New Delhi: An Indian origin man from Ireland has claimed that he walked a distance equal to the Earth’s circumference — 40,070 km — in less than four years, without leaving his immediate neighbourhood in the city of Limerick.
Vinod Bajaj, a 70-year-old retired business consultant, began his long daily walks on 18 August 2016 and completed 40,107 km in 1,496 days later on 21 September this year. Bajaj told ThePrint that he restricted himself to a 10 km radius around his house and walked for approximately nine hours every day in the past year.
The longest distance he was able to complete in a day was 55km — more than an average marathon.
Bajaj used a pedometer app to track his progress and also went through 12 pairs of running shoes. “I have 1,496 days of daily and hourly walk data stored in my computer,” he told ThePrint.
The Guinness World Records accepted his application for a new record, which will be the first of its kind, last month and it is currently under review.
Last month, the Embassy of Ireland in New Delhi also tweeted about his “amazing story”.
🚶♂️🌍🚶♂️🌏🚶♂️
Amazing story of Mr Vinod Bajaj!
Born in India & living in Ireland for last 43 years Mr Bajaj has walked 40,075km – the equivalent of the circumference of the earth 😮 https://t.co/4oozWMrVxD— Irish Embassy India (@IrlEmbIndia) September 29, 2020
Also read: Mizoram’s doctor MLA walks miles, crosses a stream to treat soldier in remote area
Walking strategy — start early, eat healthy
Bajaj was born in Punjab but moved to Chennai at the age of three where he completed his schooling and post graduation. After completing a master’s degree in engineering, he left for Glasgow in 1975 for a second master’s in management. Shortly after, he got a job in Ireland where he has been living for 43 years with his wife.
Bajaj’s walking strategy involved looking at the weather forecast the night before and starting his walk early in the morning. He began around 5.30am, so that afterward he could tend to other activities like shopping, visiting the bank, household chores and garden work.
In the first two years, he was able to complete just 20-25km in a day over four to five hours. By the third year, he was completing 30-25 km a day in about seven hours and in the last year, 40-45 km a day in nine hours.
He carried almonds, cashews, walnuts and a banana with him, and listened to popular radio programmes like Morning Ireland during the long walks.
“Many housing estate dogs would bark at me but in the end, they all became friendly because they used to see me often,” he said.
The daily walk was usually split into two intervals with short breaks in the middle to use the toilet.
“There were many times I did the entire walk in a single attempt,” he told ThePrint.
Last month, during an interview with Irish Radio 1, Bajaj explained how he ate during the walks.
“If I wanted to continue walking non-stop, I’d ring my wife [and say] ‘hello, I’m hungry at the moment, I’ll be there in about 10 minutes’ and she’d have two sandwiches ready. I [would] pick up the sandwich and start walking again.” According to a local media report, she would hand him an ice cream in the summer.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, Bajaj was restricted to a 5 km radius around his house and ended up repeating the same routes many times over to meet his daily distance goals.
Walking to India, Moon, Mars & Earth without leaving Ireland
Bajaj did not begin walking with the Guinness World Records in mind but rather with an aim to lose weight. “I was 81 kg and probably a bit overweight at the time,” he told ThePrint. Within the first nine months, he lost 20 kg.
By the end of the first year, he realised he had walked 7,600 km which was approximately the distance from Ireland to India. By the second year, he had completed about 15,600 km — more than the circumference of the Moon, which is about 10,917 km.
Then it wasn’t long before the 70-year-old completed 21,344 km, the circumference of Mars, and started to aiming for the circumference of the Earth which is 40,070 km.
When asked what his family thought about the feat, he said, “My wife and siblings were not impressed at first. They felt I was walking too much and my health would be affected. Eventually they came around and now they hope I won’t attempt a second walk around the Earth, this time anti-clockwise.”
Also read: How cities are promoting walking & cycling to reach work post-Covid
Whats the point news manufacturers? Everybody does walk this much through more or less the same period of their life, whats the news in it? I thought only Godi media produced news like this, but when it comes to manufacturing news everybody is alike!! News, health care and education should never have been in private hands!!!