Get Inspired By The Cardiff Half Record Breakers
In 2017, the Cardiff University Cardiff Half Marathon field was made up of a strong elite field looking to set the fastest times ever record at the event – but it wasn’t just the professional athletes looking to break records.
Many runners, known as the Cardiff Half Record Breakers, set out to put their names in not only race history, but the Guinness Book of Records. Our Record-Breaking Campaign encouraged runners who thought they had a shot at making history to come forward and join the fun! We met some of them before race day:
The campaign was a huge success!
There were course records in all three elite races – Kenya’s Edith Cheilmo ran a UK All-Comers record of 65:50 to win the women’s race, Kenyan John Lotiang set an event record by 7 seconds in winning the men’s title in 60:43 and Britain’s Melissa Nicholls won the wheelchair race in 59:40.
But there were also a number of remarkable performances that entered the Guinness Book of Records:
We had Sir Runalot, aka Tudor Jones, who ran the half in a full suit of armour weighing 30kg and finished in a remarkable 3.26.10, entering the Book of Records.
Then there was fireman Robert Atkin, who ran the whole distance carrying a 20lb kit, beating the previous record by more than a minute, finishing in 1.29.55!
Alec Care, another of our record breakers in 2017 and Cardiff University alumni, ran 1.31.58 wearing his traditional cap and gown.
Robert Dibble, another to enter race history, became the fastest man to complete a half marathon dressed as a monk – as you do! He finished in a fantastic 1.28.09.
The race is not new to world records. It was one year earlier, in 2016, that Mike Kallenberg took the record for fastest half marathon run in a superhero costume dressed as Robin: