Toronto 'joggler' regains world record
title running marathon while juggling
By LAUREN LA
ROSE
TORONTO (CP) - The title of "world's fastest joggler" is
once again in Canadian hands after a Toronto man regained the
crown by completing a marathon in record time - while
juggling.
Michal Kapral crossed the finish line in the Scotiabank
Toronto Waterfront Marathon on Sunday in two hours 57 minutes,
shattering the three-hour seven-minute mark he set after
capturing the title at the same race last year.
A couple of runners and one of Kapral's friends who rode
alongside on a bicycle verified the event for "Guinness World
Records."
Kapral's record-setting performance last September while
running a marathon and juggling three objects simultaneously
was short-lived after American Zach Warren shaved 44 seconds
off Kapral's time in the Philadelphia Marathon last November.
"After he broke my record, I thought, 'I better get it
back,' " Kapral said. "I work as a personal trainer in
Toronto and I've been trying to motivate clients by telling
them they can do impossible things, things that seem
impossible by training, so I kind of wanted to demonstrate
that."
Kapral and Warren faced off in a joggling duel in the
Boston Marathon in April, in which the West Virginia native
emerged the victor with a new record time of two hours 58
minutes 23 seconds.
Kapral, nicknamed "The Joggler," said he trained five to
six days a week for an hour on average to prepare for the big
race, and set off every Sunday for what he called a "long
joggle" of two or three hours.
The 34-year-old said marathon joggling allows him to add
"something fun" to the sport he already enjoys.
"It's entertaining, I get to see people laugh, I get to see
people cheer me on, even in my training runs, and that never
happened to me when I was just running," he said.
Running is a family affair for the Kaprals. His wife,
Dianne, competed in the five-kilometre race Sunday, and Kapral
included daughter Annika in his first record-breaking feat,
running the fastest marathon while pushing a baby in a
stroller in 2004.
Kapral said that while he thought he'd put marathon
joggling behind him after his first race, he can't say for
certain he has retired his shiny red juggling balls for good.
"I said I was done last time. I think I'm going to say I'm
done again, but it's really hard to know. If my record gets
broken, it's really hard to sit around and not have the
record."
Kapral said he is looking to add another dynamic skill to
his marathon running repertoire.
"I have my sights set on the backwards marathon ... but I
think that's a few years off. I got to get some good practice
on that one," he said.
"A lot of people have discouraged me, which kind of makes
me wants to do it even more."
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