STORY:
A Millennium Run Around The World

London man wants to be first person to run around world, solo Eve

Ex- London psychology student Robert Garside, 32, is trying to become the first person to run around the world-specifically, to go on foot, solo, across the length of all seven continents (yes, he’s even planning to transverse Antarctica).

He’s now in South America, having already crossed Europe, Asia, and Australia since starting his quest in December 1996. He’s over halfway to his 68,000-kilometer goal (over 40,000 miles). Here are some excerpts of an Everything2000 interview done with Garside:

Everything 2000: Where will you be New Year's Eve?

Garside: If I’m on schedule, crossing over from Mexico to the USA (on the border, a desperado by that time heading with a determined snarl, sweaty and dusty towards bemused U.S. immigration officers who might ask, "Would you like to wash, Runningman?")

Everything 2000: What does the year 2000 mean to you and your running goal?

Garside: The millennium to me means a good excuse for everyone (this time) to have a new year’s resolution, manage the planet properly and forget the mistakes of the 20th century and stop thinking that Anand in India, Yuri in Russia, Pablo in Argentina, Wan Jin Xin in China, or Tammy in America are different. We are all the same underneath. Education and not war, stop smoking, new non-petroleum cars, population to become 2 billion not 6. Animals to have space too. I suppose you have heard all this before?

Everything 2000: When and where do you plan to finish? Are there any recommendations you may have for others who may try to achieve a milestone goal on or before the milestone of the year 2000?

Garside: There is no significant change without pain; pain is your teacher. It is nature’s initiation; as if saying, "Prove to me that change is necessary and go through a related amount of pain and you can have it."

You can follow his progress at www.therunningman.com.

DATE: 9/29/99

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