World Records Held by Michiganders

Manistee's Firehouse was entered into the Guiness World Record books recently, and this past weekend, a band of motorcyclists near Detroit attempted to break the record for the longest parade of Indian Motorcycles. This got me thinking: What World Records are held right here in Grand Rapids? Well here are a few:

1.) Longest Painting:

With Artprize being a HUGE event in GR, it's no surprise someone here holds a record related to art. The painting was created by Gurmej Singh back in September of 2013. Once completed, the painting measured 3444.91 meters!! It took him a grand total of 38 days to finish his project.

2.) The World's Largest Bean Bag

Another record set during Art Prize might still be fresh in your head. This giant bag of.. beans (are they actually beans though..?) was displayed atop the roof in the heart of GR back in 2017. The massive mountain of comfort was constructed by Comfort Research and came in at a whopping 147.9 cubic meters!! That's roughly 39071 GALLONS of beans. Have we decided if they are filled with beans or not yet?

3.) Fastest Marathon Dressed as a Skeleton (Female)

So it turns out you don't have to exactly be the best there is at something to break a world record. Sometimes you just have to be the one who makes the goal a reality. This was the case for Rebecca Joyner who had a lifelong goal of breaking a world record. With running being a hobby of hers, she didn't assume she would be breaking anything anytime soon until her hometown's marathon came up, right around Halloween. So she dressed as a spooky skeleton clocking in with a final time of 3 hours 63 minutes and 43 seconds! So it looks like the extra bones didn't weigh her down at all as she took home to title of fastest (female) skeleton "alive."