Don't Can't

10/28/2024

On October 13th, Nikki and Tyler finished their Herculean run across Ukraine from the border of Romania to the front lines in Zaparozhia completing exactly 750 miles and 27 marathons in 38 days. 🤯 💪🏼

The weather for their final run was appropriately challenging, the coldest and wettest of the journey by far. The whole team was full of gratitude and a little emotional knowing that this was all coming to an end. Meeting Gennadiy half way through the run crossing the final military checkpoint into Zaporizhzhia really drove home the reality that this was the final stretch. At that point, the runners hands and faces were swollen and numb, so a quick change into dry clothes was much needed to warm up their bodies and head off for their final half marathon.

It was a huge honor to be escorted by police once again and for the military and city to allow us to cross the Dnipro River across their iconic damn that was bombed on our last visit. The city felt ghostly as locals cheered us on despite having been bombed consistently for the previous month. The finish at Gennadiy and the cbm base was a moment none of us will ever forget. Being met by all our heroes, the city’s officials and press felt surreal. Watching everyone celebrate together created a space we were all hoping for: one filled with hope, joy and strength through unity and presence.

Thanks to everyone who made that day possible!

📸:

10/21/2024

We can’t believe it, but today is our second to last marathon and tomorrow our team we will be finishing this incredible journey in Zaporizhia. Nikki and Tyler’s bodies have recovered and they said that ‘they are feeling great and the miles just seem to fly by.’ It’s been so incredible to see them accomplish something we all thought was impossible. Ryan and Mila both agreed that it would be a miraculous feet for him to cross the country by bike, so the entire team is just so stoked to cross the finish line.
Today we ran past Dnipro and there have certainly been a lot of nerves going into the frontline area. The military presence is everywhere - equipment and checkpoints are everywhere. Unfortuntely we cannot photograph any more military are this point for saftey reasons, but we are so encouraged by their smiles as we pass their positions along the way. The whole team has been filled with gratitude the whole day just being together and knowing it was one of our last runs across the country. After we finished just short of the Zaparozhia Oblast border, we headed into our last city to join Gennadiy and the battalion in a visit to Ya Mariupol and our final dinner before the final run tomorrow.
Though we are nervous to enter such an intense area, we are so proud to be involved with something that has challenged us to reach beyond ourselves.

10/20/2024

Each day that passes by now is just one step closer to finishing this unbelievable journey that our team and entire community has been on together. It’s exciting, bittersweet and a relief all at once to be approaching our goal. Fear creeps in and out of moments to rude awakenings in the middle of the night to sirens or anti-aircraft fire off in the distance, reminding us of this country’s reality but also motivating us to continue forward. We have received so much support from s community, without which none of this would have ever been possible. We are so proud to stand with them during this time and be advocating for such an incredible group of people we now consider family. Please check out cbom mar and pilgrim whom we are doing this for and consider donating today.
The morning of our 24th marathon was one of the most beautiful mornings that we have had all trip. The fog is so beautiful and a welcome cool that burns off as the day usually heats up for the second half of Nikki and Tyler’s runs. We were reminded of how lucky we are to have such a wonderful team and community that surrounds us here and are taking advantage of every moment to savor these friendships and memories that will always be a part of us. Here’s to finishing marathons #24 and #25!

10/19/2024

After a lot of careful consideration, the team decided to skip our planned day off to finish a few days earlier by adding a 10+ mile ‘filler’ day and running an extra day on the weekend. We will now finish on Sunday! Just 140+ more miles to go. Lol. Nikki paid close attention to recovery on her hamstrings this past weekend because they seemed to keep quitting on her throughout last week’s marathons. We are all crossing our fingers that she can make it through this week without any problems and finish strong!

We stretched out in the city’s beautiful central park underneath its giant national flag to start our final week. It was clear that Fall had finally arrived with yellow, brown and orange leaves having fallen everywhere around the park. The beauty was sharply juxtaposed by the destroyed Russian tanks and artillery displayed across the street next to a hotel that was destroyed earlier this year killing many foreign journalists. Ryan was joined by the city’s Ya Mariuol director for the first 15km of his ride as the team said goodbye to Kryvyi Rih. Nikki and Tyler made another fast friend with a woman selling watermelons on the side of the highway on their road to finishing their 23rd marathon!

10/11/2024

Always grateful for days like these that combine movement, connection, and purpose. An amazing day with the Running Atmosphere Club as they joined our team for a 5 mile run through the heart of Kryvyi Rih 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ The energy of the city was incredible as we the Don’t Can’t together! Afterward, we held a press conference in the city center, sharing our hearts for our friends and the Ukrainian people 🗣️✨ We had some surprise visits from new friends before our final stop at the center to say hello.

The whole team can’t believe that we’re heading into the last week of our ‘Run to the Front’ portion of the campaign. So many new lifelong friendships have been forged and we are incredibly encouraged by the renewed sense of hope and continued resilience the community we aim to serve have shown! 🌅 💪🏼

📸: .milabirtcher

10/11/2024

This past Sunday, the entire .media team gathered with us at the in Kryvyi Rih. It was an incredible privilege to experience the warmth of their hospitality. The church community honored the CBM by lifting them up in prayer and encouraging the congregation to support their ministry generously… which they certainly did. It was a deeply moving experience for all involved.

A huge thank you to and his entire community for hosting us all, celebrating birthday and for all of his incredible life work with Kristi Rob’s orphaned youth over the past 25 years. It was incredible to see he and finally meet for the first time, as their work has impacted the lives of so many young people across multiple generations in Ukraine. Seeing how this community brings the youngest and the oldest together with so much joy was the highlight of our week!

10/10/2024

experienced in her other leg today
She said it was her worst day on the road and that the next week will be interesting. We crossed into Dnipropetrovsk, our 8th and penultimate Olbast as well as a massive block post along the way. As we go east the destruction and military presence is more apparent.

hopped in a few different times to help keep spirits up, bladed, Nadia ran for a few more km and kept her promise joined for about 300 meters. We were all stoked the week was over and that we found a great masseuse.

Amen.

📸: .milabirtcher

10/09/2024

10/08/2024

Marathon 19 was a really tough one for all of us and Nikki’s hamstring just kind of started hurting and not wanting to do its job about 5 or 6 miles into the run. It was a bit of a scare but she worked through it and it got better progressively throughout the week. Everyone was very happy to put that one behind us.

The next day, Nikki’s leg did better but just she said she was ‘just trying to survive.’ Running through Kropyvnytskyi was a spirit lifter as it’s always awesome to she so many smiling faces and a new beautiful city. The past few days we’ve been in and out of air sirens which jam our GPS system’s making Ryan’s distances tough to track as he finishes ahead of the running group each day. Nikki and Tyler were met by some friends from Oleksandria as they passed a block post near the end of the run, helping to break up the ‘pain cave’ of another challenging day on the road.

But, the payoff was totally worth it as our runners hit an important psychological milestone completing their 20th marathon in less than a month! We are so amazed by our robots!

10/07/2024

Today Nikki and Tyler were joined by Kristalina , a friend of ours through the Chaplain’s Battalion of Mariupol. You may recognize her from the first day of the campaign when she joined us for the first 12 miles in preparation for her first half marathon. Since then, she decided to come Don’t Can’t with us by attempting to run her first marathon ever with us today… and she did it! What an amazing accomplishment, we are so proud of her! Her father, a Ukrainian war veteran, also joined for 19km along with Olga who took a break from filming to hop on her roller blades as well.

Nikki and Tyler both said they felt great today and that watching Kristalina run sparked memories and reflection back to their own first marathons just last year. They were super impressed that she had a great attitude the entire time and that she had in in her mind she would make it the whole way. When she finished, she asked them; ‘Does it always hurt this bad at the end?’

The answer is: YES!