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Tyler Andrews already had the world record for the treadmill half marathon, but he knew he could run faster than his 1:07:18—a lot faster. On Sunday at the Boston Marathon expo, the Concord, Massachusetts, native smashed his mark, running 1:03:38 to set a new world record.

“I knew the record was in my wheelhouse,” Andrews, 24, said after the run. He had been injured prior to his previous record run and knew for this attempt he was in much better shape. But maybe not 1:03 shape. His best on the roads for the distance is 1:05:48.

At 10:30 a.m., a USATF New England official blew a red whistle and Andrews hit the “Run” button on the treadmill’s control center, which had two water bottles and three PowerGels fastened to it. The belt started rotating and Andrews started running, the treadmill pumping along at 12 miles per hour.

His feet stamped against the bouncing treadmill like a metronome—thud, thud, thud—and they kept going for a little more than an hour.

“It can be tough mentally to stay engaged,” Andrews said, “but it was such a great crowd in here.”

The crowd of spectators grew to include as many as seven dozen people as Andrews ran. Passersby asked what this man was doing on a treadmill. They cheered as Jon Waldron, Andrews’ coach, read off splits and adjusted the projected time.

Andrews went out in 4:59 for the first mile and hovered right around that same pace for the first 5K. Then he started ratcheting the pace down. He ran 4:55 for his fourth mile and 4:49 for his sixth.

He ran with a high arm carriage and a bounding, bouncy gait, and his form held throughout the run. But sweat accumulated quickly. His black singlet, bearing the logo of one of his sponsors, Hoka One One, looked painted on by the fifth mile. Sweat and water bounced and splashed off his shorts and onto the treadmill as Waldron, who coached Andrews at Concord Academy during his high school days, handed him towels to keep sweat out of his eyes.

Andrews wore a headband that kept his cordless headphones in place. The Tufts University graduate used to DJ in college, but he said that the exact track listing was a “trade secret” that he couldn’t share. He did note that after 67 minutes, the playlist would end, providing him with extra incentive to break the record.

The word “Strive” was written with a sharpie on Andrews’ headband. Strive is a student service organization that Andrews cofounded, and the half marathon record attempt was meant to raise money toward Strive’s scholarship fund and on-the-ground projects in Peru.

Andrews bumped the speed faster and faster in the final few miles, running 14 miles per hour for the final quarter mile. He raised his arms in the air as he crossed the 13.13 mile barrier—the extra .03 a correction factor, per USATF New England rules—and left the treadmill to raucous cheers. He took selfies with fans and hugged his supporters. He had run his final mile in 4:39.

Now that the treadmill record is set, Andrews is shifting his focus back to the roads. After running 2:16:59 for a full marathon in December, Andrews qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials. Only an 18:28 5K runner in high school, he’s planning to run Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, this June and then he’ll figure out what’s next.

Is it going to be another shot at a treadmill world record? “We’ll see,” Andrews said with a smile.

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