Guinness World Record -- 839 Rubik's Cubes in 4:56:01 During a Marathon

Thanks for the corrections. Yes 175 by Shane White.

There's actually quite a bit to the training to this. It takes quite a bit of core strength and you have to be really comfortable running for distance to get anywhere close to my goal of 1,000. The core strength is needed to make sure your hands move up and down as minimally as possible by keeping a steady core. You also have to make sure you have a steady and consistent cadence. 5.3 mph may seem slow, but I assure you it's not, especially when trying to solve cubes during.

My record for the treadmill is sub-12 for 12mph (5:00min/mile pace). If anyone wants to try a challenge, try getting sub-x solve where 'x' is the mph you are doing on a treadmill. Ex: sub-13 solve at 13mph, sub-10 solve at 10 mph, sub-9 at 9mph. As you can see, the slower you go the easier solving is, but the challenge still remains as you have to be able to solve it faster as you run slower. If you could pull this off at any variation of solve/mph, you beat me.

I believe, in all modesty, that I am the perfect person to beat this record. I have actually gotten quite decent at running (sub-3 marathon being my next goal in Sep) and I have ran as far as 100k and just completed an Ironman triathlon. Also, I am a pretty fast cuber (10 to sub-10). Not too many sub-10 cubers are too competitive with running and definitely not many competitive runners know how to even solve the cube. Therefore, if I do it right, I want to make sure that, barring an increase in sub-10 marathon runners, I will hold this record for a long time.

Thanks a lot IRNjuggle28! I just downloaded it now.
 
Good luck on your race! By the way - Will your scramblers be hand-scrambling or have WCA scrambles printed off?
 
If you solve them even at an average of 20 seconds for cube you will beat the current wr by almost double. At 18 second average you will get 1000 cubes or so done. So I'm pretty sure you have the wr already lol.
 
I would definitely recommend multiple scramblers -- it's better safe than sorry. And if it is possible to switch pedicab drivers , I think having several drivers could help. Best of luck, Phillip!
 
Hello Phillip!

Just thought I'd introduce myself, I'm Shane. Glad to see that you are taking the record to the next step! Have you petitioned Guinness yet to get the official rules for the effort? If you haven't you might be a little late to get it prior to the event. I know you can petition after the fact but you might miss a small detail in the rules that would make your effort moot.

Off the top of my head I would also mention the issue of having a pedi-cab in the race, definitely find out if the race will allow it. Second, you have to make sure that the cubes are scrambled to WCA specs using a recognized cube scrambling program for each cube. I was told I had to have all cubes scrambled prior to the event and that I couldn't have contact with the cubes from the time they were scrambled until I put hands on one to solve.

I know that you can put up big numbers if you're a sub-10 cuber, I myself am only a sub 45 cuber so I wasn't able to put up huge numbers. Uli, the first record setter, was actually a little faster on the cube I think, but he had no standard to beat. When he petitioned Guinness they told him that they would accept 50 for a record, so he doubled it. I initially planned to double his record but doubted my logistics to some degree and settled on 175.

For my attempt I had crews standing by at every water station waiting with a bag of scrambled cubes; they removed the solved cubes and replaced them with scrambled cubes. I carried the cubes in a bag on my waist (couldn't get a bike on the course, not that I pushed the issue) and found that the added weight on the top of my legs as I ran caused greater fatigue, unfortunately I hit the wall sooner than I normally would have and had to walk more than I thought I would do to cramping (I made the mistake of not training with the bag after I determined I could easily break the record, I really regret that part).

Anyway, sorry I didn't find out about your attempt sooner, I would have gladly shared my experience. I didn't do this for the record, merely something to draw attention to our goal of raising money for cancer research.

If you have more questions you can contact me on FB through our page - Battle for Banny. Hope to hear from you. Good luck! Not that it sounds like you need it.

Shane White
 
Cool, thanks a lot Shane for sharing your experience! I had a friend who I taught how to cube that moved to Hinesville recently for a job when I found out about this record. It was funny seeing the record set in Savannah, and the funny thing was it was set on her birthday too. Weird conincidences as I know really nobody outside of California.

I've been meaning to update this page with some recent developments.

My original goal race of Long Beach City Marathon would have been perfect due to it's really flat course, however, they got back to me a week or 2 ago (AFTER MONTHS OF TRYING TO REACH THEM!), and told me the course is too narrow on some parts (beach path) and it would not be pedicab friendly. I offered to work something out where I would simply do those parts solo, they agreed to look into it, then they emailed a week later saying pretty much, you know what, this is getting too complicated, forget it.

Jerks.

But yes, before I did/do anything with this attempt, the thing I am making sure first is to get clearance from the 1) Guinness for the course (they specify flat as possible, otherwise the record would be uphill) and 2) The race directors. I also got clearance from Guinness for the pedicab as an acceptable means of carrying out this record so no worries there. They just specified that I get clearance from the race directors themselves and it would be acceptable.

I found a new marathon on November 15 in Azusa, CA called Revel Canyon City Marathon. It's great and I talked to the organizers who are more than excited to have me attempt this at their marathon and were really willing to accomodate my presence for the attempt (they just are awesome race organizers in general, look up their race). So this is the new date and I got most of the original crew on board, I am just waiting to hear back from Guinness as to the acceptability of this course. They specified in the rules that the course should be as flat as possible, otherwise it would have to be done as an "uphill" record. But the thing about this course is it is unlike that of any other marathon I've seen or ran; it is mainly downhill from 5,000+ft to about sea level!

This would provide a whole set of different nuances to this attempt but if I can get it cleared by Guinness then I'm going to go for it. The good thing about this is the pedicab (which the race providers prefered to a golf cart, which would have been an easier alternative), would just be going downhill for about 5 hours instead of having to pedal for that long; they just have to ride the brakes the entire time.

As long as Michael NotKevin Young is on board (which is tentative at this point) or even someone else on my crew, I would have them in the pedicab scrambling cubes with the WCA scrambler on an open laptop. So really, this is probably the most efficient way for breaking this silly record. Carrying bags and/or trying to find some way to have 175+ cubes during the marathon seems not only too costly but too weight-inefficient. Especially if I'm trying to go for 1,000 cubes (which is conservative at 18 seconds/cube on avg), the weight of all those cubes would be too much of a burden for the actual race. If you do the math, it would be over 200 lbs in cubes alone! And unlike mosaic attempts (where cubes in bulk are also needed), quality cubes are necessary in order for this record to be effective, which would put the cost at $10,000 at least, just for the cubes!

So I guess this is for future reference, if anyone else wants to try this ridiculous record, this would probably be the most effective way of breaking the record past 1,000 cubes. If I could, I'm thinking about trying to do 1,337 cubes which would be one of the coolest records ever haha.

Again thanks for sharing your experience and I will definitely keep you updated. Add me on FB "Phillip Kwa'han Espinoza".
 
They wouldn't accept uphill but would accept downhill? Makes no sense.

(ha, highlighting every "hill" to reread those parts I realized there's a hill in you (or rather your name))
 
Right, I'd be surprised if a record set with 5000 feet of net elevation *loss* would be acceptable;
that makes the "marathon" part of it much easier than normal (4% average decline!).

I'm not sure the race organizers are really jerks; they are responsible for a huge event with
major safety and logistic considerations; adding a pedicab into the mix is just one more
issue they need to deal with.

Have you considered using a loop marathon (there are many), perhaps one that traverses
the same loop twice (common when the marathon is held in conjunction with a half-marathon)?
If you do this you may be able to find a good compromise between number of cubes you and
your friends have to carry, and you could probably do the scrambling off-course. Think bags
of 50 cubes each bag; that might be reasonable, and you could have people meet you at
the mile stops to exchange. You yourself would never carry the bags; it would be one of
your friends running alongside, and they would trade-off every so often.

Maybe you would need a total of three bags; one being worked on, on the course, one being
scrambled, and one in transit to/from the next stop. Maybe have two people responsible
for each bag; they could trade off the running, and scramble in parallel. You'd then need
three bags, six friends, 150 cubes, and six bikes. Each friend would do about 4 miles.

This would also allow different people to run with you at different times. You'll be running
slowly enough that, with bikes using surface roads on a loop course, all this could potentially
work out pretty well.

If 50 cubes is too much to carry, try 25 and half-mile rendezvous points.

I think the key here is just practice runs; make a plan, try it out for a mile or two, refine it.
I'm sure you'll be able to come up with something effective.
 
Stefan said:
They wouldn't accept uphill but would accept downhill? Makes no sense.

(ha, highlighting every "hill" to reread those parts I realized there's a hill in you (or rather your name))
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's kinda counterintuitive but one could hope. Waiting on their response before anything is set. I'm going off of the guidelines they sent me, in which they didn't specify that the course cannot be downhill (of course that's probably because there is rarely a marathon with a downhill course this dramatic). One can hope. If anything it'll be on onto the next, that was just the next available marathon in SoCal.

rokicki said:
Right, I'd be surprised if a record set with 5000 feet of net elevation *loss* would be acceptable;
that makes the "marathon" part of it much easier than normal (4% average decline!).

I'm not sure the race organizers are really jerks; they are responsible for a huge event with
major safety and logistic considerations; adding a pedicab into the mix is just one more
issue they need to deal with.

Have you considered using a loop marathon (there are many), perhaps one that traverses
the same loop twice (common when the marathon is held in conjunction with a half-marathon)?
If you do this you may be able to find a good compromise between number of cubes you and
your friends have to carry, and you could probably do the scrambling off-course. Think bags
of 50 cubes each bag; that might be reasonable, and you could have people meet you at
the mile stops to exchange. You yourself would never carry the bags; it would be one of
your friends running alongside, and they would trade-off every so often.

Maybe you would need a total of three bags; one being worked on, on the course, one being
scrambled, and one in transit to/from the next stop. Maybe have two people responsible
for each bag; they could trade off the running, and scramble in parallel. You'd then need
three bags, six friends, 150 cubes, and six bikes. Each friend would do about 4 miles.

This would also allow different people to run with you at different times. You'll be running
slowly enough that, with bikes using surface roads on a loop course, all this could potentially
work out pretty well.

If 50 cubes is too much to carry, try 25 and half-mile rendezvous points.

I think the key here is just practice runs; make a plan, try it out for a mile or two, refine it.
I'm sure you'll be able to come up with something effective.
Click to expand...

It's actually a 3.7% average grade, which is still dramatic but what I'm concerned about is that this won't be EASY like you would think. To the half marathon point it's actually an average of 6% grade, and if you have any experience running dowhill, running that long downhill will be an entirely different but just as crazy workout on your quads. 3% grade or less would be ideal for the speed benefit you would get for running downhill without killing your legs (which is why this might make for a better half marathon choice, with a 1.35% average grade downhill).

The Long Beach Marathon organizers were jerks not because they rejected me, but because it took them 2 months to even adequately respond to any of the constant voicemails, emails, facebook messages, and phone calls I sent them. I would always get a "we'll respond to this tomorrow" message or "Please email this guy", interspersed with 3 of the same or similar messages from me over the course of 2 months. Meanwhile, I messaged this other marathon after 5pm one day and got a call back that next morning saying they would love to have this happen and they think we could pull it off. It really contributes to your overall appreciation of the race and what you usually end up paying over $100 for.

And with regard to your suggestion, thank you, this is an interesting option possibly worthy of looking into. The things I prioritize in order of importance is cost, and simplicity. At first glance I can tell you the cubes would cost over $2,000 themselves, which though cheaper than 1,000 cubes is still too costly. This would fall second to the idea that I would also have to do more coordinating amongst more people who would be required to do more than my original plan (they would actually have to run, or bike 4 miles, right?). Not to mention the logistics of how one bag would get to the next aid station and the fact that wheels would still be involved which woudl be the main complicating factor of my initial idea.

I appreciate your feedback though and all the thought you put into this, it really contributes to a greater end product, thank you!
 
The guidance I got was that the record had to be performed on a certified marathon course, which usually requires a flat course, or at least a course that finishes the final mile on an uphill grade. I know I had to read the instructions about a dozen times to get all the details right, don't know why but I just seemed to catch a new detail every time I read it.

I shared your Coss On Left page on FB, my friends are excited to see you break the record! We'll be looking for it.
 
I just reread my rules and this is the part that stuck out for me:

The event must be made on a pre-measured course that is perfectly level or as
part of an annual marathon race, such as the courses in the World Marathon
Majors. The course must be measured and marked out by someone suitably
qualified, such as a professional surveyor. This person should also confirm that
the average gradient over the entire course is no greater than 1:1000. If the
gradient is steeper than this, the record attempt must be made “uphill”.

Since this course drops so much I'm pretty sure that it's not going to be acceptable. My math could be off but the 1:1000 tells me that you can't drop more than 139' over the course of the race, thus it must be run "uphill" instead of down. Please confirm this! I would really hate to see you're record denied because the course didn't meet the standard.
 
Shane said:
I just reread my rules and this is the part that stuck out for me:

The event must be made on a pre-measured course that is perfectly level or as
part of an annual marathon race, such as the courses in the World Marathon
Majors. The course must be measured and marked out by someone suitably
qualified, such as a professional surveyor. This person should also confirm that
the average gradient over the entire course is no greater than 1:1000. If the
gradient is steeper than this, the record attempt must be made “uphill”.

Since this course drops so much I'm pretty sure that it's not going to be acceptable. My math could be off but the 1:1000 tells me that you can't drop more than 139' over the course of the race, thus it must be run "uphill" instead of down. Please confirm this! I would really hate to see you're record denied because the course didn't meet the standard.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I see, so you take it to mean that the gradient is allowed to be over 0.001% on average but that it must have a net gain instead of a net loss of 139ft or more. You know what's odd about this, is that if this was the case for the 2011 attempt, I'm not sure the London Marathon would have met these requirements.

Take a look at their elevation graph.

I think Savannah most likely met these standards, it's just nearly impossible to find a flat course over here. Any more uphill and it might be a challenge for the pedicab, though a golf cart *might* be a good solution as long as it's not too steep. I will wait to hear back from Guinness, although I think you may be correct. The verbiage is still kinda weird though, stating the course must be "perfectly level OR part of an annual marathon race such as the courses in World Marathon Majors", as if being an annual race is a valid alternative to not being perfectly level? I guess that's how the first guy got the okay with London, though I take "such as" to be a suggestion and not a requirement. Rock n Roll marathons are annual marathon races, would they suffice even if had a net loss of 139ft+?

I don't think Guinness really cares too much about making the details of this record clear. I'm gonna look into doing Bakersfield Marathon and start going down that path.
 
Last edited:
Ah yes, that makes much more sense (I had somehow thought it can't be too uphill or else it would have to be called "uphill" and be a record separate from the old one, rather that being done uphill).
 
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