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Media Coverage

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Controversy section moved for rewrite.

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Controversies

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Controversy arose in late 2000 when Canadian runner David Blaikie, who operated the website Ultramarathon World, began questioning Garside's story.[1] In 2001, The Guardian detailed some of the contested claims. Among them, Garside's diary placed him "alone and heading up to the Amazon jungle" at the same time a witness put him on a beach in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, with Ronnie Biggs; his diary suggested he had run to the US border from Mexico City in under 10 days, setting a new world speed record, but for 1,300 kilometres (810 miles)* of the route he had been a passenger in an airplane; he was in England at the time he was said to have been in Pakistan and Afghanistan contending with bandits and guerrillas.[2]

In 2001, The Guardian indicated that Garside had admitted to them that some of his diary entries had been fictional.[2] With respect to the bandits and guerrillas in Pakistan and Afghanistan, he reportedly indicated that he had returned to the UK at the request of his girlfriend, who had a seriously ill family member, but was distressed at having lost eight weeks in his journey.[2] Concerned that somebody else might start a run to compete with his record, he fabricated details to suggest he was still on course.[2] When he resumed his run, he picked up approximately 3,862.5 kilometres (2,400.0 miles)* beyond his stopping point in New Delhi, missing Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.[2] He said he took the plane from Acapulco to La Paz in Baja California in order to meet his time schedule, but that he didn't believe the details of that shortening of his original route would interest people.[2] It was later said that he made up those miles elsewhere.[3] "Discrepancies of timing", including his being with Biggs when he had indicated he was elsewhere, were simple mistakes by him or the individuals updating his website.[2] Some of these explanations to the Guardian were subsequently challenged by other media, as Sports Illustrated Adventures reported in 2002, when it was suggested that his hiatus in London had lasted six months.[1]

Sports Illustrated Adventures also indicated that Garside had announced in 1998 that he had broken the long-distance running record of Sarah Lovington-Fulcher, a claim that did not take into account his hiatus and restart.[4][1]

Some distance athletes and other critics have also expressed some uncertainty about Garside's journey, before and after its completion.[2][5][6][7] Guinness record holder David Kunst, who walked around the world, expressed his to Guardian in 2001: "I was totally blown away by the fact that he was doing it without back-up.... When my brother Pete and I walked around the world, we had a mule. This is why I have a doubt about Robert Garside, and I guess I do have a doubt . . . in some of those countries, the water is so bad, we got amoebic dysentery. How can you run 100 miles a day and find food and drink?"[2] In 2003, The Independent indicated that "endurance experts are sceptical at his claims that he regularly ran up to 110 miles daily, without a support team."[8] Steven Seaton of Runner's World told The Times that "Some of the things he has claimed to have achieved would constitute world records for ultrarunning, which is nonsense for somebody who is claiming to have run almost every day. He went into this with no outstanding ultra-credentials, which makes it difficult to believe what he claims to have done."[3] Blaikie's doubts persisted as well, in spite of time-coded videos taken by Garside, as he suggested to The Times that these "will prove nothing, other than the fact that he has toured the world. Videos are easily faked with the aid of a car, bicycle or other transportation."[3] After the record was authenticated, The Guardian quoted Ian Champion of the UK Road Runners Club as indicating he was "stunned".[9] Champion had been called upon to judge a television test put to Garside in which Garside agreed to complete before witnesses a run of 130 miles (210 kilometres)* on a track in a 24-hour-period, but the challenge went uncompleted.[9]

In reporting that Garside had admitted some fabrication and inaccuracies in his diary in 2001, Guardian also attributed to Garside a belief that a campaign existed to discredit him.[2] In 2003, Garside told an AFP reporter that "Just because I don’t contest everything a paper prints does not mean I accept it. I am too poor to sue them and frankly these allegations are boring after a point."[10] That same year, he told the South African Press Association that he had "never admitted to doing it [fabricating details in his diary]. It's easy to twist somebody's words."[11] He indicated that it had been necessary for him to run alone "to keep a few trade secrets."[11] In 2003, The Observer reported that a rival group of runners from Sweden and Russia were questioning the authenticity of his run, which Garside ascribed to jealousy.[12]

Other controversies that arose during his journey included his announced intention to be joined by two skateboarders on his run across the United States to act as witnesses to the feat. According to Garside, his separation from these skateboarders—one of whom left the group and the other of whom was abandoned at a hotel in the middle of the night—cost him a potential sponsorship deal with Nike.[2]

  1. ^ a b c Lidz, Franz (July 1, 2002). "Where in the World Is Robert Garside?". Sports Illustrated Adventure (16). Retrieved 2009-09-39. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cite error: The named reference Guardian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Powell, David (May 7, 2003). "Suspicion haunts man with world at his feet". The Times. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
  4. ^ "Running man chasing goal of traversing all continents". Eugene Register-Guard. Associated Press. April 6, 2000. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
  5. ^ Fitzmaurice, Eddie (June 15 2003). "Marathon man runs into trouble". The Sun-Herald. Retrieved 2009-09-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Briton aiming to swim round world". BBC. Friday, 14 November, 2003. Retrieved 2009-09-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Fleming, Nic (16 March 2003). "Doubts trip up runner's record claim". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Independent was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b Burkeman, Oliver (28 March 2007). "Running the world - or a flight of fancy?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
  10. ^ "UK runner takes longest road to India in world record bid". Daily Times. AFP. June 14, 2003. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
  11. ^ a b "Man gives world the run". news24.com. South African Press Association. 2003-06-13. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Observer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Potential rewrite

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The text below is from the subject of the article, representing what he views as balanced. He says that it "excludes falsehoods". I place it here in the hope that it will be of use; my role here is only as a facilitator, nothing more. Mike Peel (talk) 23:04, 27 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Robert Garside "The Runningman", (born 6 January 1967), is a British adventurer credited by Guinness World Records as the first person to run around the world. Guinness World Records presented Garside with a certificate endorsing his run on 27 March 2007 in Piccadilly Circus, London, England. Garside was born in Cheshire, and studied psychology at Royal Holloway University between 1993 and 1995, when he planned to become the first person to run around the world.

World Record-breaking run

On 7 December 1996 Robert Garside "The Runningman" started from Piccadilly Circus, London in an attempt to run around-the-world. He ran across Europe in wintertime, but abandoned the run before reaching Moscow, Russia because civil war had broken out in Afghanistan.

In the second half of 1997 Garside re-started his run from India Gate, a monument situated on the Raj Path in New Delhi, India.

Garside slept in police stations across India and met with Crown Prince Dipendra in Nepal before running into the Himalayas what CNN had reported as "the worst winter in 100 years". He stayed in monasteries, barns and in the snow in temperatures as low as minus 40C.

Garside Jogged for about eight hours a day, which he says he covered at least 40 miles; he wore a specially converted pack and videoed every 15 minutes.

Months later and Garside found celebrity in Chengdu. He ran out of the city with a large crowd of students and crossed the Sichuan Province. But by April 1998, Garside was arrested and imprisoned in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, China. A Buddhist friend secured his released after just five days.

Along the way he was robbed, chased by secret police and thugs, threatened with an axe and pelted by crowds with stones. "Sometimes you get an instigator who gets the crowd on his side and tries to create trouble for me," Garside says. "I don't know why. I guess people get suspicious of someone running down the street. Sometimes I had at least one punch-up every single day."

In Australia temperatures were over 40C and he spent most of his time with bush flies and in Brazil, Garside ran out of Rio de Janeiro and lost his way, forcing him to Mage, where he says “I slept in a brothel. I introduced myself and the girls laughed and wanted to kiss Mr. Runningman. The room I got was seedy and I wrapped myself in clothes to avoid touching the bed. It was humid, dark and mirrored.”

In Panama, Garside was hijacked at gun point by two robbers in Panama, near the Bridge of the Americas and as he neared Acapulco, Mexico, he outran three armed men.

In the USA Garside was accompanied by runners in California, and skateboarders, who accompanied him across the Golden Gate Bridge and three states and by Friday 13th June, 2003, after five years and eight months, Garside finished his global run back beneath the arches of India Gate, in New Delhi. Tom Hanks wrote saying he was an “inspiration”.

Garside said that if it wasn’t for his main benefactor, London photo agent Mike Soulsby, he would not have made it and that a post-9/11 world was more difficult to run through than a pre-9/11 world. "Patience, the gift of gab and lots of shoes help”.

Controversy

David Blaikie, who ran the now defunct web site for ultrarunners called Ultramarathon World, greeted Garside’s run with skepticism including allegations that he had posted misleading entries in his online weblog in 2001. He questioned the plausibility of his claims and the accuracy of the evidence documenting Garside's run.

However in 2007, Guinness World Records, who spent several years evaluating the evidence, declared that Robert Garside had completed "the first authentic run around the world".

References

Reuters http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKL2666293420070326

Guinness World records (press release) http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/mediazone/pdfs/news/070327_Earliest_Run_around_the_World.pdf

Manchester Evening News http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1003/1003046_record_for_the_man_who_ran_world.html

CBBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6500000/newsid_6500800/6500851.stm

Press Association "Round-the-World Runner Celebrates Record Success", Ruth Barnett, The Press Association, 28 March 2007

News 24 http://www.news24.com/Content/World/News/1073/39ce16d5142b449886d5b48fe4282aec/13-06-2003-07-46/Man_gives_world_the_run

The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/02/athletics.uk

BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2841547.stm

Daily Times (Pakistan) http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-6-2003_pg9_4

American Way Magazine http://www.americanwaymag.com/robert-garside-tibet

San Francisco Weekly http://www.sfweekly.com/2000-11-15/news/two-to-say-go/

Sport Illustrated "Road Warrior Robert Garside hopes to be the first man to run around the world", Jamal Greene, Sports Illustrated Magazine, 14 August 2000 (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1019897/index.htm)

CNN News "Runner trekking around world crosses into United States", CNN, US News 1 September 2000

Dennik SME (Slovakia) http://dennik.sme.sk/c/2061738/dotaznik-na-otazky-dotaznika-sme-odpovedal-robert-garside-beziaci-muz-ktory-chce-za-tri-roky-obehnut.html

The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/this-man-is-about-to-run-around-the-world-five-continents-52-countries-39920-miles-it-will-take-him-four-years-at-up-to-60-miles-a-day-is-he-mad-1578532.html

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