Picture the bowler you have seen with the longest run-up in cricket history.
Close your eyes. Picture him. Take a closer look. Replay it.
Now delete that image. Forget it. Forever.
Really.
Move on. It’s over.
Why, you ask?
Well, a man named Sam Bodoano, from Surrey in England, has taken the idea of a bowling run-up to an entirely different level.
Bodoano recently ran 100km in 14 hours, covering the distance between the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground in North London and Valley End Cricket Club in Woking.
And he did it for one reason — to bowl the first delivery of a cricket match to his father and attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest bowling run-up (male).
Yes, that really happened.
But this was not simply a case of someone waking up one morning and thinking, ‘Why not?’
There was a much bigger reason behind the incredible effort.
It was all for a cause.
But more on that later.
First, the numbers.
Bodoano began his run at midnight on Saturday, August 29, dressed in full cricket whites and carrying a cricket ball.
Fourteen hours and 100km later, at around 2pm on Sunday, he arrived at Valley End Cricket Club.
Instead of walking into the ground exhausted and calling it a day, he did what he had set out to do.
He took the ball, completed the final stretch of his record-breaking run-up and bowled the first delivery to his father.
In doing so, Bodoano turned what would normally be a few seconds of a bowler running towards the crease into a 100km ultra-marathon.
And there was more to the challenge than just chasing a place in the record books.
Bodoano also raised £6,000 for The Ruth Strauss Foundation, a cancer charity founded by former England captain Andrew Strauss. The foundation was established in memory of Strauss’ wife, Ruth, who died at the age of 46 after battling a rare form of lung cancer.
Speaking after completing the challenge, Bodoano summed up the experience simply.
“I’m very tired, I lost a lot of sleep, but it was all for an amazing cause,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC.
As for the record itself, Bodoano may have to wait a little longer before officially claiming it.
The current men’s record is held by Tom Dunn, who covered 24km in August 2024.
Bodoano has gone much further, but his achievement is not official yet.
A Guinness World Records spokesperson told the BBC that the organisation needs to review the evidence submitted before recognising the achievement.
“That review can take about two weeks, depending on the evidence submitted, so at this stage we wouldn’t be able to officially recognise the achievement,” the spokesperson said.
So, for now, Bodoano will have to wait.
But whether Guinness World Records eventually puts his name in the record books or not, one thing is already certain.
That was one hell of a run-up.
