On August 17th-18th, a team of 25 people from around the world gathered at Costello Sports Complex at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham to “scoot” their way into the record books. They were attempting to break the World Record for “The Greatest Distance on a kick-scooter in 24 hours by a team.” The record was first set by a group of college students from Messiah College in 2014. Their team rode 344 miles in 24 hours.
The idea to break the record began with Mike Reid and Yonatan Belik, counselors at Seeds of Peace, a summer camp in Otisfield, Maine. The camp brings youth from all over the world together to inspire and cultivate new generations of global leaders in communities divided by conflict. When asked about their reasoning for coming together to break the World Record, they said, “To prove that when people are dedicated to make something happen, it happens, regardless of race, religion, age or gender.”
Photo courtesy of Seeds of PeaceStacey and Jesse Coleman (back row, far right) participated on a team of 25 young men and women from around the world to break the World Record for “Greatest Distance on a Kickscooter.”
If you think that someone can just show up and attempt this feat, you would be mistaken. Belik said, “People were asked to get a scooter at home and train/adhere to the rigorous training plan that one of the advisors created from his home in Egypt and upload their numbers to the group.”
“We needed to make sure they had the cardiovascular endurance required to complete the 100 meter sprints over 24 hours, in shifts of course,” Reid added.
There was some criteria for attempting to break the World Record. They needed a team of 25 people. This proved to be a challenge, as Reid said, “Murphys law is true – whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” Having teammates drop out, no money or scooters and not having a location to host, were among the obstacles they encountered. Reid and Belik were not local to Maine, which also posed a challenge. They posted an ad on Craigslist and were put in touch with Stacey and Jesse Coleman, owners of My-Fit in Gorham, to help.
There were nine official witnesses, many from Gorham, who worked in four hours shifts throughout the entire 24 hour event. Each witness had to be completely independent from the organizers, venue and affiliated organizations.
Stacey Coleman said they began “scooting” in teams of five, in intervals of one hour on and one hour off for the first several hours. Then they switched to thirty minutes on and forty-five minutes off for the final hours. She said, “It was amazing to meet so many awesome young people from around the world, and a once in a lifetime experience to be a part of a World Record attempt.” In the final half hour, all 25 team members “scooted” to the finish.
In the end, the team covered four times the distance of the original record holders. Coleman shared, “We covered 1,626.6 miles in twenty-four hours thanks to the amazing strategy created by Mike Reid and Yonatan Belik.” The documentation for the attempt has been sent to the Guinness Book of World Records for evaluation and is waiting for approval.
Other community members helped to make the event a success including Gorham House of Pizza, Aroma Joe’s, and Subway who all donated food for the “scooters.”