The goal was to stay cool, avoid injury, and get to the finish line... on the far side of the country.
Tabarak Chaudhry went from running no more than an hour at a time to a marathon a day in his effort at fundraising for education, jogging past supportive children, mountains, fields, and camels.
In December, the Vice President in AlixPartners’ Turnaround & Restructuring practice completed his run from near Islamabad in the north of Pakistan to the south to raise funds for The Citizens Foundation (TCF), a nonprofit that aims to advance positive social change through access to education. The 35-day journey took him from his high school in northern Pakistan all the way to Karachi, where he completed his undergraduate degree. Altogether he raised three-quarters of a million dollars, and became the first person to have run across the country.
Born in Taxila, a small town in Punjab, Pakistan, Tabarak's connection to education runs deep. His mother, the area’s first woman to attend college, tutored children in her home, and his father opened the very first school in the area. Eventually, they combined the tutoring center with the school, which turned into 16 more schools. Tabarak laughs, “I joke with them that they did a strategic merger in life and business!”
This family legacy instilled in him a profound respect for education's transformative power, especially in a country where, he points out, one in every three kids is out of school. “Growing up in a small town where my parents were the cornerstone of education was phenomenal,” he says.
Tabarak's run was inspired by his experiences with TCF, where he volunteered in Karachi during his undergrad years. “We used to help TCF kids with admission into top universities," he explains.
The impact of TCF's work became even more apparent when he moved to Boston for graduate school at Northeastern and met successful fellow students who had benefited from their programs. “One of my roommates grew up doing child labor and then went through TCF’s system. He’s since worked with the World Bank, IMF, and now he’s doing his PhD.”
There, watching the Boston Marathon would also prove to be a pivotal moment of inspiration. “I had the itch to do something.”
After a move to New York and watching the 2023 marathon there, he officially had the bug. “I was following everything about running and I was really inspired by [naval officer] Paul Johnson, who ran across America.”
In fact, Tabarak joined the last 12 miles of Johnson’s attempt at the transcontinental record, running from the George Washington Bridge to Times Square. “On the very day he [Johnson] started, I told myself that if he can do it, I can do it as well.”
Until he found a coach, training was less regimented than one might expect. At the start, Tabarak had not run more than six miles at once. And just before he joined the run to Times Square in April, he was laid up with an injury.
“I was progressing gradually,” Tabarak explains. “Thanks to my military boarding school experience, I had the discipline to go on.”
By July, Tabarak was running nearly four marathons in four days’ time—upwards of 104 miles.
In addition to a challenging training schedule, the endeavor required months of planning, including building a support team and pitching donors—something his work as a consultant prepared him for. “I had a very comprehensive deck ready,” he says. “We were able to raise around $45,000 before the run, just through sponsorships.”
His team included family and people on the ground in Pakistan who, in a rental RV, followed along and captured footage of the feat. The group helped Tabarak share his progress and reflections on social media daily.
Running through the area’s hottest November on record, his focuses throughout were to stay cool, not get injured, and remember what inspired it all. “I was running across the country starting at my high school and ending at my college. It was an intentional route to symbolize the importance of education.”
Throughout his endeavor, Tabarak felt incredibly supported by AlixPartners. “A lot of people in the company donated,” he says. “So that was really heartwarming for me.”
Along with support at the company and a culture for doing social good, he values the impact he makes on projects. He enjoys the challenge of helping companies navigate difficult times and potentially saving jobs and businesses. This sense of purpose keeps him grounded and motivated in his work, just as he was throughout his run.
While Tabarak, recently promoted, is focused on his new role, he’s also working on a documentary about his run, which has already unlocked new heights for the communities TCF serves.
The more than $750,000 his run generated is enough for TCF to support at least 5,500 children in 32 schools for one year—and it also inspired others. “Someone wants to open an IT center in his village. He donated his land,” says Tabarak. “Another reached out to say he’s sponsoring a child’s education for the next four years. There are so many stories like this—it just keeps us going.”