LONDON: A 40-year-old British man will on Tuesday become the first person recognised as having run around the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Robert Garside will run into Picadilly Circus in central London, where he began his first attempt to jog around the world in December 1996, to be presented with a certificate by authorities from the publication.
Garside, then a 29-year-old psychology student, failed in that attempt, and it was only on his fourth try -- beginning at India Gate in New Delhi the following year -- that he succeeded, ending up back in the Indian capital in June 2003.
"I am unbelievably happy that an incredibly long project has finally ended up on a positive note," Garside said.
"I am so happy and relieved and I am so grateful to all those people all over the world who helped me throughout the years I was running."
While traversing the world over five years and eight months, Garside ran across 30 countries on six continents, covering more than 48,000 kilometres.
During that time, he slept in the snow in the Himalayas, and at a monastery in Tibet, and also had to out-run thieves in Mexico and gunmen in Panama. He even spent five nights in a Chinese jail for not having the right travel documents.
