By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

 I met Manish Kuman Jaiswal in a WhatsApp group of international runners I was invited to participate a few months ago. Every day I would find cool posts on what runners are accomplishing all over the world, and in a handful of languages. One of the things that intrigued me was this guy from India who kept posting a half marathon every single day. So I had to ask. At the time he responded, he had run one for 475 consecutive days.

So let me introduce you to Manish Kumar Jaiswal, a 46-year-old runner from Raipur, in the state of Chhattisgarh, who started running in 2007. A teacher by profession, started his running journey just like most of us, to keep himself fit, healthy and with enough energy to keep up with his son, who is now 15.

When I approached Manish, he told me his goal at the time was to get to 500 days in a row, which occurred last Sunday, December 12th. With some simple math to put this monumental task in perspective, we are talking about 6,550 miles (10,539 kilometers) in the lapse of one year, four months and 15 days. A Ruthian-sized accomplishment, whatever way you want to analyze it.

A collage of Strava posts from a handful of Manish’s latest runs.

Manish quickly fell in love with the challenges and satisfactions of long distance running and promptly became a marathoner. During his years as a “regular runner” he completed 5 marathons (Raipur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari and Mumbai) as well as a bunch of half marathons.

One day, some friends challenged him to run 21 half marathons in 21 days. For those of you who live within the Imperial measurement system, the 13.1 miles of a half is equivalent to 21,097.5 meters. So, therefore on July 30, 2020, he embarked on this short streak that little by little has become enormous.

“In the beginning I just wanted to do 21days, 21 Half Marathons–confesses Mr. Jaiswal—But I enjoyed it a lot and now that I completed my 500 Consecutive days, I don’t want to stop. Now I am addicted to running.”

 The new goal has been moved to 730 consecutive days with a half marathon. Equivalent to two years. Something tells me it is not going to stop there and 1,000 will suddenly become the updated goal, come July of next year.

 No streak like this happens without taking risks that otherwise you wouldn’t have. Manish has run during heavy rains, thunderstorms sweltering hot and freezing cold temperatures. “Sometimes it would have been almost impossible to complete my half marathon, but I didn\’t give up. I put on my raincoat and managed to get my run in.”

 Time management is an important task for an enterprise of this magnitude, yet Mr. Jaiswal assures me it hasn’t interfered that much in his daily life. “My daily half marathon running didn\’t affect my personal or professional lives. I did it with proper time management, planning and in a well-organized way.” He averages about 2:05 per run, with his PR at 1:48 and his slowest at 2:25.

 Runners everywhere have one important question for Mr. Jaiswal: How about his running shoes?

He wears Kalenji shoes, the Decathlon model and he needs to switch to a fresh, new pair every 30 to 35 days. So far, he estimates he has used 15 pairs during his quest.

“At last -said Manish to conclude- I would like to thank my friends and family members my wife and son for their motivation encouragement and support.”