|
First, your Tour de France invitation gets lost in the mail. Then you have to
postpone that English Channel swim when the dry cleaner starches your Speedo.
Finally, you have to drop out while leading the Boston Marathon ’cause you’re
allergic to winners’ laurel crowns.
Will sporting fame and fortune never find its way to your door? Well, there’s
always the Guinness Book of Records. You, too, can get in this famous tome with
an achievement in your favorite sport, even if you’re not championship material.
Just eat some bicycles, swim the Mississippi (the long way), or stand still for
a really, really long time. From the sensational to the silly, here’s a list of
our favorite endurance-sports Guinness records:
Longest Bicycle Wheelie: 10 hours, 40 minutes, 8 seconds. Leandro Henrique
Basseto in Madaguari, Brazil (December 2, 1995).
Longest Walk: 32,202 miles in more than 27 years starting in 1969. Arthur Blessitt
of North Fort Myers, Florida. Blessitt carries a 12-foot cross and has visited all
seven continents.
Longest Bike Ride: 402,000 miles. Walter Stolle of Germany (1959 to 1976).
Youngest World Record Breaker (non-mechanical): Gertrude Ederle (12 years, 298 days
old). Set the record for the women’s 880-yard freestyle swim in Indianapolis on
August 17, 1919, with a time of 13 minutes, 19 seconds.
Most Metal Eaten: Michel Lotito (Mr. Eat Everything) of Grenoble, France, has
consumed 18 bicycles along with about nine tons of other scrap since 1959.
Longest Running Race: 3,665 miles from New York City to Los Angeles in 1929. Won
by Johnny Salo (Finland) in 79 days averaging 6.97 mph.
Fastest Hawaii Ironman Triathlon times: (2.4-mile swim; 112-mile bike; 26.2-mile
run): Women: Paula Newby-Fraser (Zimbabwe) in 1992 in 8 hours, 55 minutes, 28
seconds. Men: Luc van Lierde (Belgium) in 1996 in 8:04:08.
Highest Bicycle Speed (assisted): 166.94 mph by Fred Rompelberg (Netherlands) on the
Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, (October 3, 1995).
Longest Swim: 21,826 miles from July 6 to December 29, 1930, by Fred Newton swimming
down the Mississippi River (742 hours).
Longest Period Without Moving: 18 hours, 5 minutes, 50 seconds standing still by
Radhey Shyam Prajapati.
|
