Robert Garside

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Robert Garside The Runningman arrives in the USA from Mexico, 2000.
Robert Garside The Runningman arrives in the USA from Mexico, 2000.

Robert Garside (born 6 January 1967), also known as "The Runningman", is a British adventurer credited by Guinness World Records as the first man to run around the world. Guinness World Records presented Garside with a certificate endorsing his run on 27 March 2007 in Piccadilly Circus, in London, United Kingdom.

Garside was born in Stockport, and studied at Canterbury Technical College and Royal Holloway University. At 28 he decided to break a world record, and would discontinue a Psychology degree at the age of 29 in order to concentrate on running around the world.

Record-breaking run

Garside left Piccadilly Circus in his second attempt at an around-the-world run on 7 December 1996. He ran across UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Poland, abandoning this attempt before reaching Russia, and flying home to London in early 1997. He continued to post diary entries to his website describing his experiences running through Afghanistan, then in the throes of civil war, and Pakistan, where he asserted he had been attacked and robbed. Garside re-started his record attempt in late 1997 from beneath the majestic arches of India Gate, situated on the Raj Path in New Delhi, India.

By April 1998, having crossed Tibet, he was arrested and imprisoned for five days in Huzhou, China. Gaol time was far from Garside's harshest experience: he left London with only £20 in his pockets, and frequently relied on the generosity of strangers for sustenance and shelter. He slept in monasteries, barns and in the snow in Tibet, and spent other nights in brothels in Brazil. At times the strangers he ran past were not so generous: he was shot at in South Africa, was held at gun point in Panama and evaded thieves in Mexico.

While in Caracas, Venezuela in 2000, Garside met his future wife, Endrina Angarita Perez, whom he nicknamed "Runningwoman".

By Friday 13th June, 2003, after five years and eights months, he finished his global run back beneath the arches of India Gate, in New Delhi. Three and a half years later Guinness World Records' Head of Records, Marco Frigatti, presented Garside with a certificate endorsing his run.

References


Persondata
NAME Garside, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES The Runningman
SHORT DESCRIPTION British runner
DATE OF BIRTH 6 January 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockport, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH