Marathon Efforts
|
House Of Cards - Most Stories The greatest number of storeys achieved in building a free-standing house of standard playing cards is 131 to a height of 7.71m (25.29 ft), built by Bryan Berg of Spirit Lake, Iowa, USA on November 6, 1999. The house was built using 91,800 cards in the lobby of the casino at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany and recorded for the Guinness die Show der Rekord. |
Longest Continuous Crawl The longest continuous voluntary crawl (that is, crawling with one or other knee in unbroken contact with the ground) is 50.6 km (31.44 miles), by Peter McKinlay and John Murrie, who covered 115 laps of an athletics track at Falkirk on March 28–29, 1992. "I wouldn't do it again. I don't think I could manage it," said an exhausted Murrie afterwards. He and McKinley prepared for their fund-raising charity crawl-a-thon by doing circuit training, weightlifting, and running. They also soaked their knees and elbows in methylated spirits to make the skin go leathery and hard. The pair wore heavy-duty freezer gloves and miners' pads during the crawl – but they were still covered in blisters and bruises by the end! |
Longest Distance Tap Danced By A Man American , David Meenan tap danced a distance of 51.49 km (32 miles) in 7 hours 35 minutes at Count Basie Track and Field, Red Bank, New Jersey, USA, on October 8th, 2001 Longest Lesson Learned The world's longest lesson learned lasted 34 hours 30 minutes. Poland's Krystyna Palczynsja taught literature, art, grammar, theater and film studies to 26 students at the Zespól Szkól Elektrycznych, Nowa Sól, Lubuskie province, Poland, finishing on 26 April 2002. |
Most Balloons Blown Up In One Hour American K.C. Williams, blew up and tied 599 balloons in one hour at Club DJs, South Kearns, Utah, USA, on January 31st, 2002. Typing One To One Million Les Stewart, of Mudjimba Beach, Queensland, Australia, spent 16 years typing the numbers 1 to 1,000,000 on 19,990 sheets of paper. Starting in 1982, he made the final keystroke on December 7, 1998. Les needed typing skills for a job in the police force, and the tenacious typist remembers sitting down in front of his first typewriter. "I just had a feeling I could break a record on it," he says. Les turned out to be a whiz on the keyboard and was soon promoted to typing instructor. "I had a reputation for being the tidiest and neatest typist in the force," he recalls. Contracting encephalitis in Vietnam left Les seriously ill and partially paralyzed. His employers told him he was too sick to continue work. At this point Les decided to focus all his reserves of discipline and determination on breaking a record. He could still type, but only with one finger, so he began the massive million-digit march to a world record. By the time Les finally typed "one million" he had exhausted seven typewriters, 1,000 ink ribbons, and almost 20,000 sheets of paper. "All I was concerned with was crossing the finishing line," says Les. "I was so positive, I just had to keep the momentum going." The pressure began to mount as Les approached the monumental million. "I realized I would soon have to face the world," he recalls. Journalists and TV crews crowded the living room as Les began the final day of his typing marathon. |
Back to Human Achievements Menu Back to the Records Menu Back to the Main Menu