A Canterbury mum attempted a world-first record this morning – running 100 metres while barefoot across tens of thousands of pieces of Lego.
Gabrielle Wall managed to traverse her way across the jagged blocks in 24.75 seconds – setting an impressive time in the world record attempt, alongside a few cuts on the soles of her feet.
Wall told 1News she got the idea after a health scare a couple of years ago and “re-evaluated my bucket list as a result”.
“One of these things that ended up on my list was a Guinness world record attempt”.
She had initially planned on doing it with her children, but when the guidelines came in, she found out it was not for those under 18.
“So, my son has reliably told me we’re going to be back here in five years when he turns 18.”
Wall chose the Lego run for a few reasons, one being that there was no existing record for it, meaning she was the first.
Wall said she also wanted to set an unappealing record for other people.
“Like any parent knows, standing on one bit of stray Lego is pretty rough, let alone tens of thousands of them.”
Wall said she had good pain tolerance and knew what to expect before the attempt but said it “still really hurts”.
She also said there was a high barrier for entry to break the record, given the sheer amount of Lego needed to be attempted.
To do that, she called in the help of Imagination Station, a Christchurch-based Lego education charity that provided the bricks.
To prepare for the run, Wall said she had been “more or less barefoot” since November and had had a blowup pool of “training Lego”, which she stomped around in.
“At first, I thought I could multi-task because I work from home, and I thought I could knock out a couple of work phone calls while I trod around on the Lego, but I had to give that one up pretty quickly.”
She said the worst pieces to stand on were palm trees and said it felt “wrong” to stomp on the mini figures.
Following the run, Wall said it went “way better than I actually thought”.
“It just felt like a really long way, so probably from about halfway, it switched from being like, wow, I’m actually doing this to the boy that looks like a long, long way away.”
She described it as the “worst massage you’ve ever had”.
Dr Kirsty Moore, a GP, also attended the run. She was called in to ensure Wall’s feet met guidelines. She said Wall couldn’t have anything on her feet that could dampen the pain.
Following the run, Moore said there were a few superficial wounds but there was “nothing too major”.
Footage will now be sent to the Guinness World Records team for verification.
