Marathon running is associated with quite a number of possible world records.
While there are the obvious world records, such as the marathon world record finish time, there are also a surprising number of esoteric marathon world records.
For example, there are world records for running a marathon in a costume, running a marathon backwards, and even running a marathon on crutches.
Some of the entries into the Guinness Book of World Records for marathon running are even more bizarre and a bit of a head-scratcher, lending themselves to the natural question, “Who would think of doing that?“
One such example is the world record for running a marathon with a refrigerator on your back—yes it’s a real thing!—and in fact, the world record for running a marathon with a fridge on your back was recently broken.
Sam Hammond, a Royal Marine, just set the new world record for completing a marathon running with a fridge on his back at the 2023 London Marathon on Sunday, April 23, 2023.
The 30-year-old Corporal had not run 26.2 miles with a fridge before running the London Marathon.
However, he recently achieved his first Guinness World Record in February for running a half marathon with his fridge in Brighton.
The refrigerator Corporal Hammond carries while running weighs 57.9 pounds (26.3kg).
Earning the nickname “Fridget Jones,” Cpl Sam Hammond finished the 2023 London Marathon carrying the heavy appliance on his back in an impressive time of four hours, 52 minutes, and 10 seconds (4:52:10).
According to the Royal Navy, Cpl Hammond’s time beat the previous world record by 57 minutes.
The record for running a marathon with a fridge falls under the category of “marathon carrying a household appliance (white goods)”.
As with any entry into the Guinness Book of World Records, Corporal Sam Hammond’s time will first be verified after the application is submitted before it becomes official.
Corporal Sam Hammond is a Cornwall-based marine with the role of a weapons instructor at RNAS Culdrose, Helston.
His efforts of running the London Marathon with a fridge on his back were not only motivated by the opportunity to test himself physically but mostly an effort to raise money for SSAFA, the armed forces charity.
So far, Cpl Hammond has raised more than £10,000 for SSAFA, a charity that provides health and social care support for armed forces personnel, and their families, who are deployed overseas.
Upon finishing the race, Cpl Hammond admitted that it was extremely challenging to complete the entire marathon carrying the fridge, not only because he had been able to train the full distance with the appliance, but also because we started out too fast and got a bad cramp around mile 21.
He ended up needing to throw in some walking breaks to make it to the finish line, but he credits his mental toughness and determination for getting him through.
Cpl Hammond explained to the BBC, “It was discipline rather than motivation that got me through… At no point did I think about ditching the fridge. I am elated to have done it.”
His Instagram post noted: “The last 5 miles of London took everything I had. Everything hurt. My body wanted to shut down. I had to dig deeper than ever before.”
You can find the full results of the 2023 London Marathon here.
You can follow Cpl Sam Hammond on his Instagram page, where his handle is cleverly named man_vs_fridge.
For another interesting marathon record, check out this news piece on Yuki Kawauchi who recently broke the world record for the most marathons run in under two hours and 20 minutes.
