Perry and Barry joggling in Chicago

Here's a clip of Perry joggling to a 3:59 in the Chicago heatwave.

Perry said five-ball joggler Barry Goldmeier also joggled it but was likely forced to stop when the race was cancelled. I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like juggling five beanbags in 31 C temperatures.

Presenting Billy Gillen, another 5-ball joggler

You've already heard about the amazing 5-ball joggler, Barry Goldmeier. Now here's an article from the mid-80s from Juggle magazine about another 5-ball joggler named Billy Gillen (pictured above on a joggle in Brooklyn):

Joggler Takes One Step More

If joggling
three balls represents a physiological step above running without juggling, is
five ball joggling a step higher still? Billy Gillen of Brooklyn, New York,
certainly thinks so.

He also acknowledges that it's lonely there
at the top. Despite his attempts to convince others to join him, he's the only
person who regularly practices this particular physical regimen. It has required
a great deal of practice and patience in the year that he's been at it, and will
require a lot more to perfect it.

Unlike three ball joggling,
during which a runner's stride is basically unchanged, five ball joggling
demands short, shuffling steps to keep up with the quicker hand movement of five
ball juggling. More hazardous still, the five ball joggler must keep his or her
eyes trained upward at the pattern, instead of forward watching for the changing
terrain underfoot. Considering that Gillen does most of his five ball joggling
along the potholed and heavily trafficked streets of Brooklyn, the feat becomes
remarkable.

In recent time trials on a smooth track, however,
Gillen proved that five ball joggling is for real. His fastest of three
quarter-mile attempts was I :55.8, which included time spent picking up three
drops. He joggled 100 yards in :20.1 with no drops. Since that time, he claims
to have managed a phenomenal 6:15.52 mile with 12 drops.

Comparing the relative speeds of juggling five standing still and
joggling five on the run shows that joggling slows down the pattern slightly.
For 50 throws with five balls while standing still, Gillen averaged 12.4
seconds. Joggling, the time slowed to a 13.9 second average.

Gillen has proven he has the determina­tion and eccentricity
needed to overcome obstacles and push back the frontiers of joggling. In 1980 he
joggled a stick, ball and baby carriage wheel (club, ball and ring) 30 miles
from Oakland to Berkeley, California, while balancing a bean bag on his head. He
admits interrupting the jaunt at the 26 mile mark to see a Fellini film.

In 1982 he trained for six months to run four miles around the
track at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn joggling four five-pound
weights. It took 56 minutes to complete the feat, but a month for Gillen to
recuperate from the strain. It didn't make him famous, but "I gave myself a very
solid pat on the back!" Gillen said.

His fastest joggling occurred on the foot­wide elevated center
divider of the defunct West Side Highway in lower Manhattan. During a lightning
storm one summer's day, he joggled three balls along that narrow path for a mile
in 4:30. He thinks fear of electrocution had something to do with the fast time.

Gillen has been a runner since childhood, when he raced the bus a
mile through city streets to grade school. Wandering through Central Park one
day in 1976, Gillen was enchanted by the sight of a juggler. He learned of John
Grimaldi's lessons at Trinity Church near Wall Street, and learned to juggle the
next day. "I went home and juggled for 12 hours straight;" he said. "But I was
tossing the balls out in front of me and had to step forward to catch them. The
next day, I was joggling!"

For several years he joggled up to 10
miles a day with three and four balls, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in his
Captain America suit and circling Washington Square before returning home. He
found out about the IJA convention joggling races and participated at the 1983
Purchase convention. He finished second in the five kilometer event with a time
of 20:07.6, but moreover was astounded to discover another dozen jogglers after
so many years of practicing alone.

A month later he began working on five ball juggling and carving
himself another lonely niche with practice of five ball joggling. Since that
time, he has rarely joggled three or four. Through last winter's slush and
snow, he joggled five around his usual long loop, stooping hundreds of times to
pick up his frequent drops. By March, though, he could go a city block without a
drop, and is now working on dropless quarter-miles. At next summer's Atlanta
convention, he plans to joggle five balls in the 100 meter and one mile events.

A former health food restaurant chef, Gillen now makes a living with
occasional work as a building renovator. He has also lately begun street
performing at neighborhood festivals in New York City. He credits joggling as
good training for his ability to tap dance, do a jig and break dance while
juggling five balls for an audience. He also includes club juggling, plate
spinning, magic tricks, balloon animal creation and story-telling in his street
shows.

"Joggling is a new athletic frontier, the same as running was several
years ago, " Gillen said. "I think it suits intellectual people who are studying
new age consciousness. These are people trying to integrate new challenges into
their practice of sport, to take it that little bit further... to do it with
style."

How not to start your marathon training plan

When you are about to start training to break a new Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon while juggling three objects, do not smash up you knee - as I did earlier this week - while trying to jump over a parking lot barricade.

This will result is a lot of pain, and many lost training miles (and even more lost training kilometres).

Once my knee heals, I'll be rearin' to go. I plan to do several weeks of pure running before I start on the full-time joggling. I want to make sure I'm in peak running shape this time around to give me that extra speed edge.

Here's some developing joggling news: I got an e-mail from my Jolly Juggler rival Zach Warren, who is currently doing some research in Dubai and Qatar. He is unable to run because of his schedule, but said he'd be up for another joggling re-match at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon this September if he's back in the U.S. We thought Salt Lake would be the end, but it's too hard to stop.

In another stunning joggling development, Barry Goldmeier pulled off yet another 5-ball joggling marathon in San Diego recently, finishing with a chip time of 5 hours and 40 minutes. If you think this is slow, try juggling five beanbags ... then imagine trying to run forward for 26.2 miles while you're maintaining that juggling pattern. Barry's been trying to convince me that joggling a 5-ball marathon may not be as difficult as I think. I'm not yet convinced.

This Sunday, my wife and I will be testing out two velomobiles with Ray from bluevelo: the WAW and the Versatile. I want to see if I can get the WAW up past 50 km/h. This will give us a feel for what these HPVs (human-powered vehicles) can do. If we decide to get one, it'll probably be the Mango, which is not available for testing right now, but is best suited for city driving and for shorter drivers (ie. Dianne, who is 5'1").

Help, I can't stop joggling!

My attempts to stop joggling have failed. Last night I ran home from work and just couldn't resist the urge to joggle. Since I hadn't joggled in a couple of weeks, I went crazy, doing all kinds of tricks and bouncing the beanbags off signs and buildings - sort of a joggling version of parkour. It's good to be back.

This article in the Washington Post talks about Michael Wardian's recent stroller-pushing marathon record, and also mentions me and Barry Goldmeier. I like the last paragraph about stunt runners showing people how to lighten up. I would, however, like to point out that I don't joggle and go for stunt records "for the publicity." It's the other way around. I want to break the records and set new challenges and entertain people, so why not publicize them? Does anyone accuse Sidney Crosby of playing hockey "for publicity"? Does Mike Weir play golf to get his name in the paper?

Publicity has also been a great way to generate competition. My wife, Dianne, did such a good job promoting my stroller and joggling records that Zach Warren and Michael Wardian heard about them and decided to break them.

Barry Goldmeier: The amazing 5-ball joggler

Barry Goldmeier, seen in the above YouTube clip, has always made me feel like a bit of a fraud when I talk to people about my joggling. For years now, he has quietly been joggling in road races with five balls.

Joggling with five

Owen Morse joggling with 5

How hard would it be to joggle a marathon with five beanbags? I put this question recently to American joggling legend Barry Goldmeier, who joggled his way through "most" of a marathon several years ago with five beanbags. His finishing time was about six hours.

Barry emailed me a couple of days ago to let me know that my stroller-pushing marathon record is soon being challenged by U.S. marathoner Michael Wardian. I already knew this, but was excited to hear from Barry, one of my joggling idols. I'm hoping to get some pointers from him on five-ball joggling (no balls jokes please) because the few times I've tried it, I found it very difficult to sync up the tosses with the running.