Meet The Man Who Ran A Marathon While Knitting A Scarf David Babcock, associate professor of art and design at the University of Central Missouri, not only completed the Kansas City Marathon on Saturday but also a 12-foot scarf. The two feats are impressive enough on their own, but Babcock did them at the same time.

Meet The Man Who Ran A Marathon While Knitting A Scarf

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Now to a good yarn.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

That involves a good deal of yarn, enough to knit a scarf a little more than 12 feet long.

CORNISH: That's a feat in and of itself. But here's the catch: The person who knitted that scarf also ran the Kansas City Marathon on Saturday at the same time.

DAVID BABCOCK: Why? The easy short answer is because I can.

BLOCK: That's David Babcock. He's an associate professor of art and design at the University of Central Missouri.

BABCOCK: It's something I figured out that it was possible to do, and it was a fun challenge, and there actually is a world record for that.

CORNISH: Hold the phone. There's already a record?

BLOCK: There is already a world record, Audie. It is the Guinness World Record for longest scarf knitted whilst running a marathon.

CORNISH: Whilst? Really?

BLOCK: Yeah. That's what it says: knitted whilst running a marathon. A woman in the United Kingdom currently holds the record for a scarf that's six feet, 8.7 inches long. Mr. Babcock's scarf is nearly twice that length, but he has yet to submit his application to Guinness for confirmation.

CORNISH: So whilst running with scissors is still frowned upon, running with knitting needles gets you a spot in the record books.

BLOCK: And, of course, a full-body scarf.

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