A runner dressed as a Transformer has broken a Guinness World Record at the London Marathon.
Matt Batchelor, 45, feared he would lose his left leg two years ago when he was diagnosed with a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT).
On Sunday, he donned an Optimus Prime costume and smashed the Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon run dressed as a 3D toy.
A childhood fan of Transformers from Milton Keynes, he ran a time of 4:19:23, beating the previous record held by Tom Coates, who wore a Buzz Lightyear costume, by 34 minutes.
“It was absolutely incredible; the whole thing was amazing,” Matt said.
“I really wanted to take it in and enjoy the day. I ran it in 2019, and I took it quite seriously, so I did not take it all in. This time I did: I read the signs, I high-fived so many people.
“I just let the fans do all the work. The support from volunteers and the crowd was just phenomenal, they carried me the whole way through.”
In April 2024, Matt spent eight excruciating days in Milton Keynes Hospital, thinking he was to be transferred for an amputation.
Fortunately, instead of amputation, he had emergency keyhole surgery in Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, which removed the clot, and he had two stents inserted.
“They couldn’t seem to stop the pain any other way, so I spent the night and the journey over to John Radcliffe Hospital preparing myself for the amputation and I made the decision I was going to have a robot leg, instead of a prosthetic, even if I had to custom make it myself,” Matt said.
He made a swift recovery, completing a hundred-mile race just six months later; however, the femoral vein in his left leg has collapsed and the leg is constantly swollen, leaving him much slower than he used to be.
Matt said: “When I was at my darkest point, I thought, right, I am going to lose my leg, what positives can come out of this? Well, I could have a robot leg – I’ll be like a Transformer.”
That thought became the inspiration for his world record attempt.
Matt has raised over £2,000 for Thrombosis UK, a charity which helped him in the aftermath of his surgery and works to prevent loss of life and suffering as a result of DVT, which is a blood clot that forms in a deep vein, often in the legs.
He said the ordeal completely changed his relationship with pain: “What was once a seven on the pain scale is now a two.”
And that came in handy on the weekend.
“For the first 10k I was so uncomfortable, yet no part of me thought I was not going to be able to make it,” he said.
“I thought, this is going to be painful, but I might as well get on with it – it is nothing compared to the DVT.”
Much to Matt’s surprise and amusement, the DJ at the finish line noticed he was dressed as the Autobot Supreme Commander and played the transforming noise from the generation one cartoon he watched when he was young.
The epic day was capped off with a fist bump from fellow world-record breaker, Sebastian Sawe, who ran the first official sub-two-hour marathon in history.
Matt thinks this will be his sole record-breaking mission, but admits he could be tempted back into the suit if Buzz Lightyear were to return next year to beat his time.
Featured image credit: Matt Batchelor
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