I've been reading Robert Garside's diaries lately and to put it bluntly, the numbers don't add up. This article deals only with the Europe-Asia portion of his run. The British-born runner is currently in Central America, en route to Mexico, the United States and Canada. Garside's diaries for Europe and Asia suggest that he ran a total distance of 14,239 kilometres over 506 days, starting at Picadilly Circus in London, England, on 7 December 1996, and arriving at Shanghai, China, on 26 April 1998.
Precise facts are hard to pin down, however.
The Europe-Asia figure of 14,239 kilometres is not actually spelled out by Garside. Amazingly, his diaries contain only four references in 506 days to the cumulative distances he was covering. There are diary entries for only 32 of 506 days, with nothing at all for the remaining 474. In virtually all cases the entries are dated on the 1st and the 15th of the month. Most are brief, a paragraph or two, rarely more.