A triple world record-holding ex-Royal Marine from Lincolnshire is again embarking on a monstrous feat by taking on a full marathon world record attempt with heavy loads on his back.
Collin Harrison, 47, from Dunston, made it into the news last year when he broke three world records in two weeks, becoming the fastest man in the world to run a half-marathon with 60, 80 and 100lb weights on his back in just two races.
He broke the 60lb record in Southampton in September with a time of 1:54:34, before breaking the 80 and 100lb record at the Scottish half marathon just two weeks later, beating both records in the same run with 100lbs on his back.
He did so in a time of 2:11:38 – over an hour quicker than the 100lb record and close to 20 minutes faster than the 80lb record.
Collin trained for 21 months for the event, and wasn’t going to let anything get in his way. | Photo: Scottish Half Marathon
Most people would settle for this glory, but not Collin. In his words, he wants “the full fat” world record after achieving the “semi-skimmed” ones last year, and he will embark on full marathon records later in 2022.
Collin has been training for around two and a half years for these challenges, inspired by a rejection from reapplication to the Marines in which he was told he was too old to come back – triggering a determination in Collin to prove that age is just a number.
He will be running the Edinburgh Marathon in May, aiming to become the first man in history to break the 80lb and 100lb pack world record runs in the same marathon race.
The current world record, according to Guinness, is six hours, 27 minutes and 59 seconds, achieved by American William Kocken, while the 80lb record belongs to Michael Barker, who ran five hours 43 minutes and 24 seconds at the London Marathon in 2016.
Collin is raising money for The Royal Marines Charity and Children With Cancer UK by taking on this challenge, and you can donate to his fundraiser by visiting the Just Giving page.
Physically and mentally gruelling, but Collin proves that age is just a number. | Photo: Scottish Half Marathon
Collin told The Lincolnite: “I’ve put in the work and done all I can, it’s in the hands of the gods now. Anything can go wrong on these runs, for example, when I ran the half marathon last year my shoulder strap broke, so I had to run three miles with all the weight on one shoulder, and still managed to break the record.
“I’m under strict instruction from my wife that this is the last time, and with there being no bigger distances or heavier weights for me to go for after this I’m inclined to agree with her!
“It’s over two years in the making so I am confident I can get it done. The 100lb one is in the bag as far as I’m concerned, the 80lb record will be more difficult as there is a 43 minute gap between the two world records, so I need everything to fall into place on the day.”
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Nominations are open for schools and education settings to be recognised in the 2022 Lincolnshire Education Excellence Awards.
The event is organised by Stonebow Media, publishers of The Lincolnite, to celebrate the best school and teachers in Greater Lincolnshire.
The headline sponsors making the awards possible are Lincoln College Group.
Twelve categories are now open for nominations. The deadline for nominations is June 3, with a judging lunch scheduled for June 7.
Nominations are open from parents, carers, friends, families or education settings themselves, so if you know someone who deserving of winning now is the time to vote!
The awards ceremony will be held at the Engine Shed on July 7.
It’s been a week since the controversial statue of Margaret Thatcher was installed in Grantham’s St Peter’s Hill.
The £300,000 bronze monument immediately caused a stir and debate from both supporters and opponents of the first female Prime Minister of the UK.
Within hours of its 7am installation last Sunday, it had already been egged by a man later revealed to be 59-year-old Jeremy Webster, a deputy director at the Attenborough Arts Centre at the University of Leicester.
Mr Webster’s mother-in-law recently described his actions as “childish”.
Quoted in the MailOnline she said: “Margaret Thatcher lasted a long time in power. She was a trailblazer as the first woman prime minister and she had such energy, even though I know she slept very little.
“I’m very surprised to hear about all of this [egg throwing]. I’m going to have to call my daughter. I wouldn’t have thought Jeremy would be the sort of person to do this. It seems very childish to me – he has a responsible job.”
There have been reports of other antisocial behaviour taking place including people urinating up the statue, but investigations into these are yet to be confirmed by officials.
Away from the statue itself, others took to social media to react to the new monument.
Twitterer @BolsoverBeast thought Mr Webster’s actions should be expanded as a way to… get more people involved?
I think it would be a good idea to put Thatcher’s statue on a low loader and tow it slowly around the country so that we all have a chance to throw something at it. pic.twitter.com/uftMqr0LgR
— Chloe Schlosberg (@ChloeSchlosberg) May 19, 2022
Some called back to the fate of other statues
@Irritatedllama called back to the fate of slave trader Edward Colston who was thrown into the Bristol Harby in June 2020.
It's absolutely disgraceful that people are throwing eggs at the Margaret Thatcher statue in Grantham! We need to deploy a taskforce to give it jolly good wash!#Granthampic.twitter.com/RKftKUls4u
It wasn’t long before a parody account of the statue was set up on Twitter – nor before “she” was interacting with other parody accounts.
It was awful. I could see almost all of Grantham
— That Statue of Thatcher (@thatcher_statue) May 18, 2022
A… positive view?
There were supporters of the statue, however, Darren Grimes from GBNews was one of the few popular posts calling on people not to “give in to threats of petty vandalism”. He later posted the statue should be in parliament – where it was previously rejected from.
I honestly think Margaret Thatcher would have found this first round of petty vandalism of her statue to be utterly hilarious.
The statue looks absolutely glorious.
Almost a decade on from her passing, she’s still winding them up!
Some, like @Jonnyhibberd were more measured in their response.
I don't see a problem with a Thatcher statue and I also don't see a problem with people throwing eggs at it. Thatcher is an important part of our history, and so is what a lot of people thought about her.
— Jonathan Hibberd 🇺🇦 (@Jonnyhibberd) May 18, 2022
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