Wacky Sporting Champions

Guinness World Records has a new ebook dedicated to "Wacky Sporting Champions," including the basketball spinner from Benjamin Fingerhut's documentary, Breaking and Entering. I wonder if any jogglers made it in there?

5000m Joggling Guinness World Record Attempt

I'm going for the 5000m joggling Guinness World Record tonight (Aug. 10) at about 7:30 p.m. at the Central Tech track in downtown Toronto.

The current record of 16:55 has stood for 25 years. Is it a tough one to beat? Hell yeah! I fell short by 8 seconds in my last try a few years ago and that one really hurt. I'm hoping to run a nice even pace this time.

A Sickly and Scrawny Boy

Benjamin Fingerhut's documentary Breaking and Entering recently screened at the historic Vickers Theatre in Three Oaks, Michigan, generating this writeup in the regional paper. This passage gave me a good laugh, and it's not far off.

There's Canadian Michal Kapral, whose obsession with the Guinness Book of World Records started when he was a scrawny and sickly young boy, dreaming of being an elite athlete. He grew up to become a gifted runner and juggler, and combined the two to become one of the best "jogglers" in the world.

With chronic asthma, allergies to virtually every food and airborne particle and general skinniness, I was a scrawny and sickly looking young laddy.

Canadian buys Guinness World Records

Big news in the world records industry:

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/02/15/ripley-guinness.html

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.

Wardian smashes stroller-pushing marathon record

They did it!

Michael Wardian of Arlington, Virginia pushed his son Pierce in a stroller for the entire Frederick Marathon in Virginia in 2 hours 42 minutes and 21 seconds, breaking my 2004 record by seven minutes.

"It was bonkers," the prolific marathoner said after the race. "It was one of the hardest races I've ever done."

Wardian said there was a strong wind that the stroller caught like a parachute. I remember the same thing when I pushed Annika at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2004.

Congratulations to Michael and Pierce.

Will I defend the record? My two girls are too big now, so unless I get a loaner, the answer is no. Does anyone have a baby they want to get into the Guinness Book?

Guinness World Records assessing The Joggler's 10K claim

It's great to see that The Bloggling Joggler has some readers (or skimmers, at least), including some from Europe and China. I will do my best to keep you entertained and informed about the world of competitive joggling. If you find me boring and pedantic, then you can always go visit the world's only other joggling blog: Just Your Average Joggler.

I heard back from Guinness World Records about my 10K joggling world record claim, and they were hoping a had video footage of the whole race. Because the Longboat Island Race is on a narrow footpath, this wasn't practical, so I relied on independent witnesses to certify the record. The Guinness rep told me he will continue to assess my claim without video. I hope the record gets certified because that race really hurt and I don't want to go through that again.

Today is sunny and the streets look clear, so a nice 8-mile joggle is in order.

How to break a Guinness World Record

Today's joggling mileage: 0 (a day off – tired out from filling out Guinness World Records paperwork)

I finally got around to sending off the documentation for my 10K joggling record to the Guinness World Records head office in London, England. I set the record five months ago at the Longboat Toronto Island 10K in a time of 36 minutes and 27 seconds, and it took me this long to get everything together.

Here are the steps you have to follow to break a Guinness World Record:

1) Submit an application on www.guinnessworldrecords.com.
2) They'll e-mail you a "Record Breakers' Pack" document that you have to fill out, sign and fax back to them.
3) Several weeks later, they'll e-mail you a couple of documents describing the rules of the record that you want to break, as well as the current record.
4) Now you finally get to set the record. You may feel like all the paperwork is more exhausting than setting the record itself.
5) You need to have two independent witnesses sign sworn statements of authentication.
6) If you submit photos or videos, the photographer/videographer needs to sign away the rights to the material to Guinness.
7) You fill out another stack of paperwork.
8) Assemble all of this and mail it off to Guinness.
9) Several weeks later, Guinness will approve the record (hopefully) and mail you a nice big certificate.
10) The Guinness Book prints about 4,000 records, only about one-tenth of the total, so setting a record by no means guarantees entry into the widely published book.
11) You get NO MONEY for setting a Guinness World Record. Nor do you get a pint of stout.
12) You can also submit your record to the Book of Alternative Records. They require much less documentation.

When I was on my way over to mail the record claim, a woman pointed over to me and whispered to her companion: "That's The Joggler." Maybe I'm famous?