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I met an amazing 53-year old British lawyer Chris Parsons yesterday at Bombay Stock Exchange. What is so special about him ? He has decided to undertake a 1260 km walk starting Gateway of India in Mumbai to Bangalore Goa, Mangalore and Mysore in 30 days to raise $1 million for charitable organization Loomba Foundation for improving the lives of Indian widows and children. He will embark on 30 marathons in 30 days from January 10 till February 7, 2015, walking 42 kms a day. His road trip and the cause has received many supporting hands. Newly elected Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis has agreed to flag off the event at Gateway of India in Mumbai.
Chris is a partner of UK based law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. He has very close connect with India, visiting frequently for last 10 years to meet clients and also to teach in Indian law schools,
From the sideline of Loomba Foundation’s Conference yesterday I got opportunity to speak to Chris and asked about his proposed walk. ‘Why 30 days and 30 Marathons in a row ?’ Says he , ‘Next year I will be completing 30 years in my law firm so I thought to do something different. Why not to conduct 30 marathons in 30 days for a cause which is dear to my heart and for my friend Raj Loomba,”
Chris has already done a cycle trip for Charity. In the year 2011, he set off on a cycling expedition from London to Gibraltar covering over 2000 km to raise $200,000 for The Loomba Foundation. He headed east across France, brave Germany’s Black Forest, cross the Austrian Alps, dip his pedals into Italy, turn left into Slovenia, speed across flat northern Italy, soaking up the South of France’s sunshine, cross the Pyrenees and relish Spain’s fantastic roads to finish at Europa Point in Gibraltar with amazing views across to north Africa.
When I ask him that how he is preparing for this marathon walk, he says, ‘I chatted to Alastair Humphreys, he gave me some advice around what I should wear. He said that it’s great because you can drink that sweet Indian Chai as you’re walking to give you energy. Drinking sugary fizzy drinks is also good. I’m being supported by energy drink Gatorade from Pepsi group so I’m going to taking that regularly. I was in touch with Sarah Botham (Ian Botham’s daughter) who manages her dad’s walking. Her advice was that I should break in a number of pairs of shoes which is what I’m doing. And the other advice I got was to not change my diet significantly. Stick with eating the same sorts of things that I’ve been eating previously. The other bit of support I’ve got is a physiotherapist and Apollo Hospitals, who are one of the biggest hospital groups in India, are kindly going to make a physio available. Inevitably I’m going to have aches and pains. My calves are going to be hurting and y shins are going to be hurting. My hips and frankly the rest of my body also take a toll just because of the effort. Hopefully at the end of each day I’m going to have some help and support and a massage to help the process. Apollo have also kindly said that I can have access to one of their doctors as well in case I get ill and also a nutritionist. Sooner rather than later I need to have a chat with the nutritionist about what I should be eating. One of the issues that I’m uncertain about is how much calorie intake and the sort of food I should be eating on a daily basis to enable me to walk a marathon a day. So I’m slightly less clear about that.’
What about your feet? Are you going to wear any particular shoes or treat them in any particular way after each walk?
I’m walking on roads so it’s not off-road and I’ve been advised by a number of people to wear trainers. I’m going to be wearing Asics trainers, which is what I use to run in. Alastair Humphreys put me in touch with a company in Fulham called Profeet and they make custom built insoles which he says help with body posture and shin and calf difficulties. So I’ve been training with a pair of these insoles which you can change from shoe to shoe. So there is that aspect. The other thing that I’ve been experimenting with is different pairs of socks because a number of people have said to me that blisters can be a big issue and could really impact my ability to do the walk. That’s because when your feet get wet and sweat a lot, the skin becomes very rubbery and can break easily. So I’ve been trying different socks that hopefully whittle away the sweat from my feet and keep them dry. I’ll probably change my socks 2 or 3 times a day to help with that.How are you going to eat while walking?
I need to get some clear advice from the nutritionist from Apollo Hospitals. I’m going to have some snack bars in a day pack so I can eat as I’m going along. Eating bananas and apples will be good. Drinking Chai with lots of sugar in it will be helpful. I’ll have a decent breakfast. I’ll maybe have a snack mid morning. I’ll have a vegetable curry or something similar at lunchtime. Possibly even have a short sleep after lunch just to restore the energy and then walk again in the afternoon. I’m probably going to be walking with breaks for about 12 hours each day. I’ll probably start at around 5.30 or 6 in the morning and then walk through ultimately until 5.30 or 6 in the evening. Then I’ll get taken to a small guest house. I’ll eat early and be in bed early hopefully having done my blog first.
How big is the team that is going to accompany you and what are their roles?
I’ll probably have phone access to a doctor and a nutritionist and, they’ll be available if I need them. I hope that the physiotherapist will be available each day for me. Whether that means they will actually travel with me in the car or not I haven’t got down to that level of detail yet but that may happen. I’ve got a support car which is being provided by Gatorade, part of the Pepsi company. The car will carry my clothes, walking stuff, spare shoes, snacks and drinks. At the end of each day at the end of each marathon they will drive me to the nearest guest house or hotel which hopefully we will have pre-booked along the route.
I’ve got 2 gentlemen helping me in Mumbai who’ve been working on the route for me. One guy is called Shreerang and the other is called Kumar. People call Kumar Google on Indian roads and he runs a highway blog. He has produced a wonderful spreadsheet indicating where I’ll start each day, where I’ll finish and where I’m likely to pass through, the exact kilometers and where I’ll stay each evening.
Q. Did the 30 marathons in 30 days come to you in a moment or how did the idea specifically come about?
A. I tell you what helped me. I’ve got a very good friend from school, a chap called David Jones and he did a walk around the coast of Devon and Cornwall. He walked 25 marathons in 25 days. That got me thinking that it was at least possible, that I wasn’t setting myself up to do something that was completely beyond me. David is a fit guy but I hoped that I could train and be as fit as he was and so really it was a combination of the 30 years, David having done these 25 marathons in 25 days and I thought OK, I’ll have a crack at 30 marathons in 30 days so that is the complete story.
Q. Have you ever walked or run a marathon before?
A. I have run one marathon in my life which was in 1996 when I did the London marathon. It was tough. It was what people say about marathons which is that up until 18 miles if you’ve trained enough it isn’t too bad but then you hit what’s referred to as ‘the wall’ when the body is really drained of energy. The last section proves to be very difficult and that was the case. So I think that like a lot of these things, the lesson is to ensure you train significantly and make sure you are as prepared as you can be. The thing that gave me a bit of comfort was the fact that I had done these long distance cycles. I did the Land’s End to John O’Groats in 2006 which was 1,000 miles and for the Loomba Foundation I did London to Gibraltar. At least I knew I was capable of doing something physical all day for lots of days in a row. Both of those events took about 16 to 17 days so at least I had a sense that even though cycling is a very different activity to walking or running, it’s clearly a physical activity that you need to do all day so we were cycling from 8 in the morning till 6 at night. Therefore as one of my colleagues said, our day job is to cycle and in the same way that my day job in India will be to walk.
Q. What training are you doing at the moment in order to prepare for the marathons?
A. I’m doing a combination of running and walking. I think it’s fair to say that I’m doing more running than walking which I need to switch around. I need to start walking much more because a number of people who have done both, have said to me that walking even though its similar, you use quite different muscles. You use the muscles in a different way. Your hips take much more of a bashing, interestingly, when you’re walking than when you’re running. Three days ago I did a 4 hour walk, today I did a 3 hour walk so I’m definitely transitioning from running to walking and I’m trying to do something pretty much every day. For example today I‘ll end up walking probably in total 2 hours.
Q. During the week you’re working so how much time do you dedicate to this as I’d imagine weekends differ?
A. I’m trying if I can to do at least an hour a day of walking or running as well as some much longer ones. I’ve been doing this now for pretty much for the last 12 months so it’s been a long process.
Q. How does your training regime change or alter as you approach the starting date?
I will need to 1) focus just on the walking and 2) increase the distances and time that I do it. The other thing that I’m going to need to do is some long distances on consecutive days because that is what I haven’t done yet which is to do a 4 or 5 hour walk 3 days in a row. It’s the cumulative effect that will be the challenge. A related point that I’ve heard from a number of people is that it’s not just the physical challenge but it’s also the mental piece. Your mind starts playing tricks with you, convincing you that you’re exhausted, you can’t go on, all of those sorts of things. One thing that my son is very keen for me to do that I haven’t done to date is to get an iTouch or iPhone and listen to podcasts and music to take my mind off it. I’ve always trained without anything. There’s also a little app that will track your training as well which my son uses. It’s something that provides an additional encouragement if you know how far you’ve been, how long it’s taken you, how many calories you’ve burnt and all that sort of information.
Q. It’s going to be a very difficult challenge. Do you have any concerns about your health or the strains your body is going to endure?
A. I think it’s fair to say I’m trying not to dwell on that aspect. I’m focused much more on the training. Whilst you’re training you’re not really thinking about that side of it. I’ve always been somebody to do things positively. I think if I dwelt too much on how much of a challenge it is, I think it would be quite negative. Inevitably there must be a risk where my body just says, you can’t do it and I’ll have to take a day out and rest but my plan, my hope is, I will be able to continue to do this day after day as long as I’ve done sufficient training.
Q. What are you most and least looking forward to?
A. I have to say I’m really excited about doing it. Since I was very young I have always done quite a lot of exercise. Exercise is something I regard as a pleasurable thing rather than a chore. I’m looking forward to the route, looking forward to meeting people on the route and chatting to them about the Loomba Foundation and what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I’m looking forward to the weather. I like the weather at that time of the year. I’m looking forward to the sea breeze. I’m looking forward to the views.
I guess the issue is just around the unknown, not having done a very long distance walk before. Ultimately it’s about how my body will hold up. I was reminded recently, somebody from our office did a 100km walk over 2 days and she did it with her brother who was very fit and on the 2nd day he had to drop out because his shins were hurting so much. You never really know unless you’ve put in the training quite how your body is going to cope. That is the slight worry but otherwise I am genuinely looking forward to it and for the moment at least I haven’t got any concerns.
Q. How are you planning to deal with the heat? Are you going to acclimatize in any way?
A. I spend 2 weeks every month in India. I like the heat. I like the sun. I’ve lived in Singapore. I’ve lived in Hong Kong. I much prefer to do exercise and to do something strenuous in the sunshine in the heat than when it’s cold. In fact I am really looking forward to that side of it. The other bits of advice that I’ve got is that I’ve got a couple of long sets of long shirts and trousers made because a chap who is a proper genuine adventurer called Alastair Humphreys does these sort of extreme things for a living so he’s walked along a river in India which is a similar distance to the walk I’m going to be doing and he’s cycled around the world, he’s walked to the North Pole and various things. His advice was that I should walk in long trousers and in long sleeves because I could get very burnt so that was his advice. Although I love doing things in shorts and a t-shirt, I suspect I will alternate between wearing long trousers and long shirts with shorts and t-shirts.
via
I met an amazing 53-year old British lawyer Chris Parsons yesterday at Bombay Stock Exchange. What is so special about him ? He has decided to undertake a 1260 km walk starting Gateway of India in Mumbai to Bangalore Goa, Mangalore and Mysore in 30 days to raise $1 million for charitable organization Loomba Foundation for improving the lives of Indian widows and children. He will embark on 30 marathons in 30 days from January 10 till February 7, 2015, walking 42 kms a day. His road trip and the cause has received many supporting hands. Newly elected Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis has agreed to flag off the event at Gateway of India in Mumbai.
Chris is a partner of UK based law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. He has very close connect with India, visiting frequently for last 10 years to meet clients and also to teach in Indian law schools,
From the sideline of Loomba Foundation’s Conference yesterday I got opportunity to speak to Chris and asked about his proposed walk. ‘Why 30 days and 30 Marathons in a row ?’ Says he , ‘Next year I will be completing 30 years in my law firm so I thought to do something different. Why not to conduct 30 marathons in 30 days for a cause which is dear to my heart and for my friend Raj Loomba,”
Chris has already done a cycle trip for Charity. In the year 2011, he set off on a cycling expedition from London to Gibraltar covering over 2000 km to raise $200,000 for The Loomba Foundation. He headed east across France, brave Germany’s Black Forest, cross the Austrian Alps, dip his pedals into Italy, turn left into Slovenia, speed across flat northern Italy, soaking up the South of France’s sunshine, cross the Pyrenees and relish Spain’s fantastic roads to finish at Europa Point in Gibraltar with amazing views across to north Africa.
When I ask him that how he is preparing for this marathon walk, he says, ‘I chatted to Alastair Humphreys, he gave me some advice around what I should wear. He said that it’s great because you can drink that sweet Indian Chai as you’re walking to give you energy. Drinking sugary fizzy drinks is also good. I’m being supported by energy drink Gatorade from Pepsi group so I’m going to taking that regularly. I was in touch with Sarah Botham (Ian Botham’s daughter) who manages her dad’s walking. Her advice was that I should break in a number of pairs of shoes which is what I’m doing. And the other advice I got was to not change my diet significantly. Stick with eating the same sorts of things that I’ve been eating previously. The other bit of support I’ve got is a physiotherapist and Apollo Hospitals, who are one of the biggest hospital groups in India, are kindly going to make a physio available. Inevitably I’m going to have aches and pains. My calves are going to be hurting and y shins are going to be hurting. My hips and frankly the rest of my body also take a toll just because of the effort. Hopefully at the end of each day I’m going to have some help and support and a massage to help the process. Apollo have also kindly said that I can have access to one of their doctors as well in case I get ill and also a nutritionist. Sooner rather than later I need to have a chat with the nutritionist about what I should be eating. One of the issues that I’m uncertain about is how much calorie intake and the sort of food I should be eating on a daily basis to enable me to walk a marathon a day. So I’m slightly less clear about that.’
What about your feet? Are you going to wear any particular shoes or treat them in any particular way after each walk?
I’m walking on roads so it’s not off-road and I’ve been advised by a number of people to wear trainers. I’m going to be wearing Asics trainers, which is what I use to run in. Alastair Humphreys put me in touch with a company in Fulham called Profeet and they make custom built insoles which he says help with body posture and shin and calf difficulties. So I’ve been training with a pair of these insoles which you can change from shoe to shoe. So there is that aspect. The other thing that I’ve been experimenting with is different pairs of socks because a number of people have said to me that blisters can be a big issue and could really impact my ability to do the walk. That’s because when your feet get wet and sweat a lot, the skin becomes very rubbery and can break easily. So I’ve been trying different socks that hopefully whittle away the sweat from my feet and keep them dry. I’ll probably change my socks 2 or 3 times a day to help with that.How are you going to eat while walking?
I need to get some clear advice from the nutritionist from Apollo Hospitals. I’m going to have some snack bars in a day pack so I can eat as I’m going along. Eating bananas and apples will be good. Drinking Chai with lots of sugar in it will be helpful. I’ll have a decent breakfast. I’ll maybe have a snack mid morning. I’ll have a vegetable curry or something similar at lunchtime. Possibly even have a short sleep after lunch just to restore the energy and then walk again in the afternoon. I’m probably going to be walking with breaks for about 12 hours each day. I’ll probably start at around 5.30 or 6 in the morning and then walk through ultimately until 5.30 or 6 in the evening. Then I’ll get taken to a small guest house. I’ll eat early and be in bed early hopefully having done my blog first.
How big is the team that is going to accompany you and what are their roles?
I’ll probably have phone access to a doctor and a nutritionist and, they’ll be available if I need them. I hope that the physiotherapist will be available each day for me. Whether that means they will actually travel with me in the car or not I haven’t got down to that level of detail yet but that may happen. I’ve got a support car which is being provided by Gatorade, part of the Pepsi company. The car will carry my clothes, walking stuff, spare shoes, snacks and drinks. At the end of each day at the end of each marathon they will drive me to the nearest guest house or hotel which hopefully we will have pre-booked along the route.
I’ve got 2 gentlemen helping me in Mumbai who’ve been working on the route for me. One guy is called Shreerang and the other is called Kumar. People call Kumar Google on Indian roads and he runs a highway blog. He has produced a wonderful spreadsheet indicating where I’ll start each day, where I’ll finish and where I’m likely to pass through, the exact kilometers and where I’ll stay each evening.
Q. Did the 30 marathons in 30 days come to you in a moment or how did the idea specifically come about?
A. I tell you what helped me. I’ve got a very good friend from school, a chap called David Jones and he did a walk around the coast of Devon and Cornwall. He walked 25 marathons in 25 days. That got me thinking that it was at least possible, that I wasn’t setting myself up to do something that was completely beyond me. David is a fit guy but I hoped that I could train and be as fit as he was and so really it was a combination of the 30 years, David having done these 25 marathons in 25 days and I thought OK, I’ll have a crack at 30 marathons in 30 days so that is the complete story.
Q. Have you ever walked or run a marathon before?
A. I have run one marathon in my life which was in 1996 when I did the London marathon. It was tough. It was what people say about marathons which is that up until 18 miles if you’ve trained enough it isn’t too bad but then you hit what’s referred to as ‘the wall’ when the body is really drained of energy. The last section proves to be very difficult and that was the case. So I think that like a lot of these things, the lesson is to ensure you train significantly and make sure you are as prepared as you can be. The thing that gave me a bit of comfort was the fact that I had done these long distance cycles. I did the Land’s End to John O’Groats in 2006 which was 1,000 miles and for the Loomba Foundation I did London to Gibraltar. At least I knew I was capable of doing something physical all day for lots of days in a row. Both of those events took about 16 to 17 days so at least I had a sense that even though cycling is a very different activity to walking or running, it’s clearly a physical activity that you need to do all day so we were cycling from 8 in the morning till 6 at night. Therefore as one of my colleagues said, our day job is to cycle and in the same way that my day job in India will be to walk.
Q. What training are you doing at the moment in order to prepare for the marathons?
A. I’m doing a combination of running and walking. I think it’s fair to say that I’m doing more running than walking which I need to switch around. I need to start walking much more because a number of people who have done both, have said to me that walking even though its similar, you use quite different muscles. You use the muscles in a different way. Your hips take much more of a bashing, interestingly, when you’re walking than when you’re running. Three days ago I did a 4 hour walk, today I did a 3 hour walk so I’m definitely transitioning from running to walking and I’m trying to do something pretty much every day. For example today I‘ll end up walking probably in total 2 hours.
Q. During the week you’re working so how much time do you dedicate to this as I’d imagine weekends differ?
A. I’m trying if I can to do at least an hour a day of walking or running as well as some much longer ones. I’ve been doing this now for pretty much for the last 12 months so it’s been a long process.
Q. How does your training regime change or alter as you approach the starting date?
I will need to 1) focus just on the walking and 2) increase the distances and time that I do it. The other thing that I’m going to need to do is some long distances on consecutive days because that is what I haven’t done yet which is to do a 4 or 5 hour walk 3 days in a row. It’s the cumulative effect that will be the challenge. A related point that I’ve heard from a number of people is that it’s not just the physical challenge but it’s also the mental piece. Your mind starts playing tricks with you, convincing you that you’re exhausted, you can’t go on, all of those sorts of things. One thing that my son is very keen for me to do that I haven’t done to date is to get an iTouch or iPhone and listen to podcasts and music to take my mind off it. I’ve always trained without anything. There’s also a little app that will track your training as well which my son uses. It’s something that provides an additional encouragement if you know how far you’ve been, how long it’s taken you, how many calories you’ve burnt and all that sort of information.
Q. It’s going to be a very difficult challenge. Do you have any concerns about your health or the strains your body is going to endure?
A. I think it’s fair to say I’m trying not to dwell on that aspect. I’m focused much more on the training. Whilst you’re training you’re not really thinking about that side of it. I’ve always been somebody to do things positively. I think if I dwelt too much on how much of a challenge it is, I think it would be quite negative. Inevitably there must be a risk where my body just says, you can’t do it and I’ll have to take a day out and rest but my plan, my hope is, I will be able to continue to do this day after day as long as I’ve done sufficient training.
Q. What are you most and least looking forward to?
A. I have to say I’m really excited about doing it. Since I was very young I have always done quite a lot of exercise. Exercise is something I regard as a pleasurable thing rather than a chore. I’m looking forward to the route, looking forward to meeting people on the route and chatting to them about the Loomba Foundation and what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I’m looking forward to the weather. I like the weather at that time of the year. I’m looking forward to the sea breeze. I’m looking forward to the views.
I guess the issue is just around the unknown, not having done a very long distance walk before. Ultimately it’s about how my body will hold up. I was reminded recently, somebody from our office did a 100km walk over 2 days and she did it with her brother who was very fit and on the 2nd day he had to drop out because his shins were hurting so much. You never really know unless you’ve put in the training quite how your body is going to cope. That is the slight worry but otherwise I am genuinely looking forward to it and for the moment at least I haven’t got any concerns.
Q. How are you planning to deal with the heat? Are you going to acclimatize in any way?
A. I spend 2 weeks every month in India. I like the heat. I like the sun. I’ve lived in Singapore. I’ve lived in Hong Kong. I much prefer to do exercise and to do something strenuous in the sunshine in the heat than when it’s cold. In fact I am really looking forward to that side of it. The other bits of advice that I’ve got is that I’ve got a couple of long sets of long shirts and trousers made because a chap who is a proper genuine adventurer called Alastair Humphreys does these sort of extreme things for a living so he’s walked along a river in India which is a similar distance to the walk I’m going to be doing and he’s cycled around the world, he’s walked to the North Pole and various things. His advice was that I should walk in long trousers and in long sleeves because I could get very burnt so that was his advice. Although I love doing things in shorts and a t-shirt, I suspect I will alternate between wearing long trousers and long shirts with shorts and t-shirts.
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