In a narrative you couldn’t pretend, a Toronto nurse has turn out to be the quickest girl to finish a marathon wearing an inflatable costume—whereas carrying a large red-and-white coronavirus go well with.
On Sunday, Karen Michelsen of Toronto tackled the 2024 Berlin Marathon sporting a totally inflated virus go well with, spikes and all, for 42.2 km, crossing the end line in 5:10:21. And it got here right down to the wire—she solely broke the earlier Guinness World File by 10 seconds.
One other superb file through the #BerlinMarathon 👀
Karen Michelsen accomplished the quickest marathon in a full-body inflatable costume (feminine) with a time of 5:10:21. Congrats, Karen! ✨😎 pic.twitter.com/BQ2Bcp1JPA— Guinness World Data (@GWR) September 29, 2024
The earlier file was set by British runner Georgina Field earlier this 12 months on the 2024 London Marathon, the place Field ran 5:10:31 in an inflatable shark costume.
Why a coronavirus costume? Michelsen served as a nurse at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto through the peak of the pandemic, and wished to run a marathon and ship a message whereas doing it. “Throughout Covid, I used to be a part of the Medical-Surgical ICU on the Covid-19 command centre for the province of Ontario,” she says. “This file is to indicate folks you could take a damaging expertise and switch it into one thing constructive, enjoyable and fascinating.”
That is Michelsen’s fourth Guinness World File in operating. She has additionally run a marathon in all 50 states and carried the torch on the 2010 Olympics, in addition to on the 2015 Pan Am Video games in Toronto.
Michelsen, 60, noticed the 2024 Berlin Marathon as the right alternative to focus on her love of operating, dressing up in a dressing up and having enjoyable doing it. She was considered one of eight people to take house Guinness World File titles together with their Fiftieth-anniversary Berlin finisher medals. It was additionally a landmark 12 months for the occasion itself, setting the Guinness World File for the world’s largest marathon, surpassing the 2024 New York Metropolis Marathon with greater than 54,000 finishers.