5 Men in Caterpillar Costume, Including UIndy Photographer, Break Mini-Marathon Record

There was a confirmed caterpillar sighting at this year’s 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, and it was moving fast.

UIndy photographer Zachary Davenport was part of a five-person team that ran a half-marathon in a caterpillar costume, setting a world record for the fastest time in the category. The group had previously set a Guinness World Record for the same feat in a four-man costume.

We sat down with Davenport, who occupied the middle of the caterpillar, to break down the impressive achievement that required coordination from head to tail.

What sparked this idea?

Originally, the idea came from Zach Burton, who was at the front of the caterpillar both times we’ve done it. He was scrolling on Instagram one day at work and saw that someone attempted it and failed. So he texted the other guys and me at 5 a.m. one morning and asked, “Hey, do you want to break a world record?” I said yes, and then I went back to bed. I woke up thinking, “Are you guys being serious?” They were being super serious. 

Why a caterpillar?

It was the cheapest five-person thing we could buy on Amazon. It was $50. I said we should have done the Slinky Dog from Toy Story.

Did the caterpillar look more like a slinky at times during the race? 

During the race, this one especially, it became terror.  If someone’s not running fast enough, you end up beside them. So if you watch the end of the race, we kind of made a horseshoe. When I crossed the line, I almost fell over. 

Were you the center of attention during the race?

There were 35,000 people in the race. And throughout the 13.1 miles, there are people all along the whole track. Every single person said, “Hey, we saw you on Instagram. We saw you on the news.” 
It’s like you’re a small celebrity

Running 13.1 miles is hard enough for one person. What’s it like running it as a five-man unit? 

Coming from a running background, it’s not as hard as you’d think. When I was running collegiately, every second of every day, when you’re in a race, you’re shoulder-to-shoulder and rubbing elbows. For this, I had more room in this costume than in many of the collegiate races I had.  

Which spot of the caterpillar has the worst job?

The middle. And I was in the middle. You have the weight of two other guys pulling on you at all times. The front just sets the pace, and the back follows. But in the middle, if I get tired, I’m either getting dragged or getting pulled down. It’s one or the other. 

Was there a lot of practice in the costume, or did you wing it?

The morning of the race was the first time we ever tried on the costume. When we did the four-man one, we did one jog in the costume because a news outlet wanted coverage of us. 

How long did it take you guys to finish the half-marathon? 

It took us 1 hour, 31 minutes and 50 seconds. When I was training collegiately, my fastest half-marathon training was 1 hour and 24 minutes.

So the caterpillar only made an 8-minute difference?

Yeah, it’s pretty good when you think about it. Running by yourself, you’re in your own head and you have to pace yourself. Running by yourself is a mind trick, but running in a group is just having fun. 

It may seem like a joke, but you must feel a sense of accomplishment, right?

It does when you finish and get the record. But if you read the group chat, it’s always just an ongoing joke. 
Are we really doing this? Or are we just joking about it? We’re even doing a full documentary on it. 
We have interviews, testimonials and a camera team following us at the track.
But if you watch the whole thing, you’ll see we weren’t taking this seriously at all. When I was training in college, I was running 90 miles a week. For this, some weeks I did maybe five. 

What’s next? A six-man caterpillar?

Nope, we’re all retiring. It takes a lot of time to get people together for marketing events and for news outlets takes a lot of coordination. I’m sorry to the guys, because I was late to every single event by 15 to 45 minutes. Every single one.