Latest / Discomfort Required / What It's Like To Race A Sailboat Around The World | Hannah Jenner

Transcript

What It's Like To Race A Sailboat Around The World | Hannah Jenner · Discomfort Required

• Hannah Jenner: Of course. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, um, I throughout the years have become a big fan of discomfort. If that sounds weird, good. we all know that like humans are hardwired to seek comfort, to seek pleasure. Um, that's why we all love to sit on a couch and eat sugar and do stuff like that. Cause it's easy and it's comfortable. It makes us feel warm and fuzzy. And it's probably the reason that the human race exists. because we have sought shelter and comfort. However, ⁓ we don't learn a lot there in these places where we're like cozy and safe. ⁓ We tend to learn when we are in situations, we're in places where we are quite uncomfortable. And I love to learn. I love to grow. don't always, you know, I say I love. be in these places, like in the moment, it's not fun, right? discomfort is not enjoyable. It's kind of like, ugh. But it's where we learn a lot about ourselves. So we learn a lot about other people. And it's where we get the opportunity to be creative and think outside of the box and kind of add tools to our personal toolkit so that the next time we're in a similar situation, it doesn't need to be as uncomfortable. Okay, well, ⁓ I am probably now having just a discomfort in too much of a comfortable zone in my life. And I'm kind of getting that like, ready to scratch an itch of making myself uncomfortable again. But I live in Santa Barbara. I am going to be 46 this year, which is very uncomfortable to say that. ⁓ I wear multiple hats right now. So I have a full-time job as a project manager. ⁓ And then I also am head coach at CrossFit Santa Barbara. And I am a nutrition coach, or I like to call it more like lifestyle coaching, because it goes beyond the scope of just nutrition. ⁓ So wear multiple hats. ⁓ My goal is to hopefully one day be able to make coaching in person, online, all different kind of formats like physical coaching, crossfit coaching, as well as all like the lifestyle and nutrition. I recently just qualified as a menopause coach too, ⁓ to make that my full time gig. ⁓ Living in Santa Barbara, that's a little tricky because it's kind of pricey down here, but we'll see. We will see. Yeah. I mean, we've been my husband, I've been talking recently from England originally. We've been kind of talking about the possibility of maybe going back there sometime and, you know, having already moved country and I bounced around all over the world and gone through that process of showing up somewhere where you know nobody and then you've got to find your friend group and you've got to find the area that you're going to call home and and it's a lot there's a lot of energy but it's also kind of invigorating and I'm definitely starting to feel like something, some change or something big or something scary is on the horizon, but I'm ready for it. I, if financial security was, you know, there all nice, like didn't have to worry about paying the mortgage. would quit the day job and really dive into how to build my coaching business. how, you know, who's really my audience? Who, who excites me? Who do I want to coach? Who do I feel that I can help the best? and then pull together a team of people that can help me do that thing. Cause things like social media, mean, I'll scroll through Instagram and stuff, but content creation is just, it's, it's a full-time job, right? If, it's like, I love great social media content, but I don't want to have to think about making it. So like if I had somebody who could That's one thing that I found so far, like coaching for me has been all like spending the nutrition stuff, which is my own little business that as a solo venture has been great and fun and I love it and I get so much energy from coaching people, but I love working with a team and I think that's something that, you know, I need to find my team to be able to take this to the next level. Like people I can bounce ideas off and who have other skill sets that compliment mine and mine compliment theirs. And so we can kind of create something cool together. I think, I mean I love Santa Barbara and I'm not like in a rush to leave but I'm also open to being in a new place for a new adventure. You're from here, right? Were you born here? I know, right? Trent: 12 days a year. And then I ended up in Seattle. And it is cold and wet. But we're plotting our escape. like, me and my fiancee, you met Chelsea, we're talking about right after we get married, figuring out where we're gonna go, and somewhere we're both gonna thrive, right? Because Seattle, like, I'm not thriving here. It's just facts. There's not enough sun. Hannah Jenner: Yep. Mm-hmm. Do you have ideas of where you'd like to go? Okay. Nice. Yeah. I love hylok owls. Yeah, we've talked about Colorado and we've talked about Richmond, Virginia. Mostly because they have really nice, well, I think my husband, he's a photographer, so he was looking at places where, you know, it's good for creative people to be based and where like it's a lot of up and coming businesses and they've got really nice houses out there for very reasonable prices. And then also the commute back to England to see my family becomes like almost three hours shorter, which is kind of nice. But who knows? Trent: Okay, that's random. Hannah Jenner: Who knows what's gonna happen? So yeah, but I feel it's kind of nice to feel like there's some adventure on the horizon and I'm not sure what it is, but don't be out there. So it's definitely not a typical story. did not grow up sailing all of the time. ⁓ I was born in south of London, lived there till I was about eight. And then we moved up to a place called Shropshire, which is for anybody who knows England, it's north of Birmingham and right next to Wales. So it's kind of out in the countryside. Definitely no sailing happens out there. But in the summer times, my family and another family with with two young kids, we'd go to France and the dads would go sailing and we'd be like windsurfing or playing around in little boats. And I was always like, this is kind of fun, cool, but never, it was never on the radar to be anything other than something I did on summer holidays. and my dad worked for British telecom, which was, ⁓ kind of like AT &T, I guess. ⁓ they sponsored this round the world sailboat race. So it was for that had professional captains on board and then it had amateur crew. So you could pay to be a part of this adventure. And he'd always dreamed about being like, cause his company was sponsoring it. They could apply to try and get on a leg of the race and he'd always apply every time the race was on. And we had the book about that race on our coffee table at home. And when I was in my teens, unfortunately, this is a real left turn at the traffic light for this story. I got severely anorexic and to the point where one night I collapsed unconscious, woke up, apparently I was awake for several hours to this day. I remember nothing of it, but one of the first things I remember as I started to like come around, like come into consciousness was I was sitting in the living room and this book about sailing around the world was there on the coffee table. And I just remember like opening my eyes, kind of being like, what the fuck just happened? Where am I? What is going on? People are talking at me and I can't really hear them. And all I could see was this book. can't remember the title of the book, but there's a picture of a boat like leaning over and it was like stormy and waves everywhere and the crew all like huddled together. And there was some little tiny voice in my head that was like, I wonder if I could do that, which was immediately followed by like, what the fuck are you thinking? Like you just nearly died and you. weigh 70 pounds and you're a mess and you've got no confidence to do anything whatsoever. Why would you think that? But it was kind of like this little seed that sort of was planted in me. And, obviously, you know, that was, I think I must've been like 16, 17 years old, maybe 17. And, ⁓ it would be two years later. that I was applying for universities and University of Southampton was the first one that said yes and Southampton is on the central south coast of the UK which is kind of where the sailing happens and it also happens to be where these boats are based and so I was like sure yeah I'll go to university whatever I don't really care got a job in a bar at the harbour that those boats are based at so I started to get to you know I was kind of like starstruck you know I'd see these captains and the crews walking I was like I saw a book about you, you say around the world, and I'd get chatting to them and and then one night a drunk group of guys was hanging off the bar around midnight and they were like, hey, do you want to come sailing with us tomorrow? And I was like, all right. And they said, we'll pick you up at six a.m. And I was like, no, you won't. You're drunk. And but I still I woke up the next day and I was like, should I get out of bed? Should I not? Should I? I was like, fuck it, get up. And they showed up. and I went sailing with them and I had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on but I loved it and that was when I was like I would probably be 19 at this stage and I kept sailing with them and then I started doing more sailing than studying somehow got a degree but by the time I finished my degree I was like I want to go sailing this seems way better than a real job 18, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just thought, you know, you oversee like your motor out of the the the harbor, you got the engine on, it's noisy, and then you get all the sails up and you cut the engine. And there's just like this piece. And you're on this thing that's moving along because of the wind. And then there's all these other things to think about, like tides and and wind shifts and shallow bits and all the navigation and stuff. then the following day, like after that first ⁓ experience with them, they were like, hey, do you want to come again tomorrow? And I was like, sure. And they were like, we'll pick you up at five a.m. tomorrow. I was like, what the hell is up with these people? And what I didn't realize is that I was going to go out and do a race called round the island race, which is a race around the Isle of Wight, which is the tiny little blip of island just south of Southampton in the UK. And this is every year. I think it was about a thousand or so boats go around that Island, like all kinds of different boats. It's wild. So I got out there and if I thought, if I thought the first day was like wild, the second day I was just like, huh? ⁓ my God, what? And there was just so much chaos and craziness and stress, but also like this amazing sense of freedom and peace when you kind of got away from the madness and you found you kind of laying and you sailed off and I was like wow this is amazing So. No, no, it's like 60 miles. It's pretty crazy. It's a little scary to start that race, especially when you got the really fast boats like whew. ⁓ yeah? You get past that. Yeah, when I moved out here, everyone was like, oh, are you going to start surfing? And I was like, probably. And one of the guys I was racing with out here is a big surfer. So he was like, calm out. And I went out and I was like, damn it, this is way too cold. It's too cold to be enjoyable. So when I graduated from university, I was like, okay, I don't, had met enough people in the world of sailing by then to know that a lot of people kind of went into the sailing industry as sailing instructors, because they have a pretty robust kind of sailing education, like sailing certification system in the UK. But I knew so many people that had gone into become sailing instructors, not well paid. ⁓ there's no security in it. And then kind of ended up sort of barefoot and broke at 30 years old, you know? And I was like, well, I don't want that. Like that, that's not my style. Like if I'm going to do this, I'm going to get to do it. So I was like, okay, I've spent two to three years at this point being a crew member on a race boat, but I don't know anything about like cruising boats. don't know how to really like park a boat. don't know how to maintain a boat very well. So I found this course that was like 17 weeks long and it took you from like zero to what they call a yacht master. So, you know, if you're buying your own sailboat, would make your insurance cheaper. And in theory, you'd be able to like navigate your way across at least the English channel safely and, know, park boats and understand weather and tides and all that stuff. I kind of pitched it to my folks who I think had high hopes of me doing something sensible. And they were like, okay. So I found myself some funding for it and I signed up for this course and like day one of the course, the chief instructor of the sailing school kind of, was, I think there was six of us. There was like five guys and me and he went around the room and he was like, why are you all here? And you know, one guy was like, well, I want cheaper boat insurance. And other guy was like, well, I have way, know, my dad said it was a good idea and he got to me and I, you know, had that image of that boat sailing around the world on that book. And I was like, I want to race around the world as captain. and literally the whole room went pfff okay ⁓ yeah everyone laughed at me absolutely everybody or it was just looking at me like yeah right whatever but I kind of had a plan so I got that Yacht-Master and then I did teach sailing but then I immediately started to try and get on as many boats as possible mission number one was to get my first ocean crossing in so I talked my way onto a boat few white lies about experience but you know whatever we made it Trent: Seriously? Oh wow. Hannah Jenner: ⁓ I learned how to navigate by the stars and then I actually ended up working for that company with those boats that raced around the world. And that was my hope that I would, cause those boats raced the wrong way around the world. So the wrong way being into their prevailing wind. So slow and horrible and the boats all leaning over. ⁓ but that was my plan to do that. But I really, really, really wanted to be a first at something. And there was another company. that did the same thing like professional captain and amateur crew, but they went the right way around the world. So predominantly with wind like more behind you. So it's a little faster, a little nicer. And they had had one female captain before, but she didn't make it around the world. So I was like, all right, let's go. Trent: Okay. Love it. That's awesome. So why backwards around the world? Hannah Jenner: ⁓ could you masochist? Trent: It's just like, I just want to be miserable all time. Yeah. Hannah Jenner: I just wanted to sail around the world. I did not give a single shit how hard it was going to be. I knew like, I mean, like my first day of being a sailing instructor back in the early days of my career, I had one of my crew members was this guy who absolutely hated the fact that I was a girl and he made that evident from, Oh, the, Oh yeah. He made that evident from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon when he got off the boat and I remember the first I can't remember the first thing he said to me but he was just antagonistic the whole time when I was just like and I was about to react you know to meet him or is that be like and it was actually you know I have probably have him to thank to be like hold on this is exactly what he wants and I'm gonna run into this over and over and over again because certainly back then it was very much like a man's world it was a boys club and I was like This is my opportunity talking about discomfort, right? He's making me feel really uncomfortable. But if I react to this and I get mad, that's what he wants because now I'm over emotional and I'm I've lost control and he's winning. So I was like, OK, he's going to ask me a bunch of these shitty little asshole questions and I am going to make for damn sure I have the answer to everyone he asks me and more so that the next time it happens, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to disarm them with my knowledge. Trent: I love that, that's awesome. So I love that like aggressively you were pursuing this, right? Even though people are like just being dicks or doubting you and things like that. After you did it, how long did it take you to do it the first time? Hannah Jenner: So from the day that I sat there at the start of that course and said, I'm going to race around the world, five years later, I was on the start line to race around the world. Trent: That's insane. That's like, so we're gonna get into what high performing is and everything like that and the mindset that goes into it, but that is a level of grit that most people just don't have. That is top 1 % of things. People, as soon as it gets tough, they're like, I don't wanna do this anymore. Or if there's any roadblock or somebody making fun of them or they're like, ⁓ this is extremely hard, this is not for me. So five years, and during that five Hannah Jenner: I think... So like, I'm a stubborn little shit. I think I was born that way. It's like genetically stubborn. ⁓ But I think, like I said, from that first experience teaching that guy, was like, this is gonna be really hard because everybody, not everybody, but like a large chunk of people I'm gonna come across want me to fail, expect me to fail, you know? ⁓ But what they didn't know... in what like I didn't speak publicly about for years was my experience with my eating disorder, right? I had been stubborn enough to damn nearly starve myself to death to the point where I collapsed unconscious. But equally, I was stubborn enough to get my own ass out of that. Like no help, no medical assistance, no therapy, no like whatever it takes to get people better. None of that. Like I got myself better and I knew that nothing I would come across in sailing in my career and in life would be as hard as trying to fight my way back to to living again to life to thriving rather than just surviving so i was like i know that i can do this i just have to accept that it's going to be really freaking lonely a lot of the time But I remember how I felt when I came around and up from being unconscious. And I was like, this is not my legacy. I'm not going to leave behind, leave this world behind. And all I was was this frail person who never offered anything to the world. I was like, I'm going to fight my little ass off for this. Trent: That's amazing, I love hearing that. Even coming back from that and like, when you pull yourself out of a very, very deep, dark hole, there's not a lot that can fuck with you, right? It's just a thing. There's a different level of commitment and there's a different level of... ⁓ Hannah Jenner: So that race takes about 10 months because you have like multiple stopovers and then, you know, most stopovers last five days, maybe a week. At Christmas time in Australia, there was like two weeks, I think, because the boats got pulled out and like had a big old sort of, you know, checkup and repaint and stuff. And then we had a slight delay because our Pacific crossing from China to Hawaii was really rough. A couple of, well, one boat lost its rig and something else happened. So that held us up in Hawaii, but yeah, it's about 10 months for that race. It's a very long time. That's why I keep telling myself, you know, a gnarly crossfit workouts. I'm like, this shit's going to be done in like 20 minutes. My longest ever leg of a race was 32 days. Yeah. Trent: Jesus like on a boat with people in a place where you cannot go anywhere and hide like you get no alone time like ⁓ Hannah Jenner: know alone time. And this is like where you really have this is what talking of discomfort like this is. It's such a great example of like, no matter how shitty your day is on land, like you have a bad day in the office or your kids are driving you nuts or whatever. In general, you can you can go outside for five minutes or maybe you go to the gym to take it out on some weights or some people go to the bar, but you can escape your environment that's causing you grief. When you're in a boat. You get off and you die. There's nowhere to go. And when you're on a boat with 17 people... And this was an interesting test of how people deal with discomfort, right? Because generally speaking, depending on where you are in the world, if you are within about 500 miles of the coast, you're probably within helicopter rescue range. So bad shit happens. Mayday. Wait for helicopter. It gives you like a little sense of comfort. Trent: Just like, just, yeah, you like a completely different break. Hannah Jenner: So in our first leg that we sailed from Liverpool in the UK to Brazil and you know, I had, you know, got a, I think I had 15, 16 people on the boat. I had kind of gauged everybody's personalities and stuff. We're trained together a bit. And then one morning, like every morning I would try and give people a brief on the weather, where we were in the race, tactics, strategy, all the rest of it. And finished my briefing and I was like, just so you guys know. We're now more than 500 miles from land. So if we're careless, if we react rather than respond, if we don't think about situations, if we're, you know, we don't take time to do things properly and someone gets hurt, we're on our own. And the only people out here who can help us are either the other boats we're racing against who may or may not be close or ships. And in certain areas of the ocean, there's shipping lanes. So you you're likely to see shipping. Otherwise you could go for days and see nothing. And it was super fascinating to watch the reactions of people and some of the people who were the most loud, outspoken, confident people on the dock went deathly freaking quiet when I said that. was like, because I think there's this kind of thought, you know, like if you pay to do something, like I always think of this, like if you go to like Six Flags or Disney or something and you go on a scary ride. Trent: Yeah. Hannah Jenner: If the scary rides at Disney, I don't know. But there's always, you know, this thing in the back of your mind. I've paid for this. Therefore, it's safe, right? Not actually going to get hurt. But out in the ocean, I'm like, yeah, you guys paid a lot of money for this. I cannot guarantee that we're not going to get annihilated by a storm or that a piece of equipment isn't going to fail and disaster strikes like there's no guarantee. We're out here on our own. Us against nature. Trent: Yeah. That is crazy. There's no way I can do it, that's for sure. No fucking way! I know me! There's not a fucking chance in hell! As soon as you're like, we're coming close to not being around anybody, I'd be like, somebody come get me, out, this is it. It's just, yeah, it's... Hannah Jenner: ⁓ you could. This points out there on the ocean where you are closer to people in a space station than other humans on land. I thought, mean, like it is, I remember the first time I crossed an ocean and hadn't seen land for days and suddenly thought about like the enormity of it and how if I fall in the water, I'm just this teeny tiny little speck of like a nobody and nothing. And there's a lot of things in this ocean with big teeth that I would be a tasty snack for. And it puts it, it's terrifying, but also awesome all at the same time. And it really makes, you know, we all get hung up so much on like silly things, like social media stuff and things that are not important. like, my nails look cute? Like, yeah, cute nails are great, but like, does it matter? No. ⁓ and there was, it was definitely interesting that whenever I did a big ocean crossing, there'd be certain people that I could not talk to. for two to three days because I needed to kind of like take my time to come back into to land just because of the kind of things that they they focused on and prioritized and got wound up by and I was like ⁓ my god you have no idea Trent: need a break. That's just, yeah, like, I mean, it's like everything in life, right? Like, we worry about, ⁓ did I buy the right hat? know? Is my beard trimmed correctly? Right? I don't, like, I just, look like a homeless person all the time, which is, you know, that's just me. ⁓ But like, people care so much about what people think, right? And like, how it affects them ⁓ is on a level that is just... Hannah Jenner: It's really not. Trent: to this day, like I guess probably now we're probably okay if we saw each other, but like if I would've saw those guys even a year after we broke up, two years, five years, I would like fuck you. Like I want nothing to do with you, right? Because it's like there's just so much pent up shit because you're around each other too fucking much. You know, I couldn't, so like I will also not go on a cruise because there's too many people on a boat and I don't trust it at all. Right? And you're. Hannah Jenner: ⁓ no. It's like, I've always thought about that. Like, you know, if something goes wrong, just shit show in the same way I always think about, like, I'm not scared of flying, but like, you know, there would be, there's been numerous times on boats where people are like, are we okay? And I'm like, yeah. And deep down I'm like, ⁓ fuck, I don't know. And I always wonder like with pilots, you know, when you get through turbulence, they're like, yeah, you know, everything should be fine. And you're like, are you actually out there like, fuck? Trent: You just, buttholes, pucker, and left and right. ⁓ Yeah, like, I won't go on a cruise because there's too many people and you're stuck on this fucking skyscraper that's turned sideways that somehow is floating. And if something goes wrong, everyone's gonna panic. Literally everybody. There's gonna be five people that are like keeping their shit together and it's like, well, no, here we are. And... Hannah Jenner: Did you see that documentary on Netflix about how rich cruiser was where like that sickness went round and like everyone got the shit someone's vomiting and like it was just everywhere. Nope. Trent: Yeah, and then they had a parking lot. Fucking awful. That's my luck. But see, being in cramped quarters with seven, 16 other people besides you, like, you have to sleep in shifts, right? Okay. Hannah Jenner: Yeah. So I mean, like that's, you're never, you're rarely all together at once unless like, it's kind of transition time and you're over in a briefing, all the shit's hitting the fan and we need all hands. So most of the time, you know, you'd be sleeping for four hours, working for four hours or, you know, a little bit more, a little bit less, depending on conditions. I think I was, I mean, I, I went hard on those people. I'm sure a lot of my crew were like, fuck you by the end of it. But one thing I said to them though, and like this was, I mean, talk about imposter syndrome. I was 27 years old, just 27 years old when we started that race. And a lot of my crew, mean, it's expensive to do this stuff. Like a lot of my crew were like forties, fifties, you know, directors of companies, CEOs, you know. people who were high up and important. And I was like, what do I know? It's just little old me. And I was like, I know the ceiling. I know the strategy. I know how to keep them alive. ⁓ so don't, don't be scared. But I remember distinctly saying to them when we first, I was first given my crew and we went into like breakout rooms and, I was like, look, you guys, I need to know honestly, I'm like, are you here for a good time? Do you want to get around the world and Or you're here to try and do your darnedest to win because there's a different approach here. And I was like, if we just want to go and have a good time and we don't care where we come, we just want to make it across the oceans and be like, Hey, I did that. Then we're probably going to end up finishing this race and hopefully you're kind of like me. But I was like, if you want to go out there and actually push, like really push to try and win or at least get on the podium, there's a good chance that a chunk of you are not going to like me by the end of this. Trent: Yeah. Hannah Jenner: And I was like, be honest, because this, this, this chat here sets the tone. And everybody kind of was like quiet. They're like, no, we want to push. And I was like, all right, just remember this moment. Yeah. And I'm sure there was a lot of times where people were just like, what have we got? We finished a leg of the race. We're like, fuck you, lady. Trent: Yeah, because I will throw it in your face. So ⁓ when you had your breaks, like decompression and all that stuff for sure, but like did you get to like go and cruise around, see what's there, do stuff? Like I know you said you had two weeks in Australia, but like in other places, like did you just get to like cruise around or are you just trying to recover? Hannah Jenner: a little bit but like often I mean some of the crew did for for us as captains there was like media commitment there was like repairs that had to be made to the boat ⁓ so you know you try your best to get downtime where possible but like Australia unfortunately like my family flew out ⁓ but we had had we sail we raced from Durban in South Africa to Australia and on the second day of that race, we actually had a man overboard in the middle of the night. And thank God it saved him. We got him back like just in the nick of the time. I honestly don't really know how. But we saved his life. So when we got to Australia, rather than kind of being like, ⁓ two week break, it was kind of a lot of debriefs and a lot of, you know, going through that and trying to make sure that everybody was OK because You know, Australia is only halfway around the world. And when you almost lose a crew member, like that, that shakes you to the core. I think it's the only time in my life where I was physically speechless for about 30 minutes after we got him back. Like, couldn't talk. Trent: I can't imagine. 27 years old. Start in gray. So other than that, because the next question I was going to ask you, what was the gnarliest thing that happened on either one of the times that you went? That was pretty gnarly. ⁓ How many bad, bad storms did you end up running into? Hannah Jenner: And I think this is also the damn day I started getting gray hair. Impressive. ⁓ I mean, a lot, like in the total of my career, I'd sailed nearly a quarter of a million miles and like cross the Atlantic Ocean 17 times. And I think one of the worst storms I've actually been in was not on the round the world race. was sailing from Brazil. No. Yeah. Brazil back to the UK in December. So, you know, the first part is kind of nice, warm, and then you get into the Northern Atlantic and it's horrible. And we, you know, this massive storm was rolling in and ⁓ my God, like the boat was 60 feet. The waves were significantly bigger and it was a really fast boat too. So we would just take it off down these waves and the holding on and it was so cold. And I mean, the good thing was though, is that I lost so much weight that I got home for Christmas and I could eat like a crazy person because I was like skinny as hell. But we also, think like before I ever sailed around the world, I was doing a race across from the UK to Boston and on the way back, we actually got hit by hurricane. And I think like I was, was a first mate, so like second in command at the time. And me and the guy who was captain, I think like we didn't sleep for over three days and we were both kind of just like none of the crew wanted to drive the boat. So it was kind of like on us and, and we were at the point of being just stupid. remember one night like, so you have all these digital displays, like, know, wind speeds and boat speeds and all of that stuff. So you get like, you know, little digital segments of numbers. The moon was full and like the clouds had all passed and there was still like white water from the waves. So the combination of zero sleep, the bright moon, all of these waves and the guy, the captain of the boat, like I was stood right next to him and he turns around to me and he goes, the anaconda ate the cheese. And I was like, right. Yeah. And then a couple of minutes later I was like, Wait, there's a fucking anaconda on the boat. Where is it? ⁓ my God. What? And he was like, what are you talking about? was like, you just told me that anaconda ate the cheese. Where's the anaconda? And I was like, we have cheese? And what had happened is he was so tired is that all the little segments of the numbers, the digital display had kind of come out of the displays and formed a snake. And then the moon was the cheese. and we were both so like and these poor people in the cockpit who were just scared shitless and holding on for dear life thinking that they're totally safe because we're driving the boat and where they're going ⁓ the anaconda jeez okay cool Trent: That's hilarious. Also, it's funny that like minutes later you're like, wait, what? There's a snake? What the fuck? It's ridiculous. Hannah Jenner: Yeah So I mean yeah, like I'd say some of the gnarliest experiences on boats have just come from like the extreme exhaustion. I mean, it really depends. Like, I was never good at it even in restful times because, you know, I was usually in charge. So I never wanted to like it to become calm. And then my crew to feel bad about waking me up. then because like we used to be, that was one of our best, you know, best skills as our team was getting people in light winds because, know, others would kind of just switch off and be like, ⁓ we'll just wait for the wind to come back. And I was like, nope, we've got to be on this. We gotta find the wind shifts. So I was never good at... I'm still not good at sleeping in general, but I was never good at like being able to just take little naps. Like I kind of pushed it to like exhaustion a lot. But yeah, it's the healthiest sport in the world. Like you get exhausted, you lose a shit ton of weight and then you get to shore and the first thing you do is eat a massive steak and drink beer until you feel like shit and then you do it all over again. You get grey hair. Trent: Yeah. And you get gray hair. know? So it's like win, win, win, win, win. No, not doing it. So, okay. After all that, when did you decide to retire from it? Hannah Jenner: great. Do it. So, after I'd been around the world, I then went, I was like, okay, I'm kind of peopled out. I'm gonna start short-handed sailing. So started racing across oceans with just one other person, ⁓ which sounds easier, but you you gotta be kind of careful because if it's just one person, you start hating them. That's difficult. So I did that for a lot, you know, started getting sponsorship deals and, you know, solo, well, short-handed racing. My goal had been to go solo around the world when I got back from my first trip around the world. But unfortunately the economy crashed and multi-million dollar sponsorship deals for solo sailing and not front and center for companies when the world's falling apart. So kind of change direction. And then I started to get into sailing on some American flag boats and doing like the Caribbean race circuit and then like stuff in Rhode Island and then, ⁓ the Transpac race, which runs from Long Beach, ⁓ to Hawaii and then became boat captain. I kind of transitioned from just like just sailing, like show up, sail, or get sponsored to go sail to having like a full-time job in sailing, like running the boat and I was race crew. And I started off on a boat in the East coast. Then I got headhunted to come out here and run this big fancy catamaran, which was really cool and really fun. But I had kind of started to get to that point of like, I'm feeling really burned out. And you know, when you do what any professional sports person will tell you that your career is everything and everybody else around you has to fit into that. And if they don't, they're gone. Like I went 15 years. never once saying yes to a birthday invite I think I made one wedding and my friend I was bridesmaid and it was actually one of the girls who was on my crew around the world and I was like okay I have an ocean race just before your wedding so do not rely on me for any kind of help and if that's cool with you I will just sail with my ass off to get to your wedding but also you need to pick a dress that's gonna be adjustable because I'll be skinny as hell by the time I get there and she was great and I made it but 15 years of just having very little life outside of sailing. I was in an 11 year relationship. We owned a home together in England and I walked away from that because I saw the career heading out to the US and you know, I'd I'd spent so much time in different places. A lot of times by myself when I started running boats, like, you know, go hang out in the BVI's for three months. It sounds great, but. It gets a little lonely. And I started to, I really wanted a fucking dog. Like I really wanted a dog. I've never wanted kids, but I've always wanted to have a dog and like, you can't do that when you're sailing. And I'd wanted, I'd started to want a home, you know, and I'd want, I wanted to do simple things like say yes to a barbecue on a Saturday. And so I'd kind of been about to pull the plug on sailing, got the gig out here. And the boat was so crazy and complicated. was like, well, I can't say no to that. was out, I think I moved out to California in 2015 and worked on that boat for a couple of years. And then that campaign was kind of going in a slightly different direction. And I was like, you know what? It's time. And I had met my now husband by then and we, you know, he had proposed and I was like, This is crazy. I can't just keep spending two days with you and then disappearing if this is ever gonna work. Like, I mean, we literally got married and two days later I got on a plane to Rhode Island. Well, we had the boat out the water so I had to go get it ready to go race down in the Caribbean. And so I was like, okay, this is it. And I was like, I have no freaking idea what happens next. And... you know we I remember we married we got married we immediately filed all the paperwork for like green card stuff because I knew that as soon as I quit the boat my visa is not it doesn't allow me to work anywhere else so it's kind of weird because you know most people get married and they're like ⁓ this is you know we're gonna set up our forever and I was like well we're gonna get married and now I'm I'm in the hands of the US government as to whether I can stay and I couldn't work for the best part of a year. And I went from this kind of crazy bouncing around all over the place, like I was very much in charge of everything to being like, I felt like I had no control and no direction. And that year, like post sailing and before I was like eligible to like go out there and find another job in another direction was probably the loneliest year of my life. Which is wild to say just after you got married. Mm-hmm. Yep. 100%. I mean the scary part of it was is like part of this kind of crazy push that I didn't realize until I was kind of forced into like this like abrupt stop and FYI you can't actually do anything else with your time apart from reflect which is a kick in the dick man like because I had been running and this is what really sparked the whole coaching thing is that I realized when I first got to Rhode Island I was like really fucked up from my relationship split up and I hadn't realized because I'd just been like ⁓ we're just moving we're moving we're gonna change country it's gonna be fine great Rhode Island everyone's there except for they weren't because it was winter and everybody I knew from sailing was in the Caribbean so it was lonely as fuck and I had too much time to think and that was when I was like ⁓ my god I am a mess and that's like being British like we don't like to talk about things like it's keep calm carry on Trent: I mean, anybody our age does not like talking about anything. Hannah Jenner: you know, stiff upper lip. ⁓ the weather's lovely. so I was like, you know, a couple of people like, maybe you should find a therapist. I'm like, I'm not talking to a fucking therapist. So I started a life coaching course cause I was like, maybe I can figure some stuff out and holy hell that's, that made me kind of assess some things. But I realized that I'd had a phenomenal 15 years and I had been driven by this kind of secret force of like, I didn't know where it was coming from and I realized it was because I had never unpacked all of the shit that went down that got me to be like starving myself to death, right? I had just been running and I had run into this crazy career where people just thought I was like so strong and you know, confident and inside I was not at all. And so that year of like no man's land was probably the most uncomfortable year of my life. But that's got what kind of got me curious about, you know, I kind of dug into that life coaching course and started to realize about like, making these connections and what makes me me and why is it so fucking uncomfortable to talk about, like if anybody ever, if I ever admitted my past to anybody, I kind of whispered it. couldn't physically say, yeah, I was anorexic out loud. Cause I thought people would just be like, you're useless. You're, you know, have this opinion of me. So, and then I was like, okay, well I love the life coaching course. What about, what else can I do? Like nutrition, let's learn about that. So then I did the precision nutrition level one and then I had so much time in my hand, I was going to the gym the whole time. And I was like, I'd actually taken my L1 CrossFit course when I was in Rhode Island, had never used it to coach, but I was, you know, they've come to gym in Santa Barbara, my first gym here, let me kind of take on some smaller classes. I wasn't paid for it to keep it kind of legal, but just to get experience. ⁓ and I was like, wow, this, this is a way, cause one thing I loved in sailing, especially with my crew who were amateurs, was seeing people who had no skills form into this phenomenal team that we did get on the podium, you know, that's no small effort, like watching their skills develop, not just like practical sailing skills, but their teamwork skills and their crisis management skills. And, and I loved that, like being able to shape people and inspire people and help people. So it was kind of like when I then was like, ⁓ Okay, there's this world of CrossFit and there's all these people that need a lot of help with, you know, how do I get fit and strong? How do I break these unhealthy habits? Like, how do I feel good? Because so many people don't even know how to feel good. And that kind of sparked the interest in like the coaching stuff. How old? ⁓ 34. So I, I, fortunately the school, like high school that I went to was all about academics. They loved you for being smart and sports was something that they did because they had to. And unless you were already like at a county level tennis player, cause mommy and daddy had a shitload of cash and had been teaching you since you were two, you know, it was kind of like, ⁓ go, go and hour of P and then let's get back to the intelligent stuff. So I never ins and And also like sport, you were only nurtured in sports at my school if you were a very outgoing person. And I was very, very shy, cripplingly shy. So, you know, one little mistake on the hockey field and I'm dumb. Like I just want to hide and be like, ⁓ no. And that, you know, there was just not, I don't know whether there wasn't the knowledge or there just wasn't the emphasis on this is an important part of your development. So I never thought of myself. in any way athletic. And then I got sick. And then I got into sailing and somehow like figured out a way to do that. it was towards the end of my career, I had been racing. I'd done the race from Long Beach to Hawaii. We had set a record. We spent five days like celebrating. And then I got the plane or flew back to the UK. So like five hours to L.A. and then 10 hours back to London. I had drunk red wine and stuff on the plane and felt like shit. And my friend was like, hey, so I'm trying this new like fitness thing. I'm going to pick you up from the airport and then we're to go to the class. And I was like, fuck, really? Because you got to love it. And I was like, OK. And you know, I'd been to a regular gym. you know, enjoyed it. I'd done some, you know, classes as my mom would call it, keep fit classes. But I walked into this CrossFit gym and I was like, what the fuck happens here? Because it was like. empty space, some pull-up bars, a couple of rowers and a couple of barbells. I'd never touched a barbell in my life. And I was like, what'd you do in here? Like, it's just like empty. And I remember the coach was like, all right, we're going to do baseline. And I was like, what's that? So he wrote it up on the board. What is that? Like 500 meter row and then 40 pushups, 30 sit-ups, 20 something and finish it with 10 pull-ups. It's like a benchmark kind of thing. And I was like, well, that seems fine. So I got through it having flown all that time and drunk red wine on the plane and stuff and was dying. Like the workout took me like six and a half minutes. And it was the time when like on the gym, they had this big old board with everybody's PRs and like the, ⁓ that workout was up there. And I was like, how did I do? And he pointed up at the board and I, my score was shit. Like my time was absolutely terrible. And I looked at my friend and I'm like, the fuck is this place? And I felt, you know, I had Fran lung like crazy. And then I woke up the next day and I was like, I need to do this again. This is great. So like I had kind of started to dabble in CrossFit a few years before I finished, but I could never be consistent because I'd go for like a handful of weeks and then I'd be gone for two months. And then I'd go somewhere else for a week or something. And then then I'd be gone. So I never really had enough time to like. learn how to do a clean and jerk properly or, you know, figure out kipping pull ups or anything like that. but I wish that CrossFit had been a big deal when I was growing up, cause I feel like it would have been something I loved. Trent: ⁓ my God, it hurts so bad and it's like, I played hockey for a long, time and I was very fit when I played hockey, but ⁓ this was just different, right? And I was like, okay, I wanna see what this is all about. And then ⁓ following week, we went to a free class on a Saturday and I think I was six minutes into the MetCon and I was outside throwing up and I was like, this is bullshit. And I was like, I was offended that I was so unfit and I was like, you know what, fuck this. Like, I'm gonna stick with this. Hannah Jenner: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yay. I think it's being able to drown out distractions. Like, it was clear to me early on that if I wanted to do what I said I was gonna do and go sail around the world, those friends who were like, hey, why don't we go out and party on this Friday night or this Saturday night or whatever when I knew there was an opportunity to go sailing, that I'd have to just shut that down. I'd be like, nope. I'm going ignore that noise because this is more important. And that's not to say that that can never happen, but I got to focus like the ability to focus on what is important and not get distracted and the ability to be able to, I think like multitask and prioritize, right? Cause we're all constantly juggling a lot of things. And if you're like, ⁓ squirrel, ⁓ squirrel, like then it's You know, you're never going to, to, to, to achieve anything phenomenal. It just takes a lot of focus. And I think understanding, like having a really strong why. And I think my why for sailing was not a healthy why I have a much healthier why now for like why I love to coach and why I want to build on that. But yeah, I mean, drowning out the noise of distractions I think is it's you have to be able to do that if you're going to be able to focus on on what you want to do. Trent: for real. I agree so much. ⁓ I also think that it takes a different type of will that most people, it's either you're born with it or you're not, right? Like you can teach people how to work hard, ⁓ but you can't teach people how to appreciate the work that they're doing, right? Does that make sense? So it's like, I will work my ass off. ⁓ I'm very good at tasks. ⁓ I have ADHD super bad, so I get distracted during Hannah Jenner: Yep. Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But I think I felt for a long time, I neglected to think or neglected to understand that as much as, you know, you need to be focused and you need to work your ass off, that there needs to be some balance in there too. And I think like, that's one of the reasons I, when I retired, I was so burned out because it had just been like for 15 years. And finally I was like, fuck. And I retired and everyone was like, do you to go sailing? I'm like, I don't even want to see a damn boat. ⁓ but I think, you know, focus, but now I'm learning about the importance of being able to check in. And I also think like back, back in the day, cause I'm so old now, I was like, you're either, you're either like this high performing person and you're getting it done or you're a nothing. And I'm like, now I'm like, well, hold on. If everyone in the world is hammering away to try and be like this thing, well, that, you know, it takes all sorts, right? And I know, I always used to think that like somebody asked me when I was young, you know, what would make you content? And I was like, if I am ever content, that'll be the day I die. And now I think that's kind of sad. I'm like, I want to be content, you know, like I snuggle my dogs on a Saturday on the couch, just I'm content. It's great. But I think, you I hate to say it, but I think at some points I probably almost looked down on people who weren't chasing after some massive dream who were just happy doing their thing and living their life and not being all here and there and everywhere and always at extremes. But there's a lot to be learned from them too. And I'm like, you know, I really do believe that it does take all sorts. And like you said, like some people are just born with this need to get shit done. And other people are like, I'm good. Like I'm just having, you know, enjoying my ride. Whatever this life gives me, I'm good. And I'm like, okay, good for you too. Cause I think if you tried to force, mean, as much as like, you know, going back to what I said earlier, I feel like I chased after this, you know, carrot in front of me for slightly the wrong reasons, but it was inherent in me that I was going to do something like that. You know, it wasn't forced. if, I think even, you know, if you asked my sister, would you go out and do something like that? It would probably be a hard freaking no. Like we're, different people. We want different things out of life. So yeah, you can't force this kind of thing, whatever it is. Right? Trent: And it's like, I try to go till I die, but like, she's like picking me up and dragging me, she's like, come the fuck on, like, how do you still have how do you still have juice of this? I don't understand, right? So what do you think about like, suffering on like a way that is getting you to your goals? Hannah Jenner: It's interesting because like when you're talking about like suffering and workouts like in CrossFit Depending on what it is like sometimes I'll suffer hard, but a lot of the time I go like And then so in 2024, but also what I've learned about myself, which is kind of fucked up is that I'm really good at like long term, the long suffer. Like I'm an endurance athlete, you know, the CrossFit, the super painful short term suffer fest death. Like, no, I'm not good at that. And I think because there's a part of me that's like, I'm never going to win this race because I'm just not built like that allows me to go, no. And so like in 2024, when I knew that I was like having some shoulder problems and it ended up being like two shoulder surgeries, like I had done the open and then I had gone to quarterfinals and I remember like, I love to do strict handstand pushups. And I was excited to see them in a workout and I couldn't fucking do them because I was in so much pain. And like I knew that something was had it's been kind of brewing for a few years and I was like, it's really like crescendoing now to a point where I can't ignore it. So I was like, okay, I need, I need something to focus on so that I don't feel shit about myself in the gym. Cause all of these things that I was good at or starting to get, I'm starting to like fail at which sucks. So I decided. out of the blue one day that running a trail ultra marathon was clearly the way to go. So I could just suffer for a 10 minute CrossFit workout, but I was like, no, let's go run a 50 K in the mountains. That seems like a plan. So, and yeah. And also things with big teeth that might want to eat you, you know, So I was like, okay, so this is a good distraction. So I kind of focused on that. Like I did the quarter finals and then sort of went more into like, I'm going to running train for a while to see if the break gives the shoulders like less pain. And I remember doing one, one of my last training runs in Santa Barbara that year, it rained a lot here. And luckily there was somebody else with me. ⁓ and we had planned this run. I don't know if you. been up like rattlesnake Canyon up the mountain all the way along the top of the mountains and then back down old St. Marcos road. like we, we parked one car and then drove the other one to the start. And we knew like, of course the rainstorm was going to line up nicely with that run. I was like, look, it's not meant to rain until 11 AM. If we start at like seven, we should be most of the way done by the time it starts raining. So we'll be fine. And I was going to just go in a t-shirt and shorts and then the day before I was like, maybe I should buy a rain jacket. So we start running up Rattlesnake Canyon and it starts raining at like 8 a.m. and then we get up onto Gibraltar Road and it wasn't just raining but it was like howling wind and the kind of cold where you're like, I can't breathe but it's fine, we're fine, I'm fine. So we're like running up Gibraltar just like this is really stupid and my pace was a little faster than hers so I was running and then I was like trying to hide behind a rock. to stay out of the weather and wait for her. And then I got like, I think it was about sort of 15 miles into the run. And I just got to the point where I'm like, I'm fucked. Like I can't stop and wait because I am going to die of hypothermia. And I've had hypothermia twice. So was like, I know what's coming. So I was like running down painted cave road and I was trying to like call a friend, but there's so much rain everywhere and my fingers are all swollen. I couldn't like make my phone work. And then eventually I managed to like, call a friend. He's like, I'm working, but try my girlfriend. And like, I literally was just like, painted Cape road, SOS sharing location and managed to share location. And then she got the message and she actually, I was within a mile of my car, but like she picked me up and I got in the car and I was shaking so much. Like I couldn't, she brought me coffee. I couldn't hold onto the coffee. And then we drove back up the mountain and found my friend. And, and I was like, what the fuck am I doing? Like, and then it w we were like, weeks out from the race and initially the forecast was like 70-something degrees in the race and I was worried that it would be too hot and it turns out that the race day it was 50 degrees and raining and it started raining when I started and seven hours later when I finished it stopped raining but because I'm that stubborn little shit and I had been out there and put myself in the shit before and I was like well I can survive even though it sucks I won the fucking race So like, I can suffer in an endurance sense, but in the short, sharp suffering of CrossFit, like I suck at it. Yeah, no. I think because like I know that it needs a long enough time where I know that other people are gonna start breaking down up here like mentally just getting too dark and I know that like that's almost the point where I'm like now we go it's like if there's ever like a 30 plus minute workout in CrossFit which is rare but when I do it to people on Saturday mornings like you see people get to like 20 minutes in and they're like holy shit what is happening we don't go to this point and at 30 minutes I'll be like all right let's go Let's go! That's also where it's like, you know, when you study more about like, certainly from like studying nutrition and body types and all the rest of it and learning about energy systems, and then you can start to learn about like, oh, like I literally hadn't before learning all that stuff, like it's, you know, it was during CrossFit and I was like, yeah, I'm big and strong. And then was clearly in the context of CrossFit. I'm not like I'm a little shrimp and that's fine, you know, but when you understand, you know, the more, you know, right. I know that I'm not. big power output athlete but give me something that goes long great I know that I can excel there so then you can start to like play with things you can manage your expectations you can know like where your weak points are and why like I've always like had a joke like I'm probably at this point in life not gonna get wildly stronger but I can improve technique and stuff if I can hold on to what I've got I'm gonna the games when I'm 60 I just need weights to come down a little bit to meet me where I'm at. It is the hard question. What is the meaning of life? I, I'm not entirely sure. And what I love about the fact is that I can say that now and not freak out about it. Cause I think, you know, I was always being in control of absolutely fucking everything was always just such a feature of my life. The Now I'm kind of like, you know what? I'm not entirely sure what the next five years, 10 years will look like. I've definitely the last couple of years enjoyed, you know, lots of shit going on, taking, you know, enjoying downtime and not constantly being like, we've got to do something else. We've got to start something new. We've got to be here. We there just being like, well, let's just go with the flow for a bit. But starting, like I said earlier, starting to feel that little itch that needs scratching of like, yeah I need something to chase after. I'm doing All 30 Masters competition this Sunday, which is just super fun. Just a bunch of masters athletes. My partner is actually, it's her first, she just turned 35. So it's her first ever Masters competition and I cannot wait to see her face when she rocks up to see who she's up against. I'm like, there is amazing. The first time I ever did this competition, their bathroom is just filled with like Advil. Tiger Bomb. Like all this shit where you're like, yep, there's a bunch of old people working out. It's great. So we got that. That's down, it's kind of LA area. ⁓ and then I'm going to do the monster games qualifiers with Aki, who was my partner at, ⁓ Waterpalooza because they actually have a master's division. So we don't have to, if we make it, we don't have to compete with the kids. ⁓ yeah, right. ⁓ and then I'm not really sure after that. Not sure. Just, I feel like I want to do something that scares me a little bit, like a lifting me or something that would scare me. I mean, I think that was a one and done. I mean, it was super like, there's something really freeing about running. I know everybody goes, but like you do get to a point where, know, you start and everything hurts. You're like, ⁓ my God, I can't do this. And then you run through all the pain. And then it's just like, wow, I've covered all of these miles on my own feet. And it's like the most primal kind of form of human exercise, just being free and running. And it's pretty freaking cool. You know, when you, cover a massive distance, you're like, wow, I did that. Trent: Me and you are also different in that aspect. I ran a half marathon and I will never do it again. Ever. Hannah Jenner: I've run so I've run Pier to Peak which is in Santa Barbara which is from the pier up to the highest point here so it's basically all the way uphill half marathon I've run the New York Marathon and I've run a Trail Ultra so I think and I'm one and done with all of those things The trouble with running is that it just, if you're going to do it and you're not going to fuck yourself up, the training just takes a long time. Like I was running at 5 a.m. for like an hour and a half, like in the dark and it freaks me out. Trent: At least you were, like, were you training for that in Santa Barbara? At least it was in Santa Barbara. Like, when I was running and training for my half, it was in Berkeley, and I was running at night, and I'm like, I'm gonna get shot in the face. This is gonna be great. You know, this is exactly what I want. Hannah Jenner: I was just like, I'm gonna get eaten by a rabid coyote or a mountain lion. I was convinced one time I was running up, practicing running up the mountain. Like, you know, like, sorry, that's my dog playing with a toy. ⁓ I was like, I could hear rustling in the bushes and I was just like, it's nothing, it's fine. And then I'd read a bit more and I'd hear more and I was like, I'm being stalked. ⁓ my God. Trent: Yep. And there's so many mountain lions in the hills of Santa Barbara, it's not even fucking funny. It's dumb, for sure. ⁓ I cannot thank you enough for coming on and hanging out with me for an hour and 18 minutes and being my first guest on this lovely podcast. For sure. ⁓ I'm also gonna get ⁓ quite a, I'm gonna get some episodes under my belt and I would definitely love to have you back. And then we're going to probably like. Hannah Jenner: Yep. honor and a privilege. Love that. ⁓ It is. ⁓ I fed him before. was like, hopefully that'll keep him quiet. Yes you are. Well, I'm going to be in Seattle for one evening in August, so. I Thank you. Bye.