World Run I The concept of Olsen's world run originated as a suggestion made in 2001 by Olsen to David Blaikie, who published it with an invitation for comments on his website
ultramarathonworld.com. Olsen suggested that, without taking sides in then-current controversies in the ultra-running world, a professionally organized world run would be a "constructive" and "truly sportsman[like]" response to widespread ultrarunner community skepticism and discussion concerning
Robert Garside's world run, which had been in progress since 1997 but was viewed with great skepticism by Blaikie and many ultra-runners and had not yet been authenticated by Guinness at the time. In his letter, Olsen stated that while he was "fairly new to the 'real' ultra-running" world, he did hold the Danish national record for the 100 km run (6:58:31) and for the 24-hour run (223 km), had been running marathons since around 1986 (15 years), and having finished a degree, was able to commit the time required if the proposal gained the necessary support from others. His route consisted of:
London-
Copenhagen-
Moscow-
Vladivostok-(air)-
Niigata-
Tokyo-(air)-
Sydney-
Perth-(air)-
Los Angeles-
Vancouver-
New York-(air)-
Shannon-
Dublin-(air)-
Liverpool-
London. Olsen averaged a day, slightly more than a
marathon. It totalled just over 16,000 miles (26,000 km), but around (or slightly under) half the distance of the first verified run around the world, when Garside's run was eventually verified by Guinness in 2007 (Robert Garside, 1997-2003, estimated 30,000 - 40,000 miles (48,000 - 64,000 km)) During most of the run, Olsen pushed a baby carriage, in which he kept food, beverages, a tent, and other equipment. While running through Russia and half of the U.S., he was aided by a support car transporting these supplies. From London to central Siberia he was accompanied by Alexander Korotkov of Russia, who planned to run around the world with Olsen but gave up in central Siberia.
World Run II Olsen and Sarah Barnett ran the North-South route starting on 1 July 2008. The North-South run aimed to complete a distance of with
GPS tracking and live coverage, thus making it the world's longest fully GPS-documented run. The run went from top to bottom of the globe and back, running across four continents and a huge range of temperatures and terrain. It can be seen as a run in a circle around the world in southern, later northern direction with the poles excluded. It started at
North Cape,
Norway (1 July 2008) passing
Helsinki,
Finland (4 August),
Copenhagen,
Denmark (25 August),
Budapest,
Hungary (25 September), and
Istanbul,
Turkey (5 November). On December 1, 2008, near
Silifke,
Turkey, Barnett had to give up after , and Olsen continued alone. He passed
Cairo,
Egypt (1 January 2009) and
Addis Abeba,
Ethiopia (16 April).
Cape Town in
South Africa was reached by 15 March 2010, thereby completing the first half of the run and the first documented run through Africa, a distance of . Olsen spent more than six months recovering in Denmark due to dysenteria, malaria, and two operations to eliminate deep infections in his right arm. He then continued his run on 1 January 2011 from
Punta Arenas for the last half of the run, through
South America and
North America to
Newfoundland . On 28 July 2012, Olsen announced on his website the completion of World Run 2 in
Cape Spear,
Newfoundland.
Russ Cook completed in 2024 a run which covered the full length of Africa. According to the World Running Association, that feat was instead accomplished by their member Jesper Olsen in 2010, when he covered the distance from Taba in
Egypt to the
Cape of Good Hope in
South Africa in 234 days. ==Personal bests==