Ran 1K in 2:04 - now Ben Robinson is aiming for another world record

At this weekend's Mushing Ólvega Open - Virtual Race, Ben Robinson and his dog Zuma ran one kilometer at the incredible time of 2:04, beating Anthony Le Moigne's previous record on the distance with one second.

The official World record on the distance, without a dog, is 2:11:96. Noah Ngeny from Kenya set this record in 1999.

- We did not specifically prepare for this 1-kilometer attempt. I only took part in the virtual race of our friend Jorge in Spain. But once involved, the goal was to try and challenge the mark I had previously made with Blake of 2:08. This is the first Zuma passes the mark of his father.

New World record in canicross?

Ben also has an unofficial World record on 5 kilometers at 12:24, set in 2017. At that time, he ran with Blake.

- My next goal will be to test where Zuma is on a longer distance next weekend, again mindful of his father's 12:24. I hope we can challenge that record very soon! After this, we will possibly finish June with the 1-kilometer races.

If you want to challenge Ben and Zuma in a virtual race, check out this calendar.

Motivation

With the difficult situation of lockdown surrounding us all and the loss of many races, the virtual races have been very important for Ben to stay motivated.

- For me, this has been two-part. Firstly taking the opportunity of no interruptions with race schedules to put a consistent block of training together, as well as using the opportunity to compete my dogs against one another in various time trial training runs. All the time being mindful that races will return and I want to ensure I'm in the best possible shape for them with my dogs.

If you want to learn more about how the world's fastest canicross duo are training, you can read this article and listen to the podcast episode with Ben.