New Triathlon Record in Guinness Book of World Records

In February, I wrote about Jon Eggert Gudmundsson, a 50-year old Iceland native living in Cutler Bay who was attempting to do the longest triathlon and get into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Well, mission accomplished! The old record was 190 km (118.06 miles) swimming, 4408 km (2739 miles) cycling and 1078 km (669.83 miles) running – a total of 5,676 km. Jon smashed that with a 7746 km total (260 km swimming, 6598 km in biking and 1598 km running)!

Jon isn’t what most people would envision as an athlete. His frame would certainly have you think otherwise. I observed decent weight loss from just before he started, but Jon thought not, “I am about the same weight as when I started… too much.”

Before and after completing the triathlon

Jon officially finished his triathlon on August 27, 2018, but it will take around a year to get it recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. “I have to provide them with about 27 terabytes of video and data,” explained Jon. “Then they need to verify it all.” He’s proud (or crazy) to remind me that he biked through days of Hurricane Irma wind and rain, as well as other harsh weather events, in order to comply with the triathlon requirements of continuous days.

Jon isn’t stopping in his physical quests. Next up is training to compete in the oldest amateur cycling event on earth, the Paris–Brest–Paris race. It started in 1891.

Jon dedicated his triathlon efforts to Wheel Heroes, a non-profit who assists kids that are unable to ride bikes due to mental or physical disabilities by designing, custom-ordering and delivering bicycles for their needs Wheel Heroes.

“I hope that I can raise awareness for Wheel Heroes,” says Gudmundsson in a thick Icelandic accent. “That would be really awesome.”