38 Weeks to Go: How NOT to quit! Meet Dan Beaumont: The Ultra Runner Driving Project Salt Run

In this episode of Project Salt Run, we sit down with Dan Beaumont, the man leading the management side of this ambitious journey. Dan shares his ultra running story, what drives him to push beyond the limits, and his role in making Project Salt Run a reality. From endurance mindset to logistical challenges, get an inside look at what it takes to support a 4,000km run across India.

Show links:

• Givestar
• Better Business Network 
• Better Not Stop
• 1% For the Planet 
• Mind Over Mountains

Like the Podcast? Help the project by supporting us on GofundMe & leave us a review or share with your friends, family and most loathed enemies!

Get in touch at contact@projectsaltrun.com 

Join the Better Business Network 

Visit our Website

In the face of unprecedented environmental challenges, Project Salt Run aims to inspire action through an extraordinary journey of transformation. Hannah Cox, a sustainability advocate with Indian heritage and a first-time runner, will undertake a life-changing challenge across India, following the historic Inland Customs Line. 

This colonial-era boundary enforced a devastating salt tax, causing immense suffering and millions of deaths, but has been largely forgotten from history.
By retracing this route, Hannah seeks to honour its legacy and transform its meaning, inviting others to discover their own version of extraordinary. This journey is not about guarantees of success—Hannah faces the real possibility of failure—but it’s a powerful reminder that taking bold steps, even in uncertainty, can inspire meaningful change.

The Challenge

Partnering with Givestar, Hannah will run 100 marathons in 100 days, covering 4,200 km, to raise £1,000,000 for 1% for the Planet. This journey is a powerful testament to the potential within all of us to make a real difference.

Want to get involved in Project Salt Run? Shoot us a message at contact@projectsaltrun.com we would love to hear from you!

Want to get involved in Project Salt Run? Shoot us a message at contact@projectsaltrun.com we would love to hear from you!

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of Project Salt Run. I am Joel Chevaillier. And I'm Hannah Cox. And today, we're gonna get a little update on how Hannah's been doing. She just did a huge marathon. How did that go, Hannah? Well, it was a half marathon. Half marathon, okay. Well, it's pretty big for me. It felt huge. It felt huge. Yeah, I've just come back, I've just been in Scarborough for the weekend with visiting some friends. And it was, I had a half marathon in my training plan for Sunday. So, took myself out on the, anyone's ever been to Scarborough, they've got a great cinder path, which is the name for a walkway that used to be a railway line from Scarborough to Whitby. I did not go that far. I kind of went about 11 kilometers down the track and then came back again. And I was done. Yeah, I was going to say, are you shattered from that? You know, when you're really tired and you just stare into the distance for ages, when you're just sat like, do you ever get it when you come out the shower and then you just sit at the end of your bed and that disassociate and then you don't know how long you've been sat there? Does that ever happen to you? Yeah, yeah, no, totally. Do you just stare up in the space? Yeah, so basically, I got back. I picked up a meal deal on the way back. And yeah, sat, well, it wasn't a very good one. I was trying to be healthy. And then sat, ate my like egg and crust sandwich while the sweat dripped off me. And then had a shower, had to check out my room pretty quickly. And then my friend was picking me up from the hotel lobby at three o'clock and I'm not joking. I just sat in an armchair there and I don't know what happened over that two hour period, but I certainly wasn't doing anything at all. So this is the thing, I really want to clarify this with everybody because like you're constantly, you're not just doing these runs, you know, at home. I mean, you obviously you are, but like you're doing these regardless because you travel a lot for work. I travel loads to work, yeah. Yeah, and so like, you know, when we were at the last travel show, the last two travel shows, you were getting up to go run. But it also makes your packing harder because I, you know, I pack everything to go away and then you've got to remember all your running stuff as well. So it looks like, it looks like you're, everyone's like, oh, you're carrying loads of stuff. And you're like, I've got like two t-shirts in there. The rest is just running stuff. It just seems like you're doomed to carry dirty laundry around with you, like, while you travel the whole time. Smelly socks, yeah. So that kind of segues perfectly into our interview with Dan today. So Dan, for those of you who don't know, is a huge part of the team. He's basically our manager. Yeah, in a nutshell. Project manager. He's a project manager, he's the big guy. And so we really want you guys to get to know him better. He's so organized. He's the most organized person I think I've ever met. That's disgusting, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, perfect for his role, but we all have different qualities and skills that we're bringing to the table. Dan's is his organizational abilities, which we do not have in that way. No, which is why we need him. Yes, exactly, exactly, exactly. So without further ado, let's get to the podcast. This episode is supported by 1% for the Planet. Our Planet gives us everything we believe in giving back. That's why we work with 1% for the Planet, who helps support businesses and individuals committed to donating 1% of their revenue to environmental causes. Join the movement and make a difference. Learn more at 1%fortheplanet.org. The podcast is also supported by GiveStar, the fundraising platform of choice for charity runners, including Hannah herself. With just a few clicks, you can create a page supporting up to four different charities. Take tap to pay contactless donations, track your progress, and share your stories with friends. All on their free app. Download GiveStar today wherever you find your applications. And without any more delay, on to our show. And what your profession is. Hello, everyone. So my name is Dan, and I'm from the Lake District, a little small town called Kendall, where there's more sheep than people. And my profession now is that I am project manager of Project Salt Run. And I know you've told me this before, but just for podcast listeners, how did this kind of like get started in the mix? Like, how did you get involved? So Hannah and I go back, way back. So eight years ago, I met Hannah in a little place called Ostrava in Czech Republic. We instantly connected, and we've been in touch since then. When I moved back to the UK, because I was running a hostel in Romania for eight years, when I moved back to the UK, I did a charity bike ride around the UK. And I stayed at Hannah's house in Glossop near Manchester, and she cooked an absolutely banging roast for me. And the rest is history. The best. The rest is history after that. We've become really good friends, and it's all escalated quite quickly to the project that we're going to talk about today. And so I guess with this, how did you kind of get started in it? How did the project kind of come to rise? I guess day one, can you? Day one. Be honest. Be honest. Well, so Hannah and I reconnected earlier in 2024, so we're now recording this in 2025. 24th of February, 24th. The numbers were beautiful. To the date, yeah. Yeah, synchronicity. And also, bizarrely, you know, the last time we'd spoken was the 21st of the 7th, 21. Wow. And you took right on this. I mean, I don't know what that means. If we've got any, what is it, a new neurologist listening, if that means anything, let us know. But I just thought that was weird and cool. Yeah. So spontaneously, I was in a reel on Instagram that went viral of this Chinese guy called Miles Moretti, who essentially walks down streets in traditional Chinese clothing, showing the reaction of people standing by near him. And I was one of the guys who reacted to one of his videos in London. I turned my head and Hannah saw the reel and reached out to me. It was the first time she'd been on Instagram in a few years. About four years. Yeah. I did two, downloaded it that day and it was the first reel. Yeah, it was the first reel. I was so mad. The first reel that she saw. And this was meant to be kind of thing. Sad story then, but okay to reflect on now. I was actually breaking up with my girlfriend. The moment. Mid video. Mid video when Miles caught my reaction, the turn of head reaction. We'll link the reel so you can see it. You can just see her hair in the video. And that's the last SR of her. Anyways, we digress. Let's get professional again. So I was, it was a Saturday, and I was working at the weekend because I run a business network and we were looking for regional co-working spaces. And I was specifically looking for a Bristol co-working space. And I don't really get very involved in the day-to-day of the business network. It's run by an amazing guy called James Dady. And he had tasked me with finding this Bristol co-working space. I basically hadn't done it. And then I knew if I turned up on Monday and I didn't have at least some irons in the fire, I'd be in trouble. So then Dan said, when the last time I had spoken to Dan, he was living in London, like in that Instagram meal. So when I asked Dan what he was up to, the answer was, yeah, I was managing a co-working space in Bristol. So it just keeps falling together better and better. Yeah. So and then from there, Hannah came and stayed with me in Bristol, and we were going to a network in breakfast, weren't we? A sustainability network. Supper club. Supper club, yeah. For Earth Day. Yeah. And Hannah managed to black. It was. It's so wholesome. It's like a dinner to celebrate the Earth. Like, how wholesome is that? And Hannah being the networking queen that she is, managed to black me a ticket. I paid for a ticket actually. Oh, did you? Business. But I got you into the dinner. I got you into the dinner. And coincidentally, I didn't actually know this, but my good friend, Nina Davis, co-founder of the Green Runners was there as well. And she was sat next to us at the table. And I introduced Nina to Hannah. And then, Hannah, you can tell this little bit of the story. Oh, yeah. So we walked in, and I didn't know anyone that was at the dinner, apart from the person organizing it. And Dan was like, oh my God, Nina's here. Nina, meet Hannah. And she went, oh, Hannah Cox. And I thought, oh no, this is one of those really awkward moments where you've met somebody before and you can't remember like when you met them or how you met them. And I hadn't actually met her before, but she'd see me speak at an amazing festival down in Cornwall called Goodfest, about 200 people. And she'd see me talking about my work at that festival. And she'd actually sat down next to my mum. So she knew my mum. And my mum never comes to, that's the first and last time my mum's ever come to anything that I've done. So that was. Hello Connection, because she knew my mom. Yeah, so she knew my mum. And we joked about the fact that I said that I listened to the Jurassic Park theme tune every morning. Which has now become the theme tune of Project Salt Run. Royalty is permitting. But so from that point on, like, I guess, when did you first hear about Project Salt Run and decide to kind of, how did you guys? Well, it all escalated that weekend because the Bristol Running Show was going on that weekend that Hannah was up as well. And I was already helping out and helping Nina run the stall there. And I was like, why don't you come down, Hannah? She wished she said no now. And so Hannah came along to Bristol, the Bristol Run Show and met Nina, spent the day with Nina, worked on the stall as well, which was great, got to meet a load of people. And a few things happened that day that led to the start of Project Salt Run that I'll let Hannah talk about. But I want to go back a bit though, Dan, because really it came from, I've been obsessed with this hedge for 10 years. And Dan knew about that because when I met him, I was talking about it being my next adventure. That was eight years ago and I still hadn't done it. So when we reconnected, Dan asked me about that adventure, if I was planning to do it. And so when we were catching up, Dan, you'd started doing something that you weren't doing before. And this is relevant, really. So talk about that. Talk a little bit about when we caught up that first kind of day in Bristol, you were telling me what you were up to. Yeah, so ever since I moved to Bristol, which was a couple of years ago, I've really got into trail running and ultra running. It's become a big part of my life. It's been really powerful and important for my mental health as well. And I found a really great group in Bristol, Mountain Trails Group. Shout out Jamie, my fave. If you're listening. So it's become a really, really important part of my life. And probably the best thing about moving to Bristol is that group of people. And I've gone and embarked on my own challenges in the ultra running world. The Big Rounds Project, which is 400 kilometer mountain challenges that are 8,000 meters of elevation plus to be completed in 24 hours. So that's the Bob Graham Round of the Lake District, Paddy Buckley Round of Wales, Dennis Rankin Round of Northern Ireland and Charlie Ramsay Round of Scotland. And my little project was to raise money for. So this wasn't a hobby, is what you're saying? It's a full on operation and he was half way through it when we met. He's already done two. Yes, I've done two of the rounds when I met Hannah. And then I had the Paddy Buckley and the Charlie Ramsay, they were getting progressively harder. So I've done the Bob Graham and the Dennis Rankin Round and Hannah came in and helped me on the Paddy Buckley Round, which is known in the mountain running world as one of the most difficult 400 kilometers you can find, 100 kilometers routes that you can find. How many toenails did you lose? None. None? Well, Jesus. Do you know why? Because every time he stopped, I cleaned his feet. I took his shoes and socks off. Man, I knew you guys had a close relationship, but Jesus Christ. Obviously, I was drying those feet down with a towel, giving him a new pair of socks. And I have to say as well, there was a team of 30. And we were raising money for Mind Over Mountains, which is a great mental health charity that takes people who are struggling with their mental health on the mountain with counsellors to help them get better. And there's a whole film crew there and stuff. And there's going to be a documentary separate to this. But what I wanted to say is that Hannah came and helped that weekend. She took over logistics and absolutely smashed it out of the park. And I think that was a really nice little insight for her into. And maybe another point that persuaded her to go forward with the Project Salt Run. So yeah, I've been doing a lot of my own running. And just to get back to the weekend when we were at the Bristol Run Show. So Hannah meets Nina. And then Hannah also, you know, she's had this fascination with the hedge for 10 years. And originally she wanted to motorbike it. And even though still to this day, I've never ridden a motorbike. Yeah. I've had the moped. That's like cheating motorbike. But you had a vision to follow the head. It's so weird. I've really been thinking about that. So to jump in that, I've really been thinking about that. Like, I don't know why I've always been so obsessed with traversing it, but specifically traversing it. That's always been, we'll go into that like another time, but it's relevant because so when we reconnected, that's what Dan remembered about me, and it was his fault it all happened, because he said, why don't you just run it? Yeah, because motorbiking should get done in like 10 days. Boring. Boring. May as well make this a long one. And yeah, so Hannah pondered on that idea, I guess. And then a few things happened at the Bristol Run show that really solidified her decision to run this. And I think that's for you to talk about. Well, OK, so there was two main things that happened at that running show. One was Dan was just telling everybody that I was running across India. He was just telling everyone it was happening. It didn't matter that you hadn't decided this yet, is it? No, no, that hadn't, so it didn't matter that I hadn't run. Like, I don't think, I hadn't even gone for a jog in years. Like, none of that mattered to Dan. He's just telling everybody that I was doing it. And then I was having to explain to people that I wasn't doing it. And he was like, you know, these are the signs we've caught up again. You've met Nina. Nina told us the first night we met that she just qualified to be a running coach. And obviously, we're going to that story with her when we interview her. And we went to the running show. And I specifically remember Nina saying, you know, are you going to do this? And I said, well, if I meet somebody that's run across India and that's also an old bird. And I'm not saying I'm hugely old, but I'm 40 years old. So I'm not, you know, a young runner with an athletic background. And I said, you know, if that happens, then maybe I'll consider it. And then in steps, who we definitely need to get on the podcast, Dan's friend, Will. So you tell us a little bit about Will, because you've been friends with him for a long time. Yeah, so Will Robinson, shout out, Will. Yeah. He's also an Ultra Runner and he likes to do crazy traverses of countries. Yeah, in really tiny shorts. Yeah. I just remember that about him. The first time I met him, he had these tiny, like 80s graphic shorts on and he's like... Almost uncomfortable, like, you know, you kind of... Yeah, and now he's known for umbrella hats. So he's actually running the spine race at the moment. So props to him. He's on route now. But Will likes traversing across countries. He ran across Ireland. He's known most for running around Queen Square, which is a small 400-meter square in Bristol. He did 200 miles. 200 miles. Yeah, there's a film. He's got a film about it. Actually, they showed it at Kendall Mountain Festival. It was a really amazing film. But back to the point, he recently, in December, traversed India. He traversed the Whip of India, which was 700 kilometers over seven days. So he's covering 100 kilometers a day, which is no easy feat. And he smashed it out of the park and finished it. And yeah. We'll put his Instagram in the show notes because he's got it all on there. You should definitely, definitely watch it. He's a really good follow. And he shares all his nutrition and everything. But when we met him, it was before this happened. Yeah, exactly. At the run show and he came up to Hannah and. Yeah, Dan was like, Hannah's running across India. And he was like, I'm running across India. And I thought, oh, no, I was like, not another sign. I was like, I can't handle this. So he was obviously quite shocked by it because he'd kind of come to the show to one, talk about his George's Square run, but also to talk about his new next challenge, which was running across India. So that was mad to hear that. And then a woman came over with a yellow hoodie on with a map of Australia and someone running across it. And I thought, oh, God, is she bloody run across Australia? And she had. She'd done, her name's Nikki Love. She's amazing as well. She's definitely worth a follow. She's in fact running across Australia again. Have you seen on her Instagram? She's crazy. And that was 50, I think 56 or 58 marathons in as many days. And she did it self supported just her and her partner in a van, which is just insane. And I just thought, oh God, I've got to do it now. It was almost like the universe is almost saying, what else do you want to hear? We've given you a running coach. We've given you a friend that believes in you. We've given you, I... The team just kind of fell into place basically. It just all fell into place. And I remember having conversations with Dan on WhatsApp after the running show saying, we need, if we get a good name for it, if we can hook it and if we can understand how all these parts of the story come together, then I'll do it. And I think we came up with some, I should probably look at my phone. I bet we've got some like horrendous names of what we're gonna call it. But we came up with the name Project Salt Run and it just seemed to stick. And then, you know, we put out a LinkedIn post about it and then everything's spiraled. Yeah, it's escalated from there in a really nice direction that brings us here today. Yeah. So kind of go on, because I wanted to focus back on you a little bit. With the, I guess, like, when did your running career kind of start? I've always been, you could say I've always been a runner. So as a kid, I was running about making dens on adventures all the time. I just didn't see it as running as a kid. So I've always been an active person. Mainly played football growing up as well, which was really, really good for learning all of like... But has kind of like a cat, because I mean, this morning we bumped into each other and you were like, yeah, yeah, I ran 26K, like it's casual for breakfast, you know? Like, I mean, when did, when, because obviously I feel like that's kind of the next level, whereas I'm super proud of myself if I can manage to get like 5K and, you know, when did I guess you start kind of up in the ante and like start regularly going out for evenings and stuff like that? Mainly in the last four years, I've come from a bit of a cycling, a long distance cycling background and I've always loved long distance endurance stuff. So I've done a lot of hiking, including like walking across Spain and in the Himalayas and in the Alps and all of that kind of stuff. I've always been interested in mountains. But the running really escalated in the last several years, particularly in the last two years where I've started taking it really seriously, looking at my nutrition, going to the gym and actually doing strength sessions and progressively getting better. And now the ant is like really up to running, you know, 100 kilometer circuit routes across mountains. And in the wildest terrain and in the most difficult conditions, it's because I've got a good group of mates around me who love doing it as well. And I... So you have a good, like a good... It's also because that's the biggest thing with running that, you know, for me as a newbie to it, I find really fascinating is that there's such a massive community. Yeah. But as we'll explore as well and on this project, running is only one component of this. For me, I've always seen it as the adventure is the more powerful component of this. I love the idea that it's like the mountain running in particular. It's not just about your running skills. It's about your navigation skills. It's about how well you can eat and all of this, how well you can plan, how well you can tackle the elements. There's so many more components to it that make it interesting and just exploration of the world as well. Dan's done loads of traveling. He's not someone that isn't well traveled. A lot of the traveling that Dan has done has been long-term trips away. So tell us a bit about your long trips that you've done. You've done loads about... I'd like you to talk a little bit about the longer trips that you've done solo, like the Caminos and what you got out of them. Yeah. So again, this has always been like, I was running a really stressful but rewarding business called Podstal, which was a hostel cafe and a charity in Romania. Ran it with my best mate, Sam, best guy I know, for six years. And that was a really stressful job. So both Sam and I used to take off a month every year and go on a mini adventure. We'd go separately and we'd go in the shoulder season. And in 2016, I decided to walk the Camino. So for those of you that don't know what the Camino is, it is a pilgrimage across Spain. There's all kinds of different routes that lead to Santiago. So I did the Camino de Francis, which is the most popular route. And that starts in St. Jean-Pied-de-Port. And it's 800 kilometers to Santiago. And- How long did that take you? 30 days. So it was an absolute trip of a lifetime. The people, the scenery, the food, and it's almost like a therapeutic experience. And that was my introduction into long-distance hiking. And it was so profound for so many reasons. I took my journal. I was going through a load of shit at the time. My relationship with my dad, in particular, alcohol, all of that kind of stuff. And over those 30 days, just really, really got into some really powerful spaces. I met amazing people as well. And that kind of catapulted a whole kind of wow, these long distance trips, you can get a lot out of them. So much so that I went back to the Camino four years running. And the next year I did a thousand kilometer route, the Camino del Norte, the year after the Portuguese route, the year after that, the Via di La Plata. And then in between then, I got to travel to all different kinds of countries, went to Nepal and trekked around the Annapurna circuit, been around the Tour de Mont Blanc and all kinds of stuff in Canada. And it's just always been a really therapeutic kind of healing avenue for me. And then that led to cycling, long distance cycling, cause walking slow. And I started doing loads of long distance cycling trips, including going across Europe, going around Romania. And when I came back to the UK, I did a 10,000 kilometer loop of Brim for charity and raised 15,000 for Mind Over Mountains. And in all of these, I've developed all kinds of skills, expedition skills, planning, navigation, all of that kind of stuff, which are gonna be very useful for Project Salt Run. But then cycling quickly escalated to running. And running's become my kind of thing now. I haven't actually done much cycling in the last couple of years. I miss it quite a lot. Nothing better than... What would you say is the biggest difference between the two? They're really different. They're really different. There's nothing better. I have a touring bike. I don't like road cycling. I do have a road bike as well. But there's nothing better than packing all the stuff that you need on a bike in panniers on the back, packing your tent on, and just traveling at 15 kilometers an hour and seeing the world. But there's something about running that's just so special. It's so minimal. You just need some trainers and a coat. And it's just a lot more funerable when you're out on the mountains. And I think, like I said, ever since I've been a kid, I've had a real close-knit relationship with the mountains. My dad, if you speak to him, he'll say, like, I had you on my back when you were zero, zero years old. And he was taking me off the Wainwrights in the Lake District with him. And the Beaumont family, Beaumont side of the family have always been very, very much into mountains. So I think that's why I've naturally kind of gravitated more towards running. But I do miss cycling as well. Yeah. So just a question for you, and for both of you guys, I guess, like, because I always hear about this, I've tried running multiple times and it's, you know, I get into it and I lose it. I always hear about this, the runner high, or like there's the wall that you have to break. Is that a real thing? Is that, like, something? Because, I mean, especially with the stuff that you've been doing, like, you can't just, that's not just to kind of, you know, you have, there has to be a huge mental game in that, right? Yeah, no, it's hugely, it's a huge mental game. And I think I've nurtured that over the years through long distance hiking and cycling. Because they're, like, hiking, for example, you're only ever moving at four or five kilometers an hour. So you really learn how to moderate and manage yourself. I see good running just as management, like good, effective management, management of yourself, management of your mindset, nutrition, logistics, and those who can keep themselves at equilibrium for as long as possible, they're the best runners. It's as simple as that. Like, the mountains don't like volatility. They don't like you going all over the place. So, your ability to remain calm while on these massive 100-kilometer runs is... While your body is screaming at you to stop. And I can tell you as well, like, on the Charlie Ramsay, for example, I was speaking to a mate about it this morning. We, the first, it was 24 moon rows, 100 kilometers and 9,000 meters of elevation to be done in 24 hours. 9,000 meters of elevation is more than Mount Everest as well. I fell over early on in, on that, on that run, just as I got up Ben Nevis and I landed on my rib, bruised it badly and every single breath that I took from that point on, we must have been 10 kilometers into a 100 kilometer run with maybe about 20, 20 hours remaining. Every single breath from that point on was painful. And it was so, so bloody difficult because I just want, I want like, I wanted to quit when I was going to Ben Nevis. But it's just that that noise is just in your brain all the time, all the time, but you tried to just bring yourself back. Do you think you didn't quit because you, what was the reason you didn't quit? Do you think it was because you had the whole team around you and you were like, it's taken so much to get me to this point. So therefore, I've just got to keep going. Do you think if you hadn't had the team around you and you were maybe out on a 30k run? Yeah, like if you were solo. Yeah, so the simple answer is that the project was miles bigger than myself. I had 30 people that had come up all the way to Scotland to support me on this final run in Scotland. The weather was absolutely dismal. Like, if it was me, I would have just bailed. Like, I could come back another weekend. I 100% would have bailed. Oh, mate, I would have bailed. The mountains aren't moving. Like, the mountains, and you need to respect the mountains as well. I'm not one who goes up in silly weather and all of that kind of stuff. Very, very sensible when it comes to that. But there was 30 people there who had given up their weekend, and I was not bringing them back. Like, I was finishing this, and I was determined to finish this. And 20 hours in, like, my mind was still coming up with silly little narratives. It's like, oh, you could just pretend that you rolled your ankle, and everybody would feel sorry for you, and it would be okay. We'd all eat pizza, and we'd go home, and then... But you live with it, mate. You live with it. And, like, integrity is really important. So I couldn't do that. I thought about that a hundred times. Letting the internal thoughts, like... Yeah, and this is real, though. Like, we all have this, like, and it's important to bring it up, because it's real. It's how it is. I was thinking of stories the whole way around of how I could get out of it, but I couldn't. There was no alternative, like, and I wanted to finish for everybody else. And that's why it's really important that the project is beyond me doing, like, the runner. And that's very much the case in Project Salt Run, which we'll get on to as well. And the whole point of this podcast as well, isn't it? It's not Hannah's doing a thing. It's we're doing a thing, the group of us. And there's so many things that it wouldn't be possible without each of the people that have the kind of our core team, you know, of people who are involved. And it wouldn't be possible if they hadn't been through all their life experiences that they've been through to get them to this point. Like, if me and Dan had decided to do this together, you know, eight years ago, you know, it maybe would have been a motorbike trip and it wouldn't have been, it wouldn't have had any of the depth of meaning of the reason that we're doing it now. Yeah. It's about because, you know, Dan's gone through those years, he's gone through all those experiences as a long distance hiker, understanding how that has helped his mental health, doing his own ultra experiences. And Dan, do you want to talk a little bit about Mind Over Mountain, specifically as the charity that you've been raising money for, for part of the big rounds, because I think that's a really interesting charity that I had never heard of before. And in fact, my friend Claire, she's got an amazing podcast called Create Brave, which we will put in the show notes as well. And she's interviewed Alex, the founder on there. So it's a really big in-depth interview on it for you to check out. But yeah, tell us a little bit about how you got involved with that and why you think that's been an important cause for you to support. Well, I met Alex as soon as I returned to the UK. And that was four years ago now. And it was a really turbulent time for me. I was really struggling with my mental health, especially like, it was tough coming back to the UK after being abroad for eight years. I didn't feel British. Lots of depersonalization, like what the hell is this? And it took me a while to calibrate and feel at home here again. And I met Alex and I just loved him from day one, like super, super kind, compassionate chat. And if you haven't seen any of his stuff, then check his Instagram out. Another one to add to the show notes. But anyways, he founded Mind Over Mountains, I think during COVID actually, with the mission to help people who were struggling with their mental health by taking them onto the mountains through guided walks, the incorporated counselors and coaches, which I just like think is absolutely fantastic. It's kind of what I've been doing for myself by myself with the Caminos, all of that kind of stuff anyways. But then when I saw that there's kind of a professional structure to it, I just completely resonated with the values and the purpose of Mind Over Mountains. So I was going on this bike trip anyways and I met Alex and he said, why don't you raise money for Mind Over Mountains? And really the rest is history from there because I started working closely with the charity. We raised 15 grand on that trip and then Mind Over Mountains became a partner for my Big Rounds running trip. And ever since then, I've just had a really close relationship with them. And they also run really nice retreats as well. And I'm sure you're gonna tag them in the show notes as well. So I would just say as well, if anybody is struggling with their mental health, nature's a really good avenue to address that. And Mind Over Mountains would be a really good first port of call to kind of get an insight into how that can happen, especially through the mediation of counseling and coaching as well. Amazing. So, Joel, did you learn anything new about Dan when we were talking, but you did not know before? Well, just more of the determination. I don't know, it's one of those, because the first time I met him was in Budapest, and even then he was running, and I thought that was insane, especially because I didn't run at all back then, not even a little bit. And yeah, his determination is... Yeah, he's like the first two weeks of you ever trying to do something, but all the time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Do you know what I mean? He's like that just all the time, and then like layering stuff on top of it. Like, what I got from that interview, I know Dan pretty well, I'd say he's probably one of my closest friends, but he's the person who is one of the most self-aware people I know. Like, he knows what he cares about and what he's interested in, and he really focuses on doing those things, and obviously it's working out well for him. He gets to work with us. And on top of that as well, he's just so thoughtful of how everybody else is thinking. He always wants to meet on the same page with everybody, which for his role is gonna be super important, especially when we're all stinky and sitting next to each other for months at a time. It's gonna be an important aspect. Exactly, and something me and Dan have been working on actually the last couple of weeks is the pitch deck. So we'll get into this in next week's podcast when we're talking about what everyone wants to know about the money. Everyone wants to know about the money, how we're gonna raise the money, and how we're gonna pay for the trip. So we're gonna get into that next week's podcast. But yeah, we've been doing a pitch deck the last couple of weeks to kind of tell the story of Project Salt Run, to show people how they can get involved. And that's been really interesting working with him on that because he's so detail orientated. We've got like literally 50 pages and we're trying to condense them into this like 10 page document to really like tell the story of Project Salt Run and how people can get involved. Yeah, it's great. Cool. Well, until next week, everybody, I'm Joel Chevaillier. I'm Hannah Cox. And this has been Project Salt Run. We'll see you next week. Bye. That's our show, everybody. Thank you so much for listening. We will be putting together a new episode every week until Hannah starts the run. Once again, a big thank you to 1% for the Planet and GiveStar for their amazing support, the Better Business Network, and of course, Better Not Stop. Please make sure you check out all of their links that we will be putting in our bio. The show is recorded and produced by myself, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram to stay up to date. And until next week, safe travels.