Inspiration
He ran 4416 km to raise awareness and funds for disadvantaged girls’ education
Australian ultra-marathoner, Pat Farmer’s arduous 4416 km trek spanning the entire North-South corridor of India and 64 days has just concluded. He undertook this gruelling journey to raise funds and awareness for the education of disadvantaged girls’.
Australia’s ultra-marathon great Pat Farmer has completed his 64-day Indian odyssey – surviving a second-day hospitalisation and weather extremes to complete the arduous 4416km trek.
He ran 80-85km each day – equivalent to two full marathons – for more than 2 months in travelling from the south to the north of the country to raise funds and awareness for disadvantaged girls' education.
The 54-year-old captured imaginations and hearts on the way, often looking like a new-age Forrest Gump with up to 200 locals running with him at any given time.
As well as making it a diplomatic mission meeting with government ministers and officials, Farmer was allowed access to India's most revered iconic attractions and rituals – all of which will be shown in a film being made of the epic trek.
"I'm absolutely elated," he said on Tuesday after crossing the finish line to a rousing applause in Srinagar. "It's been a hell of a journey. Sometimes it's been incredibly arduous and other times it's been magnificent. "I've seen things and done things here that you don't get to do as a tourist, so I feel very blessed."
Farmer finished his `Spirit of India' run a day in advance after upping his pace to avoid rockslides and mudslides in the Kashmir Mountains that threatened to cut roads into his Srinagar finish line.
"I was worried that they might postpone the finish for a week," he said. "I was absolutely desperate to make sure that didn't happen."
It could have, and possibly should have, been over on day 2 of his trip when the former federal MP was hospitalised and put on an IV drip after suffering from severe dehydration, heat exhaustion and muscle meltdown.
But on the dint of sheer determination Farmer was back on the road the very next day and ran between 10-14 hours every day since, running past many vehicles – from buses to scooters to donkey-drawn carts – on congested Indian roads.
When asked besides physical training, what helped him to keep going, he said, "To do this sort of job in a country like this you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable."
"Most days I've been running with really severe stomach cramps. That sort of thing makes it really difficult to get the job done."
Now that he has accomplished the seemingly impossible, Farmer says he's most looking forward to a hot bath, cold ale and the Maroubra sand. Looks like a well deserved one, Mate!!!