Man who beat Guinness record for marathon reading speaks: ‘My son will break my record someday’
39-year-old Bayode Treasures Olawunmi, recently broke the Guinness World Record for ‘Longest Marathon Reading Aloud’ for a period of 122 hours, 15 minutes, beating former recordholder, Deepak Sharma’s record of 113 hours, 15 minutes. In this interview wit
Abdulkareem Baba Aminu & Hafsah Abubakar Matazu
Daily Trust: You recently joined the league of Guinness World Record breakers. How does it feel? Treasures I’m still myself. I’m still who I am even though I’m happy about what I have achieved. My mission wasn’t essentially about getting into the Guinness Book of World Records, but what I am doing to get there. You can dance, sing and even eat to get there. But what I did, and why did I it, is what’s important to me. But I’m overwhelmed by the fact that I was actually able to do it.
DT: Did you expect to beat the record, or did it come as a surprise?
Bayode: I set out to break the record. The previous recordholder did 113 hours, 15 minutes. So I set out to do 120 hours but I ended up doing 122. Even though we’re still going to send the evidence for verification, the difference between the former record and mine is very obvious.
DT: What did it take to prepare for the hours of reading?
Bayode: There was no reference to use when I was preparing myself for it. I tried to reach out to the previous holder of the record online via platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but I couldn’t. It was practically like I was on my own while preparing for it. So I had to go back to my own library and start reading books on endurance exercises. I went online to read on reading aloud, how to maintain my voice, how to maintain my breath and even how to control myself from biting off my own tongue.
However, when I approached GT Bank they told me they don’t know me and they don’t know if I’ll be able to do it. They still asked me to do a trial run which I did. For the trial run, I did 96 hours and they were impressed and decided to support me. So that was basically the only preparation I had. But even after the trial run, I became afraid because during and after the 96 hours, I had a sore tongue, with lacerations on it. My teeth hurt, too. So ever since I finished that trial run, I was afraid, thinking ‘would I be able to reach the 120 hours I had set for myself?’ ‘Will I be able to go through the rigours again?’ But because of the vision I had of the goal and the mission I had set out to do to make reading popular again in Africa, I had to endure that pain.
DT: What gave the most difficulty during the 122 hours?
To start with, I’m a restless person. So sitting down in one place for a long time for me is a punishment and that was a serious challenge. But speaking for those hours, it was no joke. I was hallucinating and the veins on my head were almost rupturing. By the first day, I was telling myself I hope I’m not going to die. In fact, my team told me that I should just quit but I said no, I must go on. As of now, I’m still trying to calibrate my mouth back to normal. I talk fast now, I stammer, my teeth are still biting my tongue and my sleeping pattern is also yet to readjust.
DT: But what, really, motivated you to break the world record?
When you look at Nigeria today, the way our youth are looking for wealth and stardom, it’s either through music, fraud, or sports. But education is still the best platform to get to stardom, make money and become anything you want to be in life. So I set out to do this so that I’ll be a voice that can talk about education and reading in Africa as a whole, not just in Nigeria.
We are more focused on entertainment. However, in countries like America, England, France and Russia, they were not built on the back of entertainment. They were built on the back of education and research. We are lagging in this regard and to do this we need to read far and wide. We can make our own Elon Musk and Bill Gates and this can only be done with education not music, dancing and sports. So that is why set out to break a record. I didn’t just read for nothing. I read to make reading popular in Africa.
For me, this a movement to place books in the hands of every African child. My initiative, ‘I Read Africa Initiative,’ needs support from philanthropists who can also lend a voice to my cause and contribute to this movement. I want to become a strong voice in Africa so that the youth can listen to me the same way they would an artiste.
DT: How have your family and friends expressed their happiness?
Firstly, I thank them for the support. They encouraged me before, during and after. They are still pushing me on and giving me pats on the back. The truth is, I didn’t set out to be celebrity so we’re all very happy and excited.
DT: Do you think you’ll be able to beat your own record in the future?
sitting down in one place for a long time for me is a punishment and that was a serious challenge. But speaking for those hours, it was no joke. I was hallucinating and the veins on my head were almost rupturing. By the first day, I was telling myself I hope I’m not going to die
Definitely. It’s either I break the record or my son does. My 9-year-old son is a reader too. I told him, ‘Son, I’m doing this for you so that I can boldly demand from you to perform well in anything and everything’. Now I’ve done it, so he has to perform, too.