Manitoban dribbling his way to a Guinness record

A runner from Blumenort has unofficially broken a Guinness World Record.

Steffan Reimer accomplished a dribbling feat on Sunday at the annual Manitoba Marathon in Winnipeg.

Last winter, Reimer started toying with the idea of running this year's race while dribbling a basketball. One of the top marathon runners in Manitoba, Reimer was willing to put aside any dreams of winning the race to rather find his name in the Guinness Book of World Records. In order to do that, Reimer would need to dribble a basketball for 26.2 miles in less than 3 hours and 25 seconds. Reimer did just that, crossing the finish line in a time of 2 hours, 50 minutes and 33 seconds.

"Things went pretty close to textbook," says Reimer. "I had exactly the target time I was looking for."

Though he shaved nearly ten minutes off the world record, Reimer says the results are still unofficial. In fact, he says it could take six to ten months before it becomes ratified. He notes in order for Guinness to protect the integrity of its records, there is a lot for him to submit.

One of the requirements was that Reimer needed a certified basketball referee to cycle with him over the course of the marathon. This referee was then responsible for pointing out any violations or infractions along the way. Reimer says over the course of 26.2 miles, he had one such violation.

"I lost the ball one time," he says. "Probably four or five miles into the race, so pretty early, I must have hit a crack in the road or something that I didn't see. The ball squirted away from me, so I had to pick it up, do a little loop back and then keep going."

Going into the race, Reimer knew that aid stations would be one of his challenges as it would mean switching from a crossover dribble to using his dominant hand while sipping back fluids.

"I actually missed the bottle at my first aid station," he recalls. "It was like, 'oh boy here we go.' But no, after that it went pretty good."

Reimer says one of the biggest challenges that morning was not getting distracted by the fans on the side of the road.

"So many people were cheering for me and shouting words of encouragement and it was hard to not look up and acknowledge them," he says.

And there was nothing discreet about Reimer's effort on Sunday. He says the sound of his bouncing basketball could be heard from a quarter-mile away. Reimer says over the course of the entire marathon, he did just over 10,000 dribbles.

Marathon runners will often talk about hitting a wall near the end of the race. Reimer says for him it was just "a little wall." He notes by miles 23 and 24 it was getting tougher to stay completely focused on the ball. When the ball would hit a tiny crack and veer off, he noticed his reaction time getting slower.

So what is next for the unofficial Guinness World Record holder? Reimer says he is gearing up for the Kleefeld Honey Run on September 18. A past winner of the event, Reimer says he will be leaving the basketball at home for that one.