, with a harness, being safe, in the dark, ⁓ like one meter of ice. No experience. How do you explain that, If you did something, why not keep on doing more and more? Yeah, that’s go back to that. How do you get there is by small increments of… Small increments, exactly. Small increments and the rub.

this iron rod, know, like the iron that you hold to move forward. Even if there’s the mist coming or things without you, you don’t give up this wind. don’t, you’re like, you know, you don’t let it go. that, that, that purpose that worthy cause is going to help you to, yeah, he helped me to, build tolerance tolerance. And that’s what I’m doing all the way to today. Right. Yeah. It’s, does seem like the, you you, do call it? Worthy cause. Yeah. Something like when you’re waiting for something, which is difficult.

If you don’t have anything you’re doing it for, some things might be too weak. You might have a goal that is like, oh, I want this. But then actually, do you really want it? Or do you just want it so you can show off or something? I’m curious, have you ever had an experience where you thought it was a worthy cause, but actually it was not worthy enough, maybe early in your life? Has there been a moment where, what makes a good worthy cause?

I mean me, because you know, it’s, ⁓ go to talk about ⁓ since I’ve been raised, you since what my father taught me. My father wasn’t perfect, know. He has a weakness like everybody else, but I was really inspired about like what he did. mean, you walk even like in one Africa, like going to Mauritania, you walk in freaking Mayan territories, Mayan territories in Senegal. swimming the ocean. I mean, those things really helped me to

to like, does image, like you do what seems impossible to human mind, you know? And that’s what inside me, because of, know, I mean, inside me, I kept that always kind of true. Cause you, since a young age, and was my father was telling me at times, yeah, you know what? We, you know, we’re going to drive. He was still talking in my ears. I’m like, we’re going to drive from France all the way to Cameroon, the car. It’s back in, it’s crazy. You you just don’t go across the Sahara desert like this.

But he was really, he was getting serious about it.

And you get like, man, he goes back again to like the work to do talents, you know, since when you were young or like you were a baby, you’re young. I mean, you were good at doing something. And it’s really to, you know, what you’re good at and you go back at it. But unfortunately, you know, when you grow up, your parents or people around you, the dream stealer, you can’t do this because too like that, or it’s too crazy, it’s too ridiculous. What’s ridiculous, man, you know? So it’s really that things that I grew up with.

And that desire to keep on going forward will help me to push. Stay resilient. Yeah.

⁓ The most recent one. You have a cap off. Yeah, and hey, who’s there? I did, yeah. Very fortunate to be sponsors as well. Thank you so much. I guess this kind of almost like married the two things, right? was running and the code, right? Yeah, yeah. Can you talk more about like what was the attempt and then ended up happening?

My pleasure, my pleasure, Patrick. Thank you so much again for sponsoring and hopefully in the future we’ll have great collaboration going together, which I’m sure we will. Well, that, small bar 78 degrees north of Rennes. Well, that race was totally crazy. I won’t say stupid, it was crazy, insane. No, good, insane, crazy, I was like, well, you know what? I like the cold and I like running.

So was like one of merging the two together. That’s a years of work and it’s like over right now seven years. mean, 2018 it’s like eight, seven years, it’s a long time. Like the body in French called acro foncier. So the body is just acromas, just in the deep in your DNA and stuff. yeah, I was like, because I’m about to get ready for something bigger, but one step at a time, can talk a bit later if you like. But I was like, hey, you know what?

I like the North, I’m in Finland, I’m getting ready for bigger projects. Then I was like, why not training in going to frickin’ the top of the world? And also go back again to my father. He went from Cameroon all the way to France and me I’m going to carry the legacy all the way to the North of the world. Which literally I was a deval guard. 78 parallel North, close to 600, 700ish kilometers away from the North Pole.

They call it the gateway to the North Pole. mean, Greenland, Greenland is called, it’s north of Greenland. So to tell you all things that is. Basically. I’m talking about this because you know, I’m dramatizing it man, but you know what? That’s freaking, that’s freaking crazy, right? And what you have over there, it’s from polar bear territories, wildlife. It’s like the jungle, but of the North. Yeah. And so literally what I did, I wanted to trade for this, use that as a training camp.

for something bigger, but after itself what I did is stays a world record. So I was to run six marathons in six days. So I did a little less, because six marathons in exactly six days is 252 kilometers, and I did plus 250.67 kilometers, but I mean, it’s pretty much done. So the thing is,

Because you know already in Svalbard, I did it like I came back like a couple weeks ago. Right now it’s also getting cold and stuff. So we got the temperature between minus four, minus five, we have to minus 18, including the wind. In short, in shoes, That’s where it becomes more twisted, you know? So I did that for mental health and suicide prevention to show that we all have traumas, of course, but hey, through the talent that you have.

and a goal, which your passion will develop automatically with it. You can do again amazing things. And I ran, yeah, I ran in short in shoes. Thanks again to all the sponsors there, like you, Alveos, Coal Club, Upti Gritten, Coal Miners, also I’m a great friend over there. We helped each other to professional video, Times Mayfair, really happy. But yeah, so literally the first day, got excited.

too excited, 53.4 kilometers. And I thought I did 33 kilometers, but I actually was in mile. So that night I’m like, man, I ran so slow, the only 33 kilometers in freaking six hours of running. I’m like, what? I was mileage, I was like, ah. Second day, because of course, know, long year being over there, you have a safe zone. And out of the safe zone, you have, well, you need to be escorted with a.

Thank you to the arm gun out there from the Rute Gruttens, Valvard, rifle, second day. was cause you saw a lot of the Polar Bear sign. A lot of it’s for marketing, I mean, safe, but people use it as well. Oh, wasn’t the safe side of the Polar Bear. Then I got to that sign and anyway, that day was a bit good, nervous, like adrenaline, but a bit nervous as well because it was like that time I was going to go to our trans-bearance.

So you saw some of the picture, right? It’s freaking, look like your moon. know, like even like you have stars, like people like holy movies, they come there, a few interstellar or something. Mission Impossible was shot there with it and stuff. But it’s just like there’s no trees, there’s nothing. Ice, water. And as I was running there, because I was starting on my first day, right? So that second day, the 33, 35K is shown like this. And running there, so exhausted and things, because my body acclimates again, you know?

And I was starting running and my team in the van was really scared because they saw me. I was getting reddish and I was like running like that. Like my face at that time, really, really, really crazy. having a stroke. Of course I didn’t have a stroke. Thanks, not. But I was shivering. And I know that day I was in in hypothermia, at least stage one for sure minimum. I was getting to stage two. It was really hard. But that’s where at the same time then we stopped there and went back to the hotel where I was in coal miners cabins.

took a nice 20, 30 minute shower and then you gotta go back in Italy, And that was amazing too because of course you’re an armed guard but you still feel so little because those polar bears, man, they’re like apex predators. They’re really dangerous. They look so cute, so nice, but they, yeah, they’ll kill you. I heard some stories, I don’t wanna talk about it here, but anyway, like the guard, before I went out, went and go outside of the safe zone, outside of the safe zone, she was like,

Well, Andre, so if you see a polar bear, anyway, it was behind me. There’s that, she had the rifle in the car. No hero, no stuff. You go back in the car, we take pictures from the car. my team over there told me, dreamt when she was in the car, she was like a hawk, like literal mouse, like watching you, like a bird watching a worm and stuff to see all the steps. So she’s like, it was a reindeer. So I a reindeer, some foxes, some white birds. I don’t know what you call that, but yeah.

Crazy stuff, But you did it. I did it, Yeah. you so much. Thank you. When we talk about taxidermy, so take me through your like for this one way, it’s like cold and the running. What’s your ⁓ pre-event breathing routine or anything else you do? Yeah, for sure. Breathing is important and also breathing and meditation. goes back all the way to actually when I ran across France to Africa, I started, but I started developing a bit more conscious breathing.

Not yet, like coldish wise yet. But when I trained for running across the States, because in the wild, where where I’m from, in France, this hill, it’s not like the mountain, but like a lot of- Normandy, lot of hollows and stuff, you know? And I was running there, and actually I heard about like consciously on re-breathe, with your nose, good, push your diaphragm down, and the belly go up.

Actually, it’s not really going out because of the diaphragm. So that’s why it’s going out, right? It’s going out, right? So I start doing that. And right away, I could run faster than anything else. because my body is not that shallow breathing, that deep breathing. And literally, I saw a good 20 to 30 % changes. And of course, I’m training my body just to what I did before. But still, I know when you do something inside you with change, you know.

You just know, right? So I start doing that. Then after, of course, for the ice bath, I do lot of things. So 20, when I really push the brain to the next level, it was, yeah, of fall, early winter, 20, end of fall, 2020. Then I learn about the breath work, the few rounds, a bit of hyperventilation, how yourself you’re going to activate that adrenaline ⁓ mode. I mean, to go into a combat, like…

consciously and that really helped me as well.

So you’re gonna go like.

So say I inhale longer than I breathe out.

So like three each to two, like do you count? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, yeah, let’s say to like ⁓ two, three seconds and like half time of the time of breathing out. Yeah. Okay. Just like the opposite of the relaxing one. was like, so here you actually want to get the adrenaline. Then of course doing that too, then obviously I did a little like box breathing. ⁓ mean, I’m on a rack.

rat lab, right? I do everything. So a lot of box breathing as well. Also, we’re a club by now, which I’m gonna become a coach there. A lot of different kind of stuff and it’s interesting because I do all those kind of things, but right now I’m learning like properly how to do this. And of course I did like the box, so breathing or what I did, I did something else, like you’re breathing for, let’s say you inhale for six seconds.

You hold for time four, so for 24 seconds, and you exhale for 12 seconds. You do this, I just play with it, know, I just play with it. And yes, I did also like some oxygen, Advantage breathing as well. I’m running, I’m gonna go like, it’s just like, not a tape or just put some, I close my mouth when I’m in my race, like 30 minutes after starting, the body’s nicely warmed up and things, so I go inhale, just hold the nose.

Not like the 3 and 2, but just…

regularly, the same time, inhale, same time, exhale. Then after the sixth round, I run as much as possible without, you know, without breathing. It’s a bit hard, but you just push your body at least for like a altitude training and things. Different training. We can talk more, I think it’s enough. Yeah. Well, maybe because you’re also the coaching as you mentioned, to be all athletes and just like normal people. And a lot of the, one of the things that you’re

one of the best in the world, the resilience. If you want to kind of take someone who’s like, you know, stressed out the work and stuff like that, where do you start to build up the resilience for that person? What’s the first step? What’s first step I’m going to do that like I’m going to do like I did myself, right? I’m going to do that kind of a breath work. Obviously I’m going to see how people are because if some, of course, if people are, because I’m not a doctor and I like to say that out loud, it’s important to not pretend that there was something that you’re not.

Because I backfire at you, right? So, of course, if someone is… I never had that, but if someone is like… was like… how do you call that in French, in English? There’s a word for it. ⁓ Like asthmatic. Asthma and everything. We’ll check the doctor and see if I’ve cleared or whatsoever. Then I have the apps. But of course, what I’m going to do…

of course always in a safe environment, laying down, and we’re gonna do a few rounds. Not like I’m doing extremely, because of course it’s extreme, right? But I’m gonna try to breathe in, like let’s say, just like, let’s say for like two seconds.

Because as I was training people, I was more into like, discover, so I wanted to do the same to them, but I’m like, Andre, you can do that. That’s crazy, know, they’re not you, right? So it’s really important to adapt to the person. So we’re gonna go probably for like 15 rounds, 15 breaths. One breath is that, course, and they’re gonna go for 15 to 20 to 30 breaths. After breath, hold retention, see what’s going on, then increase into it, you know, and kept on going.

and do that, let’s say, for a month and increase them and really focus on what they are going to feel in the body, in the fingers, in the toes, in the body, like physiological changes as well. And also what I tell them, because of course, that breath work is still not relaxing. I something relaxing, it’s more like alert mode. It’s like waking up your sympathetic system, right? So it’s to tell them, hey, you know what? of course, eating smooth the COVID, like we just talked.

We talk a lot about breath here as a focus. So I’m like, it’s good that they consciously go into that alert mode like this, when you can have outside environment, because we all have stress, something. So you react to the things, right? So with that breath work is gonna help them as well to definitely be, not a combat mode, hopefully not. If it is, then sure. But like be ready to get, you know, you’d still be stressful in body. Yeah, that’s be obvious. But let’s like.

Oh my gosh, why don’t you panic mode? You’ll be bit stressed but you’ll ready to… More control, guess. More control, exactly. Yeah, that’s very smart. Because I guess it helps you, the body and yourself, to adapt to the feeling of the sympathetic. So you feel like when it happens, you can ride it out. You’re in control of it. Yeah, because you’ve heard the pattern and stuff like that. Right how it is, like your lungs and things.

Your eyes are to dilate and a lot of things. Yeah, happening in the body. What’s your kind of, if you think about now being kind of let’s call it out of season, like you’re training against the next thing, but like what’s your daily routine look like when it comes to maybe both exercise and breathing specifically? Both routines, but right now I’ve been resting a lot because I was soaring in here and here, but the routine wise…

Optimal things will be to get up to my meditation my things prayers breathing and I so like to my run of breathing, you know Regular breathing. I mean four rounds and stuff. Yeah, it has what I will do It’s important because I did that for cold and it also helps me for the world record. So help me Because when I was in four ton of you know, don’t want to know vice before was in five minutes you need to do a lot of Keep it in things, but I’m like I’m gonna go like this. All right

And I learned about like monks or Tibetan monks and go like this. So of course, all the experience that I have of the breathing, I’m going to breathe. You know, I’m going to look like my third eye. Some people say, oh, doesn’t exist. If you don’t believe, then don’t listen to this podcast. it. But like, you know, like the third eye here, it goes over here. the pre-treat your gland. So if I may say it, you go, you look at it.

If it’s too much for your eyes, because it can be too much, just close your eyes and look at it. Visualize that you have a dot here. Me, I visualize that it’s like a volcano or a flower. So you breathe in, regular. And as you breathe out, you’re gonna contract your rectum, the pelvic floor muscle, and you’re gonna visualize as you contract, spitting the air out. All that air is going to feed that dot over there. And as you breathe out and you feed that dot over there,

the energy is gonna like saying some kind of like a heat wave or whatever you want to call like a flower, a lotus who goes like vibrates like a pot of energy. Or do you remember Dragon Ball Z? You remember this? anime when they go into fusion and it goes like that, that things. And after a while what’s gonna happen then definitely after a few minutes of practice, you’re gonna start, I start to feel like fingers, like heat in my fingers.

And after I did that for long time, I felt like my forearms. So I’m sure I’m not that, I don’t have experience on that yet, but I’m studying about it. But yeah, I’m sure he has to do with the energy or whatsoever that even Marshall chooses to break bricks or things like that. But like I wonder I did it for like ⁓ one hour divided by two. And literally my forearm was like vibrating. I mean, I could feel heat. How do we explain that? Because of this.

So yeah, sorry, that’s what I’m doing after regular breath work. I’m going to do this for like, right now little less. do that for like seven to 10 minutes and I train. Then I’m actually this week I’m going to do a run, like let’s say by like, like sometimes I’m going to do a first race to quick eight to 10 K and yeah. And of course I like food. Yeah. It’s a few, few months. For sure. Thank you for that. What’s next? I know we’ve been talking about. ⁓

What’s next? Well, you’re getting involved, right? We’re gonna go to Tromsø. So for me, Tromsø is also with my team. decided that it’s also part of the unit. We decided that it would be smart as well to get ready for a bigger race, which I’m gonna run across Norway, at the end of February towards the Nordkapp. So for mental health and culture integration. But this race, we were like, why not do a race in

Why not do a race for Christmas? It’s fun. Also keep building the momentum and stuff like that. I’m gonna go, and for me it’s like, you know, like when boxers before like a pro match, we do like sparring or glorified sparring session or whatsoever. For me it’s what it is. So he’s running in Tromso, Tromso Christmas run, 75K over the course of two days in the beautiful town of the cities of Tromso, in short in shoes, bunch like more like red shoes. mean red shorts with like a

the end of the race. Yeah, running around in town, talking to people, mix with local, speaking Norwegian, having fun, whatever man. Yeah. Amazing. And then the big one is machine is February across Norway. But actually it’s longer than I thought because I thought it’s going to be like 1500 kilometers to stop. But you know Norway, the coast is so like it’s so cracked and things. Yeah. So this is the town. So I’m going to start in Oslo. Then I’m going to Oslo is kind of like the beginning of the race.

And after the next day or the next same day, to, excuse me, go to Bergen and then west coast of Norway and up all the way. But of course, in Norway, have to get a lot of fjords and stuff. There’s going to be a lot of, so actually I’m going to run for like plus to 2000 kilometers. It’s going to be freaking long. Yeah, it’s going to be long. And cold. And short in shoes. So I know. All right, If it’s like, you know, probably a lot of my listeners are kind of

their interest wellness for sure improving themselves is there a message you want to leave with them as we start wrapping up yeah well the thing is like hey ladies and gentlemen you know what do you for you to your dreams your talent well of different talents really definitely do a bit of research even if it takes a bit of time because it took me times but it’s worth it it’s worth it to look for your talents what you’re good at and fix yourself a goal to it and that definitely

that will help you to carry through this life because he helped me. Because still going through like, helped me with dealing with my traumas, told me traumas and things, you so that’s what I will say. So look for your talent. If you don’t know what it is, look for your talent, fix yourself a goal. Where the cause. Where the cause, yeah. And that will help you to have a okay life. It will help you to take care of your mental health because at times, you know, things can be stressful. It might not.

go away, go away, of course not, you come on, it’s life on earth, But it will help you to have a more decent life. And also what’s more beautiful about it, that you can inspire people around you. Yeah, that’s what I find really fascinating about your stuff is that it’s interesting to think about what we’re doing here is we want to people unlock their full potential with power of breathing. Yeah, the purpose, Like, in talent, go to the purpose, you know? Exactly, exactly. Great, well.

Thank you for being here and thank you for also doing what you do. Thank you so much for actually for listening. Thank you for tuning in and I will make sure to add all your descriptions. ⁓ Thank you. You handle is sure. So description. So Andre Belibi, do not say my name. I’ll get mad at you. So Instagram at Andre on the score Belibi Facebook Andre Belibi my website Andre Belibi coaching.com. Yeah.

One last question, you always start your message with my friend. Sorry? You always start your kind of post. my friend. Bonjour mon ami, André Bellibi. What’s story there? You know, just to say, well, yeah, you’re always good. Like, you’re on top of lot of our friends, at me with the website and stuff, my website and stuff. It’s also marketing catch too, but it’s also to show where I’m from, you know, because I live here in the Nordics now, but I’m still French. So, Bonjour mon ami, André Bellibi.

And it’s funny too because come on everybody can say bonjour mon ami. it. Bonjour mon ami. Voilà, you see? Oui, oui. that’s what it is, yeah. And it makes people smile and laugh. It’s fun. French, Paris, city of love, Eiffel towers, know, la la la violin, beret bread. my gosh. Awesome, thank you. Thank you so much.