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by Sahira Dharamshi
Run From Dubai To Saudi Despite Surgeries: The Story Of Yousef, Onepunchtryhard
24 Jul 2024
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A run of over 400 km, completed in nine days, with no help of a trainer, just pure discipline. TikTok Influencer, Yousef aka @onepunchtryhard completed his first marathon run to Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
With a great passion for fitness Yousef constantly pushes himself to his limits and beats all odds to show others, with a little bit of hard work and discipline, any goal is possible to achieve. His TikTok account @onepunchtryhard was created as a way for him to log his recovery process from back-to back-surgeries, determined not to let them impact his sporting endeavours. Yousef logged himself completing the One Punch Man Challenge which was inspired by the main character, from anime show One Punch Man, doing 100 push-ups, 100 squats, 100 sits up and a 10 km run every day. Yousef chose to do the challenge for, naturally, 100 days splitting up the reps for each of the exercises over the course of the day as he was just dipping his toes back into the fitness pool. As the challenge progressed, Yousef inspired many and quickly became an overnight sensation. With his new platform and ‘influencer’ status Yousef was more determined than ever to spread positive messages and encourage others there is no such thing as dreaming too big.
With the challenge completed, Yousef’s TikTok account was growing rapidly to over 100 thousand followers as the fitness aficionado continued to dive further and further into the fitness realm hitting milestone after milestone post his surgeries. Now, Yousef decided one of his next challenges would be pursuing a childhood dream of his… running to another country. As an avid football fan, and with the World Cup taking place in Saudi Arabia, Yousef deemed that to be his country of choice. Sharing his plan with others he was met with a variety of responses, many of which were people calling him crazy. Whilst he agreed, these responses only lit the fire fueling Yousef, motivating him even further. However, above all, he wanted to prove to himself that his injuries and surgeries were not going to prevent him from achieving his childhood goals. Yousef embarked on a long and arduous training process, with no help from professional fitness instructors, just his community to lean back on for support and his own mental and physical discipline pushing him every step of the way.
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Yousef all about his hard-working ethic, what the run taught him about himself and advice he has for others wanting to chase their dreams.
— What motivated you to get into running in the first place?
— I just... I was good at it as a kid. And I used to watch a lot of anime and shows. So, I was all about not giving up. I guess even though technically everyone was at the same level, as a kid I just liked to push more, suffer more. So, then I guess I got better at it than everyone else and then I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed showing and proving that I can endure more.
— You went through a lot of surgeries prior to completing this run, how did you bring yourself to get back into sports?
— From the first surgery, I thought, "Okay, it's the first one, it's fine. I can bounce back." But the second time, it really sucked. It was tough starting from zero again. The third time was even harder, to be honest. It wasn't easy at all, but I wanted to prove that even with these setbacks, especially physical ones like surgeries, you can still overcome them. There are people in much worse situations who, mashallah, still show incredible strength, endurance, and hard work. I wanted to show that I could do it too, for anyone going through tough times.
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— What motivated you to decide, "I'm going to run all the way to Saudi Arabia?"
— There was the silly reason, and then there was the actual motivating reason.
The silly one was during the World Cup when there was a rumor that Ronaldo was going to Saudi. My friends and I were discussing it during the round of 16 against Switzerland. I remember saying, "If Ronaldo goes to Saudi, then I'll do it." And then he actually went, so it kind of stuck with me.
But the motivating reason was from my childhood. I always wanted to run to another country. It was a childhood dream to run across countries. Also, after going through all these surgeries, I wanted to prove that I can still achieve something crazy like this. If I could do it after three surgeries, then anyone going through a setback should believe they can do it too. Many people called me stupid, and I agree a little. But I don't know what more I could have done to prove it that way.
— How many days and how long was the run?
— So, the run took nine days in total. Every day, I ran just over a marathon. I took breaks, and by the end of the day, my support driver, whoever that was, would drive me to a nearby hotel. I spent the night there and then we would drive back to the starting point the next day. It turned out to be 404 km, just over 400 km.
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— Wow, and how many hours would you be running a day?
— I think it took around eight hours of running and walking each day, including breaks. One day it was ten hours because of other stuff going on. It was tough. It wasn't just the running and walking that was difficult, but also the planning and logistics. I had to handle all of that by myself, without a team behind me.
— So, that kind of leads onto the next question: What lessons were you able to learn about yourself during the whole process?
— Oh, there were a lot. Like, I realised I am both a lot weaker and a lot stronger than I thought. The weaker parts showed up as I was doing the run and posting on social media. Every day, I would get messages from people around the world. One person messaged me who had run from Dubai Mall to Doha Mall, which is even further than what I did, and he did it in the same amount of time. It was like, wow, there are still so many incredible people out there.
On day seven, I was very weak, struggling, cold, tired, lonely, and mentally drained. If someone had called me that day and offered me a way home, I would have taken it. But I pushed through and managed to finish. So, I discovered that I am a lot stronger mentally than I realised. Humans are a lot stronger than we think, but we often don't acknowledge it or realise it until we start pushing our limits.
— Are you able to share a moment during the run where you struggled with motivation and managed to push through?
— Yeah, day seven. It was horrible. I would say, there were more horrible days but, mentally that was the worst one. So, day seven, I remember I even woke up earlier than usual, and when my support driver dropped me off, I was actually questioning why I was there. I wanted to curse at him and tell him why did you bring me here? Take me home now! And all of that stuff.
I think that was the coldest night. And that morning it was dark; streetlights were not working. There was construction going on, it was kind of scary. On the way to the starting point I saw at least one or two accidents on the road. It was scary, I was scared, I was lonely, and I haven't seen my family or my friends in so long, I was so tired, I missed my family, I was cold, I was heavy because I was wearing all that stuff and I was hurt, because my foot was injured. Everything was just telling me please, my body was begging me to go home.
That day I just remembered my friend, because he passed away. I think that was the biggest, you know, do it. And then I was also thinking about how much I would have regretted if I had stopped. I was imagining myself at home, and everyone would say it is okay, everyone probably would have been like that, like you did prove a good point or whatever. But I would have felt like, "Oh my god, what have I done? I probably won't have this chance again."
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— You also trained for the entire thing without the help of any fitness instructors or coaches. What kept you motivated during the lead-up to training for the run?
— Oh, yeah, I didn't have coaches or anything. I had friends who are good at running and a supportive community behind me, so it wasn't that bad. But I never reached out to anyone for specific advice because everyone thought it was a dumb idea in the first place. The main thing that drove me to train was my determination. When I say I want to do something, I actually want to do it. So, when I decided I was going to run to Saudi and realised that I was about to start an adult life with a job and less time for such pursuits, that was my motivation. I kept reminding myself that I wouldn't get another chance like this. So, I just kept pushing and training, knowing this was my moment.
— Were there any specific resources that you used or things you found helpful that you would recommend to anyone who is training for something similar?
— Having a support driver is a must; that was probably the most resourceful part. If I needed to eat, drink water, or leave my stuff somewhere, I had the support driver. I could change and do everything. For example, for Friday prayers, there were no mosques near me, so I would tell my support driver to come pick me up, take me to the mosque, then bring me back so I could continue running. Support drivers are essential. Good shoes are also important because the terrain was rockier than I expected. I thought I would be running on the highway most of the time, but I wasn't. Also, alerting the authorities before you do something like this is a very resourceful thing to do.
— And then lastly to end, what are three pieces of advice you would give to individuals about reaching their goals? So not necessarily just fitness, but in general?
— I think you should be disciplined. You shouldn't rely on motivation, because motivation is temporary. Discipline is a habit; you'll do it regardless of how you feel. Even if you are not feeling motivated that day, if you are disciplined, you will still get it done.
I think the second one would be to plan it out and be smart about it. Don't blindly go in. If I had run to Saudi all at once without taking breaks, I would have gassed out, it would have been horrible, and it would have been meaningless. I think I would have injured myself more. So, you have to plan it out.
The last piece of advice is to have a purpose for what you are doing. If you have a purpose or want to prove something to someone, you'll keep remembering it whenever you feel like stopping. Like on day seven for me, I felt like stopping, but I thought of my purpose and how much I would regret not finishing. So yeah, having a purpose, that would be my third one.
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