Guinness World Records at the Flora London Marathon 2007
It was a glorious sunny day at the Flora London Marathon 2007 when thousands of people got together at
the Greenwich start to kick off the race. This is the first time that Guinness World Records has been
officially involved in the marathon and the event proved to be the biggest ever in the 27 year history of the
race with a staggering 36,396 participants and hundreds of potential record breakers!
A team of 8 Guinness World Record adjudicators hit the course of the marathon at different points and
monitored all the record attempts from the beginning to the very end. Among the official record breakers
was Ian Sharman who broke the record for the Fastest marathon dressed as Elvis in only 2 hours
57 minutes proving to be the real and only King! Lesley Iles marked her 50th birthday by running the
marathon and breaking the record for the Longest working pacemaker, Lesley’s pacemaker has
been working for 25 years and as she proved yesterday, it’s still running perfectly! Dressed as Super girl,
Sally Orange, a Physiotherapist at the Reserves Training and Mobilisation Centre in Nottingham, flew her way
to the record Fastest female to run the marathon in a superhero costume in just 4 hours and
8 minutes. It took a little longer for Oliver Holland and his 16 companions to pass the finishing line,
but after a gruelling 5 hours 25 minutes the clan dressed as convicts were set free to celebrate their new
record for Most linked runners to complete a marathon. Susie Hewer, who was raising money for
dementia research, thought running wasn’t enough of a challenge so she decided to knit a scarf in between and
set the record Longest scarf knitted whilst running a marathon making her scarf an impressive
1m 20cm. After 7 hours we had two records to go. First in was Gary Speakman, who ran the entire distance in full
fire department outfit – boots, wet legs, tunic, breathing apparatus AND helmet – in a time of 7:10:07 to set
a record for the Fastest marathon in a fireman's uniform. The last but not least record breaker
to make it through the finishing line in 7 hours and 14 minutes
was heroic Angus Macfadyen who injured his leg last summer whilst filming a documentary and feared never to
walk again. Happily he recovered and decided to raise money and awareness for landmine victims by attempting the
record Fastest marathon on crutches. The feat proved to be a difficult and painful experience
but Angus raised £12,000 - well over his expectations!
We would like to congratulate the new record breakers and welcome them to the family of Guinness World
Records. See you at the next 2008 Flora London Marathon!
23 April 2007