For some guys, a sports car and a new wife just aren’t good enough to shake off a mid-life crisis. A Canadian man decided to take a jog to keep his depression at bay. He just returned home — 11 years later. The Vancouver Sun explains how it all started.

Jean Beliveau left Montreal on his 45th birthday after his business went bankrupt. He decided to run around the world to escape his life. His girlfriend and two kids from a previous marriage didn’t try to stop him. In fact, his girlfriend started a website to chronicle his journey.

Beliveau ran all the way to Atlanta, Georgia before slowing down but holds the record for the longest uninterrupted walk around the world: 75,000 kilometers across 64 countries. So what else happened in those 11 years?

Over 11 years, he traveled across deserts and mountains. He fell in love for nine days in Mexico, wore a turban and a long beard in Sudan, ate insects in Africa, dog in South Korea and snake in China, and was escorted by armed soldiers in the Philippines. Beliveau only fell seriously ill once in Algeria, was mugged only once by two young drunks in South Africa, and was detained only once in Ethiopia for no apparent reason (he was released the next day).

It seems as though Beliveau is now sitting on a goldmine: a major life story that can be turned into a book and then eventually a movie. Call it the ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ for dudes. Not counting this version.

[The Vancouver Sun]

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