Man Runs Marathon Backwards While Juggling. Did He Set a Guinness World Record?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmM2yXiiz5c]
The above clip shows Florida resident Joe Salter running the Quad Cities Marathon in Moline, Il. backwards, while juggling. (Apparently, the preferred term for this activity is "joggling".) In the lead-up to the event, the Miami Herald described the joggler's history:
The 32-year-old has already claimed several racing records, on sites such as recordsetter.com. He hopes to add Sunday's feat to his accomplishments, which include fastest time to run a mile backward while juggling (7 minutes, 32 seconds) and fastest juggling triathlon (1 hour, 57 minutes). He taught himself to juggle while swimming.
"I swam a half-mile in the Gulf of Mexico, doing the backstroke while juggling three balls," Salter said. "I also juggled for 16.2 miles on a bike and ran and juggled for four miles."
Salter had hoped to set a Guinness World Record at the marathon. But to qualify, every second of his race has to be recorded. Videotaping is prohibited along several miles of the course that run through the Rock Island Arsenal.
"We did recently establish joggling as a new category," Guinness PR Manager Jamie Panas tells SI. "The threshold was set at six hours."
Salter ended up completing the marathon in five hours and 51 minutes, which would seem to qualify for the record, if the aforementioned videotaping ban had not been in place.
Nevertheless, Panas encourages Salter to send in all the documentation that he was able to gather: "I couldn’t definitively say whether his time counts or not until we receive all of the evidence."
[H/T
