Tyrone friends finish London Marathon handcuffed in world record time

Two Co Tyrone runners are celebrating after setting a rather unusual Guinness World Record.

33-year-old Daniel Gallagher and 28-year-old Jack Meegan set the pace for the fastest marathon ran while handcuffed.

They finished the London Marathon in a time of 2:53, with the previous record having been set at 3:15 in Canada back in 2019.

Jack said the logistics of running handcuffed was the biggest problem: "When you need to get water or something you need to slalom across 40,000 people or whatever it was.

"If the road bifurcates or there is something in the middle of it you know, one person goes left and one person goes right, that isn't good so a lot of it was communication."

Daniel was well pleased with their time of 2:53: "3.15 was the target so we got ourselves in enough shape to beat it, but it was surreal to be holding the certificate afterwards... it didn't really seem real afterwards."

Despite both being from Co Tyrone, Daniel and Jack met for the first time at the Boston Marathon last year.

They also only practiced running in handcuffs the day before the London Marathon.

Daniel said it was difficult to practice together as he lives in Belfast and Jack lives in London: "We just focused on our own training... it was good he was motivating me and I was doing the same.

"Once we picked up our race numbers... we done like a two mile run the day before.

"I was actually more nervous for the trail run than I was for the actual marathon itself."

Both Jack and Daniel are planning to run the Belfast Marathon on Sunday, although they will not be handcuffed this time.

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