Congratulations go to Capt Mark Gibbs, trainee Ammunition Technical Officer for smashing not one, but two Guinness World Records for the fastest half marathon in full UK bomb suit.
The original plan was to go for the record attempt at the Bath Half in early Mar, but the weather had different ideas when the event had to be cancelled because of the snow.
But Capt Gibbs and his support team were still determined to try for the world record, having already broken one for the fastest mile in full UK bomb suit.
This first record to achieve the mile in 7 min 24.21 sec was achieved by Capt Gibbs in Perth, Scotland on 22 Dec 17. The record attempt was held at the George Duncan Athletics Arena and served as a warm up for the half marathon.
On the 19 Mar, at the athletics track in Tidworth, after clearing the running track of yet more snow, Capt Gibbs and the team set off to try for the second record. In order to prevent overheating, Capt Gibbs had to stop after every 12 laps to take on water and cool down, the team had rehearsed this as skilfully as any F1 team and 53 laps later it was all over in a record breaking time of 2 hours and 23 mins.
Just after finishing his run, Capt Gibbs said: “We put in the training to break the record and we’ve done that. I couldn’t have done it without the team.â€
The whole purpose of the challenge was to raise funds for Felix Fund ‘ the bomb disposal charity. The initial target was £2,500 but to date the record attempts have raised an amazing £5051.46, all of which will go towards helping the men and women of the bomb disposal and search community.
Melanie Moughton, CEO of Felix Fund said: “This was a tremendous effort by Capt Gibbs and the whole of the ATO course, seven months of physical training whilst attending an intensive course at Shrivenham. We are hugely grateful for their support and the awareness this has brought for the charity.â€
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