{"id":16996,"date":"2025-05-21T08:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=16996"},"modified":"2025-05-19T15:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:17:09","slug":"serving-up-the-guinness-world-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2025\/05\/21\/serving-up-the-guinness-world-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Serving Up the Guinness World Record"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Marathon Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Last October Gretchen Swarr \u201907 was surrounded by VIPs: a woman in a head- to-toe tree costume, a man donning full beekeeping garb, a nurse in an inflatable coronavirus, and a sloth trying to outrun its slow reputation. Swarr wore a chef\u2019s white double-breasted shirt and a toque \u2014 while gripping a cast iron frying pan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these costumes, the 2024 Toronto Marathon VIPs were all attempting Guinness World Records. Finishing in 3:57:10, Swarr became the \u201cfastest female dressed as a chef.\u201d This victory required Swarr to overcome challenges even harder than training for a 26-mile race while carrying a 7-pound pan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swarr\u2019s race goals started when she was 4 years old, while watching her dad and brother run the Boston Marathon. Her family lived in the city and would root on the runners every year. By the time she met the 18-year-old age requirement, though, she had only been running short distances with her high school track team and wasn\u2019t sure she could complete a full marathon. \u201cBut there was still that nugget in the back of my head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Colgate the psychology major\/geology minor was on the swimming and diving team. Post-graduation she stayed as a research associate and lab technician with Professor Karen Harpp. It was the first time Swarr wasn\u2019t involved in sports and she started to get out of shape, so she agreed to join Harpp in running the Marine Corps Hudson Mohawk Half Marathon. \u201cI credit Karen for what I do now [professionally], in addition to being the catalyst I needed to break into distance running,\u201d Swarr says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She left Hamilton after working at Colgate for three years to become a research associate at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she still works today. Swarr ran her first full marathon, in Cape May, N.J., in 2011. She met her husband- to-be and they ran a half-marathon together as their third date; the two competed in Ironman Lake Placid in 2013 \u2014 while planning their wedding. (\u201cI wouldn\u2019t recommend that, but we did it.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The birth of their daughter in 2015 was a joyful event following a difficult pregnancy. With a desire to get back in shape, and because having a child of her own renewed her childhood goal, Swarr decided to try qualifying for the Boston Marathon. Doing so proved harder than she anticipated: \u201cI remember I was running behind this older woman \u2014 she was walking and I was running, and I couldn\u2019t catch her. I was like, \u2018I\u2019ve got a long ways to go.\u2019\u201d But, she adds, \u201ceventually your body heals, and it came back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swarr ran the Boston Marathon in 2022, and instantly thought, \u201cCheck this goal off the list. I need another goal.\u201d She set out to complete the Abbott World Marathon Majors Six Star Journey: marathons in Chicago, London, Boston, Berlin, New York City, and Tokyo. She\u2019d finished the first three and had three remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, she learned about the Guinness World Records for running a marathon in costume. \u201cThat\u2019s a cool goal,\u201d she thought. Perusing the categories with her husband and daughter, they picked \u201cchef\u201d \u2014 not only because she likes to cook for her family, but also because it required carrying a \u201c3 kilogram [minimum] stockpot or kitchen utensil.\u201d She says, \u201cThree kilograms [approximately 6.6 pounds] is a lot. It wasn\u2019t just something I could throw on a costume and do… It would actually be a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swarr started weighing random kitchen items in her house; in the basement she found a rusted cast iron pan that she\u2019d gotten for free. Weighing in at a little more than 3 kilograms and with a handle to grip, the pan became her training partner as she prepared for Toronto in the fall. She also qualified for two duathlons in Australia that summer and thought, \u201cI might as well throw in a marathon while I\u2019m there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summertime, however, brought a major setback. While competing in a local duathlon, Swarr crashed her bike and experienced a bad concussion, among other injuries. \u201cI hit my head hard enough that it caused a seizure and loss of consciousness,\u201d she says. Her injuries put a question mark on the Australia races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unable to work or drive, Swarr began physical and speech therapy. \u201cI was struggling cognitively,\u201d she says. \u201cI threw myself into training because it was the only thing I could really do, and it seemed beneficial for my healing.\u201d Because she\u2019d injured her shoulder, though, she had to put the frying pan on the back burner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swarr\u2019s doctors initially told her that Australia was off the table, but by the end of her therapy, they told her she could go \u2014 as long as she didn\u2019t overdo it. \u201cI did these races, not quickly, not well, but I did them.\u201d Back in the States, she picked up the cast iron again, re-setting her sights on the Guinness World Record. Running wasn\u2019t difficult, but she had to rebuild her pan-carrying muscles. Two months later, she was at the Toronto Marathon \u2014 which she\u2019d chosen because it has a support network for people attempting Guinness World Records, simplifying the verification process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the race, spectators commented, \u201cCan you make me breakfast?\u201d And, \u201cOh, gosh, those are heavy.\u201d (Swarr set a watch timer to switch hands every 10th of a mile.) This was her fourth marathon in 12 months. \u201cIt was probably a lot,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week later, she sent in the paperwork for Guinness\u2019 approval. \u201cThat was actually the hardest part, with the brain issues that I\u2019m having,\u201d she says. On Nov. 25, 2024, the organization informed her that she is the official title holder of the record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time this article publishes, she\u2019ll have run her second Boston Marathon, in April, and she has two more goals in mind. Swarr\u2019s ultimate goal is to run a marathon on all seven continents (four down, three to go). \u201cThis is a long-term goal; it\u2019s going to take a while.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A much easier goal is one she\u2019d set when finding the frying pan in the basement: \u201cMy plan was to get the Guinness World Record and then cook a nice dinner on it. I haven\u2019t done that yet, but hopefully soon.\u201d For now, it sits on a stool near her kitchen counter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A seasoned marathoner, Gretchen Swarr ’07 took on her biggest challenge last fall \u2014 in costume.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":17242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[354,1385,65,1516,2876,78,99,1369,103,420,122],"coauthors":[388],"class_list":["post-16996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","tag-alumni","tag-fitness","tag-geology","tag-goals","tag-guinness-world-record","tag-marathon","tag-psychology","tag-recovery","tag-running","tag-swimming-and-diving","tag-wellness"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4q8","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/World-Record.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16996"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17282,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16996\/revisions\/17282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16996"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=16996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}