BREAKING THE SPEED BARRIER
Fastest Painter in the World - At Least for the Time Being!

The Guinness speed record was broken once again on September 1, 2007 and for the first time in the history of recording it was won by someone outside the United Kingdom and someone that was not female. No one was more surprised by the record than I was.  Ken and Lorna Strachan were the primary organisers in setting up the competition that was to be held at the Almondvale Mall in Livingston, Scotland.

A fun time was had by all. The previous record was set by Rosey Jones for speed painting.  She set that record earlier at 113 faces. The Guinness guidelines state that each face must have a full base, have a minimum of three colors and each be different. My earlier record attempt left me at third place behind Liz Bylett and Anne Ardern when I painted 76 faces.  My goal for this attempt was to double my earlier record.  Even that, I thought would be a stretch. I fully expected Anne and Rosey to beat me.

On the day of the event there was concern (rightly so) that there were not going to be enough children to paint.  Anne and Kath who had planned on being part of the competition backed out to keep the event from imploding. That put the reigning champion Rosey up against me the American.
It was all good fun and there was plenty of "trash talking" before the event between foes just to drive up the adrenaline and all the adrenaline was needed as the competition took off with gusto.  In my previous record attempt I did a full face about every 47 seconds and my goal was to cut that down to 24 seconds.  As it started, my back was right up against the barrier and someone was there whom I never identified. 

One was video taping the painting and another was timing me. The first several faces I did in 22 seconds. The lady was shouting out the time per face for some reason. I was very nervous for the first twenty or so faces and then I hit my stride. I started getting them down to 18 seconds, and in the end I averaged a blazing 16.6 seconds per face. That means that many were well under the 16 second mark. When the final countdown ended Rosey had blasted past her 113 record and did an amazing 195 faces but it was not good enough, as I came in at a new record of 217 faces. The final results were adjudicated by Jane Boatfield from Guinness.

No one expected either Rosey or I to go so far beyond the previous record of 113.  I came close to almost tripling my last personal record and doubling the world record. We had both beaten the previous record at about thirty five minutes and the crowds let out a cheer. Again, it was pure mayhem and the whole crowd was cheering us on the whole way.  It was very much a full team effort. No doubt the glory seems to go with the painter but truth be known, the record was to be given to the entire support team.
 
So I know my blazing speed of 16.5 seconds per face is temporary fame in the face painting world as I'm sure Rosey, Anne, Liz or others will be back to reclaim the crown for women in the United Kingdom but for now I get to sit back, chuckle and claim the crown to a male and an American.  It was loads of fun and if you ever get a chance to compete in a speed contest, do it.  Make sure it is well organised as it needs to be set up properly, but that is for another article. See you at the next competition.