One Royal Caribbean guest sailed straight into the Guinness World Records after running the fastest marathon distance run on a ship in December 2024.
Shane Wood's New Year's cruise on Ovation of the Seas was more than just a holiday vacation with his family.
While sailing in the Tasman Sea from Sydney, Australia, to New Zealand, Wood attempted to break the world record for the fastest marathon distance run (completed by a male).
He crossed the "finish line" in record time, completing the marathon in just 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 47 seconds. In total, he ran 78 laps around the 1,141-foot-long cruise ship and had an overall pace of 4 minutes and 10 seconds per lap.
While the Ovation of the Seas feat earned him a Guinness World Records title, it wasn’t his fastest marathon to date; he completed the 2024 Melbourne Marathon in 2 hours, 39 minutes, and 14 seconds.
It also wasn't the first time he had ever run a marathon on a cruise ship. While sailing on a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2023, he impulsively decided to run a full marathon on a port day in Noumea when the vessel was empty.
"I've always looked for things to motivate my training and challenge myself, and this felt like one of those moments," he said in an exclusive interview with Royal Caribbean Blog.
His friend mentioned that he might have broken the unofficial record for the fastest marathon run on a ship.
Curious, he did some digging and eventually contacted Guinness World Records. It took over one year to get the attempt registered and to work through the logistics, but it gave his training more of a purpose.
After completing a marathon in October 2024, Wood took a few weeks to recover before hyperfocusing on preparing for the world record attempt on his holiday cruise.
"[I] went straight into a focused two-month marathon training block specifically to prepare for the Gusiness World Record attempt," he recalled.
He already had a solid foundation in place, though. In a normal week, he runs an average of 120 kilometers (~74 miles), so while he had two months of dedicated marathon prep, it wasn't anything he wasn't used to.
Wood added, "[My training] was really built on years of consistent high-volume training."
That consistency started nearly a decade ago, when he first took up running at the age of 45. At the time, his daughter was on her school's rowing team, and they trained as early as 7:00 a.m. After dropping her off, he began walking on the bay's running track. Soon enough, the walks turned into runs, and as her training schedule intensified, he found himself running more often.
What's next for Wood? Since becoming a Guinness World Record holder, he has continued to train and compete in various marathons. However, his main goal is to break the Australian male 55 marathon record of 2 hours, 37 minutes, and 14 seconds — nobody has beaten the time since George McGrath set it in 1975, though John Meagher tied the record in 2018.
"Alongside that, I'm also working to maintain my 3-hour marathon pacer role, which I really enjoy...It's incredibly rewarding to help other runners achieve their goals while staying sharp myself," he said.
You can follow Wood's running journey on his Instagram!
Not the first time Ovation of the Seas has been involved in a Guinness World Record
In 2016, Ovation of the Seas helped earn Royal Caribbean a Guinness World Record for the tallest observation deck on a cruise ship.
The North Star Observation Capsule measured 290 feet and 8 inches above the water line on October 29, 2016, in Hong Kong, China.
That said, Ovation of the Seas wasn't the first cruise ship with this innovative feature. The North Star initially debuted on Quantum of the Seas in 2014. Since then, it's become a Quantum Class staple aboard Quantum, Anthem, Ovation, Spectrum, and Odyssey of the Seas.
The unique observation capsule lifts guests high above the ocean for panoramic, 360-degree views.
