417-Pound Man Looking To Set Finisher Record

He’s a sumo champion and trains every day.

A runner is going for a world marathon record this March in Los Angeles. No, it’s not for the most marathons completed in a year or a month. Nor is it the record for fastest nonagenarian. Instead, the record is for the heaviest marathon finisher.

According to race officials, Kelly Gneiting, a 417-pound statistician from Ft. Defiance, Arizona is hoping to be the heaviest marathoner ever. Three years ago, he completed the race in 11:52:11, but was discounted by the Guinness Book of World Records, because he did not follow their certification protocol, which is that a runner must be weighed before and after the marathon and that the entire run be filmed.

Gneiting is a three-time sumo wrestling champion and trains every day with a 6-mile jog on Saturdays. He also walks 1.5-miles each way to his job.

The current record is 275 pounds.

The 40-year-old Gneiting hopes to complete the 26.2-mile race in 9:11.

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