Longest marathon records you could attempt and what you need to know first

Hilda Baci’s epic record for the longest cooking marathon has sparked a worldwide flurry of applications.

Social media has been flooded with people taking on all sorts of marathon attempts ever since she first burst on to the scene with a record of 93 hr 11 min.

Unfortunately, many of the attempts won’t count as there isn’t actually a record for the thing people are attempting to do.

And while some are existing record titles, the people taking them on haven’t gone through the motions of sending in an application and being sent the guidelines.

Every Guinness World Records title must be measurable and standardisable, meaning there are many guidelines to follow in order to ensure everyone is on an equal playing field.

Sadly, people who are setting off on their days-long record attempts unofficially are unlikely to meet all the criteria, despite all their enthusiasm and effort.

We want everyone to stand a fair chance, so with that in mind, we’re giving you a few quick tips on what you need to do.

A representative from our records team explained: “We advise anybody interested in achieving a record to submit an application and wait for our Records Management Team to approve your application BEFORE attempting the record.

“Once the application is approved, you will receive the full guidelines which list all of the specific rules and evidence requirements for the record. If you do a record attempt without first reading the guidelines, you might do it wrong, or not capture all of the evidence we need, meaning we cannot recognize your efforts with a Guinness World Records title.

“If your proposal is not something we can monitor as a record, our Records Team will explain why and may suggest alternative options for you where possible.”

We’re also going to have a look at the longest marathon records that are available for people to attempt… but given that there are literally hundreds of them, we won’t be covering them all.

But here are a few examples for you, as well as the current record that you’d have to beat…

For those with musical talent:

• Longest marathon playing guitar – David Browne (Ireland) – 114 hr 6 min 30 sec

• Longest marathon playing sitar - Radhakrishnan Manoharan (India) – 29 hr 8 min 35 sec

• Longest marathon cello playing – Carel Henn (South Africa) – 26 hr

• Longest marathon playing the tuba – Rodney Kenny (UK) – 24 hr 8 min

• Longest marathon playing flute – Katherine Brookes (UK) – 27 hr 32 min 32 sec

• Longest marathon playing bagpipes – Rikki Evans (UK) – 26 hr 5 min 32 sec

• Longest marathon harp playing – Kateryna Oliinyk (Ukraine) – 31 hr 1 min 54 sec

• Longest marathon drumming by a team – J.D.T Music Academy, Janel Spalding, Aaron Houseago, Holly Jones, Ryan Murray and Lorraine Dorrington (all UK) – 3 days 8 hr 2 min

For sports and fitness fans:

• Longest marathon playing dodgeball – Right to Play at Castleton (USA) – 41 hr 3 min 17 sec

• Longest marathon playing netball - Generation Netball Club (Australia) – 72 hr 5 min

• Longest marathon tenpin bowling – Stephen Shanabrook (USA) – 134 hr 57 min

• Longest marathon breakdancing by a team - Arulanantham Suresh Joachim, Troy Feldman, Jesse Catabog, Donald F Geraghty, Lance Johnson, Eva Nikitova, Damian Dobrowolski, Dan Rossignoli, Darren Bryan, Karl Alba and Joseph Hersco (all Canada) – 24 hr

• Longest marathon parasailing – Berne Persson (Sweden) – 24 hr 10 min

• Longest marathon skipping – Joey Motsay (USA) – 33 hr 20 min

• Longest marathon hula hooping – Jenny Doan (Australia) – 100 hr

• Longest marathon playing basketball – The Revelas Family (USA) – 120 hr 2 min

For foodies or crafty people:

• Longest marathon slicing meat - Noé Bonillo Ramos (Spain) – 72 hr 13 min 8 sec

• Longest marathon baking (individual) – Wendy Sandner (USA) – 31 hr 16 min

• Longest marathon crocheting - Alessandra Hayden (USA) – 34 hr 7 min

• Longest painting marathon - Roland Palmaerts (Belgium/Canada) – 60 hr

• Longest barbecue marathon (team) - Panther City BBQ, Travel Texas, and Texas Monthly (all USA) – 40 hr 49 min 17 sec

• Longest cooking marathon (individual) – Hilda Baci (Nigeria) – 93 hr 11 min

• Longest knitting marathon – No current record holder – minimum 24 hr

And a few covering random categories:

• Longest marathon hugging - Benjamin Kannenberg and Benjamin Thompson (both USA) – 32 hr 32 min 32 sec

• Longest marathon reading aloud - Rysbai Isakov (Kyrgyzstan) – 124 hr

• Longest marathon ironing – Gareth Sanders (UK) – 100 hr

• Longest marathon bartending – Ruth Brands (Belgium) – 111 hr

• Longest marathon on a bouncy castle – No current record holder – minimum 24 hr

• Longest marathon playing quidditch – No current record holder – minimum 24 hr

• Longest marathon being tattooed by multiple artists – No current record holder – minimum 61 hr

Now, if you fancy attempting one of our longest marathon records, you can find out more and apply right here.

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