London Marathon Runner in Full F1 Suit Sets Guinness World Record
Yes, he wore the helmet, gloves, and leather boots the whole 26.2 miles.
Picture yourself running (not driving) a full marathon; if that thought makes you laugh and/or feel ill, try to picture someone else. You’re pounding out the 26.2 miles on foot, hopefully in comfortable, cushy running shoes and clothing that allows you room to move. Now imagine that same scenario, but kitted out in the same thing an F1 driver would wear: a fireproof race suit, gloves, undergarments, leather boots, and a helmet. The thought alone is making me feel as though I might spontaneously combust.
Not so for F1 software developer George Crawford, who completed the London Marathon earlier this week while wearing Team Aston Martin racer Lance Stroll’s helmet and driver’s kit. In the process, Crawford set a new Guinness World Record, finished with a time of 3 hours and 58 minutes, and raised $5,000 for mental health charity Mind.
“Over the last 18 months (has it really been that long?) the coronavirus pandemic has been causing havoc with lives,” Crawford posted to his fundraising page. “Countless people are struggling with the [effects] of increased stress, worry, and general wellbeing taking a hit - personally, friends, family members. At this trying time, people living with mental health problems have had extra challenges forced upon them; extra challenges that now more than ever the kind and loving people at Mind are providing their services to assist everywhere and anywhere they can.”
If you fancy Guinness World Record fame yourself, Julian Rendall set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon dressed in pajamas (male) with a time of 2:51:45. Peter Butler-Jones set the new record for fastest marathon wearing wellington boots (male), Sarah Dudgeon and Max Livingstone-Learmonth set a new record for fastest marathon in a two-person costume (3:17:12), and Liv Andersson ran set the record for fastest marathon dressed as a monarch (dressed as Henry VIII) with a time of 3:39:50. And now there’s a record for a runner wearing an F1 driver’s kit.
At the end of the race, Crawford celebrated by pulling off a boot, filling it up with congratulatory champagne and drinking it from the boot à la Aussie F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo. "Adds flavor," Crawford said. (Eww.) Congratulations, sir.
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