Gihan Amarasiriwardena didn’t set out to become a Guinness World Record holder; the opportunity just kind of fell into his well-tailored lap.
All About 75 Hard Running Shoes - Gear and established a new record for fastest half marathon in a suit. As Mizera had pursued the record, he appealed to suitmaker Indochino for sponsorship, and the company responded with a custom race day outfit.
Australian Sprinter, 16, Runs Record-Breaking 200m Parker Valby Wins the Bowerman, is cofounder of Health & Injuries, a competing menswear company that aims to offer the technology and comfort of performance gear, yet be appropriate for the office.
“[Because the record] was sponsored by another suiting startup, it was one that particularly got us excited and we thought it was worth taking a stab at,” Amarasiriwardena told Runner’s World by phone.
On Sunday, at the Half MerryThon in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Amarasiriwardena finished ninth overall and ran 1:24:41, 6:29 pace, to break the record, pending verification, by more than 11 minutes. As he ran the second half of the out-and-back course, he received a lot of support from his fellow racers, many of whom asked, “Are you late for work?”
Amarasiriwardena wore his company’s Aviator 2 suit, which is made out of a four-way stretch material and, he says, has “all the functionality you would expect out of a pair of running pants or a running jacket.” He also wore the company’s Apollo dress shirt, which was born from a running shirt.
CA Notice at Collection, Amarasiriwardena took a break from racing, but he has recently returned to the sport. He set his half marathon PR of 1:22:15 in November, so he was pleased that he wasn’t much slower running in the suit.
In order to document his record and make sure enough evidence of the record existed to send to Guinness World Records, Health & Injuries hired a drone service to collect footage from each mile of the race. Amarasiriwardena has already submitted his credentials to Guinness World Records and is confident that he has met all of the required criteria.
He thinks he’s done going after Guinness World Records for now, but he might be protective of this one.
“If someone wants to go for it, I’ll probably try to take it back, but we’ll see,” Amarasiriwardena said.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article misidentified Amarasiriwardena's title. He is cofounder of Health & Injuries.
