- Rekindling her love for hula hooping, Jenny Doan, 35 from Melbourne, Vic, challenged herself to hoop for 100 hours.
- Hooping around the clock, Jenny could even keep a hoop going while eating brekkie, reading a book or watching TV.
- Since then, Jenny has gone on to break a total of three Guinness World Records!
Here Jenny tells her story in her own words.
Circling my hips round and round to keep the hula hoop spinning, I took a bite of a banana.
‘Ten hours down, 10 to go,’ I smiled.
It was June 2019, and two months ago I’d made the move from Perth to Chicago in the US to work as a data analyst.
Navigating life in a new city was tricky at first, as I missed my family and friends back home.
If only I had a hula hoop, I’d thought one day, wanting ways to keep busy.
‘You Aussies are crazy.’
I’d loved hooping as a child and had recently rekindled my passion while travelling.
So I got my hands on some hula hoops and, before I knew it, I was racking up the hours, hooping before and after work each day.
I could even keep a hoop going while eating brekkie or reading a book.
‘You Aussies are crazy,’ my roommates Chris and Mackenzie laughed while I hooped through all eight of the Fast and Furious films, which we watched over several movie nights.
In July that year, I had an idea. What if I broke a world record?
Researching online for hula hooping records, I discovered the longest time stood at 74 hours and 54 minutes.
I think I can beat that...
Starting with a challenge to hoop every day for 16 weeks, by the end I was hooping up to 50 hours a week.
Setting myself a goal to hoop for 100 hours, I spent the next four months training.
I practised with five hoops of different sizes and weights during the week, and at the gym focused on cardio and interval training for stamina.
On weekends, I focused on endurance, hooping for up to 50 hours, while taking sleep breaks each night.
I also saw a podiatrist, who recommended wearing compression socks to prevent lactic acid pooling in my feet, and standing on an anti-fatigue mat while I hooped to take the pressure off my ankles and knees.
Registering my attempt with Guinness World Records, I set the date for November 19, 2019.
‘You’ve got this.’
I found a local bar that agreed to host the five-day event and enlisted witnesses, volunteers and timekeepers.
As the big day neared, I weaned myself off coffee to minimise bathroom breaks and caffeine withdrawals.
Rubbing my eyes awake on November 19, I was racked with nerves.
You’ve got this, I told myself as I made my way to the bar.
Stepping into a 450 gram hoop, I circled my hips in time to music.
To pass the time, I also watched TV and chatted with friends who came to support me.
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Burning around 200 calories an hour, I made sure I had my favourite snacks, including Pringles, muesli bars, chocolate and fruit, in arm’s reach.
Hooping through the night, I video-called family and friends in Oz who were cheering me on from afar.
For every hour hooping, I earned a five-minute break.
But instead of taking them each hour, I saved them up, rewarding myself with a 40-minute nap after hooping consecutively for 26 hours.
During my siesta, I wore compression boots for muscle recovery.
‘Just keep pushing.’
At 50 hours, I started to feel fatigued.
Just keep pushing, I thought, gritting my teeth.
Then at 58 hours, I lost my groove and my hoop dropped to the floor.
Taking one of my banked breaks, I regrouped and got straight back to the task.
By the 64-hour mark, the friction caused by the hoop was causing my hips to bleed.
Thankfully, after a quick outfit change I was able to keep spinning.
Within a few hours though, the lactic acid build-up in my knees was growing unbearable, so my roommates Chris and Mackenzie took turns massaging my muscles, and I wore knee braces for the rest of the attempt.
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Wincing through the pain and delirium, I was spurred on seeing donations pour in for the charity, Mental Health America, that I’d chosen having suffered depression after my sister, Lindy, died in 2002, aged 15.
Watching the clock tick over to 100 hours on November 23, my heart burst with excitement as I let the hoop crash to the floor. It’d travelled approximately 349km around my waist!
I now held the record for longest marathon hula hooping.
‘I did it,’ I beamed.
And I’d raised $11,000.
Proud but exhausted, I celebrated my incredible achievement with a well-earned sleep.
It took four days for the swelling in my legs to go down.
‘We’re so proud of you,’ my parents Thu, then 56, and Van, 62, said.
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Six years on, I’ve since snagged two more records – most stairs climbed while hula hooping, which saw me ascend 10,241 steps in May 2022, and most hula hoops spun while suspended upside down that same weekend, where I balanced 23 hoops as I hung from a monkey bar at the gym.
This January, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), which was difficult to come to terms with.
I’ve had to give up hula hooping for now, but I’m focusing on things I can do – like long distance running, with a goal to run across Australia.
But if becoming a world record breaker has taught me anything, it’s that you don’t have to be the strongest or fastest, you just have to be the one that doesn’t stop.
Now a motivational speaker, I share my story in hopes of inspiring people to go after their wildest dreams.
