Englishman Shatters Round the World Record by 4 Weeks!

James Bowthorpe is 4 days away from his final destination of of London England. He left there 170 days ago on March 29, 2009 to raise 1.8 Million GBP for Parkinson’s research by travelling the 18,000 mile route around the world on his bicycle.  Since leaving London, England he’s travelled through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, The United States, Canada, Portugal and is currently in Spain on his route home.

His goal was originally to break the world record for circumnavigating the globe by bicycle by a whopping 2 weeks. The reason: hope that his frenzied pace would convey the urgency with which this money is needed.  Sadly his donation page currently sits at 3% of his total fund raising goal. In an amazing attempt to further assert his urgency has has increased his daily average distance to an astonishing 150 miles per day over the past few weeks. Every day he comes a little bit closer to doubling his target margin of 2 weeks.  He’s now within range of shaving a month off the world record.  This young man is about to make world history and nobody seems to be aware of it.

The lack of awareness is not for his lack of trying however. To be quite frank he’s made more of an effort than a lot of efforts I’ve seen to get his message out to the world. His portfolio  includes a map of his journey as assembled online by a GPS unit, a dedicated blog, a twitter acount, and a donations page hosted by JustGiving.com. With all these avenues working for him I would have thought that he’d be much closer to his goal than 3%, an so I’ll make a donation.

While it may be small compared to his goal we all know how those dollars can add up.  I’m also writing this post in hopes that some of you out there might feel compelled to follow in my footsteps. Tthrow this guy 10 or 20 dollars toward his goal, after all he’s about to break the world record by almost a month and that kind of raw athleticism deserves a bit of reward if not for him, than for the millions world wide who suffer from Parkinson’s.

You can follow James’ journey online at whereintheworldisjames.com

For more information on James Bowthorpe and the motivation for his record breaking adventure, visit www.globecycle.org and while your at it, make a donation.

Cheers,

Tarandon