Ashrita Furman: World Record Holder for Most World Records

Jan. 16, 2011— -- On a frigid, blustery afternoon just outside the gate to the St. John' University outdoor track in Queens, a lithe but fit-looking middle-aged man climbs out of a battered sedan. He's wearing a fleece jacket and sweatpants. He places a gym bag on the ground and unzips it, revealing an odd assortment of items: a well-used pair of running shoes, two bowed metal objects that are eventually revealed to be stilts, a baseball bat, two golf clubs (left-handed and right-handed pitching wedges), some golf balls and two empty tuna fish cans.

He clambers over to the track, a good portion of which is still covered with the snow deposited by a recent storm, and begins to stretch and loosen up.

The man's name is Ashrita Furman, and he has the distinction of being the official Guinness World Record holder for holding the most world records. He's at the St. John's track on this icy winter day for one final round of practice before he will attempt to break the record for running the fastest mile with empty aluminum cans strapped to the soles of his shoes and held in place by string looped through holes in the cans. He has held this record before, but last year someone else broke it and now he wants it back.

Furman, 56, is not quite sure how many world records he holds right now. It could be 123, possibly 124 or even 125. It's hard to keep track of because old ones are sometimes broken long before he learns of it.

He set his first world record in 1979 by doing 27,000 consecutive jumping jacks. Since then, he has established approximately 350 new records that are recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.

His achievements include the fastest mile while hula-hopping, which he set in the Australian outback, chin-balancing the tallest pole (Turkey), the fastest mile bouncing on a yoga ball (on the Great Wall of China), farthest distance while balancing a pool cue (by the Great Pyramids in Egypt), farthest distance rolling over head over heels (along the path of Paul Revere's ride in Boston), jumping rope on a pogo stick (Cambodia), and eggs balanced on end (888, in New York).