I got a cool email this morning. I am now officially a Guinness World Record holder!

To recap, back in the beginning of June, I attempted to set the Guinness World Record for the “fastest half marathon in highland dress (male).” The previous record was 1:43:44, and I managed to finish the Drop13 Half Marathon with a time of 1:28:46. It took me a few weeks to get my documentation together — including witness affidavits, a statement from the race director, and a video of the entire attempt. I submitted everything to Guinness near the end of June and settled in to wait. The automated response said I should have an answer within three months.

In mid-September, I heard back from the Guinness case manager. I had submitted my 90-minute video as a YouTube link, but Guinness doesn’t accept “outside links” for documentation or proof. (Apparently, they don’t have the ability to click a link and watch a video on YouTube.) Nope … they needed me to upload my video via their online form. Oh, and the file had to be smaller than 1 GB to be acceptable.

Yuck. I compressed the heck out of my original video and tried uploading it to Guinness. Even though the file was around 900 MB, the site wouldn’t accept it. The case manager suggested creating multiple videos (with 5-second overlaps) and uploading those to the site. So that’s what I did. Nope. It still didn’t work.

We went back and forth for over six weeks, and I was finally successful in uploading the files on November 2, right before I left to run the New York City Marathon. This morning, I woke up with an email from Guinness telling me my attempt had been approved. I’m a world record holder! I checked the Guinness World Records site, and sure enough, my record is now officially listed. W00t!

You can read my correspondence with Guinness here:

16 September 2022 21:06
Hi David,
We do not accept links to file transfer websites or YouTube. Please upload your video evidence files directly onto your application. Our file-size limit for uploads is 1GB, so please make sure you are not uploading files larger than this. For larger files (such as video evidence) we recommend breaking them down into smaller segments with a minimum 5-second overlap and uploading one-by-one.
Please only press ‘Submit Evidence’ once all required evidence files have been uploaded, as this will close the evidence upload option. Until then you can select ‘Save Evidence’ and continue at a later date.
Kind regards,
Melissa

04 October 2022 03:13
I have tried multiple times to upload the evidence but without success. I broke the 90 minutes of video into three separate files that are 514, 665 and 764 MB, but each time I try to upload them, I get errors from your site. Is there ANY other possible way to get this evidence to you?
David Baker

04 October 2022 15:33
I provided a link to a 90-minute video that I posted to YouTube, but was told that I have to upload video files directly to the site. Every time I try to do this, the process fails. I created three separate files that are 514, 665 and 764 MB respectively.
Each time, I have navigated to the Upload Evidence facility on your site. I select video evidence. There’s a button that says CHOOSE. I click on that button and select one or more of my video files. They appear below the CHOOSE button but above the UPLOAD button, with a red X icon to the right of the file name. The wagon wheel progress icon on the CHOOSE spins around. When I click UPLOAD, eventually, I get a popup alert: “guinnessworldrecords.com says” and then a bunch of HTML.
When I hit OK to dismiss the alert, it colors the file in pink and puts an orange “!” icon instead of the red X icon. If I try uploading all three files, it does this three times. No file is apparently uploaded. I’ve tried doing this in Chrome, Edge and Brave browsers, and the result is always the same.
These files are well under the 1GB file size limit. Is there no other way to get a file to Guinness?

18 October 2022 21:56
Hi David,
I’m sorry to hear you are having continuing difficulties uploading your video evidence. It sounds as though you have been taking the correct steps, such as using a different web browser or device, and submitting smaller video segments.
Could you please email customer.service@guinnessworldrecords.com with screenshots showing the issue so it can be looked into by our IT Department? Please also include your application number in that email.
We will be able to complete the review process after this issue has been resolved.
Kind regards,
Melissa

18 October 2022 23:37
I tried to go through the process again, but apparently when I clicked on “Submit Evidence” button, it locked the submission so that I no longer have the ability to add anything. Can you undo that so I can try to upload again?Alternatively, I have uploaded the three video files here, and you can download them directly: [Google Drive Link]
David Baker

01 November 2022 15:24
Hi David,
Please try again to submit your video evidence. We do not accept links to file transfer websites or YouTube.
Our file-size limit for uploads is 1GB, so please make sure you are not uploading files larger than this. For larger files (such as video evidence) we recommend breaking them down into smaller segments with a minimum 5-second overlap and uploading one-by-one.
Kind regards,
Melissa

02 November 2022 20:20
I tried again and IT WORKED! Please let me know if you need anything else from me…
David