Guinness World Records gave him a target of 2 hours and 15 minutes. Matthew Akpan beat it by 28 minutes — while wearing a full football referee kit.

  • 1 hour 47 minutes — his finishing time at the 2026 AJ Bell Great North Run
  • 2:15:00 — the target Guinness set for a new record attempt
  • 8 Guinness World Records set in 6 years
  • 37 years old, from Leeds, diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in 2013

The record, confirmed after the Great North Run on Sunday, September 13, is for the fastest half marathon run dressed as a referee — Akpan's take on a "World Cup idea," referees being as central to football as the players themselves.

From John Cena to the whistle

Akpan's record-breaking run started almost by accident. In 2021, he combined his love of running with his love of WWE wrestling to complete a marathon dressed as John Cena, finishing in 2:56:48 as a tribute to his father, who had died of kidney failure earlier that year.

"I thought it was going to be one and done, but it's become an annual tradition now," he has said. Since then he's added records for fastest half marathon dressed as a wrestler, fastest man with an intellectual impairment over both the half marathon and full marathon distances, and now the referee record — his eighth overall.

"No matter what label or what condition you have, you can be measured to anyone else in the world." — Matthew Akpan

Running as structure, not just sport

Akpan was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in 2013, after speech and language difficulties were first identified at primary school. He's spoken about failing his second year at university and feeling like something was "holding him back" before the diagnosis gave him a framework to understand himself.

Running became the opposite of that feeling. "My life became structured around the running, and that's where it was invaluable," he has said. "If the running needs are sorted, then other things are not less important, but a bit easier to manage."

He now works as a teaching assistant and learning mentor at a school for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, using his own record-breaking as a way to show students that a diagnosis is a starting point, not a ceiling.

Racing for more than the record

Each costume run has doubled as a fundraiser. Akpan has raised money for the National Autistic Society and several other charities since 2021, using the novelty of each record attempt to pull in sponsors and attention that a standard training run wouldn't get.

He was also one of a record 59,830 finishers at this year's London Marathon, where he set his intellectual-impairment record in a time he admits was his slowest marathon ever — run through late-spring heat he found "more difficult" because of how autism affects his sensitivity to crowds and disruption.

With eight records now behind him, Akpan has already said breaking one has simply become his annual tradition — whatever the costume turns out to be next year.

Sources: Leeds Live and BBC News.