A new Guiness record was set in the 49th Annual Scotiabank Calgary Marathon this year. Blaine Penny, a local Calgary elite runner, joined togheter with 9 of his freinds to set a new Guinness record. MitoCanada was selected as a feature charity for the 2013 event, so the crew came up with a great idea on how to create awarenes for Mitochondrial disease.
The old record was 5 team members tied together, finishing in 2:57 for the full marathon. The Calgary crew went for 10 tied together and compeleted the marathon in 2:55:23, crushing the old record in both numbers and time!
Team member and local member of the competitive running community Jeremy Deere, also the owner of the Calgary Strides Running Store, corresponded with the Guinness record office in London to finalize rules and regulations. This included video-proof of their entire race.
Team Members — Blaine Penny, Jeremy Deere, Jody Draude, Aaron Swanson, Scott Jensen, Ryan Twa, Darcy Bell, Nick Haddow, Duncan Marsden, and Myron Tetrault. Six of the team ran the Boston Marathon this year and are among the elite in Calgary.
Beyond this amazing feat of not only running a marathon in 2:55, they did it tied together. This is even toughter when you consider the water stops as well as bathroom breaks along the way. The most amazing of all was the nearly $100,000 raised for research into mitochondrial disease.
For more about Mitochondrial disease see the web site forMito Canada.
Both photos are courtesy of Neil Zeller Photography.