In February, I wrote about Jon Eggert Gudmundsson, a 50-year old Iceland native living in Cutler Bay who was attempting to do the longest triathlon and get into the Guinness Book of World Records.
Well, mission accomplished! The old record was 190 km (118.06 miles) swimming, 4408 km (2739 miles) cycling and 1078 km (669.83 miles) running – a total of 5,676 km. Jon smashed that with a 7746 km total (260 km swimming, 6598 km in biking and 1598 km running)!
Jon isn’t what most people would envision as an athlete. His frame would certainly have you think otherwise. I observed decent weight loss from just before he started, but Jon thought not, “I am about the same weight as when I started… too much.”
Jon officially finished his triathlon on August 27, 2018, but it will take around a year to get it recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. “I have to provide them with about 27 terabytes of video and data,” explained Jon. “Then they need to verify it all.” He’s proud (or crazy) to remind me that he biked through days of Hurricane Irma wind and rain, as well as other harsh weather events, in order to comply with the triathlon requirements of continuous days.
Jon isn’t stopping in his physical quests. Next up is training to compete in the oldest amateur cycling event on earth, the Paris–Brest–Paris race. It started in 1891.
Jon dedicated his triathlon efforts to Wheel Heroes, a non-profit who assists kids that are unable to ride bikes due to mental or physical disabilities by designing, custom-ordering and delivering bicycles for their needs wheelheroes.co. “I hope that I can raise awareness for Wheel Heroes,” says Gudmundsson in a thick Icelandic accent. “That would be really awesome.”
Jaime Gough Way
Fourteen years ago, at Southwood Middle School, a student bent on a serial killer future stabbed 14-year old Jaime Gough to death. The killer had a hit-list of other students. Among them was Andre Martin, who likely survived only because he forgot to meet Jaime that fateful day. The killer was caught and is currently in jail serving a life sentence.
Fast forward to today, where Martin, inspired by the event, became a Miami-Dade Police Officer in 2017. “That day was definitely life-altering,” Martin said. “My goal ever since that day was to take a phenomenally tragic event and turn it into something positive. So, in my particular case, I did that by becoming an officer.”
The Goughs, school and Palmetto Bay officials, and about 50 others gathered on September 20th to unveil a street sign in his honor. A portion of SW 164th Street is now known as Jaime Gough Way. “Even though my son is not here, you don’t have any idea how much this means to my family, especially me,” said mother Maria Gough.
Real Estate Update
As of October 19th, the Pinecrest market is heading back toward a neutral bias. Homes listed over $1M are at 10 months of inventory. A healthy $1M+ market has 6-9 months of supply.
If you’re ready to move, let me assist you with local expertise, realistic expectations and solid guidance to get you to wherever ‘next’ is. It’s easy to get started at miamihal.com/myvalue.
Hal Feldman (MiamiHal) is a Realtor with RE/MAX Advance Realty. You can contact him with your story ideas or real estate questions at www.MiamiHal.com, Hal@MiamiHal.com or www.facebook.com/MiamiHal.
