Page 3 Profile: Kevin Carr, runner

Kevin Carr, pictured during the early part of his journey (hardwayround.com)

He looks tired

So would you be if you’d spent the last year and a bit running around the world.

You mean like Forrest Gump?

In the Tom Hanks film Gump ran for a little over three years across America. But that is fiction. Tomorrow (Thurs) Carr hopes to break the record for the fastest world run when he arrives in Haytor at Dartmoor, completing the 26,232km (16,300miles) journey in 621 days knocking 24 hours off 2013 record set by the Australian Tom Denniss.

If my maths is correct, that’s a marathon a day!

Carr, 34, from Devon has actually averaged 31 miles a day rather than 26, sticking to a routine of running between a marathon and a half or two marathons a day – for nearly two years. He has had to take the odd rest, and fly between continents.

Its one way to see the world.

His journey has taken him through 26 countries, always running east to west, including through Australia’s Nullarbor Desert and over the Andes, grappling with blizzards, blisters, bears and cars - he’s been hit twice. After it happened in Perth, Australia, it took weeks for Mr Carr to recover.

He must have had a lot of help.

Actually Carr, who was a barman at the Carpenter’s Arms in the Dartmouth village of Ilsington and personal trainer before he set off, has completed the run unsupported. For much of the journey he has pushed a stroller that contains his food supplies and camping gear in front of him.

Why has he done this?

In a blog written for the Independent in February 2013, as he prepared for his odyssey, he explained: “I have always wanted to see how far I can go. What’s the limit to our endurance?

“I simply want to hold the record as the fastest man around the world.