2014 Huntersville 5k (World Record Tether Team)

December 13, 2014 8:15 AM
Huntersville, North Carolina

	Time	Pace	Division	Division Place	Gender Place	Overall Place	Bib #
Owen	43:14	13:55	M40-44	27/40	149/245	367/585	1274
Michael	43:14	13:55	M10-14	24/31	145/245	360/585	1273

Written by Owen:

Several months ago I saw a Facebook post from the Charlotte Running Club advertising the fact that they were organizing an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for "Most runners linked to complete a 5 km race".  I thought that sounded cool so I signed up.

We had a practice run where we got together and tested the theory of how it was going to work.  There was a lot of planning that went into this and they did a really good job at communicating via their Facebook page how everything was going to work.

We got lined up in our assigned spots, and they tied everyone together.  It was small bungee cord, attaching 10 runners together.  Then each row of 10 horizontal runners was attached to one long vertical cord.  Each line had a line captain with a whistle that would blow it if anyone in their line needed to stop or walk.

The race finally started and we were off.  There was no rule as to how fast we completed the race, just that we stayed tethered together.  So we jogged at a very slow pace, and inevitably someone had to walk, so it was painfully slow.

Just before the finish.

We finished in just over 43 minutes, and had a great time. I still haven't got an official word as to how many runners we had connected, but the leader did say we broke the world record.  Here is the link to the world record, which as of this writing still shows the old record, it should be updated soon.

"Most runners linked to complete a 5 km race"