Mom Sets a Lego Record, but Not for Building With Them

Gabrielle Wall knows a thing or two about stepping out of her comfort zone—literally. The 44-year-old mom from Christchurch, New Zealand, set a somewhat painful but undeniably unique world record earlier this year: the fastest barefoot 100-meter run over Lego bricks, clocking in at 24.75 seconds. Guinness World Records confirms it's the first time anyone's sprinted over the notorious colorful foot-punishers at this distance for speed, reports the Washington Post.

Wall's motivation? A health scare a few years back, in which she feared receiving a blood cancer diagnosis, got her rethinking her bucket list. When the dust settled and she was diagnosed with a (thankfully nonfatal) blood disorder, Wall decided to stop procrastinating and get serious about her goals. Topping the list: a world record that her Lego-loving kids might actually think is cool.

Training was as unorthodox as the challenge itself. Wall took barefoot strolls everywhere, from Christmas parties to her brother's wedding, and toughened her feet with daily jumps in a kiddie pool in her garage filled with Lego bricks—sometimes while on work calls. She recruited her son as her whistle-blowing coach and soaked her calloused feet in Epsom salt for recovery. On race day in January, after Wall and a small army of helpers weeded out the very worst Lego pieces (beware the palm trees), she finally lined up to brave the brick gauntlet.

story continues below

The pain was real—Wall finished with a gash near one of her big toes, with a few bricks literally stuck to her feet, and said her feat basically felt like the "world's worst foot massage," per the CBC. But also real was Wall's sense of accomplishment. After the sprint was over, family and friends helped return 660 pounds of Lego to their rightful bins, and Wall finally slipped on her reward: fluffy pink slippers and a bowl of ramen. The CBC notes that the distance record for walking on Legos belongs to Salacnib (Sonny) Molina of Illinois, who traipsed more than 5 1/2 miles on the bricks in 2021.