Guinness Book of World Records turns 60: Best running records

Dennis Kimetto after his marathon world record in Berlin in 2014.

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The Guinness Book of World Records is celebrating the 60th anniversary from when the first book was published in 1955. The book of records was the brainchild of Hugh Beaver, chairman of the Guinness Brewery. While out hunting game in Wexford, Ireland, Beaver got into an argument about how fast a partridge could fly.

From there, he thought of publishing a book of records with a purpose of settling arguments. Today it is published in 100 countries and serves as a global authority of the legitimacy of records.

Of course, several of those records are running records from the fastest 100m sprinter, to fastest woman marathoner to the first person to break the four-minute mile. In their 60th birthday video below, icons from the sport– Sebastian Coe and Roger Bannister speak about the Guinness Book of World Records and their own personal records. See the video below and our own list of running records.

1. Fastest male marathoner: Dennis Kimetto; 2:02:57; Sept. 28, 2014, Berlin Marathon.

2. Fastest female marathoner: Paula Radcliffe; 2:15:25; April 13, 2003, London Marathon.

3. First athlete to set three sprinting world records at a single Olympic Games: Usain Bolt; 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m; 2008 Beijing Olympics.

4. Fastest 100m sack race: Mo Farah, 39:91

5. First person to run a sub-four minute mile: Roger Bannister; May 6, 1954

6. Fastest 100m: Usain Bolt; 9.58; Aug. 16, 2009; Berlin

7. Most members of a family to compete in a marathon: The Hughes family, 30 members, the Dublin Marathon, Oct. 2014.

8. Fastest marathon dressed as an animal: Alex Collins ran 2:48:29 as a tiger at the 2014 London Marathon.

9. Greatest distance run on treadmill by team in 24 hours: A team of 12 women in Afghanistan ran 317.6K in June 2009.

10. Most money raised by marathoner: Steve Chalke raised U.S. $3,795,581.14 for Oasis UK at the 2011 London Marathon.

11. Most people in an ultra race: 14,343 ran in the 2010 Comrades Marathon in South Africa.

12. Fastest marathon by a marching band: Huddersfield Marching Band; 6:56:48; 2014 London Marathon.

13. Youngest female to run 100 marathons: Elizabeth Tuna was 24 years and 351 days when she ran the Chester Marathon (UK) in Oct. 2011.

14. Fastest half-marathon pushing stroller: Travis Boyd ran 1:13:50 at the Heroes Half Marathon in Washington in April 2013 beating a course record at the same time.

15. Fastest marathon while juggling: Former Canadian Running editor, Michal Kapral ran the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2:50:12 in 2007.

16. Fastest female time to run a marathon on each continent: Fiona Oakes has run a marathon on each continent for a combined time of 23:27:40.

17. Fastest marathon dressed as bottle: Mark Wilding ran 3:39:25 dressed as a beer bottle at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2011.

18. Greatest distance run by relay team: Keep on Running, an Irish and UK team ran 5,639K in the summer of 2012.

19. Longest running man vs. horse race: The Man vs. Horse Marathon has been held annually since 1980 where runners compete against those on horseback.

20. Fastest marathon in a wedding dress (female): Sarah Dudgeon ran 3:16:44 at the 2014 London Marathon.

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