• Records should be measurable and achievable. Records that are "firsts" or "onlys" will not be included, as these are not records that can be beaten.

• Our book is about unusual records that are a challenge for others to beat. For this reason, general knowledge records ("fastest train") or records that are most likely the result of good or bad luck instead of training ("most kidney stones removed") will not be considered.

• The record should be absolute. Age-class restricted records or just national records are not considered. Special women's records will be considered only in some sports.

• Records for the most people doing something at the same place will only be considered if the common activity produces a result (for example "most people playing an accordion" results in a piece of music - or at least a noise, where as the most wearing a red nose achieves no end result).

• We do not publish records that are against the law ('youngest person to drive a car on a public street'), dangerous or unhealthy ('drinking most beer within 24 hours') or just tasteless ('eating earthworms').

• In particular, records related to piercing, tattooing or smashing stones on the chest (or wherever else) will not be published.

• A record category should not be too special. For example, the 'longest banner' will be welcome, but 'the longest banner with Bible texts written by children' would be far too special.

• For largest collections, duplications do not count. Also, we cannot publish records for "largest collection of XYZ memorabilia / photos", because there are too much pop groups, football players, films and characters that can take the place of XYZ. The same applies for collections of animal figures.

• Largest and smallest objects must look like scaled-up / scaled down versions of the normal-sized object. They must be fully operational, exactly as the normal object. (For example, it must be possible to play the smallest piano or to ride the biggest bicycle.) If you break a record for some largest item, your object should beat the current record in all seizes (length, width, height.)

• Largest food items can be made in different parts, but the final product must look like a single item. (Just laying together many cakes on a table does not count as the largest cake.) The same receipt as for a normal food item should be used.

• For endurance marathons, 5 minutes break per completed hour will be allowed, but no substitutions or rotation of different team members in shifts.

• Only a very small number of travel-related records can be accepted. While we have included for example the fastest time for motorcycling the Pan-American highway, we are unable to verify all possible place-to-place, round-a-country or visiting-all-states records. There would be by far too many of them.

• Darts: Longest distance from which a bulls-eye was thrown (the dart should remain in the board).

• Roller-skating on hands (fastest time for 50 metres).

• Longest slot-car race (marathon, most hours).

• Playing pool underwater (fastest time for potting all 15 balls, which should be made from metal.)

• Most faces painted by a face painter in a single session

• Underwater Domino toppling (longest/most dominoes used)

• Clothes peg pressing (between thumb and index finger) for the longest time (e-mail us for information about the standard peg.)

• Marathon: Longest dark-ride in an amusement park (5 minutes pause per hour permitted)

• Table tennis balls: Most held underwater for ten seconds, using one hand and forearm only

• Hopping: 100 meter one-leg hop in the fastest time
• Hopping: The least one-leg hops over the distance of one mile
• Furthest distance to flick a pea from a table (table height restrictions apply)

• Stapling: The fastest time to staple one hundred sets of 2 pages together using 6mm 26/6 staples and manual stapler.

• Game marathons: most hours playing Mikado, mah-jong (for both categories, no record exists so far) or your favourite game.

• Running 10 km (or Marathon if you prefer...) wearing frog-man's flippers

• Juggling three objects while blindfolded for the longest time

• World Marathon Fitness Challenge, consisting of:
  - 10 mile treadmill run - Marathon distance on an indoor cycle (setting 100 kW) - 5 miles on an elliptical walker - 2,000 star jumps - 4,000 sit-up crunches - 1,500 military bench press-ups - 5 mile speed march carrying a 40-lb back pack - 2 mile swim - Weight lifting: Bench press a total of 250,000 lbs. 10,000 metre rowing using a rowing machine that meets FISA standards for racing

There are many, many more records. Use your imagination and the records in our book as a guide. Before attempting any of the records above, or within the book, please contact us for the complete record guidelines.