One of the toughest things about getting in the Guinness Book of World records is that they make it really difficult to verify your record.  If you don’t pay to have Guinness officials come watch the event and verify it themselves, you have to submit videos, pictures, affidavits, and get media coverage yourself.  Then, it takes 6 – 8 weeks (or over 1 year) to hear back.  Also, if they don’t verify your attempt before you do it, they won’t accept your record.  It’s a bit frustrating.

However, they are not the only world record game in town.  I just got a copy of the Recordsetters Book of World Records.

On page 99, they feature my record.

It was much easier to get my record verified with them.  It’s a fun book too because they have all kinds of different records in there by lots of different people.  Some of the records are pretty silly and it’s not as “serious” as the GBWW but it is still pretty cool.

If you are having problems getting a world record certified by Guinness, you might try the Recordsetters Book of World Records.  You can follow them on Facebook.

Here’s an update on Bob Evans recent world record breaking performance.  He joggled the 5K race (and won) in 16:51 which beats the old record by 4 seconds.

You can see an entire write-up of the joggling world record here.

Also, be sure to check out the Catch It Early website for joggling races near you.

Well, it’s finally been done. After numerous attempts which we reported about here, here, and here, someone has finally broken to world record for joggling a 5K.

Congratulations goes to Bob Evans who ran a 16:51 in the Nashville Race for a Cure 5K. He actually won the race! Here are the official times.

Also, his wife Trish was joggling and she won the women’s division with a time of 20:23.

Wickedly fast times!! Congratulations Bob and Trish. I hope to get to joggle a race with you sometime.

In addition to Bob and Trish, there were actually 11 other jogglers in the race. They were part of a team from Vanderbilt University. You can see a video of the jogglers here. Jacob Weiss of team Catch it Early put together the group.

To learn more about the group go to Team Catch it Early.

While I received the certificate and was posted on the web site, it never felt like I had an official world record.

People would frequently ask about which book I was in and I just had to shrug. Unfortunately, Guinness doesn’t post every record any more.

Well, my brother sent me a message and told me that he saw my name listed in the 2012 book on page 213. And indeed it is. Here’s the picture.

It looks like there was big news at the Berlin Marathon yesterday. Patrick Makau broke the marathon world record by running it in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 38 seconds. This is 21 seconds faster than the previous world record. Wow!! Of course, he wasn’t joggling.

There are a couple of things about this story that I find interesting.

1. The world record is not the fastest marathon ever run. This was done by Geoffrey Mutai in a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 seconds in the Boston marathon last year. Unfortunately for him the Boston course does not qualify so his time doesn’t count as a world record. That seems dumb.

2. Records keep getting broken. It seems to me in a sport like running, there isn’t much reason for records to keep getting faster. It’s not like new technology can give you a significant edge like in other sports (golf, tennis, baseball, etc). It’s not like there is new training techniques. I just don’t get it. Perhaps it’s just because there are so many new runners that the law of large numbers will dictate that there will be times farther and farther away from the average. hmmm

Fastest marathon

The article asks the question whether the world record will ever break the 2 hour mark. Former world record holder Haile Gebrselassie thinks that it will happen in another 20 or 25 years. Maybe, but I see no reason for that to happen.

Of course, predicting limits is always a silly activity because they inevitably are shown to be wrong. Perhaps the 2 hour marathon mark will be broken. Certainly, the 4 min mile was broken and if you can run 4 minutes for one mile, why couldn’t you do it for 26.2?

What will happen first?

Say jogglers, what do you think will happen first?

The marathon world record will be under 2-hours…or…
The joggling marathon world record will be under 2:30?

Hmmm.

I know I’ve been talking about joggling a 100 miler but for some reason I just haven’t done it yet. This year I was going to run one in Cleveland but I opted to focus on getting a good time in the Chicago marathon instead. I know, a pretty lame excuse.

But next year…I’m doing it.

Of course, I might be trying to break the world record if fellow joggler Tim Butler has anything to say about it.

According to this article, Tim is going to attempt his 24-hour joggling feat at the Yarborough Leisure Centre. I couldn’t discover whether this was an organized marathon or one that he is doing on his own.

Good luck Tim!

Tim and I actually had an agreement to let him make the first attempt at in September. But it looks like he hasn’t done it. I’m still inclined to let him try first however, I’m itching to do it (and I’m not getting any younger either). My plans are to find a 24-hr run to do in March or April or maybe sooner. No excuses this time.

Now, which of these ultramarathons should I do?

Maybe this one…Across the Years

or maybe this one…Peanut Island 24hr

Any suggestions?

I was starting the process of applying for a try at the Guinness World Record for long distance joggling and found this list of joggling records that Guinness accepts.  It turns out there is a bunch of them.  Unfortunately, there isn’t one for the 100 mile ultramarathon.  We’ll see if they make a new category or require me to break the 24 hour record.  I know Tim Butler is planning on breaking the 24 hour record this year so perhaps he’ll set a new mark.

Accepted world joggling records

Fastest 100m joggling with five objects – men
Fastest mile joggling with five objects – men
Fastest 5km joggling with five objects – men
Fastest mile joggling with three objects – men
Fastest 5km joggling with three objects – men
Fastest 400 m joggling with three objects – men
Fastest 100m joggling with three objects – men
Fastest marathon joggling with three objects (male)
Fastest 400m joggling hurdles with three objects – men
Fastest 110m joggling hurdles with three objects – men
Fastest 50 miles joggling
Fastest 10km joggling with three objects – men
Fastest half marathon joggling with three objects (male)
Fastest 100 m joggling with three objects – women
Fastest 400 m joggling with three objects – women
Fastest 5 km joggling with three objects – women
Fastest mile joggling with three objects – women
Fastest 400 m joggling with five objects – male
Fastest 1 km joggling with three objects – male
Fastest 400 m joggling backwards with three objects – men
Greatest distance joggling in 24 hours

Guinness exclusivity

This would be a much better post if I also included the actual times for these records, unfortunately, Guinness keeps their data secret. Quite annoying actually.

If you want to break a world record in joggling you have to apply for a claim number and they will then send you the time you have to beat. I don’t know why they just don’t publish the information for all to see.

Anyway, here is a list of some of the “unofficial” times that I could track down. I’ll add more as I get them. If you know of a record, let me know and I’ll add it.

3 ball joggling records

8:23:52 Fastest 50 miles joggling – Perry Romanowski (2007)
2:50:09 Fastest marathon joggling – Michal Kapral (2007)
1:23:49 Fastest half marathon joggling – Michal Kapral (2009)
0:36:27 Fastest 10K joggling – Michal Kapral (2006)
0:16:55 Fastest 5K joggling – Kirk Swenson (1986)
0:04:42 Fastest mile joggling – Will Howard (2003)

109.8 miles 24 hour joggling relay – Meike Duch and Andreas Lietzow (2003)

I don’t know what it is about Canadians and joggling, but they’ve got some fast ones. There’s Michal Kapral who holds the official world joggling record in the 10K, half marathon, and marathon distances.

Then there is Travis Saunders who has made a couple of tries at the 5K world joggling record.

And Tyler Wishau who dominated at the 2009 IJA Joggling Championships.

Let’s not forget joggler and future Canadian doctor Julian Tam.

New 3K world joggling record?

And now Adam Kellar reportedly has set what he believes is a world record for the 3K distance. His joggling time was 10:28.13.

I’ve never heard of another joggler doing the 3K distance so as far as JYAJ is concerned, we’ll consider his the new world record for joggling 3K.

Congratulations Adam!

Now, if only we can get track him down to do a joggling interview.

Congratulations to speedy joggler Michal Kapral for setting a new world record for the fastest half marathon done while joggling.

He came in at a blazing 1:23:49!

You can read his write-up here on his blog.

There is also an interview that he did with Spike magazine that you might find interesting.  In it, he gives a little more explanation about his world record for a marathon while pushing a baby jogger cart and how he gave up on his attempt to break the backwards running marathon record.

You know Michal, there is no record for the fastest backwards marathon done while joggling.

There’s a new world record for marathon madness. Richard Donovan finished his 7th marathon on his 7th continent (Australia) and did it in 5 days, 10 hours and 8 minutes.

Here’s where he did it.

1. Antarctica
2. Cape Town
3. Dubai
4. London
5. Toronto
6. Santiago
7. Sydney

That must’ve taken an incredible amount of planning.

The good news is that he wasn’t joggling so any joggler interested in besting this feat only needs to do all the marathons while joggling.