What is the record?
The record that we broke along with Virtual Runners Group was a fun run record for the 'Most Remote 10K User Runners within a 24 Hour Period'.
There were 33,000 fellow runners entered into the event in the bid to become World Record Holders.
On the 19th September 2021 me, my cousin Michael and my mate Jonny all met up together to run our remote recorded 10K runs in Kirkstall, Leeds and we ran up the Leeds-Liverpool canal towards town and back again to attempt to break the Guinness World Record with the Virtual Runners Group. It was good fun I have to say, but we had an early start with our run organised for 10:30am using the brilliant Adidas Runtastic App. Me and Michael left Jonny hanging around for 20 minutes however due to our taxis being late, not sure Jonny was too happy about that (haha) but we got there and had a fun run together. We then had to send in our evidence to Virtual Runners who then sent it to Guinness World Records to be verified.
I have to say, it was great breaking this little fun run record, however. in the past, it was something on my radar in competitive running to break a single and personal Guinness World Record time. In my late 20's to very early 30's during my running peak years, I was considering entering an official attempt at the London Marathon to break the record for 'Fastest Marathon Runner dressed as a Monk', however, this never came to fruition and that boat sailed past me.
The current official World Record at that time was around 3 hour 45 which for me was very achievable being a sub 3-hour and Good For Age marathoner at that time. It would have also been a great way to raise even more money for charity than I already was at that time.
Why the Monk Record?
This particular record was on my radar and many people were pushing me to attempt this record because I was a regular runner for Kirkstall Harriers where I ran their local Kirkstall Abbey 7 Mile race dressed as a 'Mad Monk' in a 'Beat The Monk Challenge'. I ran dressed as the monk for 5 years in total, in what was a heavier outfit back then. I ran the main senior race 5 times and the junior race a couple of times too.
Aside from the last year that I ran dressed as the monk, which was pretty average, my times the other 4 years were very good and I finished in the top 15 and top 20 several times. I also really enjoyed running dressed as the monk. Sadly, I probably took ,y running times and ability back then for granted and I never got round to attempting it. Looking back it probably is a slight regret as the record was definitely more than achievable for me at that time period but I guess it was not to be.
I imagine the record is probably now much faster, which to be fair, was a very good time of 3:45 then as well.
There is a brilliant photo of a sprint finish that I was involved in against two local runners from rival club Valley Striders back in 2013 which I finished in 14th position and beat them both in a ferocious sprint finish. It has become an iconic Kirkstall Harriers photo and certainly one of my own RJ Sports Archives iconic images that made it into my very own 'RJ Sports Photos of the Decade' collection between 2010-2020.
See the photo below
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