Local men set new World Record ‘in handcuffs’

TWO men from the Omagh area ran the London Marathon on Sunday looking more like fugitives than athletes but it wasn’t the law they were running from but into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Daniel Gallagher, from Tattyreagh, and Killyclogher’s Jack Meegan decided to run the famous race handcuffed together and in the process they smashed the current record for running 26.2 miles in such a predicament by over 20 minutes, finishing in two hours, 53 minutes and 33 seconds.

What made their achievement all the more impressive was that the were unable to practice running handcuffed together until the day before the event because Daniel lives in Belfast and Jack is a corporate lawyer in London.

In fact, the pair, who both attended Omagh CBS (years apart), hadn’t even met until they both ran the Boston Marathon in America in 2022 and it was then that they started to hatch a plan to attempt to break a Guinness World Record.

“I hadn’t met [Jack] until we both went out to do the Boston Marathon last year and we met each other there,” Daniel explained.

“He was planning on running the London Marathon later in the year dressed in a Halloween costume just for fun and I said there were Guinness World Records for that kind of thing and it kind of planted a seed.

“We started looking at what possible Guinness World Records were available and we saw the one for two people handcuffed together and it planted another seed.”

From small acorns mighty oak trees grow and so is the case in this particular tale as unbeknownst to the other, both Daniel and Jack applied separately to the Guinness World Records people in a bid to seal a place in the London Marathon and hopefully break the record in the process and despite their geographical separation making it impossible for them to train together, Daniel and Jack somehow managed to remain focused on the ultimate goal.

“With him living in London and me in Belfast, we had to train separately but it was actually really good because he kept me motivated by texting me running sessions he was doing with a crowd in London and I was running with Annadale Striders in Belfast,” Daniel explained.

While they didn’t get the chance to run together handcuffed, they did get to test their pace side by side at the Omagh Half Marathon a few weeks ago when their hopes of breaking he World Record were boosted.

“We both did good times around 1:14 so when we did that we knew we were in good shape,” 33-year-old Daniel beamed.
“But the first trial run we did together with the handcuffs was after we picked up our race numbers in London the day before the Marathon!

“I had never seen the handcuffs until then because Jack had bought some online on Amazon but after we picked up our numbers we did a 2.5km run and it was comfortable but we did get a lot of stares!

“We felt we were ready to rock and roll after that although we didn’t have a time in mind.

“We went out for the first four or five kilometres on three hour pace and we felt good so we pushed on and we came home in 2:53.33, so we’re over the moon with that.”

And 28-year-old Jack was also delighted with their achievement, although he admits the strategy for tackling such an event while handcuffed to someone else involved a bit of thought.

“We worked hard for it but it was more the logistics of it because when you’re running between people or if there’s a sign in the middle of the road, you have to decide if you’re going around it or over it! That was the tough bit!,” he explained.

“And the concentration levels especially with trying to work out when to take water from the side and how to pass it, so there was a lot of strategy involved.

“It was good and it got a bit difficult at the end. I think Danny wanted to push on in the last couple of miles, but my legs just weren’t having it!

“But we’re very happy with it and that’s the main thing.”

Daniel ran the London Marathon to raise funds for Alzheimer’s Research in memory of his Granny, who passed away in October. Visit justgiving.com to donate.