In Jules Verne’s 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, rich London gent Phileas Fogg was challenged by his friends at the Reform Club to circumnavigate the globe within 80 days. Phileas and his valet Passepartout set off on a route taking in 4 continents travelling by rail, sea and at one point elephant.
So, we thought what better way to combat lockdown cabin fever than to challenge our own clubmates to a collective adventure to run around the world! Can we beat Phileas Fogg and Passepartout and run the full route distance of 23,024 miles within 80 days?
The original route from the story breaks down into 10 handy stages, shown on this special Eagles map:
Rules of the Game
· The challenge starts on Monday 1st June and will run for a maximum of 80 days, ending on 19th August. The aim of the game is for the club to use everyone’s combined mileage to get back to London before the 80 days runs out!
· Eagles can submit distances they have run by using this form: https://forms.gle/nMcEyf4Wa23aiKqF9 - you can submit each run as you do them, or a few at a time. To keep it somewhere easy to find, try emailing the link to yourself!
· No evidence is required, this will operate as an honour system.
· The form has options for kms or miles for your convenience, please only fill in one option.
· Distance added can be for runs, run/walks or walks, but they should be for deliberate ‘sessions’ please – don’t just add your step count for the day!
· You can submit ANY session of ANY distance at ANY time and all we want to know is the distance you covered.
· The coaching team will keep an eye on the total distance and provide updates, with the club’s current position marked on the map. Where possible we will tell you which Eagle got us over the line for each stage! Each time we reach the end of a stage we will send out a celebratory post. The route includes a lot of places club members may have done runs in the past. We will be encouraging you to post pictures and anecdotes connected to each place when we get there, in the comments of the celebratory post.
· No hitching rides on elephants.
Happy Running Eagles!