First Attempt at Breaking a Guinness World Record, Part I

In the months leading up to the 2019 London Marathon -- what was to be my sixth star, completing the World Marathon Majors Six Star Challenge -- I heard lots about "fancy dress" (a.k.a. costumes) that were ubiquitous to that race. And at the same time, I heard that Guinness World Records were set up in such a way that people attempting records at the London Marathon can have their attempts certified as they cross the finish line with no additional paperwork/evidence needed to be submitted by the people making their respective attempts, which is otherwise onerous. (Berlin, Sydney, and Toronto have this same relationship.) I was running on a charity bib (for Whizz-Kidz) and figured, "What the heck? It might help with the fundraising. And how awesome would it be to set a world record at the same time that I finish the Six-Star Challenge?"

Basic decision made to make an attempt, the choice was to then decide what record to try. I first submitted applications for "Fastest Marathon Dressed as a Star Trek Character (male)" and "Fastest Marathon Run by a Member of Mensa". Some of the general criteria relate to whether there is the reasonable possibility of others beating your record. But they also relate to their being sufficient difficulty in what is proposed. Since I had seen a record (too fast for me) related to Star Wars, I figured Star Trek would be accepted. It wasn't -- I'd have to change it to either movie character, but that was WAY too fast for me. And my second application was rejected because of there being nothing inherently challenging about being a member of Mensa vis-a-vis runnin a marathon. Oh well. Time to choose something that existed already to break.

When you look on the Guinness website, there are LOTS of marathon-related records (well over 100) in all sorts of outfits: dressed as a fruit, organ (of the body), tree, mascot, awareness ribbon, celestial body, and many more. Below is a group photo from my attempt. Alas, I'm mostly hidden.

From the full list, I instantly discarded all records that were already set well faster than my then-Personal Record (PR). In fact, I wanted to give myself a bit of a buffer. I was comfortable giving myself a goal of 3:20. And of all the records available, I chose to run dressed as a chef.

Most of the outfit was fine: Checked chef's pants, chef's jacket (short or long-sleeved), apron, and tall chef's hat. No problems. However, there was one very difficult part: having to carry in my hand a stock pot (or various kitchen utensils) weighing at least 3 kg (6.6 pounds). Lifting that -- easy. It's not that heavy in the grand scheme of things. But running with it? Let alone for 26.2 miles? THAT was the challenge.