It took Samantha Morris seven hours to finish the London Marathon while wearing 46 t-shirts (Picture: MND Association)

A woman who ran the London Marathon in 46 t-shirts has been told her world record attempt didn’t count because she didn’t go fast enough.

Samantha Morris, 46, said she wanted to ‘totally smash’ the current record of 25 t-shirts by wearing nearly double that number last weekend.

The tees were counted and verified by a Guinness World Records (GWR) official before the race and off she went around the 26.2-mile route.

They added an extra stone in weight and got heavier as the race wore on and Samantha got hotter and sweatier.


She finished the race seven gruelling hours later and eagerly sought out someone from GWR, but they were nowhere to be seen.



Samantha phoned an official to say she’d completed her mammoth record attempt, only to be told that as she didn’t finish in under six hours, she had been disqualified.

The t-shirts added an extra stone in weight

Samantha Morris says the record belongs to her

When Samantha asked what time the person who wore 25 t-shirts had finished the marathon, they revealed no one had actually attempted the record before.

A GWR spokesperson said they have to ‘standardise’ their records which aren’t measured by time, so set a minimum of 25 t-shirts and a completion time of six hours for Samantha’s attempt.

But Samantha feels it’s an ‘unrealistic’ finish time and the record should belong to her as she is the first person to complete a marathon wearing 46 t-shirts.

She told metro.co.uk: ‘I feel upset, devastated and totally disappointed by GWR as I’ve been promoting them since my application had been accepted at the back end of last year.

She added: ‘I really believe this record should be mine as there is no record holder at the moment and it’s supposed to be for the most t-shirts worn running a marathon.

‘Time should be irrelevant as I have set the precedent.’

Samantha, who runs her own business in Heywood, Lancashire, said she was never going to give up as she was raising money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, in memory of her dad who passed from MND in 2003.

The tees were counted and verified by a Guinness World Records (GWR) official

She added: ‘I have run over 40 marathons but this was the toughest by far both physically and mentally.’

A Guinness World Records spokesperson: ‘Guinness World Records creates record titles such as the Most T-Shirts worn while running a marathon (female), because we truly believe everybody can be amazing at something.

‘We do however have to standardise these records which is why we set a minimum of 25 t-shirts, and a completion time of 6 hours, a time which is common amongst our marathon records which aren’t measured by time.

‘These stipulations are made clear throughout the application process and are in place to ensure a record-breaking standard is achieved in the attempt.

‘We fully appreciate how much effort goes into attempting a world record and sincerely hope anyone who missed out on their record will try again in the future.’

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