Robert Garside

Robert Garside (born 6 January 1967), calling himself The Runningman, is a British runner who is credited by Guinness World Records as the first person to run around the world.

Garside began his record-setting run following two aborted attempts from Cape Town, South Africa and London, England.

Garside had become obsessed with running in the late 1980s, and while studying psychology at London's Royal Holloway University he described how he came across a copy of Guinness World Records in January 1995, and noticed that there was a record listed for walking the world, but not for running it.

He decided to attempt to set a record as the first person to run around the world, an extreme ultramarathon feat.

He credited as part of his motive, his mother's happiness at leaving his father to return to her native country, Slovakia, following their divorce, when he was a teenager, and also finding that the state of mind he reached when running as an adult brought back some of his "best times" from childhood, where he ran and played in the "huge forests" near his house.

Garside stated that his aim was to run for his own satisfaction as well as the record, therefore he set about running each continent the longest way possible, rather than the easiest way to gain the record.

His run covered around 40,000 miles across 6 continents and 29 countries.

Koeppel notes that attempting to run Africa was entirely voluntary, and that the renowned first walk around the world, by David Kunst 30 years earlier covered barely a third of that distance (14,452 miles) and skipped South America and Africa.

Garside's first effort from Cape Town, South Africa, in early 1996 was abandoned in Namibia, and his second attempt, begun on 7 December 1996, started from London's Piccadilly Circus but was abandoned at the Russia-Kazakhstan border around June 1997; Garside initially covered up the break in running with fabricated diary entries (see below), for which he later apologised saying that he had not wanted potential competitors to know of the lapsed progress.

He recommenced his run some weeks later, from New Delhi, India.

The record breaking run was originally commenced in 1996 at London's Piccadilly Circus (although this is now generally considered his second attempt).

According to Garside, at the Russia-Kazakhstan border he received a plea from a former girlfriend to be with her during a family medical emergency involving her mother.

Garside set off from New Delhi, India on 20 October 1997, completing his run back at the same point on 13 June 2003.

While his run has been challenged by some ultra distance runners and some members of the press, subsequent publications clarified a number of the points raised, such as anomalies in his online diary, and his running of the Nullarbor plain without a support crew – a feat believed impossible according to classic ultrarunning methodologies but achieved using lateral thinking and relying upon passing traffic and local people to drop off water for him instead – and highlighted the clashes of personality, running approach, and actions, that had engendered the concerns.

It was therefore his third attempt, initiated on 20 October 1997 from the monument of India Gate in New Delhi, that was eventually authenticated by Guinness as a successful record.

During his run, Garside updated his website with a portable computer, describing an arduous journey complicated by human and natural hurdles that included physical attacks and imprisonment as well as grueling climate extremes.

He met with considerable assistance, as he was offered lodgings around the globe in such diverse settings as five-star hotels and private homes to prison cells and police stations.

In addition to corporate sponsorship of £50,000, he indicated he received £120,000 in donations from individuals.

One donor in Hong Kong agreed to back Garside in return for a share in future profits.

Along the way, Garside also met his future wife, then Endrina Perez, in Venezuela.

Returning to London, he resumed his run in October 1997 from what he deemed his new starting point, in New Delhi, India.

In a 1998 video interview Garside added that he was motivated because it was "so challenging", clarifying that he meant it was challenging to himself.

Garside's equipment and funding was described by Koeppel and also in an August 2000 article, when he was in Central America.

Koeppel states that Garside ran with around 15 pounds (6.8 kg) of equipment in a backpack, and started with around £20 ($30) of money; the latter report broadly reports similarly.

His possessions were a palmtop computer, digital video camera, map, toothbrush, change of clothing, and a hat – the article comments that to reduce weight he did not keep a water bottle, instead finding water sources as he ran, including at times natural sources such as rivers and puddles.

Other reports add to these, a cellphone, a music player or music playing phone, a camera, and passport visas and paperwork.

He had also learned, Garside stated, to raise sponsorship as he ran; the August 2000 article states he had raised around $90,000 by selling interviews and his story to media as he travelled, by the time of the interview.

There had also been running companions and girlfriends on the journey, as well as support and help from the public: "[P]eople always help you out" Garside commented.

Regarding the physical toll of ultra-distance running, Garside stated that his choice of approach was key, although commenting it took him two years to recover afterwards:

He also commented on the experience of running itself:

A number of people who casually ran alongside Garside for a time, or testified to his running, were also quoted in various media, for example:

Garside indicated in 2001 that it was his habit to jog seven to eight hours a day, covering an average of forty miles a day when running on flat ground, outfitted with a video camera to record his journey and a fifteen-pound backpack.

On his third run, he used his video camera every 20 minutes while running to take a four-minute clip of his location, and routinely requested signed, dated documents from local officials.

In 2001 faced with questions about his records, he admitted that some diary entries from around June 1997, prior to his restart in New Delhi, describing colorful adventures in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan had been fabricated to hide his diversion home from competitors.

Garside completed his world-traversing journey on 13 June 2003 at the monument of India Gate, at which time The Independent reported the total miles run over five and a half years at 35,000 (approximately 56,000 kilometers), covering territory in 30 countries.

Near the end of his run, Garside indicated that the worst experiences he'd encountered were three days spent running without any food and five days spent in jail in China because he lacked proper documentation.

He described running over the Himalayas as "fantastic" in spite of freezing temperatures, "the most spiritual of mind journeys."

In assessing his feat, Trailrunner senior editor Monique Cole stated he had clearly run more of the world than anyone else, while former media critic Dan Koeppel, who became one of the few journalists outside Guinness to discuss and examine his full records at length, became convinced by 2005 that Garside had indeed run around the world and expressed great remorse and "haunting" guilt at his past part in fuelling a media frenzy that, as he felt, "screwed one of the greatest runners ever" and "erased... one of the most incredible things a runner had ever done".

Guinness World Records, who spent several years evaluating evidence, declared it authentic and the record was officially bestowed on Garside on 27 March 2007 at a ceremony in Piccadilly Circus, London, England.

Born in Stockport, Cheshire, England, Robert Garside attended Hillcrest Grammar School, where he was an all-round sportsman and captain of the soccer team, and after school, switched between several academic courses and jobs (including the Merchant Navy and police).