Olds firefighter Noel D'arcy gave it his best shot, but was not able to set a world record for running a marathon in full firefighter gear.
That meant running in gear weighing more than 45 pounds, including the hat and clunky boots, which gave him chafing issues during training.
D'arcy finished the Calgary Marathon this past Sunday in five hours, 25 minutes and three seconds. The world record is three hours, 41 minutes and 10 seconds.
A marathon is 26.2 miles, or 42.1 kilometres.
D'arcy ran the marathon not only to break the world record, but also to raise money for muscular dystrophy, a group of diseases that make patients steadily weaker. They also lose muscle mass. By late last week, he had raised $1,500 for that cause.
Going into the marathon, D'arcy was nervous, but rather hopeful he could break the record, having trained for months, usually running a total of about 100 kilometres a week.
“I ran a half marathon back in April in Calgary. I wore full gear. It was like a big experiment. I did everything I planned to do (on) Sunday to see if it would work and it did work,” he said.
