Guinness World Record: Brother-in-laws from Preston and Blackpool pull 1.5 tonne lorry each become champions - for second time

Brother-in laws James Baker, a charity leader, and John Darwen, a cancer survivor went more than just extra mile to not only break their own Guinness World Record, but to jointly hold the title again.

36-year-old James Baker from Blackpool and 32-year-old John Darwen from Preston, both pulled a 1.5 tonne van ‘ on Elvington Airfield to break the Guinness World Record, ‘farthest distance pulling a vehicle in 24 hours as an individual’. The new record now stands at a massive 32 miles, and is jointly held by both James and John.

James and John are both brothers-in-law and have known and supported one another since John was diagnosed with Leukaemia 14 years ago. Neither have a background in sports or athletics, but they both have a determined spirit and a grit to succeed. Both are inspired by each other and have formed a strong bond with one another over the years. Each year James and John raise money for charity by completing half-marathons and marathons, and wanted to do something completely different for a change; something that involved both strength and endurance.

The pair originally decided on the idea together of attempting this record back in 2019 when the record currently only stood at 2.1 miles. When the record had been broken and updated to 21.1 miles, they decided to knuckle down and plan out their training in more detail.

On October 23, 2021, by went just one extra mile to the previous record making the new title stand at 22.1 miles. They both stopped at exactly the same distance to jointly claim the title together. Now, 10 months later, James and John attempted the record again and managed to set a brand new record of 32 miles exactly, and both stopping at the exact same distance again. This took their previous record a further 9.9 miles.

During the challenge they were also joined by their friend, Daniel Callaghan who was also attempting for the record himself. Daniel achieved 14 miles on the day and had to concede due to a pulled ligament in his left ankle.

James, John and Daniel wanted to attempt this record to help raise awareness and funds to support two charities that have made a big impact in their lives, ’Redeeming Our Communities’ and ‘Cancer Research UK’. The trio raised in excess of £2,500 which will be divided between both charities.

In preparation for the attempt they invited a personal trainer, Neil Salanki, to support them and provide professional insights to aid their training. Their training involved 3 main stages including strength development, hypertrophy, and endurance, while training at Fortitude Fitness in Poulton and Total Fitness in Preston. Within their programme they practiced pulling 1.5 tonne vehicles around fairly flat, and quiet industrial estates. Their final practice session saw them pull for 9.5 hours and achieved a total of 15 miles. T

Both James and John wanted to show a sign of solidarity and brotherhood, and planned to not only break the world record independently of each other, but also to finish at exactly the same distance to jointly hold the record together as well. On the day James broke his previous record in only 12 hours followed shortly less than an hour later by John. James remained ahead but during break times they both passed each other. At the 30th mile John’s feet were severely blistered during the attempt and both his big toe nails had been badly bruised. This made the final few miles much harder. James could have kept the lead and take the title for himself, but instead he pulled his van alongside with John and they went the final two miles together. John was ready for giving up at the end of mile 31, but persevered to make it 32. James finished ahead of John, but put his harness down and walked with John (and joined by Daniel and many other supporters) to cross the final lap line together.

The attempt has now been fully verified by Guinness World Records.

James said, “I could have gone ahead and perhaps completed another 4-5 miles, but if I did would it have been worth it? What’s better, to finish first, or to finish with my brother- in-law, my best friend, and hold the record together? I was willing to sacrifice further miles to allow John, who had broken our record just like I had, to also share the certificate if we are to be recognised by Guinness World Records”.

John said, “I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved, all three of us. It’s the journey of getting here which has been the most important part, and we have done our very best to raise as much money as we can for two incredible charities”.

Dan said, “I’m absolutely gutted to have not been able to finish with these guys, but I still achieved a personal best and I’m so pleased to have been involved in such a big thing to raise money for Cancer Research UK and Redeeming Our Communities. I’ve learned so much about myself and these two guys and couldn’t be more proud. I did this to honour the memory of my sister who lost her battle to cancer 5 years ago, and this is what has kept me going, and still keeps me going today.”

James and John plan to continue breaking more records this year .To find out more and to watch them cross the line, check out their Facebook page here: https://m.facebook.com/TheExtraMile2022/ And to support their fundraising campaign, https://www.justgiving.com/team/theextramile2022