There were a record 44 Guinness World Records (GWR) set at the 44th TCS London Marathon. The astonishing range of inventive record attempts at London's annual marathon never fails to amaze us at runABC and last month's successes were no exception. GWR, the global authority on record-breaking achievement, collaborated with TCS London Marathon for the 17th consecutive year to confirm that 44 official records were broken this year, from 74 officially listed attempts.

Among the elite performers, there was a new women's only world record by Peres Jepchirchir (2:16:16) as reported here in runABC. Paralympic athlete Richard Whitehead MBE regained his fastest marathon record for a double amputee running on prosthetic legs with 2:42:01. He had previously held this title with 2:42:52 at Chicago in 2010 in an extraordinarily long career.

The fastest GWR among the masses was Simone Carniglia: Fastest marathon by a type 1 diabetic (male), who finished with a time of 2:44:33. Three more sub-three-hour records were set by Stephen Cochrane: Fastest marathon dressed as a scientist (male) – 2:48:51; Simon Killen: Fastest marathon dressed as a videogame character (male) – 2:52:57 and Sam Hull: Fastest marathon dressed as a tennis player (male) – 2:59:38.

The three swiftest female record breakers were Holly Brownlee: Fastest marathon dressed in pyjamas (female) – 3:06:18; Alison Stewart: Fastest marathon dressed as a videogame character (female) – 3:19:10 and Kate Baldock: Fastest marathon dressed as a Star Wars character (female) – 3:33:12.

For teamwork, the GWR went to Jackie Scully, Frances Walker, Petr Maslov, Aileen Rice-Jones, Daniel Smith, Alex Weight, James Read, Kate Rham, Cameron Sharpe, Michael Edwards: Fastest marathon in a ten-person costume – 6:32:05, running as a London bus, aiming to raise £100,000 for Breast Cancer Now.

Finally, you could have put your shirt on Brendan Matthews achieving his target: Most T-shirts worn during a marathon (male) – 100 T-shirts. Although his time was irrelevant – and our coach Alan Newman advises runners to 'dress for the second mile' – Brendan finished in a highly respectable 5:49:33!

At the finish in The Mall to verify all the new world records was the official Guinness World Records Adjudicator Mark McKinley, who said: “I've been lucky enough to adjudicate several TCS London Marathon record attempts over the years and I am always inspired by the courage it takes to train and run a marathon, let alone for a record title. All of our 74 Guinness World Records attempts today have been a display of true determination and we are so happy to be able to award those that were successful not only the record title but a place in the next edition of our book to share their achievement with the world."

Results and reports from the TCS London Marathon are available at runABC South here

Photo courtesy TCS London Marathon