105 x 400m Relay = 26 Mile 385 Yard Marathon

I love the 4x400m Relay.

But I was surprised to see the single person Marathon world record faster than a 105 x 400m Relay with 105 different runners.

According to the Guinness World Record web site, under the category of Fastest Marathon by a relay team, a group from the United Arab Emirates ran 2:04:32 in March 2014.  Dennis Kimetto singlehandedly lowered the marathon world record to 2:02:57 last fall in Berlin!  WTH?

To be picky, the 26 mile 385 yard marathon, or 42.195 km could be 105.5 x 400m with the first or last person running the extra 195m or  200m.

But in Limerick, Ireland on Sunday January 11, it took 105 runners to pull it off, see the I Love Limerick website.  (One guy ran both the open 200m leg and a 400m leg)

This mixed relay group with men and women from all over Limerick surpassed the existing Guinness World Record for the marathon relay by running 1:56:54.

Do the math: the average time per 400 meters was just under 66.5 seconds, or about 4:26 mile pace.

Can you get 100 runners to wait around for 2 hours just to run 400m?

Now that is my kind of race, because everyone knows anything over 400m, I take a taxi.  Then again, I will volunteer for the opening 200m .

If you go to their website, you can see some photos of the event, and it’s clear how a good baton pass can give you 2 free meters with outstretched arms.  Read this article on relay baton passing.

Come on people, get 105 people together and let’s see this record get broken.  Again.  And again.

Then again, let’s get 420 people together and make this a race of 4 teams?