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Local unicyclist “joggles” way into record books
By Benjamin Witte
Last week, 24-year-old Zach Warren, a Harvard Divinity School (HDS) student and one-time Somerville resident – he still frequents the city on his unicycle – finished the Boston Marathon in just under three hours. Not bad at all for an amateur participating in just his fourth full marathon. What’s even more impressive is that during all 26.2 miles of the grueling event, Warren steadily juggled three yellow balls. In fact, with a final time of 2:58:23, Warren broke the old world record – his own – for “joggling,” which is exactly what it sounds like: jogging while juggling.
Afterwards, said Warren, “My body felt like a cross between the Tin Man and Gumby. I was pretty beat. But incredibly relieved. Then I had to do a whole bunch of interviews and I was exhausted. I slobbered on to their microphones.”
The interviews – and they’re still coming – have been with every media outlet from CNN to National Public Radio to ESPN. It seems everyone wants a piece of the joggling superstar. But what makes Warren’s story so fascinating isn’t just his newly established place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Just as interesting are the reasons behind his historic joggle, experiences that also motivate him to be the world’s fastest unicyclist, and the planet’s best unicycle-riding juggler.
Warren, a native of West Virginia, began juggling while attending a small college in Indiana. At first it was just something to do for fun, though quickly the pastime became a real passion. “I picked it up,” he said, “as a way to procrastinate from doing my school work and then procrastination turned into a discipline.” Soon the HDS scholar took his show on the road, performing gigs locally. That summer he traveled to Ireland, where his juggling antics continued to attract crowds. While busking his way around the Emerald Isle, something else extraordinary happened. Warren became involved with a group of special needs adults. It was an eye-opening experience that revealed to him the socially empowering potential of juggling and other circus arts.
It was in that spirit that Warren traveled this past summer to war-torn Afghanistan, where he was invited to teach circus arts in Kabul. The now famous joggler worked with an alternative non-governmental organization (NGO) that operates a “mobile mini circus.” The group, which performs in the Afghani capital but also tours the country, uses circus arts to promote public health messages: malaria and diarrhea prevention, land mine awareness and nutrition.
“Hundreds of kids show up every day voluntarily,” he said. “The turnout at a circus show is just incredible. They attract more people, kids and adults, than any other NGO in the country by far.”
Packed like sardines into a small van, with a circus tent tethered on top, Warren and the rest of the troupe traveled Afghanistan’s ‘Silk Road.’ Performances, he explained, were unscheduled yet incredibly well attended. “No other event in Afghanistan brings people together in the same place at the same time on such short notice to watch the same message with such a positive enthusiasm. It’s really an effective way of doing health care work and country development in a third world country.”
Warren returns to Afghanistan in June. This second trip will be a lot more research oriented. Following up on a project he began there last summer, the 24-year-old unicyclist will, among other things, be measuring children’s laughter patterns, studying the impact of a circus intervention on how much kids laugh and smile. “Ultimately what I want to do with that information,” he said, “is find out if there is a way we can use measurements of laughter and smiling as an indicator of health – a standard of public health measurement.”
Most of Warren’s traveling expenses have been covered by HDS grants. But money to run the mobile Afghani circus itself is tight. With that in mind, Warren started brainstorming fundraising strategies, which led in turn to the idea of long-distance joggling. “I started a quest to break some world records for the circus,” he said. “One a unicycle, one juggling. And I’m thinking about one that’s juggling on a unicycle. Something that’s fanciful, something imaginative, something creative and something circusy.”
Warren soon stumbled across the name Michael Kapral, who in addition to being Canada’s top marathoner – his personal best is 2:32 – and also the fastest man ever to run a marathon while pushing a baby in a stroller, was until recently the world’s fastest joggler. “I decided to go for his record,” said Warren.
On Nov. 20, 2005 the upstart joggler suited up for the Philadelphia Marathon. He finished the race is 3:07:46. Mission accomplished. By a margin of just 41 seconds, Warren had broken Kapral’s world record mark. Since then the two men have developed a serious yet friendly rivalry. On Kapral’s insistence, last week’s Boston Marathon was to be a “joggling duel.” “It was the first time,” said Warren, “there had ever been a joggling duel between the two world record holders.”
Their first in-person meeting came on the morning of the race. The rivals agreed to run the first part of the Marathon together, pacing each other. But around mile 15, Warren picked things up a bit. While Kapral took a more conservative approach to the hilly portion of the race, Warren went flat out, finishing the event a good eight minutes ahead of his competitor. He also broke his old world record mark by a stunning eight-and-a-half minutes. “He’s fast,” Warren said of his Canadian rival. “He has a heart of gold and he is a very worth competitor.”
The joggling champ now has his sights set on another record – speed unicycling. The man who holds that record, for the most miles in one hour (15.94), is Ken Looi. Warren’s already made one attempt at Looi’s record, traveling all the way to Fargo, N.D. with his custom-built unicycle. That mission, said Warren, was both a failure and a success. Do to technical difficulties, he explained, “I didn’t break the record, but I know I can. That’s what I established.” This coming August he plans to return to North Dakota for a second attempt.
In the meantime, expect to see Warren unicycling around Somerville, where he used to live before moving 400 yards away to Cambridge. He still has one year before he completes his priesthood training at HDS. Eventually he’d like to go for a Ph.D. in psychology.
“I still ride my unicycle all over Somerville,” said Warren. “So if someone sees me riding my unicycle, please tell them I’m sorry if I’m obstructing traffic. But don’t run me over. That’s how I get around. Someone stole my bike, so that’s all I got.”
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