If you’re having trouble getting yourself out of bed on a cold morning to get out for a walk or a run, you should look to Michelle Kakade for inspiration.
On the 21st October, this 46-year-old homemaker from Pune set out from Mumbai on a gruelling mission: to run 6,010 km, covering 57 major cities on the Golden Quadrilateral (the national highway network connecting Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata).
That’s the equivalent to 143 marathons. Ms Kakade plans to achieve this goal over 164 stages in 181 days, and get herself into the Guinness Book of World Records. She is doing this with a small support crew (five people, including husband Anil).
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She began running after she lost a close friend. “I wondered if I were to die tomorrow, what is it in life that would make me stand out from a regular person. Why not use passion of running and create a different identity for myself?” She was also keen to overcome stereotypes about Indian women: “Even in metro cities, forget rural areas, women are not able to come into their own.”
“I discovered my passion very late in life,” she told The Hindu during a halt in Delhi. “It just happens that it is running. It makes me feel alive and gives me the satisfaction of doing something out of the box. My runs have brought me in touch with people through whom I have been able to learn a lot.”
On starting to run late in life, she says, “In India, once you hit 40 people tend to think their life is over. In the West, the thought process is different. These are the golden years, setting out on paths which are very different. We need to imbibe means of expressing yourself in a different way. It is a period of discovery actually.”
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Ms Kakade’s long road of self-discovery has taken her around the world. She is the only woman to have run 256-kms in the Sahara desert. She also is the only Indian to get a membership of the Four Desert Club, having run the 250-km across Atacama Crossing (Chile), Gobi March (China), Sahara (Egypt) and the last desert in Antarctica.
How does her current effort compare with these runs? For one, here she has to contend with the exhaust fumes vehicles on the highway, whereas in the desert, “you feel like the last person on this planet.” Of course those desert runs weren’t easy: “In the middle of wilderness there are no creature comforts. … Water is at a premium. You just get enough to manage your hydration needs, can’t even wash your face if you are feeling hot and sweaty, lugging a 15-kg back-pack.”
The distance she is attempting to cover in her epic India run is much longer than her previous efforts, there are some consolations: “Over here, at the end of the day, I have a bed to sleep in and water to shower with.”
As part of her Golden Quadrilateral run, Ms Kakade also has a programme for first-time runners under the ‘Run with Michelle-5K’ plan in 14 major cities.
Meanwhile, she also has the to make sure her record-setting effort is properly documented and recorded. At every major city, she must seek official confirmation of her presence — “It is a Guinness requirement” — but getting an official witness can be tough. What she usually encounters is some bewilderment and a barrage of questions of the “Kyon? Kya? Kab?” (Who? What? When?) variety. So, to validate her landmarks, she gets photographs of herself taken at city railway stations, and wears a GPS device that helps Guinness authorities record her progress.
She is the only Indian to get a membership of the four Desert Club having run 250 km