
Ridgewood Fire Lieutenant Brendan Corcoran recently ran the fastest ever half marathon in full firefighter gear. He is hoping to run the fastest mile in gear at the upcoming Ridgewood Run on Memorial Day.
MAY 1, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY GAIL KISLEVITZ
CORRESPONDENT |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
It’s not easy to set a Guinness World Record but that’s what Ridgewood resident and Fire Lieutenant Brendan Corcoran has done. Not once, but in all likelihood, twice. Corcoran, 37, recently set a new world record for running the fastest half marathon in full firefighter gear at the Michelob Ultra Queens 13.1 on March 21 in an official time of 1:48:24. Stuart Ruston of the United Kingdom set the previous record of 2:00:41 in March of 2013. Corcoran carried 25 pounds of gear on him, as per the official record, which consisted of his firefighter uniform boots, jacket, helmet, and pants.
On May 25, at the Memorial Day Ridgewood Run, Corcoran plans to break the Guinness World Record for running the fastest mile in full gear plus air packs, for a total of 45 pounds. The current Guinness record for fastest mile in a fireman’s uniform is 7 minutes and 58.02 seconds, set in April of 2013 by Ashrita Furman at the Jamaica High School athletics track in New York. Corcoran has already beaten that record in his training for the mile event.
Guinness World Records, known from its inception in 1955 through 1998 as The Guinness Book of Records, is a reference book published annually, listing world records. Sir Hugh Beaver, chairman of the Guinness Brewery in Ireland, created the book when he missed a shot at a golden plover. He wondered if the plover is the fastest game bird in Europe but couldn’t find a reference book that answered the question. So he undertook the task of finding and recording records and his book was created. It is the best selling book in the world.
https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/firefighter-sets-guinness-record-1.1323203