Barman on track to break record for fastest ‘run around the world’
LONDON: After over 26 000km, 16 pairs of running shoes, deserts, blizzards, mountains and an angry bear, a British barman is poised to break the record for the fastest “run around the world”.
If all goes well, Kevin Carr’s running circumnavigation will end tomorrow afternoon at Haytor on Dartmoor, where he set off on July 28, 2013.
He will have run 26 232km in 621 days, knocking about 24 hours off the 2013 record set by Australian Tom Denniss.
Kevin, 34, slogged through another 80km yesterday towards his overnight stop in Braunton, Devon. His spokeswoman said: “If he beats the record, he will be over the moon. It is an amazing feat of endurance.”
Kevin has run through 26 countries – on his route across Europe, India, Australia, New Zealand, and North and South America, always heading east and going through the continents from coast to coast.
Although he is currently running 80km a day, he has averaged almost 50km throughout his odyssey. His achievement is all the more remarkable because, unlike Denniss, he has not had the benefit of a support team.
“For most of the way round the world, he was pushing a stroller in front of him, containing – among other things – a tent and two spare pairs of running shoes,” said his spokeswoman.
“It was twice his bodyweight. It wasn’t until he got to Ireland that he was able to strip down his equipment and fit it in a rucksack.”
Before embarking on his journey, Carr worked as a personal trainer and as a barman at the Carpenters Arms in the Dartmouth village of Ilsington.
As he set out, he said: “I have always wanted to see how far I can go. I simply want to hold the record as the fastest man around the world. It’s the purest test of endurance. You simply can’t go further on our world, unless you begin running laps.”
Carr has suffered depression and ran to from raise money for the mental health charity Sane. He wanted to prove that a mind that is sometimes ill “is not a weak mind”.
To get from Perth to Sydney, he had to run through Australia’s notorious Nullarbor Desert.
Apart from when he was flying between continents, Carr allowed himself no rest days. But he came down with heatstroke while running between Mumbai and Chennai in 40ºC temperatures and had to spend three days recovering. He then faced temperatures of minus 30ºC as massive snowstorms buffeted the US last November.
He came down with flu and the delay meant he had one more day left on his visa and had to run 104km to get a flight out of Jacksonville Airport in Florida.
While he was running through Canada’s Northwest Territories, a black bear started stalking him. He had to let off four “bear bangers” before the bear stopped.
Packs of feral dogs chased him in Romania, but he is expecting a friendlier reception when he arrives home.