Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 127, February 2020 | Page 20

ROAD RUNNING
Pssst, Want
to Run a
Guinness
World Record?
Check out the running section of the Guinness World Records and you will find a long list of weird and wonderful running
bests. Quite a few of these records were recently improved in Canada, which prompts the question whether some of our
talented runners in South Africa wouldn’t like to give them a shot. – BY SEAN FALCONER
I
While many of ‘Big City’ marathons around the world
attract runners in costume who run these races
to benefit a chosen charity, this race in Toronto is
still something special. That’s because this was
the ninth year that the race has officially partnered
with Guinness World Records (GWR) to host official
running record attempts, and that saw 22 athletes
from all over the world line up to attempt to beat
various GWR bests, with an official GWR adjudicator
at the finish line to verify the records. GWR has similar
partnerships with other races around the world,
including the London Marathon in the UK and the
Blackmores Sydney Running Festival in Australia.
he would attempt to run the fastest half dressed as
a fruit. “It was between a fruit or a vegetable. If I had
decided to run as a vegetable, I would have run as
a carrot, but I went with the banana, not just for its
streamlined silhouette, but because growing up in
Kenya, I always loved bananas. It’s a staple food
there,” says Melvin.
field coach now based in California in the USA, who
boasts a marathon best of 2:48 and a half marathon
PB of 1:13:15. Some months earlier he had run a half
marathon in California dressed as a banana, and this
put him on the radar of international banana exporting
company Chiquita, which decided to sponsor him
with a new, streamlined banana suit and a round trip
ticket to Toronto.
Normally, athletes would have to document their
entire race and then send the proof to the Guinness
organisation for ratification, which can takes several
weeks, but thanks to this partnership of GWR and
races, all the successful records can be verified on
the spot. And of the 22 record attempts on the day
in Toronto, 14 were successful, with six in the full
marathon and eight in the half marathon. Melvin’s goal in Canada was to beat the time of
1:19:13 for the fastest half marathon dressed
as a fruit (male). He not only managed that fairly
comfortably, coming home in 1:15:35, but his bright
yellow costume caused a Twitter sensation. For
much of the race he was up with the leading women,
sticking with them till just past the 15km marker,
making it look like the Canadian elites had hired a
banana as a Pacer!
One of the most eye-catching outfits was the banana
suit worn by Melvin Nyairo, a Kenyan-born track and The new world record holder says that it was a New
Year’s resolution to set a new Guinness World Record,
and after looking at the GWR website, he decided
World’s Fastest Banana
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ISSUE 127 FEBRUARY 2020 / www.modernathlete.co.za
He says the record attempt went smoothly, except for
the heat. “I wore a Nike compression shirt underneath
the banana costume to prevent chafing, but it was
very uncomfortable and hot in there. I sweated a lot!
Still, racing on behalf of a reputable brand such as
Chiquita has been an honour, and breaking a world
record will be an experience that I will cherish for the
rest of my life.” Unsurprisingly, to celebrate Melvin’s
successful record, Chiquita has offered him a year’s
supply of his favourite fruit.
Of Cowboys and Carrots
f you happened to be running the Scotiabank
Toronto Waterfront Marathon & Half Marathon in
Canada last October, you may have been forgiven
for wondering if you had somehow ended up at a
fancy dress party instead of a running event. Amongst
the more outrageous costumes were runners dressed
as a banana, a carrot, a cartoon character, a fireman,
a tennis player, an astronaut, a cowboy, and even
a Quidditch player. As in the game they played on
flying brooms in the Harry Potter stories. And yes, this
runner ran the whole way with a broom!