Ben Duong knew he had won the Austin Half Marathon last year before he even crossed the finish line. He wasn’t the first runner to finish the race, but he would officially be the fastest person in the world to run a half while dribbling a ball.
“I remember for the rest of that day, I was shaking,” said Duong, who finished the race in 1 hour, 21 minutes and 38 seconds. “Most people just thought I was cold because it was 37 degrees outside, but I was shaking because I was in absolute disbelief.”
Now, a year later, Duong is leveling up. He’ll be running the full Austin Marathon this weekend with a basketball in hand, once again aiming to break the Guinness World Record.
Duong is running with the support of his friends and family, but he’s also backed by his favorite professional basketball team. The San Antonio Spurs are sponsoring Duong for the second time after celebrating his win last February.
“The Spurs mascot was at the finish line,” Duong recalled. “The Coyote came running up to hug me while jumping around in circles as well, sharing the excitement.”
The current record for the marathon challenge is 2 hours, 50 minutes and 33 seconds. Duong said he’s pretty confident he can beat that based on last year’s half-marathon time, which clocked in at a pace of a little over six minutes per mile. For those who aren’t familiar with running, that’s really fast.
One of the biggest challenges is making sure he adheres to all official Guinness guidelines. Duong said he has to find people to run with him and record his dribbling the entire time to comply with the rules, but most people aren’t eager to commit to 26.2 miles of running at a record-breaking pace.
“The ball must be traveling at all times while moving,” Duong explained, reading the official guidelines. “If control of the ball is lost, traveling must restart from the exact point of loss. Legal dribbling rules apply, traveling or double dribbling is prohibited, and a basketball referee must witness and verify the attempt.”
Duong is a seasoned competitive runner but doesn’t consider himself a serious basketball player. He said his training has consisted of running 5 to 6 days a week while dribbling so he could get his body used to the pace needed to break the world record.
“The Austin Marathon course is particularly hilly,” Duong said. “I drive around the suburbs and the neighborhoods of the city to find explicitly hilly segments and hilly roads and just dribble that ball up and down the hill.”
Going into race weekend, Duong is focused on staying positive and embracing the challenge. He said he’ll arrive at the start line early to settle in, take deep breaths and thank the people who got him there.
“For me to be taking this on seems so random and so out of the blue,” Duong said. “It definitely provides a new challenge and something to be motivated for. I would say my lack of basketball background is not a weakness, but a strength.”
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