Corey Phillpott has set a new world record becoming the fastest man to run a marathon pulling a 1.5 tonne truck.
British man Ross Edgley completed the World's Strongest Marathon in 19 hours 36 minutes in 2016. Three years later, Justin True from the US knocked two hours off the record. But Corey Phillpott has now managed to do it in 16 hours and 12 minutes.
The 23-year-old Glenbrook technician pulled the 1500 kilogram Ford Ranger behind him for 42.2 km on March 3. He started about 7pm and finished before 11am today [March 4] doing laps in Penrith's Jamison Park. The strongman feat was captured by Channel Seven. In the process he has raised more than 17,000 for Childsafe Australia and is close to cracking his $20,000 total.
"I feel amazing ... still buzzing," he told the Gazette afterwards. "I'll probably be buzzing for a week."
"I've got no injuries, I feel great, I'll go for a run tomorrow," the extreme athlete added laughing.
The feat won't be ratified by the Guinness Book of Records (the other two records are also not recognised).
"It won't get ratified by Guinness because they wanted us to pull a city car, half the size. Ross who inspired me, didn't do that, so I thought pulling half that weight was wrong ... well, I wasn't interested."
Phillpott started running five years ago for weight loss and has lost 40kg. To prepare for the event he trained for eight months putting in late nights and early mornings while his family slept.
"My day normally starts around 2am, where I will get in two to three hours of weights before work. Every second day I do a car pull. On the weekends, when I'm not doing a car pull, I run between 35 and 50 kilometres," he said.
He now has his sights set on a first time ever record at the end of this year, that he is calling 'The Treeman' - an ironman type event with a 45kg (100 pound) tree strapped to his back, including a 4km swim, 180km bike ride, and 42km run.
But today all he was looking forward to was enjoying a burger.
"Definitely having a burger, I've only been eating random lollies for 16 hours."
To donate to the harm-prevention charity ChildSafe Australia fundraiser visit: www.gofundme.com/f/corey039s-fund-for-childsafe-foundation-fund.
