Manchester athlete who ran 521 miles told record invalid
Amy Hughes said she 'nearly broke' herself by running 521 miles on a treadmill in one week
An marathon runner who live-streamed a world record attempt on a treadmill in front of 'thousands' of shoppers was devastated after officials told her the attempt was invalid because of a lack of witnesses.
Amy Hughes said she 'nearly broke' herself by running 521 miles on a treadmill in one week for up to 20 hours a day in the middle of the Trafford Centre in Manchester last September.
The distance runner, who hit the headlines when she ran 53 consecutive marathons in 2014, was convinced she had beaten the previous weekly treadmill distance of 517 miles.Â
But the 29-year-old's painstaking efforts were ruled null and void by Guinness World Records who said her partner Dave Keighley, who kept a record of her distance, was no t an independent witness.
Miss Hughes, from West Felton, Shropshire, said administrators had ignored other witness statements from her physiotherapist, publicist and a friend.Â
Miss Hughes, who now lives in Handforth, Cheshire, said: 'I'm absolutely heartbroken. I'm usually quite positive but I just broke down in tears and cried for hours.
'We thought we'd done everything by the book. We went above and beyond what was asked of us and it's still not enough.
She ran for up to 20 hours a day in the middle of the Trafford Centre in Manchester last September
The 29-year-old's painstaking efforts were ruled null and void by Guinness World Records who said her partner Dave Keighley (pictured togther), who kept a record of her distance, was not an independent witness
 Miss Hughes and Mr Keighley, who have been together for three years, are exploring options to appeal the decision
'When we applied to do the record and wrote to Guinness, they gave us the option of paying for an adjudicator but it cost too much.
'The alternative was they would send us guidelines telling us exactly what to do so we took that option and put everything in place.
'We streamed the whole thing on a webcam 24/7, we were live on TV at one point, took pictures of all the key milestones. There were shoppers around all the time. It couldn't have been more public.
'I sent off three witness statements. They've said that Dave's doesn't count as independent because he's my partner, and dismissed the other two.
'After 12 weeks the came back and said they couldn't access some of t he video files so I sent them everything on my hard drive.
The distance runner, who hit the headlines when she ran 53 consecutive marathons in 2014, was convinced she had beaten the previous weekly treadmill distance of 517 miles
Miss Hughes, who now lives in Handforth, Cheshire, said she was 'absolutely heartbroken' by the decisionÂ
'After another 12 weeks they said the log book wasn't neat enough so we sorted that out. Then on Tuesday they said they couldn't approve the attempt because there were no independent witnesses.
'I'm so angry. I physically nearly broke myself doing this. I had 13 blisters on my feet at the end and slept for three hours a day. It's so upsetting..'
On Tuesday Guinness World Records said they couldn't approve the attempt because there were no independent witnesses
Miss Hughes and Mr Keighley, who have been together for three years, are exploring options to appeal the decision.
Guinness World Records defines an independent witness as 'an individual who is neither affiliated with nor related to the individual or group attempting the record, the record organisers, participants, venue, or any persons involved with staging the event'.
Miss Hughes said: 'I've done a lot of running but it took me by surprise how hard it was. I hadn't worked much on my sleeping so I found it really difficult.
'I stopped occasionally for massages but I was pretty much running for 20 hours a day. We did hourly logs of mileage, breaks and sleep time.
'You would think with the mountain of evidence, that would be enough. I'm hardly pretending to have done it.'
Paralympian Hannah Cockroft is among those backing Miss Hughes's campaign for Guinness World Records to have a re-think, tweeting: 'This is an absolute disgrace.Â
'Amy put herself through hell completing this insane challenge.'
A spokesperson for Guinness World Records said: 'All records come with a set of rules that have to be adhered to in order for us to validate record attempts, and one of these rules is the requirement for independent witnesses to be present to act as impartial extensions of Guinness World Records where our adjudicators cannot be present.
Miss Hughes said she thought they had done 'everything by the book' but it still wasn't enough
'Unfortunately, the witness recording the majority of Miss Hughes' progress was not independent of her, meaning we were unable to ratify the attempt as this is an infringement of a core policy for record validation.
'We know how much time and dedication went into this record attempt and the motivation for Miss Hughes' attempt is hugely admirable. We sincerely hope that this decision will not deter Miss Hughes from looking to break a world record in the future.'
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