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Triathlete Joe Spraggins sets World Record in London…

How do you take the pressure off of trying to run a fast marathon? Joe Spraggins decided to 'dress' as a swimmer... and now owns a Guinness World Record
Chief Correspondent
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Guinness World Record for Joe Spraggins at the 2017 London Marathon

Among the various statistics from Sunday’s London Marathon, there were 40 official Guinness World Records broken (honest, I’m not making it up – CLICK HERE for evidence!)

Now, at least one of those has a strong triathlon connection, with Joe Spraggins (who is aiming to qualify for Kona at IRONMAN Wales this year and also racing the Outlaw Triathlon), gaining the title of Fastest marathon dressed as a swimmer. As above, I’m not making it up, I promise.

I had to ask Joe…. why?!

“I thought it tied into triathlon quite nicely – combining the two disciplines! Was doing some ‘front crawl’ over tower bridge, the crowd were absolutely loving it. I wanted to try and take the pressure off of running a fast marathon, so I’d not focus on times and do more biking over the winter. Turned out the bike miles powered me to a seven minute PB!”

As for finding the record… “Guinness have a database of all the records and I just found it on there.”

Joe was also raising money for Orchid, the male cancer charity – http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/spraggins

Joe was also pretty handy at getting some pictures with the stars too…

Joe Spraggins - London Marathon 2017
With James Cracknell mid-race
Joe Spraggins - London Marathon 2017
With Chrissie Wellington post-race
Joe Spraggins - London Marathon 2017
With the legendary Keninisa Bekele
John Levison
Written by
John Levison
TRI247's Chief Correspondent, John has been involved in triathlon for well over 30 years, 15 of those writing on these pages, whilst he can also be found commentating for events across the UK.
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