Wake Forest Athletics
Deacon Sports Xtra: Estwanik’s Unusual Guinness World Record
4/12/2021 12:35:00 PM | Track and Field, Les Johns
Former Wake Forest runner Chris Estwanik owns the Guinness World Record for fastest half marathon while wearing a suit.
It all started with a friendly wager on a flight to New York City.
Now Wake Forest track and field alum Chris Estwanik owns the Guinness World Record for fastest half marathon. . .while wearing a suit.
He set the record at the NYC Half, on March 19, 2017, wearing a two-piece suit along with Nike running shoes, finishing 55th at 1:11:36.
"I'm a sucker for the drink (Dark and Stormy) and I love a good challenge," Estwanik said. "So we did it and that was that. Then it went viral. I'm a pretty serious guy at heart, it's probably the only thing in my life I've ever done that's a bit uncharacteristic like that.
"But it was fun and it was meant to be a lighthearted opportunity to still enjoy the sport and just have some fun as opposed to being so pressure packed like much of my career has been."
The world record is quite whimsical for such a serious athlete. Estwanik was a three-time ACC Champion while at Wake Forest, claiming distance medley relay crowns in both 2001 and 2002 while also winning the 3000m in 2002. He earned All-ACC honors seven times for his track and field and cross country efforts with the Demon Deacons.
"At Division 1 level, you run cross country in the fall, you run Indoor track in the winter, and you run outdoor track in the spring," Estwanik explained. "I've always told people that, yes, I had some downtime at Wake Forest, but effectively I was meant to be game ready all three seasons, four years in a row.
"That sort of pressure or the hard work and the effort that I had to continuously put in, has prepared me for the real world, because you're effectively working a full-time job while you're in college."
When Estwanik was looking for the right college, he took a recruiting trip along with four other prospects — all five ended up committing to Wake Forest on that visit.
"The clincher for me really was the comradery on the team and the atmosphere at Wake," he said. "It felt like the right fit for me, because it was a reasonable size university. Actually at the time, we were the second smallest D1 university besides Rice University in Texas. But we were a small school with a big-time feel, particularly in sports."
"And then there was just the right mix of coaching and athletes and friends that quite frankly, I made in a two-day recruiting trip, which sounds crazy. But everybody that was on that trip with me, we all committed to Wake. Wake had recruited a number of athletes in my area in Ohio, and I was fortunate to have success with them."
The experience at Wake Forest paid dividends in the classroom and on the field, and set Estwanik up for a successful future.
"Wake Forest delivered me lifelong friends, and that phenomenal experience with them afforded me the opportunity to balance athletics and academics," he said. "I was able to socialize, but I couldn't just let myself go completely when I was still there. I had responsibilities as does any athlete there. So when you get into the real world, it wasn't that hard of a transition."
Estwanik has now been impacted by two tragedies that impacted the running community — the bombing at the Boston Marathon in 2013 and the current global pandemic.
He finished in 21st place overall in the Boston Marathon, running it in 2:19.55.
"By all accounts, I had a great day," Estwanik said. "I exceeded my expectations, I exceeded my goals, and that lasted for an hour and a half. And then tragedy happened and it woke you up to the real world and this little mini goal of running a fast race is so small in the grand scheme of things."
In the shocking aftermath of what transpired that grim day, Estwanik said he actually witnessed the best in humanity, as people bonded together to make it through uncertain times and circumstances.
"You saw a comradery of brotherhood and sisterhood where people were taking care of each other emotionally and physically," he said. "I think at the time I got actually trapped in a restaurant for about six hours. And because I had been one of the early finishers, I had my wallet, my cell phone and I had showered and was warm."
"There were many others in the same situation, as they just got shoved into this restaurant when they pulled their way off the streets, when the bombs were going off and they had no food, no money and no clothes because everything had been stuck behind the finish line. So people were buying dinners and lunches and giving people cell phones so they could contact their family to tell them they were safe."
Now he's seeing how the interruptions in normal daily life have impacted the running community through the Covid-19 crisis.
"I feel like I'm so blessed to still be out there doing it," he said. "I feel horrible for — pick your age brackets, whether it's the developing high school athlete who's trying to get a scholarship to Wake Forest for athletics, or a Demon Deacon that's finishing out their career and have had this interruption."
Timing and injuries prevented Estwanik from competing in the Olympics, but he's recently been asked to help train a runner back in Bermuda, where he's lived since 2007 — serving as Senior Vice President at Validus Reinsurance, Ltd.
He still holds the record for fastest half marathon in a suit, but believes it will eventually be broken.
"I think there's been a few who've taken a stab at it and it'll get smashed for sure by somebody," Estwanik said. "I was in pretty good shape at that point, but if somebody really put their mind to it, I think it's very gettable. But it was a fun experience for sure."
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