‘Drubbling’ Inventor Riley McLincha Dies in Kayak Accident

Riley McLincha, known as “The Drubbler,” died on June 18 in a kayaking accident, according to a post by his family on Facebook. “On Tuesday while waiting for a lock to allow passage, Riley was pulled under a barge by the current,” the post reads. “There was simply no way for him to escape.”

The 73-year-old retired science teacher from Clio, Michigan, invented the sport of “drubbling” in April 1994 with a four-mile run along a local trail while simultaneously dribbling three basketballs. In celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the sport, McLincha noted that only two other people in the world have ever taken up drubbling, to which he explained that “the reason it doesn't catch on is because it is too difficult or too stupid.”

McLincha began joggling in the mid-1980s and joggled his first race, the Crim 10 Miler, in 1987 joggling three eggs (he kept three spare eggs in his pocket and ended up using them all). He is a legend at the Crim Festival of Races, having run every single edition of the race for the last 46 years, 29 of them while drubbling. McLincha had planned to drubble this year’s race in August for the 30^th and final time, and was going to joggle the event in future years in honour of joggling inventor Bill Giduz, who died in May.

Drubbling was only one many McLincha’s many talents. He also invented the sport of “runyaking,” which involves kayaking a section of waterway, running back to the launch site to retrieve the transport vehicle, driving back to the kayak, and continuing the process from that point the next day. He wrote a book about his runyaking adventures, “The Runyaker’s Journey,” and posted regularly on Substack.

In 1978, McLincha set the Guinness World Record for reciting the most digits of pi, to 7,500 decimal places. He was also a craft beer aficionado and musician.

We never met in person, but I considered McLincha a great friend, as we’ve been in touch regularly for the past 19 years, when I first started joggling. He had just recently discovered this blog and left a bunch of insightful comments on some of the old posts. We were just messaging each other three weeks ago, so it feels unreal that he’s gone. Like Bill Giduz, Riley McLincha’s legacy of living life to the absolute fullest will live on in the hearts of all those he inspired.

Drubbling the Crim (Photo: Crim Fitness Foundation)

On The Today Show, July 2002 (Photo: The Drubbler on Facebook)

Riley McLincha drubbling the 2004 Boston Marathon (Photo: The Drubbler on Facebook)

Riley McLincha on a runyaking adventure (Photo: Riley McLincha on Facebook)

(Photo: Bruce Edwards, Flint Journal)

Michal Kapral Joggling the Ottawa Marathon in 3:08:26

I crossed the finish line with a big goofy grin. I had forgotten just how fun and how tough it was to run a marathon while juggling. In my first joggling marathon in eight years, I finished the Ottawa Marathon in 3 hours 8 minutes and 26 seconds. That's an age-group joggling marathon world record for the 50-59 category (if anyone cares except me). My age-graded equivalent time is 2:45:56, which is 4 minutes under my world record of 2:50:12 that I set as a young lad 17 years ago, so all-in-all a solid effort.

The spectators went completely wild as I joggled past, so I could not stop smiling and laughing. After a clean start, I settled into a good pace near the 3:05 pacer and did a bit of a tortoise and the hare routine with that group as I had to come to a complete stop at the fuel stations to chug a few cups of sports drink before taking off again to catch up and pass them. It was a pretty hot day so I stopped for water and fuel much more than I usually would for a joggling marathon.

I dropped a ball for no apparent reason at around 8k and it was actually a bit of a relief not to worry about a drop-free race anymore after that point. I dutifully stepped back to behind the drop point and continued on, following the official joggling rules, to make sure I was juggling every step forward of the 42.2km.  

The race had some welcome misting stations, but when I ran through the first one, my glasses got completely covered in water droplets and I had to stop to wipe them off, costing a good 20-30 seconds.

Eventually the 3:05 group pulled ahead and I let them go knowing the pace was a bit too hot for my 52-year-old self. It's hard to adjust your running pace as you get older because you just assume you can still run as fast as you used to. I knew that my 2:50 world record time age-graded to about a 3:13, so my goal was to stay under that and hopefully keep the 3:10 pace bunny behind me.

I hit the half feeling good in a little over 1:33 and had thoughts of a negative split, but some sizable hills in the last 10k of the race put a damper on that idea. I had one more random drop somewhere around 32k and then just focused on staying smooth and relaxed. 

I couldn't look at my watch so had no idea what any of my splits were except for the half because there was a clock. I just knew that the 3:05 bunny was ahead and the 3:10 was behind. The kilometre marker flags weren't easy to spot so I often didn't know how far along I was, either. I remember seeing the 35km flag when I thought I was only at 33k, a pleasant surprise!

At some points the course doubled back on itself so you can see other runners going the other direction. One of these times, Dianne and I crossed paths and I was excited to see that she was ahead of the 3:50 pace bunny.

I heard lots of funny comments from the crowd, but as usual I forget most of the good ones. When I passed by one of the doubling back points, I heard a guy shout, "Oh my god, he's still juggling!" I told some of the kids who had outstretched arms for a high-five "Sorry, no hands." Lots of people yelled, "Go, Olympus Burger!" because I secured a hilarious sponsorship with my local burger joint in Port Hope, Ontario, and had their logo printed on my singlet.

At certain points, I got pretty emotional out there, laughing and tearing up at the same time. It takes a lot of hard work to train for this kind of thing, so to finally be celebrating the frivolity of running a marathon while juggling got me all choked up. There was a huge roar near the finish line. I soaked it all in as I finished my ninth joggling marathon only a minute off my first joggling marathon time in 2005. It's good to be back.

Dianne, meanwhile, kept ahead of that 3:50 pace bunny and finished in an amazing 3:49:21.

Dianne and Michal Kapral, celebrating the 2024 Ottawa Marathon
finish with a Kichesippi beer.

Bill Giduz, Inventor of Joggling, Dies at 72

Bill Giduz, credited for inventing the sport of joggling, died at age 72 on May 11 of complications from Parkinson's disease. Giduz achieved legendary status within the tight-knit joggling community, with jogglers from around the world expressing their condolences on the Jogglers United Facebook group. 

Bill Giduz joggling on campus at Davidson College, North Carolina
(Photo courtesy of the Giduz family, via Joe Salter)

The family's obituary includes some amazing details from Giduz's life, which he clearly lived to the fullest. The genius of combining juggling with running and naming it "joggling" is but one tiny blip in his long list of achievements, adventures and community-building work. Hilariously, according to the obituary, Giduz used to literally juggle his kids: "His love of juggling carried over to his family. His children remember being his 'juggling props,' Luke, his son, said. 'He used to juggle us as babies along with two balls,' added his daughter, Jenny."

Bill Giduz (Photo: Giduz family via News of Davidson) 

Giduz invented joggling by accident in 1975, according to a 2015 Huffington Post story on the history of the sport by writer Kevin Bell, when he brought his juggling balls to the North Carolina State University track to work on some juggling tricks after a running workout. 

"That day, he started jogging as he juggled and discovered something amazing: the pace of a three-ball juggling pattern easily matches with a wide range of running cadences," Bell wrote. "In other words, every throw coincides with the natural motion of the arms. Bill realized that the motions complemented one another beautifully, and he called it 'joggling' almost immediately."

Four years later, Giduz, a Columbia journalism grad, became the editor of the International Jugglers' Association (IJA) newsletter and began writing a column about joggling called Joggler's Jottings. I discovered some of these columns online when I first began joggling in 2005 and was amazed learn the history of the sport, and that the guy who came up with the idea was still around. It's like if you were a basketball fan and James Naismith were writing about the NBA. 

In one of the Joggler's Jottings columns, Giduz included some quotes from the late New York City Marathon race director, Fred Lebow, a joggling fan and a joggler himself:

"Lebow first heard of joggling from Billy Gillen, a Brooklyn resident now well known for his five-ball joggles around Central Park," Giduz wrote. "However, Lebow only took it seriously after watching Albert Lucas joggle the Los Angeles Marathon last spring."

"Lebow immediately recognized a combination of beauty and athletic benefit. 'The normal person can't believe someone can juggle and run that fast at the same time,' he said. 'I figured if Lucas could do a marathon juggling, I should be able to do it standing still.'"

"So Lebow set out to learn, and found it surprisingly easy to master the cascade. He began using one-pound Exerballs to build upper body strength. And now that he can juggle standing still, Lebow wants to begin joggling."

"Bigger than his personal discovery of joggling, however, is his decision to allow Lucas and Gillen to joggle in the upcoming New York Marathon. 'I see joggling as only positive,' Lebow said. 'Normally I might not allow it in a race because some people might think it interferes with runners. However, these two people are experienced. We'll play it by ear and see how it develops. We don't have a joggling division yet, but you never know what can happen.'"

A quote from this column appeared in the New York Times story by Lindsay Crouse in 2015 about the New York City Marathon banning me from joggling the race on a security technicality. 

U.K.-based data scientist and joggler Scott Jenkins recently brought back the Joggler's Jottings column to complement his database of joggling results that he's compiled with fellow U.K. joggler Chris Edwin. Jenkins was hoping to get in touch with Giduz to let him know that the Jottings column had been re-joggled and asked me if I had any contact info for him. I found Giduz's email from the News of Davidson site where he worked, but unfortunately he was likely too sick by the time Jenkins tried to reach him. I was really hoping to one day meet Giduz, or at least exchange an email or two, but was very touched that his son Luke took the time to reach out to me on Instagram.

Although I never met him, by all accounts, including this wonderful obituary for the IJA by juggling historian David Cain, Giduz was a kind, generous and funny person. I know for sure that he has not only inspired hundreds of people to take up joggling, but has also brought joy to millions of spectators of the sport, through smiles, laughs, ooohs and aaahs from all the people who've watched others joggling since that day Giduz decided to take his juggling balls to track practice almost 50 years ago. Thank you, Bill.

Bill Giduz winning the 100m joggling event at an IJA festival in Atlanta.
(Photo courtesy of Bill Giduz, via Kevin Bell)

Jean-Marc Doiron Misses Joggling Marathon World Record, But Joggles Blistering 2:52:39

Fellow Canadian Jean-Marc Doiron of Moncton, New Brunswick, ran the fastest debut 3-ball joggling marathon on May 12, finishing the Fredericton Marathon in 2 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds. It was also the third-fastest all-time behind my 2:50:12 world record at the 2007 Toronto Waterfront Marathon and Zach Warren's 2:52:15 at the 2006 Philadelphia Marathon.

"Disappointed," Doiron told CTV News after the race. "I was just so sure that I would get it, and to come so close, that's the first emotion."

Doiron joggled the race with a chest-mount GoPro to document the run for a Guinness World Record. He took off at a blistering pace, hitting 5K in 19:05, 10K in 38:24 and the half-marathon in 1:21:40, but then he says he hit the wall at about 32K and it was a fight to finish. Doiron says he dropped a ball about 10-15 times, and the fatigue from turning back and picking them up reminded him of running cross-country on a course with lots of turns. 

So is my world record safe? Probably not for long. Doiron says on Instagram that he plans to have another go at it this fall.

Trail and Snowshoe Joggling

I did my first trail race while juggling back in November at the Fat Ass Trail Race 10K in Batawa, Ontario. It was surprisingly fun, trying to shift the juggling pattern to match the changing terrain as I jumped over logs, hopped around rocks and roots, and navigated up and down steep slopes. I finished in 56 mins, 46 seconds, with 6 drops and miraculously no falls. 

Dianne and I got some Dion Run 121 racing snowshoes for Christmas and I put them to good use in January, in what I think was the first-ever joggling snowshoe race at the Snowy Soles Snowshoe Race. (Photos by Mat Coker)

Edwin and Bergeron Joggle 3:00:06 Marathons on Same Day

October 15, 2023 will go down as one of the most remarkable in joggling history with two jogglers joggling marathons on the same day in the exact same time of 3 hours and 6 seconds, an Atlantic Ocean apart from each other.

Chris Edwin joggling the 2023 Yorkshire Marathon
(Photo via Chris Edwin)

First, U.K.'s Chris Edwin smashed his personal best joggling marathon time at the Yorkshire Marathon to become the third-fastest joggling marathoner of all time after me and Zach Warren. Later that same day, Canada's Michael-Lucien Bergeron set off on the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon on a blazing joggling pace ahead of my world record 2:50:12, but suffered some cramping to finish in 3:00:06 and tying Edwin on the third all-time marathon joggling list.

Many things can go wrong with you're running a marathon. Add juggling to the mix and the number of things that can go wrong increases exponentially. Here's how Bergeron described his race, in an Instagram post:

Michael-Lucien Bergeron joggling the
2023 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon
(Photo via Michael-Lucien Bergeron)

"What went wrong: When joggling you don’t have easily access to knowing your pace, so you rely on people around you. I had intended on running with Jennie for the first bit of the race but started to far back which took me over 5km to catch up to her. By that time, I was already running at a decent clip and decided to keep going, clocking a 1h22min30sec half marathon. From there things started to go wrong, with hot stop under my feet and stomach cramping. The pace was slowing down by 30km and I stop around 31.5km for a couple second contemplating just quitting. Some cheering from the sideline got me back in the race. Around 35km I started having an extreme pain in my left wrist, which is still present 24h later, likely overuse of tossing balls for 3h straight lol. With 2km to go, I got major cramping in my legs and even laid down on the ground for 1-2min while someone gave me a massage and someone else poured Gatorade in my mouth. I looked at my watch and got back up and tried sprinting to break 3h but finished 6sec over the mark in a time of 3h00min06sec. One last thing is that every time I needed to hydrate or anytime, I dropped a ball I had to stop forward movement to hydrate or pick up the ball which generated some lactic stress on the body."

Looking forward to seeing what these two guys can do in future marathons. And hopefully they can do a Kapral-Warren-style joggling marathon duel at some point in the near future. 

Best 5-ball Joggling Training Run Ever

I found the perfect 5-ball joggling training area in Port Hope. It’s a 500m stretch of newly paved bike and pedestrian path with no overhead trees and almost no other people. The other day I ran back and forth along this route to do some roughly timed 5-ball jaunts. I still usually drop about every 100m, but if I’m not worried about cars or other potential obstacles, I can often make it further. 

Midway through the 7km 5-ball training session, I glanced at my watch just before I started another half-kilometre interval along the path and boom, everything just clicked and I cruised the entire 500m without dropping a ball. I looked at my watch just after I stopped and it was somewhere around 2 minutes and 5 seconds, so about a 6:30 mile, and right on Matt Feldman’s 5-ball joggling mile world record pace. I did a little celebratory dance and continued on. I clicked off a bunch of other solid runs after that, including this one that Dianne filmed near the end of the session. 

5-Ball Joggling Practice in Port Hope

Our new neighbourhood in the town of Port Hope, Ontario, is a great place to work on 5-ball joggling. I’ve been tacking these sprint sessions onto the end of my non-joggling runs, hoping to eventually get good enough for a decent 5-ball 400m, 800m, mile or 5K. 

Joggling in Georgina for a Marathon DNF

Hi! It’s been nearly four years since my last post. Here’s a quick recap. There was a pandemic. In early 2023, we moved from Toronto about 100km east to the beautiful town of Port Hope, Ontario. In May, I ran my first 100-mile trail race (no juggling). On Sept. 10, I planned to joggle the Georgina Marathon for a Boston Qualifier and then joggle the Boston Marathon next year. 

My training for Georgina was terrible due to general laziness and lack of motivation, but I still felt like I had a good shot at a sub-3:25 age-group BQ time. Any thoughts at another no-drop joggling marathon were immediately dashed when I fumbled a catch about 30 seconds into the race as I tried to navigate the crowded path on the shore of Lake Ontario as runners jockeyed for position as they settled into pace. The beanbag rolled into the dirt, a sign of trouble to come. 

I settled into a good rhythm and clocked off a 22:10 first 5K and consciously slowed to 47:41 at 10K, hoping for a 3:15 to 3:20 marathon finish. But by the time I hit the half in 1:38, an early twinge in my left calf muscle had become a painful strain. An old juggling injury in my right shoulder had also reared its ugly head. So as I headed out on the second loop of the two-loop marathon course, I realized I’d have to pay an arm and a leg to finish the race. I stopped rest several times but it was no use. Just past 32K, I met up with Dianne on the course and called it a day. I hadn’t dropped a ball since those first few metres of the race, but now I dropped my whole self out. 

It was my second-ever DNF in a race (years ago, I dropped out 50K into a 100K race) but no regrets! Now time to train for my first-ever joggling trail race at the Fat Ass in Battawa, Ontario. 

Canadian Smashes Two Joggling World Records in Maldives

The Maldives joggling extravaganza blew away all my expectations. I'll write about it soon. Until then, here's a news release about the two new joggling world records I set during the trip.

Canadian Smashes Two Joggling World Records in Maldives

Michal “The Joggler” Kapral of Toronto runs first-ever 10km while juggling 4 objects, then destroys Guinness World Record for most consecutive stairs climbed while juggling 3 objects

MALÉ, MALDIVES – Oct. 16, 2019 – Canadian Guinness World Record holder Michal “The Joggler” Kapral of Toronto became the first person to run a road race while simultaneously juggling 4 balls, setting a new world record (and Guinness World Record, pending ratification) of 55 minutes, 48 seconds at the RunInAddu race on Oct. 5 in Addu, Maldives, the country’s southernmost atoll, along a scenic course bordered by white sand beaches and azure Indian Ocean waters.

Crossing the finish for the 4-ball joggling world record of 55:48.

“It was a dream destination race along a beautiful paved road and a fast, flat course,” says Kapral. “I couldn’t think of a better place to break a new joggling record. The 4-ball joggling pattern took laser-focus to maintain at sub-1-hour 10K pace. It was almost 20 minutes slower than my 3-ball joggling 10K Guinness World Record of 36:27, and took every ounce of my endurance and concentration. I was near exhaustion at about 8km, but pushed on – and wow, was I glad to see all the smiling faces at the finish line. It was totally worth the effort.”

Six days later, Kapral broke another world record in the Maldives capital of Malé, this time a Guinness World Record for most consecutive stairs climbed while juggling 3 objects. The event took place on the central staircase in Sultan Park, the lush garden next to the 16^th-century former palace of the sultan of Maldives. Kapral ran up and down 2,544 stairs (the single flight was 16 stairs) while juggling 3 beanbags without a drop, climbing past the height of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and nearly 1.5 times the number of stairs up the CN Tower in Toronto. Guinness World Records rules required Kapral to run while juggling both up and down the stairs without stopping or dropping a ball, and only the “up” counted toward the record. 

Kapral climbed more than four times higher than the previous world record of 600 stairs. He dropped a ball while turning around at the top of the staircase after running and juggling up 159 flights and after nearly 45 minutes. It’s interesting to note that the Maldives is the world’s lowest country at an average elevation of about 1.5 metres. Maldives tourism minister Ali Waheed attended the stair climb record event, along with other tourism representatives. 

Guinness World Record for consecutive stairs climbed while juggling 

Kapral set the two world records in the ]sport of joggling – jogging while juggling – as part of a new campaign initiative by the Maldives Tourism Board to attract running and sports tourists to the country. Both events were organized by Total Fitness Group, and the RunInAddu also featured a marathon, half-marathon, 5K, and a kids’ 2km run, which Kapral led along with wife Dianne and daughters Annika and Lauryn. The events were sponsored by Heritance Aarah Maldives, Adaaran Maldives, Meeru Island Resort and Kaimoo Maldives. Both record attempts were broadcast live nationally on Maldivian public TV. 

With the emergence of guesthouses and a wider range of travel options, and several marathons and other running races taking place across the country, as well as other sports events, Maldives hopes Kapral’s records will raise awareness for the Maldives as an emerging running and sports destination for travellers from Canada and the U.S. who are looking for new experiences on their journeys. Just over 9,500 tourists from Canada visited Maldives in 2018, a 6% increase over the previous year, and nearly 43,000 tourists from the U.S. visited the country in 2018, up 9.5% from 2017.

Kapral currently holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon while juggling 3 objects in 2 hours, 50 minutes and 12 seconds, along with several other joggling records. He is planning one more Guinness World Record attempt this year, this time for fastest half-marathon skipping without a rope, at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on Oct. 20. It will be his first non-joggling record since he broke the record for fastest marathon pushing a baby in a stroller with daughter Annika at the Toronto Waterfront event in 2004. For that record, Kapral is raising funds in the charity challenge for Giant Steps Toronto for kids with autism. 

Stepping It Up for a Joggling Stair-Climb Guinness World Record in Maldives

Michal Kapral training in Toronto for the joggling stair-climb world record (Photo: Lauryn Kapral)

Life is full of ups and downs, but only the ups will count towards my latest Guinness World Record attempt for most consecutive stairs climbed while juggling without a drop. On Oct. 11, 2019, in Malé, Maldives, I'll be rising to the challenge in the world's flattest country, running and juggling up the equivalent number of steps of the world's tallest tower. The record attempt will take place six days after my Oct. 5 attempt to become the first person to race a 10K while joggling five balls.

Here's a news release:

Juggling Marathon Runner Steps It Up with New Guinness World Record Attempt for Juggling Stair Climb in Maldives, the World’s Flattest Country

TORONTO – September 13, 2019 – Michal “The Joggler” Kapral of Toronto, Canada, will be juggling three beanbags one toss and step at a time in Malé, Maldives, on October 11, 2019, as he attempts to run to a Guinness World Record for most consecutive stairs climbed while juggling three objects without a drop.

Kapral, 47, who owns several world records in the sport of joggling – running while juggling – including the fastest marathon while juggling three objects in 2 hours 50 minutes and 12 seconds, will rise to the world-record stair-climb challenge as part of a campaign to promote the destination for the Maldives Tourism Board.

“I’m super excited to smash this Guinness World Record with the world’s most stunning vacation destination as a backdrop,” says Kapral. “Maldives bills itself as ‘the sunny side of life’ and that’s exactly how I view running while juggling. It makes people smile and laugh. I’m looking forward to putting on a good show, running and juggling to new heights in the flattest country on Earth.”

This will be Kapral’s first attempt at a juggling stair-climbing record. The Guinness World Records rules state that he must juggle continuously throughout the attempt – and a dropped ball means the record attempt is over. He can juggle while running up and down a flight of stairs, but only the “up” stairs count towards the record.  

Malé, Maldives (Photo: Timo Newton-Syms)

Kapral will climb up and down a short flight of 10-20 outdoor stairs in the Maldivian capital city of Malé. He plans to reach at least 1,776 stairs, the equivalent of running up and down the staircase of the CN Tower in his hometown of Toronto, which until recently was the world’s tallest freestanding structure. If he surpasses the CNTower height, Kapral will keep climbing and juggling his way past 2,909 steps, the number of stairs to the top level of the 828-meter Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the world’s tallest building.  

There is no current record listed but Guinness World Records has set a minimum of 600 stairs to achieve the new record. In 2012, American Pete Moyer reportedly climbed 530 stairs at a hotel while juggling three beanbags. “I trained for this, but it hardly helped,” Moyer said after the climb. “It's extremely hard to breathe. If you want a good example, have someone strangle you while you walk your dog.” Kapral hopes to have a much more enjoyable experience juggling up the outdoor staircase in the fresh air of the azure paradise of Maldives.