Toying with special marathon record
Run a marathon and you earn bragging rights for a week at the office. Run a marathon while solving a Rubik’s Cube 176 times and your great-grandchildren will hear about it.
Christchurch personal trainer Blair Williamson wants to break the obscure Guiness World Record for the amount of times a Rubik’s Cube is solved during a marathon.
He will be making the attempt during Sunday’s Christchurch Marathon.
‘‘I’ve always had this belief that anything is possible if you work hard enough for it.
‘‘It’s to show people that a guy from Christchurch in the middle of nowhere can take down this world record.’’
Williamson is a personal trainer at his own private gym, Limit Zero in Avonhead, and has run marathons before.
He has gradually taught himself how to solve Rubik’s cubes since his school days.
Williamson will have a support crew of three people. One will run in front of him carrying a backpack holding a camera to record the whole event and another will present each completed cube to the camera while keeping a count.
Behind Williamson will be the official ‘‘scrambler’’, who will mix one cube 50 times behind his back while he completes one, then swap with him when he has finished the one he is running with.
This is because Williamson faces another official Guiness guideline: ‘‘An official scramble has to be out of sight to start with and has to be 50 random moves minimum,’’ he said.
He said his best time for solving a cube, while not running, was 45 to 50 seconds.
The record is held by American Shane White, who solved the puzzle 175 times during the Rock ‘n’ Roll Savannah Marathon in Georgia in 2012.