16 DAYS ON A NORTH POLE CRUISE (100 mile challenge)

Foreign.

This is not a video that I plan on making before we got on the ship. But yesterday I was going for a short run on the treadmill and I thought, I think I'm gonna try to run 100 miles while we're on this ship. Wow. Do it by myself.

I don't run.

When I was running on the treadmill and came up with the idea, I honestly didn't even know if this was possible. But I did some calculations. Yesterday I went on a short three mile run. So I have 97 miles left to go and we have 13 full days left on the ship, which means that I have to run seven and a half miles per day. I'm on a ship for the next two weeks. Why not give it a try?

Smell. Hot mess.

Here we go. It's gonna take a while at this pace, huh? Look at this view. Okay, so seven and a half miles is like a nice, long, comfortable run for me. So that's not too far outside of my comfort zone. But what is outside of my comfort zone is running that many miles every single day for two weeks straight. Also, if I miss a, the miles are going to pile up really quickly. To make up for a lost day, I'll have to run over a half marathon. And also I would say the majority of it will be on a treadmill. Here we go.

You see polar bears?

No polar bears yet. But my eyes are a little jiggly when I run, so I could have missed one.

Wow. Seven and a half miles felt way longer than expected. I think it was a combination of being on a treadmill and the boat rocking back and forth. So it's like you're running uphill, then downhill, then uphill. This is gonna be fun. All right. I do think it's going to get really hard, though.

Okay. On today's run, I'm going to give you the same view that I'm going to have for the next hour. I have a time lapse set up right there on the window. And you'll see the same thing I do, except sped up quite a bit.

Look at that. So I decided I was gonna run on the outside deck for the first time today. But we're a few days away from the North Pole and the weather is about what you would expect. This is the worst weather of the whole crew. So I think I'll save my outside run until tomorrow. The next day, maybe never.

Back to the treadm.

Just glad I'm not running out there. So the first day I was doing this, the ship was rocking back and Forth. So it was like quickly running uphill, quickly running downhill. Now this ship is making these sweeping turns to avoid big chunks of ice. So it's like I'm running uphill for minutes at a time. 20 minutes in.

12Km.

That is 41km in total, which I believe is just shy of a marathon in four days.

Today is a big day. It is the day that we reach the North Pole. We just got off the ship for the first time in six days, which was absolutely incredible. We are standing on the Arctic Ocean. We have eight nautical miles left until we get to the North Pole, which I think is going to take a couple hours. So I'm going to try to squeeze the first six and a half miles of this run in on this treadmill and save the last mile for the North Pole. Also, since we've come back inside, it's almost a complete whiteout. Okay, false alarm. I was only able to squeeze in the first 2km because I have to go get fitted for kayaking gear in case the opportunity arises to go kayaking while we're on this cruise. Check these out. Very important kayaking gear.

Okay, back to it.

That was so much fun. I really do enjoy running. It felt like I just ran to the North Pole. It says the 11 km that I was running was faster.

I had a GoPro set up. Now you can see where the ship went during my run.

So yesterday we didn't have a chance to get off the ship, which means I have eight and a half miles to run today. But we are officially at the North Pole, and we're gonna get the first one in outside. In these super heavy boots, I'm assuming this is gonna be the slowest mile of the entire TR mile at the North Pole. Fun. A thing to do.

Nate is nuts, but it's one of the reasons I love him so much. Keep up the good work. You look great.

Not weird at all. This is more tiring than running in sand. The combination of these boots and the squishy snow. But look at this view. Who gets to do this? Oh, coolest mile of my entire life.

Oh, Nate. Everybody's staring at him like, you crazy.

My face is frozen, but I'm sweating everywhere else. It's just below freezing, but the wind chill puts it around 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Well, everyone else came in from playing at the North Pole and put on their slippers and are drinking hot apple cider. Nate is running outside in the snow. Oh, man. He's the best 1/10 of a mile left.

Wow, what a run.

The man just loves a good challenge. He also loves eating guilt free chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.

I did it. I did it. One mile at the North Pole. 11 minutes and 57 seconds. That seems pretty good in these boots. I think that was harder than running seven and a half miles on the treadmill indoors. But I still have that to do today or it's gonna carry over. And these days are just gonna get longer and longer.

But first, polar fly to the North Pole.

Belly flop.

Now I'm back on the treadmill, getting my body tube back up. Honestly, I am so exhausted. I just feel like my body's been in overdrive all day running around the North Pole. Literally running around, but also just getting all the shots. And the last thing I want to do right now is be on this treadmill. But I also know I can't let the miles build up or I'll so. 24 minutes to 12 kilometers.

I am going to interrupt Nate's video one more time because he left the camera in here, and I just have to share how awesome he is. And I'm not just saying that because he's my husband, and I think everything he does is awesome. Which is also true. Every single person who did the polar plunge came back on this ship and either went to the sauna, went swimming in the indoor pool, took a hot shower. Nate came back and is going running for an hour.

Hour.

He just goes 100% at everything he does, which means he is constantly, mentally and physically running around like crazy. He'll go set up the GoPro for a time lapse on the front deck, and then he'll take the zoom camera and run to the back deck and show all the ice that we're crashing through. Then he goes and runs for an hour. Then he goes back and gets the GoPro that he set up an hour ago. Then he's taking thumbnails. Then he's taking another time lapse. Like, it just. It probably doesn't seem like it, but he has been working like, crazy. Crazy. But he loves it, which is why he's still doing it. But when he says he's exhausted, he's really exhausted. I just love him, that's all.

Okay. Five kids into our run, we started reversing out of our spot at the North Pole, and I thought that was worth capturing. So I'm gonna set the time lapse up here, let you enjoy that, and I'm gonna finish the run.

Okay. Proof that I finished on my hardest day yet. I could just stand here and do this the whole Time, though.

Okay. That was without a doubt my hardest run yet. But I think I decided my favorite thing about making myself do this every day is it forces me to spend an uninterrupted hour staring out the window. Okay, I've spent enough time in the cold today.

I'm going back inside real quick. We want to say a big thank you to Better Help for sponsoring this video. Therapy is an amazing tool that I love getting to talk about on our channel because prioritizing your mental health is something that I really believe in and I think should be talked about more often. BetterHelp is the world's largest therapy service, and it is completely 100% online, which means you can talk to your very own licensed professional therapist from the comfort of your own home or wherever you are in the world. The way it works is first, you answer a few short questions about yourself on BetterHelp's website. Then they'll match you with a therapist who can best meet your needs. You can start to communicating with them within 48 hours. You can schedule weekly calls or face to face video chat. But what I think is the coolest is that you can message your therapist anytime, anywhere 24, 7, with no scheduling needed. Plus, it's more affordable than traditional in person therapy. So if you're ready to join over 3 million people taking charge of their mental health, you can get 10% off your first month at BetterHelp by going to the link in our description below, which is betterhelp.com K&N.

That's better.

H E L P. Okay, back to Nate's run.

It's only day seven, and I feel like I thought I was gonna feel on day 14.

You smell like day seven.

I'm wearing the same clothes every single day because laundry's crazy expensive on this ship. Go get the laundry list and show them how expensive it is.

He's being serious.

€5 to wash one shirt. Shorts are four, underpants are a euro. I could probably heck price for you to watch these underpants. Socks are €2. What?

You need to stretch to prevent injury.

You okay?

It's just been a long day. I'm just being dramatic for the camera now.

No, you're not. You're so tired. I mean, I'm exhausted and I've done less than half of the calories burned exercising for sure. I'd say a fourth of what Nate's done.

This shirt is actually gonna be able to stand up on its own about the last day. I'm just gonna be able to sit right here and all the crusty sweat is just gonna stand up.

Two miles left, two miles until I'm halfway done with this challenge. I really need to find my why. Because right now I'm asking myself, why am I making myself do this on a once in a lifetime cruise to the North Pole? At this point, I almost feel like it's kind of starting to take away from it. I'm having to plan my days around the run. I almost fell asleep at dinner last night on Kara. This felt like a good idea at the beginning, and now I'm almost halfway through, and I guess I'm trying to decide if I should finish, but at the same time, I feel like there's something too. Like I said, I was going to do it, and now I'm going to do it. I'm not quitting yet, but I do need to find my why. All right, time to go. Spend a long time on a treadmill.

I'm running.

I have some company today as I cross the halfway point.

I don't know if I'm going to make it.

As long as you do. This is a rare moment. Kara's not a runner, and her knees have not let her run since the Tuscany trail. So this is a big day. I hate running.

This is terrible.

That's two miles for today, 50 miles in total. I've officially hit the halfway point. Kara has been super supportive of this entire run. I'm still not sure why I'm doing this, but I do know that it's thanks to her support that I'm still doing it. So she joined me today when she knew I was struggling, and she's been stretching me at night. I honestly had no clue how hard this was gonna.

Okay.

Love you. Thanks. It's dangerous. Okay, I'm gonna finish up today's ride until it says 12, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Okay. I'm trying something new today. I'm going to attempt some outdoor lapses here on Deck 5, which is the only deck that wraps all the way around the ship. According to the fitness instructor, 5 laps is a mile. I'm going to try to get at least 10 in, and if I'm dressed appropriately and feeling good, I might just do all.

37 and a half, I believe is what I calculate it. It is so beautiful right now. Also, today is Sunday, and the only reason that the day of the week is is important to this run is because the ship hosted a super fancy brunch. And now my belly is full of caviar, crab, and champagne. So I'm A little regretful. Actually, I'm not regretful. It just makes this run a little harder.

So this morning, Kara talked me into getting a couple's massage with her. I thought, you know, maybe to help loosen me up for my run, you.

Should have requested a leg only massage.

Who might have? But it also really made me want to take a nap.

My bad.

Also, my shirt officially hit the point that I can no longer stand to wear it because it smelled so bad. So putting on a new shirt today. Here we go. I don't know if you noticed, but there's something very different about my run today. For the first time in over a week, I'm looking at water instead of ice.

I thought you were going to say you changed your clothes for the first time.

But it is a little sad knowing that we're out of the ice for good.

Okay, we're almost back to the ship from a three hour hike and I'm trying to decide what to do. This hike itself was probably 7 1/2 miles at least. Do I run another 7 1/2 miles on top of this or do I count this towards 100 miles? These boots are so heavy. And the idea of getting on a treadmill and running for over an hour sounds so exhausting. Right now Kara's like the devil on this shoulder. Oh, there you are. Actually on the shoulder.

Count the miles.

But then the other part of me wants to be really pure about this because I technically didn't run. Haven't decided yet. There will either be a black screen that goes to tomorrow or I'll see you on the treadmill in a few minutes.

So yesterday we got back to the ship. I decided there was no way that I could count a hike as a run. And I had all intentions of running seven and a half miles yesterday. That was. So the expedition team planned two more excursions because the wildlife was so good. In the afternoon, we went out and saw a family of polar bears sleeping on the beach. It was super cute. And then that evening, we went to a gigantic cliff that was swarmed with millions of birds and saw another polar bear eating a seal. It was absolutely incredible. Outside of the North Pole, the highlight of the trip for me once again. You'll see the full version of that in the next video. But that brings us to today. There are three days left on this cruise and I still have 30 miles left to run, which means 10 miles a day for the rest of the cruise. I can touch my left toe, but I'm about 10 inches away from this one.

The fun Thing about this video. Oh, there you are. The fun thing about this part of the video is that you're getting a sneak peek of all the cool things that are coming up in the next one. Also, to put this in perspective for you, I bet I haven't run more than 10 miles 10 times in my entire life. And I'm about to try to do it three days in a row. It is amazing what the human body is capable of if you put your mind to something. That's not to say it's not painful.

What are we doing?

Well, our expedition was canceled and now it's uncanceled. So you don't really have time to finish your run, but quit now.

It's up 4km, which means I still have the exact amount I normally do every day when we get back. So unfortunately, we would have to cancel the operation. I just put my snow pans off.

I don't know if you could hear that. But they canceled the expedition again because there's two polar bears on site and they just disappeared into the fog. So they can't keep us safe while we're on land, so nobody can go.

And we're back. Here we go again.

Well, that was unsatisfying. Somehow stopped it 0.1 km before it finished. Please bring it back. Oh, what in the world? Okay, I'll make up the last tenth of a kilometer tomorrow.

Welcome back.

It's so cold in here.

I opened the door because I thought.

You were gonna be hot. My sweat is just freezing.

You kind of look like some of the other passengers on this ship.

There are a lot of people who grunt when they sit down on the ship.

Shoo.

Oh, your feet.

I've worn these socks every single day.

Are you being dramatic for the camera?

No, they're really bad. Really bad. Oh, no. This is the worst it's been.

That's not. Your ghost is straight. You smell so bad.

Get in the shower.

Everything hurts. This afternoon, the ship is sailing around looking for whales. So this run is probably going to be interrupted, but I'm going to try to knock out as much of it as possible before we find them. Also, thankfully, this one morning we did not climb a mountain. Instead, we just got a little upper body workout in on the kayaks.

I literally just saw one out the window. Oh, I think the well showed up way sooner than anyone expected. So I went downstairs to grab the camera. I'm 2km in, and I will be back to spend more time on this treadmill.

Well, yesterday my afternoon nap was woken up by polar Door sighting. And today there are whales. Apparently, we are really close to a whale feeding ground, and there is currently a mix between fin whales and humpback whales. For some reason, Nate's wearing shorts. Once again, he was running, I was sleeping.

Our new afternoon tradition. Well, that was amazing. Now time to knock out 16 more kilometers. So close to being thinner with this.

10 more miles and then it's finished. Unless something crazy happens, I'm gonna finish this ridiculous challenge. And even though you probably know how this is gonna end, don't stop watching yet, because I think I finally figured out my why. And I'll tell you tomorrow once this is all over. Oh, it's so fun. Cold out there. It is the last full day on board and the last 10 miles of this running journey. I decided to make things special. I'm going to do the last 10 miles all around the outside of this ship, which means 50 laps. I think the hardest part of today might just be keeping count. And nothing left to do now but start running.

1, 3, 4. 1/10 of the way there.

8, 9, 10, 13, 14. 3 miles. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

I'm gonna go check in on Nate.

I think I'll just wait here for him. He should come around soon. There he goes.

Water sports fart. My feet have been soaking wet since the first lap.

Oh, no.

I feel like I'm back at 29 or 29. Look at how gross my shoes already are.

You doing great.

Thanks.

I'm so proud of you.

Thanks for keeping me company. Almost halfway.

Telling me to slay down.

Halfway.

Halfway.

And I have company.

I just did one lap, and I'm out of breath.

Here we go. 26.

Oh, it's so wet.

Okay, Nate, has this been easier or harder than you thought it was going to be?

Harder because we started doing stuff.

Do you regret making this goal in the first place?

Regret? No. If I had to do it over again, I'm not sure that I would have set the goal, knowing what I know now. But I was so far in by the time we started doing all the hikes and stuff that I. I just. I had to finish.

What has been the hardest part?

It hasn't been the running itself. The hardest part has been the beginning and the end. The beginning of just carving time out of the day to do it, especially as the crews have gotten more and more active and also just getting the motivation to put my clothes on every day. Also the soreness in my legs, in my knees and my ankles, and the toll that's taken on my body. Thank you for supporting this crazy, stupid idea.

I actually thought about quitting multiple times during this cruise Just because it seemed, like, pointless and dumb that I was doing this. And I felt like it was starting to take away from the cruise. And you did nothing but encourage me to continue, Just like you do, no matter how stupid all of my ideas are. We got married. And our wedding vows. Cara said that if my entrepreneurial endeavors failed, that she would sleep in a cardboard box with me.

It helps that we're far from a cardboard box right now.

Okay, 22 more.

You got it, love.

Yeah.

Well, that was hard. Don't know how he's doing it, but these views. If you're gonna be running around something 50 times, I mean, he's got 360 views right now with these mountains.

30. 31, 32, 33, 34. Three more miles to go.

I'm gonna attempt to throw Nate a extremely mini surprise celebration party.

Top floor, please.

Hello. Hi.

I need your help with something.

Yes.

So.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Secret. Secret.

Yes. We shake it and then put it in the face. Maybe the chocolate cake.

Yeah. For celebration. For the hundred.

Yes.

Fred been serving us all week, and he is the absolute best. I knew he'd be on board.

Last mile, 99. Done. One more to go.

He's on his last mile.

46, 47, 48.

Tomorrow.

This is it. The last lap.

50.

Okay. There's people eating there. They have lunch right there. So I'll go celebrate somewhere else. So why'd I do this? When I first started this, I think I had two reasons. The first was while we were overindulging on all the food and drink here on the cruise. Just wanted to do something to be healthier, and this seemed like a fun way to be healthy. And then second, I'll see. I've already forgot number two. What the heck was. Oh. Second was that I'm training for something bigger coming up in the future. So this just seemed like a good opportunity. But honestly, this is just making me tireder and tireder and making everything else harder. And I had to find somewhere to squeeze it in every day, and it was becoming an inconvenience. So reason number one and reason number two were kind of out the window. And I was wondering why I was still doing this. And I think it's because I was trying to exercise the muscle of self discipline. I'm kind of a weird person. Like, I do weird stuff from time to time. I remember making myself take cold showers for 30 days just for no reason at all, Just to see If I could do it and making myself uncomfortable. And then in college, when I lived on the 12th floor, I remember deciding that I just wasn't going to use elevators for a month. But part of me just wanted to see if I still had it, if I could still push myself. For no other reason except I said I was gonna do it. Little dizzy. That was a lot of circles.

He's gonna hate all this attention.

He really doesn't like surprises. But I do awesome work, Br.

You like my. You like my art? Oh, yeah. I love it.

The new couple. New couple.

The last thing Nate said to me when I walked out the door was, don't embarrass me.

It's quite a bit of tension.

What is that?

What is it? Right before I left. Don't make a big deal about this.

Congratulations.

Oh, my goodness. Thanks. Wow. I always wanted to be congratulated by Tal Swan.

Please, please sit down and do not draw any more attention into the stable. Please tell me they're not bringing cake.

My eggs aren't here.

Okay. Thank goodness. Is it your. No. Yes. I'm going to just tell people it's hard for you because that makes more sense. Can I. Can I take the swans down? No, you can't take the swans down.

This is too. It's a shoe.

Thanks. I'm embarrassed. Thank you.

Thank you. Look, it's a shoe. Because he ran 100 miles.

You deserve. You deserve it. I'm not sure about that, but thank you very much. You deserve. Bon appetit. Thank you. Thank you. And congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.

Merci. I'm sorry. I had to. I had to do it. The team enjoys surprises as much as I do. Thank you so much.

Before you go, we wanted to say a big thank you to Swoop for helping us plan this adventure and making it possible. And also a thank you to Ponot for inviting us on board their beautiful ship. If you'd like to travel to the North Pole, or if you need help planning your next polar adventure, we'll leave links to both of these companies in the description below.