By Dan McNee, Midwestern Newspapers
LISTOWEL – Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Leona Ottens’ Guinness World Record undertaking on Dec. 23 is that she still had enough in the tank afterward to do a victory jog around the Between The Lines (BTL) track with her children.
This was after establishing a new Guinness mark for the “fastest burpee mile” in the world, a record that had yet to be attempted before the 31-year-old mother of four from Mapleton completed the feat in approximately two hours last at Listowel’s Between The Lines Sports Campus.
Ottens steadily made her way around the BTL track 11.3 times, performing a chest-to-ground burpee followed by a standing long jump.
“I would not have made the time I did without the love and support from my family and friends,” stated Ottens in an email.
“They crack me up and it was such a great time. So many laughs distracted me from all the sweat!
“Alison Brown, Mel Berflez and Jen Fenton jumped in and did burpees by my side when I needed a little support.
“Family and friends hooting and hollering kept my spirits up. At one point our friend Matt Yates made me laugh so hard by saying, ‘come on Leona time to wrap this up, gotta get the kids to bed’.”
Ottens pauses for an inspirational hug from her daughter. Photos by Dan McNee
After setting a new personal best lap time of under six minutes on her first lap, Ottens ran into a bit of trouble on the second when her feet started to fall asleep.
She made a shoe change and realized her feet were turning purple, due to her knee pads cutting off circulation during each jump.
She quickly recovered, however, maintaining a steady pace the rest of the way for her Guinness mark that will be verified in about 12 weeks’ time.
Ottens thanked her husband, Matt, for organizing the event – he walked all two hours of the feat backwards while pulling a wagon equipped with a video camera to document the attempt.
Ottens also expressed her appreciation to the Reading family and BTL for hosting the undertaking.
“Everyone needs a thing, no matter what!” wrote Ottens.
“The gift of time to go chase after whatever sets your soul on fire and brings you joy! Go get it and support those you love to go get it to! Exercise is essential; our physical body is the house of our mind.
“We have to move to provide peace for our minds.”
