Just a Little Run Around the World: 5 Years, 3 Packs of Wolves and 53 Pairs of Shoes. Rosie Swale Pope [Paperback]

Rosie Swale-Pope (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2009

After her husband died of cancer, 57-year-old Rosie set off to run around the world, raising money in memory of the man she loved. Followed by wolves, knocked down by a bus, confronted by bears, chased by a naked man with a gun and stranded with severe frostbite, Rosie's breathtaking 20,000-mile solo journey is as gripping as it is inspiring. Rosie's solo run around the world started out of sorrow and heartache and a wish to turn something around. Heartbroken when she lost her husband to cancer, Rosie set off from Wales with nothing but a small backpack of food and equipment, and funded by the rent from her little cottage. So began her epic 5-year journey that would take her 20,000 miles around the world, crossing Europe, Russia, Asia, Alaska, North America, Greenland, Iceland, and back into the UK. On a good day she'd run 30 miles, on a bad day she'd only manage 500 yards, digging herself out of the snow at -62 degrees C, moving her cart inches at a time. Every inch, every mile, was a triumph, a celebration of life, and 53 pairs of shoes later Rosie arrived home to jubilant crowds in Tenby, Wales. Rosie's incredible story is a mesmerizing page-turner of the run of her life. It will wake up the sleeping adventurer in you; it will inspire hope, courage and determination in you; but most of all it will convince you to live your life to the full and make every day count.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Somewhere between Jilly Cooper and Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Rosie Swale-Pope is an archetypal British survivor, the sort of woman to break both legs, think, "Bugger this", and carry on marching.' Sunday Times

About the Author

Rosie Swale Pope took up marathon running when she was 48 and has run across Cuba and Romania and even done the gruelling Marathon des Sables in the Sahara. In the 1970s she sailed to Australia and back with her husband and young daughter, giving birth to her son on board. Rosie's run around the world in memory of her husband was followed on her blog www.rosiearoundtheworld.co.uk. Rosie is already planning her next adventure: a trip across the Bering Straits! When she is not on her adventures, Rosie lives in Tenby, Wales. She was awarded an MBE in 2009 for bravery and services to charity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harpertrue (May 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007306202
• ISBN-13: 978-0007306206
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #856,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars what a feat, what feet !, November 2, 2009

By 

Paul J. Fedwick "philokalos" (Oakville, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Just a Little Run Around the World: 5 Years, 3 Packs of Wolves and 53 Pairs of Shoes. Rosie Swale Pope (Paperback)

Since the early 1970s Rosie seems to have been on the go non-stop. First she hitchhiked from London all the way to Nepal and back. Then with her first husband and two small kids on a catamaran she circumnavigated the globe via Cape Horn. Next followed a solo sail across the Atlantic ocean in 70 days, and a horse ride from Antofagasta, Chile, to Cape Horn (over 4,000 km.) It is hard to count how many marathons she has run (Iceland, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sahara desert etc.) About three of these accomplishments she published very well written accounts (Rosie Darling, Children of Cape Horn, Back to Cape Horn).

In 2003 Rosie decides to run around the world in order to raise awareness about prostate cancer from which her second husband died. She was 57 years old, and in less than five years, 25 August 2008, she triumphantly arrived back to her hometown Tenby, Wales. In the process she covered 20,000 miles (32,000 km., amounting to about over twenty two millions steps), was followed for a week by three packs of wild wolves in Siberia, once was confronted by a naked gunman and once was run by a bus, worn out more than 53 pairs of running shoes, suffered a fractured hip (she hobbled back to her house on crutches) and had received over 40 marriage proposals (20 of which in Poland alone). The most challenging parts of her solo round-the-world run were through Siberia (in vast areas with only few passable roads, many rivers without bridges, freezing temperatures and snow blizzards) and northern Alaska (with daily freezing temperatures and constant snowdrifts). Her route took her also through Canada (the prairie provinces) and USA (from North Dakota through Maine).

Since at the time her book came out I was reading Karl Bushby's book (Giant Steps) who since 1999 has been walking around the world (starting from Punta Arenas, now he is apparently stranded some place in Siberia), I found interesting to compare the two accounts. They both met in Alaska moving in opposite directions. Rosie also met the Canadian adventurer Colin Angus who was the first human being to bicycle around the globe. It was he who in his book Distant Horizons brought my attention to Rosie's adventure.

Bushby's account is more of a diary giving exact dates and locations, names of peoples he met or stayed, with with a very good map of his itinerary. He seems also to be more straightforward, telling everything what happened when walking the Pacific coastline through Colombia, Ecuador, among others of the countries some with hardly any roads. Rosie on the other hand keeps her storyline focused on her goal, with very little information as to how hard must have been for her as a woman sleeping in a tent night after night with extreme climatic swings for all that time in places little populated. Unlike Bushby and Angus Rosie had no sponsors, her run she funded by the rent from her little cottage, her small pension and savings. For so much of her journey she had to rely on the little food supplies and personal belongings that she was able to squeeze into her rolling luggage box with bicycle-sized wheels, which she pulled along behind her through many an inhospitable terrain. Remarkably in order to cope with the various languages spoken in the countries she ran through, Rosie gained a smattering knowledge of six of them: Dutch, German, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Russian. She even gave a television interview in Russian, although she was not sure how well the audiences understood her answers.

I don't find Rosie's latest book as detailed as what I learned about her run on the Web, or as she had previously reported about her undertakings in her three previous publications. It would have also been very helpful to have a map at least like the one provided on the Web; previously she has included a very good one in her 1971 Children of Cape Horn. Still, this is a remarkable document and record about an odyssey which perhaps will never be soon matched, at least in the rather short time that it took her to accomplish it. In January of this year she was deservedly awarded by the Queen with a MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful story, August 26, 2009

By 

Patrick (CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just a Little Run Around the World: 5 Years, 3 Packs of Wolves and 53 Pairs of Shoes. Rosie Swale Pope (Paperback)

I am not a big nonfiction reader but this book was very easy to read for me. I became interested in Rosie after she ran through my town here in CT and was too late to meet up with her after finding out what she was doing by going to her web site after seeing her running down the road. I would have loved to have met her after reading the book and am very sorry I did not while she was here. I would recomend this book to any one that wants to read about a real adventurer on a real adventure around the world. I could not imagine doing this myself but I can see how she did it after reading her story.... Thank you Rosie....

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just a Little Run Around the World by Rosie Swaile Pope, July 7, 2011

By 

Bronagh K - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just a Little Run Around the World: 5 Years, 3 Packs of Wolves and 53 Pairs of Shoes. Rosie Swale Pope (Paperback)

A fantastic book for anyone especially those with an adventurous spirit. How often does anyone of us get to read about spending weeks and months in Siberia and Alaska. My children have started to go on their own world adventures and this woman gives me the emotional strength to help me believe and know that they will come home safe. I will lend my book to special friends buy never part with it. I treasure this book. It is just so, so special.