A north Dublin man is hoping to break a Guinness World Record on Sunday when he attempts to run the London Marathon while dressed as a postbox.
Matthew Collins will attempt the bizarre record while raising funds for dementia sufferers.
The Portmarnock Running Club man told Dublin Live he is embarking on the madcap run in tribute to his uncle, who suffers from the disease.
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He said: "One of my uncles that I'm very close to, John, he's eight years into dementia.
"He used to be a postman up in Belfast and I thought that dressing up as a postman would be perfect and nice and easy."
But when Matthew applied to Guinness World Records they told him that as he wasn't a postman himself, he could not attempt that particular record.
"Next best step was a postbox," he said.
"So that's how I went from running, to raising a bit of money for dementia, family members, to postbox."
Once the postbox costume was decided upon, Matthew then had to get the final design approved by the record keepers.
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He said: "It's been a pretty detailed journey between applying and getting to this point.
"There's many rejections of costumes and fine tuning and getting the final costume sorted."
Remarkably, this isn't the first time that someone has attempted to complete a marathon while dressed as a postbox.
The current record stands at just over 3:40 but seasoned runner Matthew is quietly confident of beating that time.
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He said: "My personal best is about 2:44 but it's a different beast all together in the postbox.
"It's like running your first marathon again. You're sort of learning how to run again.
"The postbox is above the head, it's below the waist, it's surrounding the body.
"I've been doing a little bit of running in it and it's going to be some endurance test."
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The London Marathon starts at 10am on Sunday, April 28.
Matthew has already raised over €2,000 for dementia sufferers. To donate to his campaign, please click here .
