An entrepreneur from Greater Manchester completed 100 marathons in 100 days on Tuesday.
Hannah Cox, 41, founder and director of The Better Business Network, ran over 2,600 miles through India’s Inland Customs Line in 100 days, having never previously run a marathon before.
The runner, originally from Croydon, raised more than £81,000 for environmental charities.
Ms Cox said: “I feel really good, the challenge has been life-affirming.
“I’ve come out of it a completely different person - someone said I’m smiling too much.”
She was joined by Natalie Smith, Alex Fowler and Joel Chevailler who supported her along the multi-month journey.
Ms Cox felt “absolutely horrendous” at points during the 100-day-long endurance challenge, with her hardest day being day 40.
She said: “We had still not raised enough money to fund the trip.
Hannah Cox raised £81,000 for charity
|PROJECT SALT RUN
“I was just thinking, ‘what am I doing?’ I felt like giving up and cried for an hour by the side of the road.
“It was so so difficult, but hundreds of people had already supported us, so I couldn’t let them down.”
Her teammate, Ms Smith, encouraged her to continue on and shortly after, Ms Cox received a donation of £10,000 from British company, Exhale Coffee, which she described as a “random act of kindness”.
On top of not having run a marathon before, Ms Cox completed the challenge whilst managing scoliosis.
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Hannah and her team, Joel, Natalie and Alex
|PROJECT SALT RUN
During her 30s, Ms Cox had to wear a back brace for 18 months after being on 30 painkillers a day for back pain, which meant she’d never physically challenged herself before.
Deciding to make a change in her life, Ms Cox set her sights on completing an endurance challenge, which was initially a joke between her and a friend.
The challenge, named Project Salt Run, was in aid for fundraising for various environmental charities, as Ms Cox was inspired by her nieces and nephews, wanting to ensure the world is a safer, more secure place for them.
After receiving “silence” from various sustainable businesses Ms Cox thought would be interested in donating to the cause, it was actually “normal people who donated what they could”.
Ms Cox said: “The amount of people supporting us became more important than the total.
“It just shows how generous British people can be.”
Ms Cox had been planning a trip to India for a while, ever since her father, Deric Cox passed away in 2011, who was born in Kolkata, India.
Having traced her Indian ancestry back to 1799, Ms Cox wanted to travel the route of the Inland Customs Line, which runs vertically through a significant part of India.
The Inland Customs Line was developed by the British as a way to stop salt smuggling from the coast inland and to ensure the collection of the salt tax which they had imposed.
Covering over 2,500 miles, the line formed into a living hedge that grew as high as 12ft and was compared to the Great Wall of China.
The Customs Line was abandoned by the British in 1876, when the British seized control of the salt lake in Rajasthan and applied tax at the point of source.
Ms Cox said one of the most notable things about India was the people’s “curiosity” to her as a foreigner.
She said: “People would stop me and ask what I was doing, they would bring me food and water.”
An Indian MP was waiting for Ms Cox at one of the checkpoints and presented her with a ribbon scarf, a sign of respect in India.
“The generosity was insane and there is a lot of love for England and Britain there,” said the endurance runner.
Ms Cox has been invited to a memorial event tomorrow in Kolkata, celebrating 75 years since Queen Elizabeth II visited the city.
She said: “Everyone is buzzing about it.”