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Vinod Bajaj walks around the world without leaving Limerick

Vinod Bajaj from Limerick pictured above hopes to make the Guinness World Records

Vinod Bajaj walks around the world without leaving Limerick

By I Love Limerick correspondent Mary Caroline McCarthy

 

A retired business consultant, who has walked the equivalent of the circumference of the Earth has encouraged others to keep active during the pandemic.

While most other-70s have been pottering around the house during Covid-19, Vinod Bajaj, from Castletroy, Co Limerick, has been walking up to 50km a day around his neighborhood. Last Sunday Bajaj completed what is believed to be a new world record by walking 40,075km- the equivalent of the circumference of the Earth- in under 1,500 days.

Mr. Baja, 70, was born in India and has lived in Ireland for 43 years, finished his extraordinary feat in September after completing more than 54.6 million steps in 8,322 hours and burning almost 1.5 million calories.

He used an activity tracker on his phone to read and record his progress. He started this journey on August 18, 2016, intending to lose weight, and continued into this year. After his first year, he found he had walked the same distance as the journey from Ireland to his native India.

By the end of the second year, he had walked 15,200km which was more than the moon’s circumference. After completing the circumference of Mars Bajaj focussed on working the circumference of the earth.

The retired engineer said he stayed within a 10km radius of his home, often walking up to ten hours at a time with only small toilet breaks.

His family has been very supportive of his venture to lose weight and Vinod Bajaj has said that on hot days he would telephone his wife who would hand him an ice cream as he passed by their house on his circuit. On his best day, he clocked 55km.

Vinod continued walking through the coronavirus lockdown last March, safely setting off each morning around 5.30 am on a reduced 5km circuit.

The father-of-one completed his remarkable journey on September 21, after raking up a total of 40,107km in all different kinds of weather. His weight loss has been great during his journey going from 81kg to 60kg.

He calculates that he went through 12 pairs of shoes, lost 1.568 million calories and walked 54.6 million steps in 8,322 hours.

Mr. Baja has applied to the Guinness World Records to set a new world record as the first person to walk the equivalent of the circumference of the Earth.

He hopes to receive a decision on the application next month.

We at I Love Limerick wish him well on his application for the Guinness World Records and congratulate him on his walking achievement.

 

For more on Guinness World Records, go HERE

For more stories on world records in Limerick, go HERE

Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.