I'm Michal "The Joggler" Kapral of Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, and I run marathons and other events while "joggling," an actual sport that combines jogging (or running) and juggling. I hold the Guinness World Record of 2:50:12 for the fastest marathon while juggling three objects. (I also chewed gum every step of the way.)
The Trapline Marathon is no ordinary race. The starters' gun is a trappers' rifle (that was so loud we all froze at the line for a second of stunned silence before making our way forward), the start-line posts are made out of wooden snowshoes, there was a moose on the race course and moose stew served after the finish (a different moose, I was told by race organizers), along with a smorgasbord of other local delicacies.
The people in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador (how's that for a lengthy place name?) welcomed this wacky joggler with open arms and a good sense of humour and didn't even get mad at me when I won the marathon overall while juggling, in a time of 2 hours, 59 minutes and 32 seconds, and also set a course record.
I can say with near-certainty that this marks the first time anyone has won a marathon while juggling. I, of course, think this is pretty cool, however, the rest of the runners behind me might think otherwise. But I salute all of the runners in the full marathon, half-marathon and 10K at this spectacular race. And thank you to the hawk that flew half a foot in front of my face near the halfway mark for not making off with one of my balls. I salute you, too.
The beer mile is getting a lot of press now that American Olympian Nick Symmonds is going for the world record. A video from TMZ shows Symmonds running a 5:15, which is very close to Canadian Jim Finlayson's world record of 5:09.
When I was the editor of Canadian Running, I assigned a feature article to Finlayson so he could tell the story of his record, and of his quest to break the magical 5-minute beer mile barrier. Here it is, one of my all-time favourite features in CRM, "The Bannister of Beer":
Next up for me: the joggling beer mile. Wonder what the record is for that one?
They say learning how to juggle five balls is 10 times harder than juggling three. When it comes to joggling with five, I'd say it's about 60 times more difficult than the traditional three-ball joggle.
Considering that, Matt Feldman's recent world record for the five-ball joggling mile of 6:33 is nothing short of astounding. Even better, there's a good video of it, so you can see how fluid his form is with the five-ball pattern on the run. Feldman makes it look easy, but trust me as one who has tried, this is reedonkulous skill.
Would this not be an entertaining Olympic event? Imagine a dozen jogglers and 100 balls flying around the track in an Olympic five-ball 1500m joggling final!
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?
Joe Salter shocked the world – even the hard-to-shock joggling world – when he managed to juggle his way through a triathlon in May. Since then, his video has gone somewhat viral (not quite Walk Off the Earth viral, but pretty good for jogging vid) and he's made an appearance on Good Morning America. Now a Korean TV show is apparently trying to convince him to swuggle (swim and juggle) across the Han River, which is about 1.7km across.
Ah, Labrador! That beautiful territory northwest of Newfoundland will soon get what it's been waiting for all of these years (they just didn't know it): joggling! On Oct. 7, 2012, I'm coming to town to joggle the Trapline Marathon. I've never been to Labrador and this looks like a great event that showcases Canada's trading frontier. The marathon route follows a point-to-point course along an old trappers trade route at the mouth of the Churchill River, running from the settlement of North West River (pop. 553) to Happy Valley - Goose Bay (pop. 7,552). And as far as I'm concerned, any marathon that finishes in Happy Valley has to be a good one.
I'll be speaking at the expo the day before the race and giving some joggling tutorials, because really, if you don't know how to joggle, what is the point of life? Check out the details at www.traplinemarathon.com and watch the super-geeky video of me above.
This will be my seventh joggling marathon and unlike most of the others, I won't be going for a Guinness World Record, though I am hoping to run a fast time. It got me thinking that I never actually wrote down all the races I've joggled, so here's a list of the big ones:
1. The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (three times, and a world record each time – I like this race)
2. The Boston Marathon (in the 2006 joggling marathon duel with Zach Warren, which I lost)
3. The Salt Lake City Marathon (another duel with Zach, which I won)
4. The Royal Victoria Marathon (I had fun at this one)
5. The Cayman Islands Half-Marathon (ridiculously hot race)
6. The World's Best 10K (Puerto Rico)
7. The Rock and Ice Ultra (Northwest Territories, but OK, I only joggled for about 100 metres)
8. The Montreal Half-Marathon (unofficial half-marathon world record)
9. The Burlington Half-Marathon (soon-to-be official world record)
10. The Around the Bay 30K (unofficial 30K world record)
11. A bunch of other local races
I'm sure Trapline will be a blast. I might even be so bold as to predict that I will become the first person to ever joggle in the region.
Swuggler, joggler and cycluggler (or buggler? – no, that sounds bad) Joe Salter is training to become the first person to juggle his way through a triathlon. Check out his swuggling training in a pool (with tricks!).
