Mike Wardian Wins Marathon In Elvis Costume, Breaks Record

This story is about the king of Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas—aka how Mike Wardian smashed the record for fastest marathon ever in an Elvis costume…and also won the whole race.

This year, Wardian ran all of the World Marathon Majors and set the record for the fastest time running all six marathons in one year. But it wasn’t over yet. He celebrated by going for one more world record: fastest marathon ever in an Elvis costume.

Wardian successfully beat the previous record with a time of 2:38:04. The previous record was 2:42:52, run by Ian Sharman of the UK at the 2009 Seattle Marathon on November 29.

The keys to Wardian’s success?

“One of the most important things when doing these challenges is to prepare. You have to go and do the work. That’s what makes running awesome, if you don’t do the work, you don’t get the result.” For Mike, this involved running in his race day costume, which got some looks. Picture a tall, thin guy in full Elvis garb, running around Washington, D.C.-area, and at what is a very fast pace for most runners.

Wardian also simulated the race day scenario in other ways. “One of the things I did was practice with the nutrition that was on course.” In this case, that meant using Gatorade Endurance formula. Additionally, because the GEICO Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas race takes place in the evening, this meant that Wardian did some of his training in the evenings to acclimate to the unusual timing.

“It’s always been a goal of mine to see exactly how far I can go, how much I can push and how fast I can get. I hope I inspire people to go out and dream a little bigger and stretch from what they are comfortable with.”