Onwards and backwards to mad Marathon records
15 April 2011
It takes all sorts to run a marathon. Well, it takes a mad sort, perhaps. That would certainly be the conclusion after meeting the assortment of mildly bonkers people who have set their sights on not just completing this Sunday's Virgin London Marathon, but getting their names into the Guinness World Record book in the process.
Take Karl Twomey, a perfectly sane sounding Dubliner who's about to run his first marathon. Sane sounding, that is, until you realise he plans to run the whole 26.2 miles backwards. Without falling over. In under four hours. Well, in under 3 hours 43 minutes, to be precise, for that's what he needs to do to break the running backwards Guinness world record.
Why? Well, apart from raising money for Cancer Research UK, running backwards is the only way he can do it. Twomey describes himself as something of a sportaholic, with a background in gaelic football and rugby, and experience in adventure racing and cycling. Eight years ago he trained for a marathon, got a knee injury and was told by a physio he should never try and run forwards.
"So when I started thinking how to raise money after my dad died of cancer, someone suggested I do it backwards," said Twomey. "At first I thought they were mad, but then I thought, ‘Why not?'"
Twomey has even been training backwards, turning heads all over Blackheath and Greenwich. "I was hoping people would see what it's all about," said the 37-year-old, who has been wearing his motto ‘onwards and backwards' on his shirt. "People look at me and I can see them thinking, ‘He's going to stop in a minute.' Then they look again and think, ‘He's still going, still going, still going.' Then they look to see why I'm doing it."
Being seen is part of the aim, it seems. Uli Kilian will certainly not be missed on Sunday. The 35-year-old comes from Cologne where he ran a couple of marathons before moving to London two years ago. He's preparing a little differently this time, though, for the 35-year-old 3D artist will run with an imitation Rubik's cube on his head and another around his waist.
His aim is to set a record for solving Rubik's cube puzzles while he runs. "I want to do 100 in total over the 26 miles," he says. "I plan to solve one every other minute with a minute's rest between as I run along. And I want to finish in less than five hours."
Kilian, who's trained in his colourful costume around Tooting Bec and Streatham Common, in south London, will carry 20 scrambled cubes in a specially constructed device on his back, while the completed cubes will be replaced by another 20 blocks at four pre-planned points on the course.
"The logistics of all this have been the hardest part," said Kilian, whose personal best for stationary cube-solving is 21 seconds, or 31s in official competition - yes, there are such things.
"All the cubes have to be scrambled according to official guidelines," added Kilian, who aims to raise £3000 for Prostate UK. "It's a very serious business."
Completing devilishly tricky skills while running in outlandish costumes appears to be the vogue for marathon runners these days. Tony Barrance has tried all kinds of ways to get noticed over the course of his 13 marathons to date - he's put his name on his shirt, and his charity, and he's tried various bright costumes.
"But there always seemed to be someone attracting more interest than me," said the 36-year-old market trader. "In the end I just left it up to my wife, Lisa, and children, Ryan and Amy, to pick my outfit for me, and this is where I ended up."
The outfit they picked was Tinkerbell but Barrance wasn't satisfied with his pale green sequins and wings, so he decided to dribble a football as well. "I used to play a bit when I was younger," he said. "But to break the record for dribbling a ball I have to make sure to keep it close to my feet.
"I've been running round Rochester where I live, dribbling up and down hills, and I've attracted some funny looks. It'd be good to let people know I'm not just mad, that I am doing it for a good cause."
That cause is Asthma UK, a charity close to Barrance's heart as son Ryan has suffered from asthma attacks since he was seven months old. "If you've ever witnessed a severe attack it's really frightening," said Barrance. "You'll do anything to help."
If Barrance finds his ball skills tested that's nothing compared to John Farnworth, a 25-year-old professional freestyle footballer from Preston who's goal is to complete the entire course while juggling a ball without letting it hit the ground.
Given there'll be 36,500 people around him, that's quite an ambition. "The record is about seven and a half hours, but that was set 20 years ago," said Farnworth, who's raising money for the Kick4Life charity which uses football to engage young people.
"For me, the record isn't the most important thing, I want to keep the ball up. I'm a perfectionist so I don't want to let the ball drop at all. I'm sure after 15 or 20 miles it'll get hard, and I'll need breaks for water, but I've always wanted to juggle a ball around a marathon. This is my first ever and I'm really excited."
For Susie Hewer it's a different story. This is marathon number 22 for the 53-year-old demon knitter, number three while attempting to make the longest scarf while running a marathon. "I'm going for long, longer, longest," she joked. Hewer is targeting her own world record of 1.62 metres, while she also holds the record for the longest crochet chain made while running a marathon.
She trains 50 miles a week, ran the Brighton marathon last week, and aims to get to the finish line in The Mall this Sunday in less than six hours.
"Sometimes people call me a fun runner, but I hate that," said Hewer, who raises money for Alzheimer's Research UK. "I normally run a marathon in under five hours but knitting slows me down a bit. I do have to tie the knitting around my waist sometimes, or wrap it around my head, and in 2008 it poured with rain. I started with 350 grams of wool and finished with 760. It was so heavy.
"The hardest thing is the coordination. I have to get into a rhythm, so my arms can move and knit at the same time."
Free arm movement is a problem for Uli ‘the cube' Kalian too, while Karl ‘backwards' Twomey is more worried about falling over than straining his neck. "I have a guide too, who's running forwards," said Twomey. "But we got into trouble a few times before we realised the hard way that his left is the opposite of my left."
No doubt, there'll be a few more hard lessons learned by the end of Sunday, not to mention bag loads of money raised for charities, and many mad records broken.