Dandi Salt Challenge 2019 .. a unique event that was not to be

The Dandi Salt challenge event interested me from the time I heard about it in the middle of 2018. It seemed like a unique concept to run/cycle/walk the entire 401Km historic route from Sabarmati ashram to Dandi beach. I also saw this as an opportunity to participate in my 1st multi-day event - specially as the race director was good friend and wonderful runner and coach Dan Zico from Mumbai. Having decided to make a call after TMM 2019 I was keen on participating in DSC to put the disappointment of my timing there behind me.  

However, I did not want to risk injury by attempting the 19 HMs solo. Therefore, within two weeks of TMM I started looking for 1-2 team mates and also test out my body's ability to do at least 7 consecutive HMs. I spread the word for team mates in various running groups in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad and also registered with the organisers in case there were other runners who had contacted them looking for team mates.  As far as training is concerned , I ran a HM everyday from Tuesday 5th February to Monday 11th February hitting my highest ever mileage in a 7 day period by a huge margin. Of course, I ran consciously slow. In fact, my goal was to run between 2:30 and 3hrs. However, I ended up with timings of 2:15, 2:17, 2:19,2:22,2:21, 2:30 and 2:23. That is, I found it quite challenging keep my pace to finish close to 2:30. While I was fairly fatigued by the 6th day I still could not run at 2:45 pace. A couple of learnings for me were:

a) confirmation that my body is unlikely to handle two HMs a day 12 hours apart thereby ruling out participation as a solo runner

b) The body should be able to handle 10 or even more consecutive HMs if done at between 2:30 and 2:45 pace with adequate time spent on foam rolling and stretching every day

With two runners from Hyderabad confirming their interest in participation I was very excitedly looking forward to the event and planning my travel. Fortunately, I deferred booking the travel tickets to the week of Feb 25th. However, before that , due to the unfortunate events in J&K and the ensuing climate in the country, the organisers rightfully decided to cancel the event for this year. While being extremely disappointed with this I do empathise with Dan and his organising team  - they have a spent considerable effort and money in putting this together and must be quite heartbroken. Hopefully, the event does take place next year and I am able to participate.

Meanwhile, I have decided to take a  break from running during the month of March while replanning my goals and events for the year culminating in another shot at BQ in Jan/Feb 2020!! .