A 70-year-old man, born in Punjab and based in Ireland for over 40 years, has applied for a Guinness World Record after completing what he calls his Earth Walk – covering over 40,075 kilometres or the equivalent of the circumference of the earth in under 1,500 days – without stepping out of his home city of Limerick.
Vinod Bajaj began his journey in August 2016 with a humble goal of losing some weight and getting fitter.
As he shed the kilograms, his enthusiasm for walking only multiplied and led him to chart out varying routes, including through indoor malls to overcome weather constraints.
“During the first three months of my walking seven days a week, I lost 8 kg by having a deficit of 700 calories per day. Over the next six months, I lost a further 12 kg. The loss of weight was almost entirely due to walking and I did not have to change much of my eating habits,” said Bajaj.
“Typically, I started walking early in the morning and completed mostly in two intervals, the first one was always for a longer duration. There were many times I did the entire walk in a single attempt. Starting early allowed me to finish up by early afternoon, which gave me plenty of time to do things such as shopping, bank work, house and garden work,” he said.
The retired engineer and business consultant grew up in Chennai and moved to Scotland in 1975 for a Master’s in Management from Glasgow before work took him to the Republic of Ireland 43 years ago, where he has been living with his family at Castletroy, a suburb of Limerick, for 36 years.
