The World Jog’s ultimate verification will be put under the constant scrutiny of the newly formed International Endurance Records Committee.

Their ultimate decision as to the integrity of the World Jog will be accepted by me.
I have complete faith and confidence in their ability to to monitor, scrutinize and accurately verify legitimate endurance record claims.

I have opted to put myself under their even greater ongoing scrutiny as opposed to another novelty record compiler which in the past has displayed little or no knoledge of ultra running and fairplay within our sport.
I am delighted to see the the IERC committee is made up of current and former endurance athletes who understand ultra running/ walking and other endurance sports. Surely this is a much needed step to erradicate cheats from ultra running? I have zero tolerance for poor sportsmanship and cheats in any sport.

At times of hassle or when looking for some kind of assistance or courtesy I will be using what around the world cyclist Alistair Humphrey’s calls his MAGIC LETTER.

My own experience of a Magic Letter (which deserves to be capitalized) of introduction from the Lord Mayor of Dublin on a previous bicycle trip around the world was extraordinary to say the least. I encountered many bureaucrats and illiterate border officials in developing world countries who were most impressed by the mayoral seal of office!

By far the biggest use I had of it was when I applied for my US visa in New Delhi. At first I was refused and had my passport stamped ‘ Visa Application Denied ‘This put my world bicycle trip in jepordary.

The very next day I returned to the US embassy armed with my letter of introduction from the then Dublin Lord Mayor Paddy Belton. The same official looked at the letter, smiled and marked his previous days stamp: ” VISA DENIAL CANCELLED WITHOUT PREDACIOUS. ” He then gave me a multiple-entry indefinite visitors visa.

Upon my arrival at the US border I produced my Magic Letter. The immigration officer asked me how much time I needed. As I planned to cycle up the west coast from LA to Canada I decided not to push my luck, I said 3 months. I will never forget his reply. ” Here’s 6 months in case you get a puncture! ”

If I had to choose a name for this letter of introduction I couldn’t have chosen a better one, and apologize to Alistair for ripping of it’s name!

My (laminated) Magic Letter.

TEXT

30th September 2010.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

As Lord Mayor of Dublin, I wish to commend to you Mr. Tony Mangan, a fellow Dubliner and Irishman and an extraordinary adventurer and fundraiser.

Tony will set out from Dublin on October 25th 2010 on his ” World Jog ” to raise funds for an Irish charity called ” AWARE ” whose mission is ” to create a society where people with depression and their families are understood ” and supported, are free from stigma and have access to a broad range of appropriate therapies to enable them to reach their full potential. ”

Tony’s run around the world, will take him through many villages, towns and cities and he invites any runner/observer to come, announced or unannounced to run alongside him or observe him at any time anywhere in the world.

Any support or courtesy you can offer Tony on his journey would be very much appreciated.

Gerry Breen,

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ireland.

The World Jog Mission Statement Here

The World Jog Online Daily log. Here

Posting on the Australian Ultra Legends website says it all!

Tony Mangan looking for shoe sponsor

Irish Ultrarunner, Tony Mangan, who is soon to be setting off on his dream run around the World, is desperately looking for a shoe sponsor to help him in his solo run around the World.

Tony, who has numerous world records to his name and has competed at the top level for a number of years, has been planning the trip for a couple of decades and will take in countries around the Globe. His aim is to run a marathon a day for over 1,000 days. If anyone has the Pedigree to achieve this, Tony certainly has.

Dreams of this nature though don’t come cheap. He is looking for a Shoe manufacturer or Sports Store to help keep him in Shoes for the duration of the Journey. In return, you will be guaranteed advertising on his web site at The World Jog and he will do what he can to help promote your product throughout his Run of a lifetime.

If this sounds like something that your company can help with or would love to be associated with. Of if you know someone that might be able to help, please email Tony on THEWORLDJOG@GMAIL.COM. Time is ticking before he gets underway at the soon to be held Dublin Marathon

As there will be some new followers of The World Jog website I just want to rerun some of my older posts that have gotten a bit burried in the blog.

The genesis of The World Jog.

Planned route for the world jog which will be run in an east to west direction.

Countdown for freebird

Email to Heaven.

Thoughts around the auld Walkingstown triangle.

Pictures from the world 48 hour treadmill record in Longford.

One thing I am going to miss on the road is my talk radio… I love Newstalk 106 and especially the Tom Dunne show.
Tom was the front man of 80′s and 90′s Irish rock band Something Happens.
He has a quirky sense of humor.. Quiet a few times I have heard him give unintentional put downs. I am not sure if he realizes this but he does it a lot! A couple of days ago he interviewed a comedian who said, ” One way to to fulfill your ambitions…Is to reduce your expectations. ”
Ten minutes later Tom played a song by Paul Weller titled ‘ Aim High ‘
The World Jog will be aiming along with Tom and Paul Play

Sorry for not having much to say lately.

I am working flat out on my final preparation for The World Jog and haven’t had much time to spare. Sometimes I think I will enjoy a rest when I start running!
I have to be honest the training has once again taken a backseat.

I was a bit concerned that I was having some difficulties making contacts in my North American start area, Cape Spear which is 14.5km from Saint John’s in Canada.

Well it seems I was pressing the wrong buttons till I sent an email to Naadeem Khan the Canadian official of the IAU ( International Association of Ultrarunners)

I only sent that email this morning.Nadeem immediately replied suggesting I contact Running Room which has a runners forum.

I did and immediately the email stream flowed I was soon assured that I would be picked up at the airport and accommodated. In addition I would be transported out to my start point.

A Dubliner owner of an Irish pub in Saint John’s offered to put his pub at my disposal! I am a non-drinker! Do they have non-alcohol beer in Newfoundland?

I am eager to have the local runners start with me. Most run before work. Because of this I may push the North American start of the World Jog out to the Tuesday 9th November. I arrive in Newfoundland at 22.30 on the Sunday so an early morning start on the Monday may be pushing things a bit.

I have suggested a very early start on The Tuesday, if these runners, and there seems to be a whole gang want to run with me..

Local runners will decide the start date and time of the North American World Jog.

Runner democracy!

Thanks Newfoundland, I knew I could rely on you!

Actually this one is not on my IPOD! I just wanted to put one on that described how I felt – so I googled a song title and came up with this one. I never heard of it before but when I played it on You Tube I thought it was very nice.

There is a long way to go for me…

Many people suffering from depression and mental health issues also have a long journey,
hopefully not as long as mine.

I am using The World Jog to help promote the incredible work of the cash-strapped Irish charity Aware.

Aware is giving people with mental health challenges hope and a ‘ leg up.‘

I appeal to anyone that enjoys reading about my trip, or even if they don’t to consider donating even a dollar or a euro to Aware.

Along with my fund raising efforts I sincerely hope that The World Jog can give some exposure to these issues and help to remove the stigma from the mental health challenges that others face on a daily basis.

Thanks for supporting Aware,

Aware is The World Jog Charity.

Tony Mangan.
www.theworldjog.com

I just sent an email off to my former running club, The Crested Butte Mountain Runners. Located around 3,000 meters high up in the Colorado Rockies. Expat Englishman, Martin Catmur is still organizing incredible trail races as he was when I was there over 10 years ago. As I typed, such was my excitement that I had to backtrack many times to make numerous corrections.

I remember the first time I heard of Crested Butte…

I was between jobs and at the end of a 3 month road trip in my camper van. I had lived in a town called Brush! which is a couple of hundred km’s away. Before the road trip I packed up and moved out of my apartment so I really didn’t have anywhere to go back to. In fact I was not even sure I wanted to return. I had been living there about a year. I don’t think I even did my homework properly when moving to the area from Ireland. I had just looked at the map and said… ” 1,400 meters…Sure that’s mountains!’

When I got out of the Greyhound bus and looked around I felt like Jim Carey in the movie Dumb and Dumber and also said.. ‘ Gee, I thought the Rocky mountains would have been a bit rockier!’

Brush! was no ordinary town,at least they said. The eastern prairie town had some kind of a local ordinance that required them to have an exclamation mark after the name of the town.

Now I was on the road… I was not really in a hurry back, think I really just wanted to extend the trip a couple more days. I was a bit bored. I parked the camper for the night down near the local park on Tomich Avenue in Gunnisoni. Not really knowing where I was going I just wandered around.

Karaoke was on in Timbers bar that Friday night so I stopped by. I had always fancied myself as a Bob impersonator. Dylan’s ‘Rainy Day Women number 12 and 35′ was my party piece at that time, it went down well the students of the Western State College…
Several times they came over to me buying me drinks saying ‘Hey Dude That was awesome… Especially the ‘everybody must get stoned line’ Hey now tell me about rainy day women 13 and 36..Anymore!!?

Gunnison is up around 2,600 meters and is cold in the winter.. Really cold. Its in the vast Gunnison valley where the cold wind gets trapped little escape. Many a winter day its the coldest day in the USA. Damp hair turns into icicles in seconds. You go indoors it melts rapidly, out again frozen hair again, wrecks your head.

At that time many of the Western State university students were from New Zealand on scholarships.. They were fine track athletes, some had even ran in the Olympic Games. They were also running the cross country season and skiing for cross training. Tonight they had a traditional start of cross country season dinner in the college.
In the morning at 8am there would be a 2 mile time trial. Coach had gone to bed early, and as students do all over the world they were burning the candle at both ends not really concerned about their run.

I got invited to run the time trial and though I hadn’t run much in the last year was surprised to clock something like 11 minutes and at altitude, I was delighted. I was well down the field but didn’t care. Some of the hungover Kiwis ran it in the low 8 minutes.

Main Street, Crested Butte, Colorado.

Earlier that night construction workers from the highway project between Gunnison and nearby Crested Butte told me to drop by their site office on Monday morning as they were looking for crew. I did just that and was hired on the spot… I lived out of the camper on the site. I couldn’t believe my first weeks wages.. It was a union job and they paid the federal construction rate.. I came out with over $1,000..
The job lasted till Christmas. The foreman took care of us with a nice bonus. The day we were finishing up he filled up his pickup with beer. We had the mother of all parties on the site after work.. I brought out my ghetto blaster and played my U2 Cd’s. The Joshua Tree was the one everyone wanted. I sat down in a quiet corner, looked out over the site fence up at the distant spectacular mountains. Track 7 for evermore will be indelibly stamped in my mind. That moment I coined the phrase for my beloved Colorado when I heard ‘ In Gods Country ‘ rattle out of the ghetto blaster.
I looked around and couldn’t quite believe the sheer beauty as the sun set around those spectacular Crested Butte mountains. I was in Heaven. There was no going back to Brush! I had found my nirvana.

Please visit the Crested Butte Mountain Runners website: