The Road to the X-Games comes to Boise this Friday and Saturday, June 15th and 16th. ESPN will be on site and it’ll be intense with some serious skateboarding and BMX skills on display as the competitors attempt to qualify for the X-games finals.
On Saturday morning at 9:30 AM I’m on the schedule to give a half hour juggling performance culminating in a Guinness World Record attempt. It is likely the most physically challenging attempt with an element of danger involved. The record is for “Most consecutive axe juggling catches”. The current record stands at 604 catches. I have been lifting weights and juggling bowling balls for months. The long lead-time on this one was the 2-year search for axes (I wanted the minimum weight allowed by Guinness. These are not hatches, they’re about 3 times as heavy).
I invite you to come out and watch the attempt and then stick around for the competition, the live music, and the great atmosphere. There will be roads closed so you’ll likely need to park and walk or park and shuttle. The event is free and open to the public.
June 16th also happens to be World Juggling Day and I can think of no better way to celebrate than by breaking a juggling Guinness World Record.
Today I broke world record #52 at the Girls Powered STEM days at Cynthia Mann Elementry.
The record was for most chairs balanced on the chin. They all had to be in a single stack and placed on the chin simultaneously by myself. The mark to beat was 5. I balanced 8 for 19 seconds (minimum of 10 seconds to qualify).
I gave a short talk to about 100 4-6th grade girls on having a growth mindset as part of their STEM camp. I did the same yesterday but my record attempt for fasted time to burst 200 balloons with a nail was scrapped due to a latex allergy.
The previous record was 85. I balanced 100 poker chips on my finger for more than 5 seconds. I wish I had played poker later in the night as well as I balanced them.
I had plenty of practicing balancing things on my finger so I just needed to hold steady enough to keep the 100 chips from falling off.
From the time I started preparing the chips only the index finger of my right hand ever touched them.
After 5.5 seconds I lost control and the stack fell to the ground but that was good enough to break the world record.
I’m not sure when I realized I could break 50 Guinness World Records. I know it didn’t hit me that it happened until today. I was wished happy 50th. It made me thinking of people who have been married for 50 years. Jennifer and I are going to celebrate our 10 year anniversary in 7 months and that’s a big deal. This isn’t as big a deal to me but it is still pretty special.
The MC announced at the beginning of the race some of the exciting marks being attempted at the race. There was one gal attempting her 33rd half marathon. She was 11… Wow. Then there was the man attempting his 100th marathon. I was inspired by the dedication and persistence. I hope to someday reach 100 Guinness World Records but my marathon tally is indefinitely suspended at 1. When I passed the man attempting his 100th marathon and heard he was nearby I slowed down and ran with him for a few steps. I didn’t find out until after the race that he was deaf. I was inspired. I was a little embarrassed when I ran off and someone on his team said “thank you” and I said, “No, thank you!”. They were thanking a volunteer directing car traffic that I hadn’t seen while looking at my cue.
And then they announced that I was going for my 50th Guinness World Record. The record was the fastest half marathon run with a pool cue balanced on one finger. I was glad they kept the part in that I broke records to promote STEM education.
It was a chilly morning in the 50s and felt colder with a strong, gusty wind. There was a false start countdown at 7 AM when the race was supposed to start since there were 2 busses of runners that hadn’t yet arrived. Fifteen minutes later the raced began for real. I waited until the 1,100 runners from the half an full marathon all crossed the start line and then waited another minute and a half to start so I the crowd could spread out before I needed to start passing them.
I took off at about 7:16 AM and immediately ran into trouble. Gusts of over 30 MPH hit me from the side and it was all I could do to stretch my right hand all the way over to the left side of my body and have the cue lean right into the wind. I made it several steps but then lost the handle and the cue fell off. I slowed, retraced my steps, rebalanced the cue and took off again. Less than a minute later another strong gust knocked the cue off and the process repeated.
I got lots of fun comments throughout the race and plenty of encouragement. My splits were about 8:15-8:30 for the first 6 miles, then 9:30 for the 7th since I stopped for food and had a camera malfunction that took some time. I finished at sub 7:30 pace for the last 3 miles.
My finishing chip time was ***update: 1:49:37. I broke my stretch goal of sub 1:50.
Previously it was: 1:50:58… (gun time 1:54:16) however, after several hours of review checking and double checking both my videos are only 1:49: 37 so I think that’s how long it took me (I confirmed with several other runners and our stopwatch that they were getting longer times than the chips were reporting of about 1:21). I emailed the race director since I think all 1,100 runners were affected and have 1:21 added to their chip time. (they responded and updated everyone’s results accordingly). I only needed to run a 3 hour 30 second half to beat this record so I did, it’s just a matter of by how much. I also have several folks who think the course was 13.3 but I have no way to accurately evaluate that.
Jeremy was not so sure about a giant walking potato…
Big shout out to Patrick Harper and Kevin Everett who accompanied me the whole way as official witnesses and videographers. They were extremely helpful not only for making the record attempt official but letting me know about low hanging tree branches (and especially the time I hit some pine needles I didn’t feel).
Visting with the timers about the inconsistent results. It took me a few hours of video analysis and checking every variable to come to the conclusion that everyone’s times had 1:21 added to them (I was hoping it was just me so I could have placed higher). They have since updated the results.
Is that the number of Guinness World Records now broken or the number of peas individually skewered and eaten with a toothpick in one minute?
Yes!
Today dozens of high school girls and women mentors gathered at BSU for the SheTech Explorer Day, a hands-on tech conference for high school girls. Put on by W.IN Women Innovators.
I gave a short talk about Growth Mindset, Grit, and STEM education as well as told a few stories about my wife’s journey to becoming a woman in engineering and some of the challenges she faced. I then attempted to break my 49th Guinness World Record. This time for “most peas eaten in 30 seconds with a cocktail stick” (toothpick). The previous record was 40 peas eaten in 30 seconds.
I had been practicing for this record for several months with some strange looks from some folks walking by at lunchtime as I hunched over a plate of peas and rapidly stabbed then individually with a toothpick and shoved them in my mouth.
It’s not as easy as it looks. Watch the video if you don’t believe me. Try for yourself if you really don’t believe me. The most famous ultimate frisbee trick shot artist on the internet got 31. The high school ultimate players got 2. The previous Guinness World Record was 37. Mike Beacham and I got 51!
Guinness World Record #48 in the books. “Most behind the back flying disc (frisbee) catches in 1 minute”
Mike is no stranger to ultimate as he once played in the longest game of Ultimate Frisbee in the world… 80 hours 1 minute. Today’s record wasn’t quite as long but was probably a bit harder to break.
He started off throwing the discs way too fast but I was able to catch most of them anyway which played in our favor. The best 1-minute run we had in our practices was 48 catches. Today we got 51 behind the back flying disc catches in 1 minute! Thanks to the Centennial High Ultimate team and HP for hosting us!
Sometimes you don’t want someone to go behind your back. Mike Beacham is going to go behind my back more than 37 times in one minute. In fact, he’s going to throw more frisbees behind my back in one minute than have ever been thrown before. If I can snag more than 37 of them we’ll break my first 2-person Guinness World Record.
If you want to come watch the attempt will take place at 5:20 PM at the HP Soccer/Ultimate Fields on Thursday, May 10th at the end of the last Centennial Ultimate practice.
HP Inc., 11311 W Chinden Blvd, Boise, ID 83714
I have plenty of experience catching stuff as a juggler… in fact, I make more catches in a single juggling practice than a serious ultimate player would have in a year. The problem is I’m not an expert disc thrower. Mike is. It’s a match made in heaven… or maybe our backyards. He’s a competitive ultimate player traveling all over the region to compete. He was also part of a team that set a world record for longest game of ultimate a few years back.
This record has been previously held by YouTube star and Frisbee trick shot expert Brodie Smith. He got 31, the current record is 37.
I have had several bruised and bloodied fingers practicing for this attempt but I can’t blame that on Mike. We’re feeling pretty good about our chances on Thursday even if we have to fight 15+ MPH winds.
Cover photo credit to Becky Beacham. She’s a professional drone photographer with Tour Factory in Boise if you’re looking for any real estate or cool high angle photos. Other than my wife Jennifer, she takes the most photos for me (Thank You!)
I haven’t actually seen him try it, but I’d sure like to challenge him to this 100-meter race.
It was a windy day at Borah High School for a multi-team track meet where I had my first world record timed with an electronic gun start and a photo finish.
The minimum mark of 18 seconds was passed by a 16.02-second run. I would like to come back to this one on a less windy day as I think I have a good second I can shave off.
Today I ripped 27 T-Shirts top to bottom on 1 minute to break my 46th Guinness World Record for “Most T-Shirts Worn and Torn in 1 Minute”. I put on 29 T-shirts and ripped 27 of them but we discounted one since it started ripping with the one before it for an official total of 26 t-shirts passing the previous mark of 25 by 1.
I gave a talk at Riverglenn Junior High to promote STEM education and a growth mindset and the kids were a fun audience.
The wildest thing probably happened when I told kids after the attempt they could have one of the ripped t-shirts. I really can’t move very much while wearing 29 t-shirts so I said they could have one if they helped me take them off. 30 kids decided all at once to help me take the t-shirts off and it was all I could do to stay standing as I was mobbed. I did stay standing, 27 kids got t-shirts, and my wife is happy they’re no longer laying around the house, and a Guinness World Record was broken, so all is well.
I drank 500ml of wat through a straw in 9.77 seconds breaking the minimum set at 10 seconds.
It wasn’t the prettiest, most spectacular, or hardest record I’ve set. But this one was done. I had grit. I practiced (with all the consequences of drinking .5 liters of water in under 10 seconds 30 times). This one was about showing that you can excel at things outside of your personal strengths.
It was in Scottsdale, AZ at the Provision networks event where I spoke about the future of 5G and IoT and how it will affect the enterprise.
Thanks to the team!
Promoting STEM education through my story and juggling
