Jason Homorody, in costume, holds up his Guinness World Record he received last month for running the fastest half-marathon while dressed as a movie character during the Warm Up Columbus half-marathon in February.
Courtesy photo | Jason Homorody
Jason Homorody holds up a piece of paper with his Guinness World Record time for “fastest half-marathon dressed as a movie character” and a bottle of maple syrup to go along with his Buddy the Elf costume from “Elf.” Homorody broke the record in February and received his world record last month.
Courtesy photo | Jason Homorody
A Lewis Center man recently received a Guinness World Record for running the fastest half-marathon dressed as a movie character.
Ohio Wesleyan University assistant tennis coach Jason Homorody said he got the idea for attempting a world record run after reading an article in Runner’s World about world records being set at the London Marathon.
“I was like, ‘One day, I’ll have to do one of these,’” Homorody said.
He elaborated that he looked into the record for running a half-marathon dressed as a movie character and decided to try and break it.
“I have a Buddy the Elf costume that I bought years ago for Halloween and I use it at Christmas, too, for kids and adult (tennis) groups,” Homorody said. “I love wearing the costume because I love Christmas and how happy it makes other people. It’s really the perfect costume for me because I am like an adult child who eats tons of candy and sugar and loves Christmas. The costume is a perfect fit for my personality. If I’m going to try to break the record, it seems like the costume I should wear.”
Homorody set up his attempt for the Warm Up Columbus Half Marathon in February.
“You have to go through a lot,” he said. “They have to approve your application (and) costume … it’s a lot of extra stuff.”
Homorody said a general rule in running is “never run in something you haven’t run in before,” but he was worried about ruining the costume by practicing for the half-marathon in it.
“I was a little worried,” Homorody said. “I didn’t want to sweat too much in it or ruin it. I didn’t actually run in the costume ever at the pace I was going to be running in.”
Fortunately for Homorody, the temperature on the day of the half-marathon was about 30 degrees, which made the costume ideal.
“I kind of lucked out,” he joked. “I decided to jump all the way in the deep end to see if I could swim. It was definitely a unique experience. The perfect weather for running in that costume was like 30 degrees, not too hot, not too cold.”
Homorody said people cheered for his costume and were constantly quoting the movie to him as he ran the half-marathon.
“It was funny running past people and everyone screaming out quotes from the movie,” Homorody said. “Number one was “good luck finding your dad, Buddy!”… I enjoy wearing the costume. They are always happy when they see it. Adult or kid, there’s no age group that doesn’t love it.”
Homorody broke the record with a time of 1:25:44 and received his world record from Guinness last month.
“I was pretty excited,” he said. “That was pretty cool. … I have a world record. It may be a goofy one … but mine is one of the less crazy categories (if) still randomly specific.”
Homorody said he’s already used the record as an icebreaker during a tennis lesson and said his students have enjoyed hearing about it.
“Now in my obituary I can at least say, ‘former world record holder,’” Homorody joked.
He said he hopes to make the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records but isn’t going to be upset if he doesn’t make it.
“I hope I can get in the book, but it’s out of my control,” Homorody said. “There are so many records. That was never the main goal. I just wanted to have it.”
Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.
