A female runner has broken the Guinness World Record in the Missoula Full Marathon in Missoula, Montana last July 2019.
She broke the current world record for fastest full-marathon time for a woman pushing a three-child stroller. Cynthia Lauren Arnold from Polson, Montana pushed her three kids on a triple stroller. The kids, aged seven, five and two, plus the stroller weighed approximately 185 lbs.
In order to break the world record, she had to run 26 miles in less than 4:06:00. She ended up finishing the full marathon at 3:11.
She even beat her personal record, which was 17 miles!
35-year-old Cynthia Arnold has been running for a long time.
She was in the track team in both high school and college. And when she became a mom in Montana, she decided to run with a stroller so she can keep running while still be with her kids.
In fact, their whole family has a habit of running.
Cynthia’s husband regularly runs to work. Cynthia also runs with her children to take them to school. She and her husband wanted their kids to teach them at an early age the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle.
“We live in rural Montana and see lots of wildlife on the bike path right out my door,” Cynthia told MSN Lifestyle.
They wanted to show the kids that running and living a healthy and active lifestyle is fun and normal.
“I think if I can instill the love of being outside and nature in them, and they count butterflies and see the dragonflies and a gazillion grasshoppers hopping around, that’s so much better in the long run than watching cartoons all Saturday morning,” Cynthia told Runner’s World.
And the windy and hilly conditions of Polson, Montana also inadvertently helped with her training.
Her training helped develop her strength and endurance, which was advantageous for the Missoula Marathon, which was flat and not windy.
She usually 10 mile runs whenever she ran with her kids.
When she was alone, she did 20-mile training runs. But when the race got nearer, she ran with her kids again and achieve a personal best, which was 17 miles.
It was because of this routine that made her husband encourage her to break the world record the first time. He said this while they were preparing to welcome their third child in the world.
“He said, ‘You should try to go for this triple world record in the half marathon, that would be really cool,” Arnold said to Runner’s World. “‘That would be really neat for the kids.’”
The half-marathon world record before Cynthia broke it was 1:47:32, set in early 2018. Cynthia blew them away and broke the record when she finished at 1:29:08.
That’s almost 20 minutes faster than the previous record!
When Cynthia did the full marathon, other moms had known about her by then and were present to cheer her on. She could hear a lot of “Go, mom!” cheers from the crowd while she ran.
“I was moved by how many people were cheering for me and knew what my goal was on race day. One woman called out: ‘I’ve been reading about you all year. Go, mom!'” she told The Washington Post.
Cynthia knew she won’t be able to do a lot of marathons pushing her three-child stroller soon.
Her eldest daughter is slowly growing up and pretty soon, she won’t want to sit in the stroller anymore. The thought brings tears to her eyes but she still looks forward to the day when her eldest can ride with them on her bike while they ran.
Want to meet the supermom who wanted to have her kids experience breaking a world record? Watch the video below!
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