It all started when I saw an article on my Facebook feed. According to a piece on RUNABC Scotland, an American runner named Michael Wardian had set a new Guinness World Record for running the “fastest marathon in Highland dress.” As an avid kilt runner (or “Serial Kilter”), I was impressed that Wardian was able to keep up a 7:25 pace for 26.2 miles while wearing all that gear, finishing in 3:14:23. Naturally, my first thought was, “Could I beat that?”

Probably. I mean … maybe?

Then I did some Googling and discovered another record: “fastest half marathon in Highland dress.” The current Guiness World Record in that category as 1:43:44. Could I beat that?

Hell, yeah.

For the TL/DR, here’s the video of the entire race, with the results at the end:

Requirements of the Record

Back in 2015, I watched a friend set a new Guinness World Record for the longest rifle shot with iron sights (no scope). For one reason or another, Guinness never certified his record. Based on that experience, I knew that following the Guinness guidelines is pretty important. Here’s the core stuff for the “fastest half marathon in Highland dress”:

1. The outfit must include the following (alternate choices where applicable offered in parentheses): Balmoral/Highland bonnet, Jacket/doublet, fully buttoned throughout the attempt, Black or tartan waistcoat, White dress shirt, fully buttoned throughout the attempt, Bow tie or white lace jabot, Tartan kilt (underwear can be worn underneath), Full-dress sporran, Full-dress kilt hose/stockings/garters with matching garter ties, Any additional accessories, e.g. Sgian dubh, are at the discretion of the participant and will not affect the record, All tartan items worn must be of matching tartan.

2. The competitor must wear full Highland dress – apart from running shoes – for the duration of the record attempt. If the competitor removes any part of the costume during the record attempt, the attempt is disqualified.

3. If the claimant is running for a particular charity, details should be included, although this does not affect the attempt itself.

I already had six kilts that I ran in regularly, but didn’t have flashes (garter ties) to match them. The rest of the outfit would have to be purchased or made. But hey — I’d made plenty of costumes for theater, and this would be a similar process.

Applying to Guinness

It was toward the end of 2021 when I finally got serious about trying for the half marathon world record. Guinness made it clear on its application page that I should expect about 12 weeks from submission to approval. For a few years, now, my Salt Lake City runner friends have been encouraging me to try the Drop13 Half Marathon, which at the time was almost seven months away. Drop13 happens almost two months after the Boston Marathon, so the timing was great. I created an account on guinessworldrecords.com and submitted my application:

The Drop13 Half Marathon will be held on Saturday, June 11, 2022. The course starts near the Solitude Ski Resort and runs down through the Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Salt Lake City neighborhood of Cottonwood Heights. I’ve been running and racing in kilts for years now, having run both the Boston Marathon and the Chicago Marathon while kilted, so this seemed like a fun record to try to break. I ran my most recent half marathon, the Snow Canyon Marathon in St. George, Utah, in 1:27:42, so I’m hoping I can shave at least 15 minutes off the current record.

I pulled the trigger on Thursday, December 2, 2021. Counting forward 12 weeks, I expected to have an approval by the end of February. After submitting the form, I received an immediate response:

We are pleased to inform you that your record application for Fastest half marathon in highland dress has been received and you do not need to do anything further at this stage. … We will aim to process your claim within 12 weeks (3 months). Once we have reviewed your application, we will contact you with our decision.

Yay! I was on my way. Time to hurry up and wait.

Waiting for Approval

February came and went with no word from the people at Guinness World Records. In March, when I bought a new running kilt for Boston, I added matching flashes to my order just in case I needed them in June. I started a new job at the beginning of May, and my Guinness application went on the back burner. I was still registered for Drop13, but at that point I figured I’d just be running for time, not for a world record.

This was frustrating, but I wasn’t overly disappointed. After all, it was kind of a silly idea. On May 23, 2022, I was chatting on Messenger with my friends Doran and Liz about the upcoming race:

Right in the middle of the conversation, my watch buzzed with an incoming email. I checked the preview and couldn’t believe my eyes. Guinness had approved my application!

I grabbed a screenshot of the email and posted it to the group:

The approval had taken twice as long as expected, but I was good to go. I did the math: just 19 days to get ready to break the record.

Getting the Getup

The first thing I did was hop on Amazon. I already had a SportKilt and matching flashes in the MacNaughton tartan. I ordered a Balmoral bonnet (basically, a beret with ribbon and red pompom) and some formal kilt hose. I found a white shirt at a thrift store and picked off the tags and pocket (to reduce chafing). That left the jacket, waistcoat (vest), tie and sporran.

Luckily, I was able to borrow a sporran from a friend of mine who is a bagpiper. I ordered a sewing pattern for the rest of the kit. I was worried the pattern would be hard to follow, but it was really well put together. My amazing neighbor Sue agreed to make the jacket while I worked on the vest. I bought the fabric and we got to sewing. Amazingly, everything came together pretty quickly. I used the satin scraps from the jacket lapels to make a bow tie I wouldn’t be worried about getting Gatorade all over.

Surprisingly, the hardest part of this process was finding buttons. A traditional Prince Charlie jacket, has 20 larger buttons, while the vest has three smaller ones. They’re always square, usually made from pewter. When I found it impossible to source buttons on such short notice, I ended up making my own. Also, the Prince Charlie jacket is not designed to be buttoned in the front; those buttons are purely for decoration. To ensure the jacket stayed “fully buttoned throughout the attempt,” Sue put in a front-closure hook to keep the lapels from flapping around while I ran.

Arranging for Witnesses

Then there’s the issue of the witnesses. I needed two. June 11 was a busy day for races, with the Drop13 Half Marathon, Ragnar Wasatch Back, Squaw Peak 50-Mile, and Utah Summer Games all happening at the same time. I tried for about a week to find another runner who wasn’t already registered for a race and could keep up with my goal pace, but wasn’t able to locate one. In the end, I contacted my friend Cody, who agreed to follow me on his bike and serve as cameraman/witness. For the other witness, I reached out to Zach, the 1:30 pacer for the race. He agreed to sign an affidavit for the attempt, assuming I could stick with him for the whole race.

The last piece of the puzzle was the race director. I had already reached out to Joe, who owns On Hill Events, about providing a race director/timekeeper statement. He agreed to do that, so we were all set.

Trail Run/Trial Run

One of the most important rules about racing is that you never want to use something in a race that you haven’t tried out in training. That goes for everything: Clothing, shoes, nutrition, and … sporrans? On the Wednesday night before my Guinness World Record attempt, I got fully kitted up and went for a run around the paved trails and streets of my neighborhood. I left the house at 10:30 p.m., figuring I’d be able to run without anyone seeing me.

Yeah, not so much. Half a mile up the trail, I encountered a group of middle-school boys on scooters, running right through the group with a cheery, “Hi, guys!” . Had to grin at their confused comments as I chugged up the path. Another mile in, a car passed me … then turned around and passed me again. I also got honked and whistled at by a truck full of teenagers. But everything held together, and nothing constricted my movement too much. I was good to go.

The Race

Doran and I had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to be at the bus pickup by 4:00. Cody met us there, and we were informed that he’d have to get his bike to the starting line himself. No worries … Doran and I boarded the buses and settled in.

The starting line is just below Solitude Ski Resort, and we hung out at the lodge while we waited for all the runners to arrive. It was fun to see people’s reaction to my outfit. A few just looked at me in bewilderment. Some asked to take selfies with me, while others took sneaky photos when they thought I wasn’t looking. I recorded my pre-race video, and then we headed toward the starting line to get ready to run.

The race director delayed the start a few minutes because of late arrivals. I checked and rechecked the various parts of my outfit — if anything came unfastened or unbuttoned, I would be disqualified — and found Zach, the 1:30 pacer. My plan was to run ahead of him as best I could, so he could keep eyes on me the whole time.

The countdown, and we were off.

To be honest, I don’t remember much of the race. I got warm pretty quickly, and my shirt was saturated by the end of the first mile. But I managed to stick with Zach pretty well, and even chatted a while with a few other runners. I wasn’t able to wear my usual bottle belt, so all my hydration came from the aid stations. There was apparently a moose on the side of the road around mile three, but I was so focused on keeping up my pace, I didn’t even notice it. My right hip developed a cramp around mile four, but it worked itself out.

At one point, I fell a few yards behind Zack, but I caught back up to him and stayed ahead for the rest of the race. Cody was a reassuring presence behind me the whole time. I was hot under all those layers, but he was complaining about the cold because he wasn’t having to do much work to keep up with me.

The Finish

Just after mile 11, Cody had to stop for a few seconds to put a fresh battery in his camera. He caught back up as the course left the road for the paved trail. The path was busier than I expected, with runners and joggers going in both directions and even some Saturday morning dog walkers. The breeze coming off the river was cool and refreshing.

I was still feeling great, able to hold onto my pace without much trouble. I got lots of friendly waves and shouts of “Nice kilt!” as I pushed toward the end. We veered away from the river, flew past a pond, and then there was the finish line!

My official time: 1:28.45.8 (6:47 average pace), and I came in 43rd out of 557 finishers, second in my age group (M50-54). I beat the current Guinness World Record holder by just a second short of 15 minutes. Sorry, Craig! Here’s a peek at my splits:

Some photos from the world record attempt:

Making It Official

Once everything has been reviewed and approved, I’ll be a Guinness World Record holder! How cool is that?

Postscript

Oddly, it appears that something went awry with getting Guinness to make Wardian’s marathon record official. As of this writing, Adam Keighran is still listed on guinnessworldrecords.com as the current holder of this record, with a time of 3:20:13. (And yeah, I could beat that.) I only hope that whatever prevented Wardian from taking the official crown from Keighran doesn’t happen to me as I finalize all of the paperwork to make my own record official.