Running Around the World

• Code name - Rtp Orbit
• Mission - Run for a total of 24881 miles or 40043 kilometers, which is the same distance of virtually running around the world
• Expiration date - None
• Activation - Send us a "Activate mission" message (info(at)runtheplanet.com) including your name and nationality
• Report - Send us a "Mission completed" message (info(at)runtheplanet.com) including your name and running biography

The Mission

Pythagoras is given credit for first hypothesizing that the Earth was round in the sixth century bC. Of course, we needed to know the size and Eratosthenes, in the third century bC, first applied scientific measuring techniques to attempt to estimate the circumference of the Earth. He knew that during the summer solstice the sun shone directly onto a wall in Syene (present day: Aswan, Egypt). Eight hundreds kilometers north in Alexandria the angle of inclination of the sun's rays was approximately 7.2 degrees. Fortunately, he knew how to use these measurements to calculate the circumference of the Earth because we certainly could not do it. Still there were doubters who believed that the earth was flat right up to 1500s. Voyages and discoveries in the 1500s by explorers such as Giambattista Ramusio, Richard Hakluyt, and Theodore de Bry proved beyond a doubt that the Earth was round. The accuracy of man's measurements have been getting better and better. After 10 years of satellite observations, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics adopted the Geodetic Reference System and its measurements in 1967, giving us our current statistics (with a small update in the mid 1980s). Once we were sure that the Earth was indeed round (and that we would not fall off), mankind has been obsessed with circumnavigating the Earth. We have sailed around it in ships, flown around it in airplanes, orbited it in spacecraft, and recently floated around it in a hot air balloon. We keep coming up with new methods of travel and using them to circle this planet of ours. You see where we are going! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to run around the Earth. So buy a whole bunch of running shoes and start counting! When you have run a cumulative 40,043 kilometers or 24,881 miles, then you can say you did it! Just to give you an idea of what it takes, if you run 10 miles a day, you would have to do that for 6.8 years. Let us know when you are successful and you will be listed onRun The Planet as having completed this prestigious and prodigious mission. Remember that the honor rule applies. Have fun and watch out for blisters. On your mark, get set, go!

Rtp Orbit is a mission for those who throughout their running careers will accumulated enough miles that, had they not always returned to the same place, would have run around the world, including oceans and bodies of water. To complete this mission you need to run a total of 24881 miles (40043 kilometers). Taking the distance of the Prime Meridian around the world and averaging it with that of the Equator these calculations were achieved.

Mission in Progress

Planeteers who are currently running this mission:

• Nick Clair (Usa/Ohio)
• Emily Hatstat (Usa/Oregon)
• Alessandro Auditore (Italy)
• Marcello Auditore (Italy)
• Curt Rogers (Usa/Kansas)
• Tim Wilson (England)
• Vanessa Sellers (United States of America)
• Carrie Carter (United States of America)
• Angela Bukoski (Usa/Illinois)
• Kevin Lietz (Usa/Wisconsin)
• Mark Burns (Usa)
• Søren Hessellund Jensen (Denmark)
• Niels Pedersen (Denmark)
• Cary Libby (Usa/Maine)
• Jesslyn Bass (Usa/Texas)
• Stacey Marzheuser (Usa/Ohio)
• James Story (South Korea)
• Shihan He (Usa)
• Chelle Boo (Australia)
• Patricia Turnbull (Canada)
• Bill Laing (Usa)
• Karen Elliott (Usa/Montana)
• Linda Bedwell (Usa/California)
• Robert Feliciano (Puerto Rico)
• Eric Sutton (Usa/Hawaii)
• Natascha Grasby (Australia)
• Vanessa Grasby (Australia)
• Ewa Bialkowski (Poland)
• Dan Buchin (Usa/Minnesota)
• Jacob Lemanski (Usa)
• Bruce Taylor (Scotland)
• Dan O'Neill (Usa)
• Valeria Luce (Argentina)
• Valerie Bloomfield (France)
• Your name and nationality here

Mission Completed

Planeteers who completed this mission:

• Your name and running biography here

Around the world? He really did it! - Circumambulation! The true story of the first verified walk around the Earth. An awesome, almost unbelievable tale about an amazing historical feat that proves amazing goals can be accomplished by determined and motivated human beings. Earthwalk, an odyssey about three brothers, four mules, two dogs and an Australian school teacher. John Kunst was killed by bandits in Afghanistan, Pete Kunst took his place and then Dave Kunst married Jenni Samuel, the school teacher. The Kunst brothers walked out of Waseca (Usa/Minnesota) on June 20, 1970 with a mule named Willie Makeit. Dave returned to Waseca from the west after 4 years, 3 months and 16 days of circling the land mass of the Earth on foot! He walked 14,450 miles, crossed 4 continents and 13 countries, and wore out 21 pairs of shoes! "If I can walk around the world, I can do anything and so can anyone" said Dave Kunst (http://home.earthlink.net/~earthwalker1), Guinness record breaker as first person verified to have walked around the world, earthwalker & 1996 Olympic Torchbearer.