Crowded around a kitchen table in Wales during the May bank holiday I heard a woman talking about a project to run 100 marathons in 100 days across India.
She was one of about 15 women in the room who were preparing for an all-female Paddy Buckley round the next day (which I wrote about here).
I had never met Hannah Cox before but I immediately wanted to know more. What had motivated the 41-year-old to take on this challenge as someone who didn’t run?
It was an incredibly ambitious project filled with history, personal connection and a longing to protect the planet - I simply had to find out more.
I finally got to sit down and chat to Hannah about Project Salt Run four months later, just before she headed out from her narrowboat in Manchester to India on October 20.
Tell me about this crazy project. What is Project Salt Run?
So it’s going to be 100 marathons in 100 days. The length of the hedge I am running is 4,030 kilometres. It finishes in the state of Odisha (Orissa), and I’m planning to continue to run to my dad’s childhood home in Kolkata (Calcutta) rounding up to 4,200km.
What is the significance of the hedge?
The hedge was part of the Inland Customs Line, a man-made barrier built by the British across India in the 19th century. It wasn’t like an ordinary garden hedge, in places it was 16 feet high and 18 feet deep, made of thorny acacia and other plants and patrolled by more than 12,000 officers. Its sole purpose was to stop people moving untaxed salt. Salt was heavily taxed under British rule, and the hedge was a way of controlling and restricting access. It cut across villages, fields, and entire communities, nature itself turned into a tool of oppression.
So why did you decide to run along the hedge?
I guess a lot of the run for me is giving myself an opportunity, maybe to give a bit of a love letter to India, learn a bit more about the country.
My dad passed away in 2011 when I was 26 and he was born in India, moved over here when he was six years old. I’m the first generation immigrant. So I was really interested in learning about colonial history. In 2015 I read a book called The Great Hedge of India and it was just the craziest story I’d ever read. Who builds a massive hedge when you could build something man made? It was bigger than the Great Wall of China and created by the British and everyone’s completely forgotten about. I just thought it was a fascinating story and yet there was nothing online about it. And I said to myself, when I do go to India, I want to go see if there’s any remnants of this hedge.
A friend said jokingly that I should run it. And then coincidentally I met Nina Davies who told me about the Green Runners and said she had just qualified as a running coach that day. That’s kind of where the story started. Within about three days, I’m at Bristol running show telling people I’m running across India.
There was lots that the British did that was pretty brutal and awful and I think you sometimes do need to remember what’s happened in the past, so we don’t make the same mistakes in the future. So much salt was being extracted from India and taken out and sent over to the UK that the Indian government were actually buying salt from Cheshire and having it shipped over to India.
And who are you fundraising for?
We’re fundraising for charities that are doing great work for people and the planet. So there’s the element of us trying to raise awareness of some charities that are doing some amazing things to make the world a better place. There’s the story we’re trying to tell of empowerment, that we can all do difficult things when it comes to the climate crisis and climate change.
We’re fundraising for four different charities, the main one being 1% for the Planet and then the Big Change, ClientEarth and Frank Water which is a water charity that does lots of work in India around water conservation. So all three of those charities are 1% for the Planet charities as well.
Where did the name Project Salt Run come from?
The name Project Salt Run is something I came up with. It reflects both the historic context of the salt tax and hedge, and the modern endurance challenge I’m undertaking. Gandhi’s Salt March in 1930 is often remembered as a pivotal moment of resistance, but the Inland Customs Line has largely been forgotten. This project is about bringing that story back to life in a new way.
How have you been preparing?
I basically went from not running at all in May last year to now definitely being able to call myself an ultra runner. I did the coast to coast across the UK in June this year.
I’ve been setting myself some challenges every month. I was doing 20k a day weekdays for 20 days and 20 minute strength conditioning at the weekends, which we called the 20 20 20 challenge. At the moment, I’m training five days a week, doing running alongside strength training and heat training.
How did you work out the route?
There’s only one map in the whole world that we know of. It’s in the British Library. It’s from 1874. So we took pictures of it and then mapped it out on Google Earth. We’ve created the only digital copy of the Inland Customs Line. Most of it will be road running.
Is this a world first?
As far as I know, no one has ever attempted to run the full length of the Inland Customs Line. There are some references to research expeditions and local travel along parts of the route, but running 100 marathons in 100 days along the line is a world first.
What will logistics look like on the ground?
I’m lucky that I have worked in events for 20 years so I have been raising money to get to the start line. We’re going to be a very small team all staying in one vehicle, eating on the road. We’re calling it the dirt bag expedition.
There will be four of us going out from the UK, and then we’ll have an Indian driver with us. Natalie has been part of the project since the beginning and Alex is a podiatrist so he’ll be really looking after my feet. And then Joel, who is a documentary filmmaker and also an expert in over land expedition will be doing all the ops and logistics and filming as well.
We’ve been given loads of advice and ideas on how we can run safely on the trip. The vehicle will actually be driving behind me while I’m running along the road and we’ll have a bicycle, so someone will be cycling alongside me.
Pick of the Week
Back in 2017 when I first started running my bestie bought me this NOTCH bracelet with one ring on it saying: 1000km in 2017. Since then I have collected notches for my most significant races. This week I added my Equinox 24 notch to the band which also includes Tanzania 250km, my first triathlon and 1st female at a 100km event.
You can personalise the bracelets however you want and each notch is a great reminder of a proud moment or a fond memory.
Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. Send feedback to lilycanter@yahoo.co.uk or suggest topics you’d like me to cover.
