March 20: Runners start the Honda LA Marathon in Los Angeles. (AP)
LOS ANGELES -- Self-proclaimed "Fat Man" Kelly Gneiting set a Guinness World Record for the heaviest person to complete a marathon, taking nine hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds to finish the Los Angeles event Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The 400-pound sumo wrestler out of eastern Idaho smashed the old mark of 275 pounds and easily bettered his own unofficial personal best of 11 hours 52 minutes and 11 seconds.
"I'd like to see the Kenyan improve his marathon time by two hours," Gneiting joked.
Gneiting, a three-time US national champion sumo wrestler, is six-foot tall with a five-foot waist. And stamina is certainly a strong suit: he once ate eight Big Macs at a single sitting.
He jogged the first eight miles Sunday and walked the final 18 miles, and said he had no idea how long he had left from mile 10 on because he became delirious.
According to the report, he had to obey traffic signals and walk on sidewalks for much of the race because the roads had already reopened.
"I was really struggling in the last five miles," he said, "but I said to myself, 'If I have to crawl, I will.'"
Gneiting's next goals are to swim the English Channel and hike from the Dead Sea to Mt. Everest.
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