Former soldier Jack Jarvis has begun a gruelling 13,000km run from Beijing to London that will see him run the equivalent of more than a marathon every day for around eight months.
Jarvis set off from the Chinese capital on Tuesday 11 August, beginning what is believed to be the longest continuous run home ever attempted.
His target is to cover approximately 50km (31 miles) every day, crossing 17 countries and two continents before finishing at Trafalgar Square in London in March 2027.
For comparison, recreational runners typically cover between 20 and 50km in an entire week. Jarvis will cover that distance every day for more than 240 consecutive days. The scale of the challenge also puts Jarvis in the same territory as some of the UK’s most high-profile modern endurance running challenges. In 2024, British runner Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer) completed a 16,000km run across Africa in 352 days, averaging around 46km a day.
The challenge is expected to involve around 40,000–50,000 steps every day, putting an extraordinary physical load on his body as he runs through some of the world’s most varied terrain and climates.
“Standing at the start line here, it hits you how big this really is,” said Jarvis. “There’s no easy way home from here. I just have to keep moving forward, day after day. It’s going to be long, it’s going to hurt, and that’s the point. I’d love to raise £1m for brainstrust. My grandfather died from brain cancer, so this is something I carry with me every step of the way.”
Jarvis is no stranger to extreme endurance. In 2022 he became the first person to row solo across the Atlantic, spending 111 days at sea, and that same year completed an ultra-endurance crossing of the Atacama Desert. In 2025 he completed a 56-day row from New York to the UK.
But his route to the Beijing start line has not been without setbacks. In 2023, a serious skydiving accident left Jarvis with lasting leg injuries and forced him into a long period of rehabilitation before he was able to return to elite endurance sport.
Jarvis will travel through China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, France and England. A small support crew will travel alongside him in a camper van, providing a mobile base for recovery, navigation and logistics.
The run is raising £1m for brainstrust, a UK charity supporting people living with brain tumours and their families.
Jarvis has dedicated his first run to British swimmer and Commonwealth Games medallist Archie Goodburn, who was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour in 2023 and has been speaking publicly about the need for greater investment in brain cancer research and better access to clinical trials.
Will Jones, CEO of brainstrust, said: “What Jack is taking on is an extraordinary physical challenge, but its purpose is equally important. “His journey will help us reach more people affected by brain tumours and make sure they have access to the specialist support they need.”
Jarvis’s journey is expected to take approximately eight months, with the finish line at London’s Trafalgar Square in March 2027. By then, if he completes the challenge as planned, he will have run roughly the equivalent of 300 marathons from Beijing to London.
