MIDDLEBURY STUDENT SETS NEW WORLD RECORD

“On a weird day of scrolling through the internet,” as she describes it, Emily Jones came across one particular record in the Guinness Book of World Record that sparked her interest. In a word, she said, it was “goofy.”

It was so goofy that the Middlebury College senior – who also serves as a Middlebury Fire Department volunteer firefighte — set out to break it.

On April 18, Jones ran a mile at the Middlebury College track — four laps around the oval — wearing 60 pounds of firefighting turnout gear, all while breathing through a respirator. The gear alone weighed more than half of Jones’ own body mass, and she lugged it with a limited air supply.

Jones ran the mile in eight minutes and 25 seconds, a full two minutes and 35 seconds faster than the previous Guinness world record of 11:00 minutes for a female runner. The event was recorded on video and submitted to Guinness which will certify the record. More than 120 people, including her college water polo team and fellow firefighters, cheered her on.

“To be honest I didn’t let myself have it until the last straightaway,” she said. “I was pretty nervous I was going to puke into the mask.”

Middlebury Fire Chief David Shaw said that fear was not unrealistic, although he believed Jones’s air supply would last if she paced herself. But he estimated the maximum time for respirator use, depending on effort and body mass, to be around 15 minutes.