Race director Alan Brookes wasn’t mistaken when he called the Toronto Waterfront Marathon (TWF) weekend “a weekend of records.” On Sunday, 24 runners at the big-city race successfully chased Guinness World Records (GWR) and eagerly await ratifications of their achievements. One of the record-breakers was Toronto’s own Benet Avery, who took on the 42.2K course wearing a hospital gown to raise awareness of eating disorders.
In her second-ever marathon, the 24-year-old took on the challenge of beating the GWR for fastest marathon dressed as a hospital patient (female), running an official time of 3:28:22 and beating the record by nine minutes. The former record stood at 3:37:20, set by Ireland’s Kate Maher at the 2023 Berlin Marathon.
Printed on the front of Avery’s hospital gown was “Running for a Guinness World Record, and to raise awareness and funds for eating disorders”.
The inspiration behind Avery’s run was her own experience struggling with orthorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by an excessive preoccupation with eating healthy food. “I couldn’t run for a while,” Avery told Canadian Running. “I wanted to show people that it’s possible to recover and to do hard things.”
The Toronto native raised funds to the cause and directed donations to an eating disorder support centre in Ottawa called Hopewell Eating Disorder Support Centre. Avery joined forces with the organization, becoming the face of a new program called Creating Spaces–an initiative that promotes how “meaningful movement” helps with recovery.
To validate the record, the race must be a chip or timed-sanctioned race, there must be two witnesses, and pictures must be taken by race officials at the start and end of the race.
Avery graduated earlier this year from Toronto Metropolitan University with a degree in business, majoring in entrepreneurship. She runs two businesses: Surf Beni and a women’s clothing brand called Road Rocket Athletics, while instructing Pilates classes at two studios in Toronto. She uses her social media platform to continuously help raise awareness for eating disorders. “You’re only as strong as you think you are,” she says, explaining the message she wants to get out to the world. “You can overcome anything you want.”
“The race was really fun,” Avery says. “I ran with a group of five or six people for the first 30 km, but felt like I had a lot left, so I took off. The last 5 km was pretty hard.” Her marathon debut was on this same course in 2018, so she beat her best time by an hour. “I didn’t practice running in the hospital gown before race day,” she added. “It was not the most aerodynamic, but it wasn’t that bad.” She plans to return to race in Toronto’s marathon next year.
Fastest marathon in a onesie
Toronto’s Matthew Cole chased the GWR for fastest marathon in a onesie, which stood at 3:43:10. Cole clocked 3:08:44, demolishing the record by more than 3o minutes. “I had a great time doing it,” Cole says. “Actually, the last 10 km were terrible, but it was a lot of fun.”
Fastest half-marathon dressed as an elf
Waterdown, Ont.’s Jessey the Elf ran 1:15:32 on Sunday to break the record for fastest half-marathon dressed as an elf by more than 10 minutes. The previous record was of 1:25:44 was set by Ohio’s Jason Homorody in June.
Fastest marathon in a five-person costume
Dressed as a TTC streetcar, Toronto’s Tom Brooks, Dekel Chui, Derek Beaton, Andrew Bondoc and Jared Nylander ran the full 42.2K distance attached together to capture their second GWR. The group, called the 5treet Car, clocked 3:59:01, smashing the seven-year-old record for fastest marathon in a five-person costume of 4:21:30 set by a group in the UK.
Last year in Toronto, the group had set the record for fastest half-marathon in a five-person costume, running 1:48:59.
Fastest marathon dressed as a tree
Anna Mihaltchev of Deux-Montagnes, Que., went after the record for fastest half-marathon dressed as a tree (female). She clocked 2:17:28.
Attempted: fastest marathon while juggling three balls
Joggler Jean-Marc Doiron of Moncton, N.B., clocked 3:13:06 in an attempt to earn the world record for fastest marathon while juggling three balls. The record of 2:50:12 is held by Toronto’s Michal Kapral, a multi-time record holder in joggling events. For now, the GWR will remain with Kapral.
New Brunswick joggler narrowly misses half-marathon Guinness World Record
In September, Doiron made an attempt at the half-marathon joggling world record of 1:17:09, which is held by Michael Bergeron of Halifax. Doiron missed the record by a mere 40 seconds.
