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Jenny Crain group set to crush "human centipede" record

Posted by Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel on April 21, 2011

running, Lakefront Marathon

In the Virgin London Marathonon, a group of 47 runners dubbed the “human centipede” tossed down the gauntlet for a Guinness World Record,

Jenny Crain’s “Make it Happen” team plans to crush it.

Meeting Thursday night, the group starts plotting to beat the Guinness Record for most runners linked together to complete a marathon. They will make their run at the record in the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on Oct. 2, with enough people tied together (more than 50) to significantly surpass the mark set on Sunday.

The real purpose of the effort, led by Robin Gohsman, is to raise money for local runner Jenny Crain, an elite athlete who was hit by a car on a training run on Aug. 27, 2007. Crain, 44, suffered severe brain injuries but has regained the ability to talk and walk through intense and expensive rehabilitation.

Jenny Crain rolls along in the Cudahy Classic in August 2010.

Fitness expert Briana Boehmer has worked to help Crain regain her stride, and will coach the team forming to put her in the record books.

“As we go through this journey, I know we will be linked together by more than just rope, but by a bond glued together by a very special woman,” Boehmer wrote to the team. “In one way or another, Jenny has touched all of us, and I cannot tell you how “Jenny” I feel this effort is.

“When we talk about it to her she lights up and the conversation just flows.

“Jenny always wanted to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. I am confident come Oct. 2 she will be.”

Following the organizational meeting, the group will have roughly five months to train to run roped together for 26.2 miles. Gohsman projects a finishing time of about 5 hours 40 minutes, roughly 13 minutes per mile.