Archie Hunt sprinted the London Marathon in 2:27:41 as Captain Underpants, eclipsing Dracula's 2012 record—running the full 26.2 miles in a tattered cape and underpants while the crowd cheered like a comic strip.
The 155‑km‑a‑week regimen, built over 16 weeks, saw him clock 350 laps around Regent’s Park and juggle over 20‑km dawn runs before office hours. With 38 Guinness titles on the event’s leaderboard, the trainee‑lawyer turned marathoner proved that hours of grit beat a good costume.
The real drama came in the 28th mile when Hunt surged past the 2:42:17 mark that had sat in the Guinness vault for over a decade, shaving a jaw‑dropping 15 minutes off the Dracula record. A sudden burst of adrenaline, a whisper of heart‑felt purpose, and a faint wedgie all conspired to push him forward.
Milbank's London partners raised a toast to his achievement, while Evelina London’s charity board celebrated the 2:27:41 as a beacon for kids battling heart disease. Hunt, who lives with dilated cardiomyopathy, said the run proved that a diagnosis doesn’t dictate destiny.
Now, Hunt is eyeing a 110‑km ultramarathon in Finland and the Tromsø Midnight Sun marathon in June, with a personal goal to break 2:20. If he can keep the cape and cape‑style pacing, the world will be watching.