When he strapped a GoPro to his chest to document his attempt at a Guinness World Record, Oliver Williams didn’t intend to capture a unique piece of running history.

Williams, 30, was aiming to break the world record for a half marathon in a superhero costume. He completed the feat, dressed as Superman, by running 1:15:39 at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff, Wales. Williams bested the previous time of 1:17:30.

In order to meet the stringent Guinness requirements for documenting new records, Williams hit record on his camera before he entered the starting corral.

“One of the pieces of evidence I can submit to the Guinness World Records team is a video of the whole race, to prove I did it all, which is why I was wearing it,” Williams said in an email to Runner’s World.

A few seconds into the race, Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor, the eventual winner of the championship event, went sprinting by Williams, dodging in and out of slower runners.

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Kamworor had fallen at the start and been involved in an unusual tangle, getting pushed from behind by slower runners. When he finally got to his feet, he had to sprint past dozens—if not hundreds—of runners to regain his spot in the lead pack, making an amazing recovery to win.

Williams, who estimates he was about 10 meters behind the elites at the starting line, finished 109th in the mass start portion of the race.

And his camera captured it all. We’ll let him take it from here:

“When I watched the TV coverage afterward, I saw Kamworor had fallen on the start line,” Williams wrote. “When we started running, I got just past the start line and nearly fell over a [different] pile-up on the [road]. I just managed to sidestep to the right to avoid falling myself. I think once someone fell, people behind fell over them, as you couldn’t see it had happened until you were on top of it.

“About five to 10 seconds later, someone brushed past me at high speed. I saw they were wearing a Kenyan vest, but just assumed they’d missed the start or something. It was only afterward when I watched the TV that I saw it was the world champion who had fallen and gone past me.

“That’s when I uploaded my footage to my computer to check it out, and saw it was him that overtook me. It’s not everyday a world champion overtakes you! His performance was amazing, catching up so quick and running such a quick time in those conditions. It’s a pity we will never know what he would have run if he hadn’t fallen.”

Kamworor ran 59:10 for a 26-second victory.

Williams, a physical therapist, raised £1500 (about $2,150) for Velindre Cancer Centre, based in Cardiff. And Superman is in the record books.

Sarah Lorge Butler Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005.

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