George Scholey, a British speedcuber ranked among the U.K.'s fastest Rubik's Cube solvers, added a new line to his Guinness World Records résumé on Oct. 12 in Toronto, setting what he and Guinness recognize as the fastest mile completed while solving the puzzle along the way. His time: 5 minutes, 9.25 seconds.
The format required Scholey to solve a cube, run a lap, solve another, and repeat — with the clock running continuously — until he had solved four cubes and covered a full mile. "Four cubes. One mile. Clock running the whole time," he wrote on Instagram after the attempt, thanking the friends who paced, filmed and timed him. Verifying a Guinness title of this kind requires submitting footage, witness statements and timing data for review, a process that can take weeks.
Scholey, who has competed in World Cube Association events since 2015 and has solved a standard 3-by-3 cube in as little as 4.91 seconds — good for seventh-fastest single solve in the U.K. — has built a niche career pairing competitive running with competitive cubing. He already holds Guinness titles for the most cubes solved on a moving skateboard (500) and the most solved in 24 hours (6,931, set in a London hotel room in 2022, breaking a mark held since 2013 by Canada's Eric Limeback).
His running-and-cubing hybrid record isn't limited to the mile. At the 2024 London Marathon, Scholey solved roughly 520 cubes over the course, collecting freshly scrambled puzzles from checkpoints every two miles and finishing in 4 hours 25 minutes. That marathon mark has since been surpassed: Spain's Toti Moragas Pardell solved 561 cubes during the Barcelona marathon, a reminder that the small, odd discipline of endurance speedcubing has quietly become competitive in its own right.
Elite solvers can complete a standard cube in under six seconds under ideal conditions; doing it mid-sprint, with an elevated heart rate and no chance to steady one's hands, is a different test altogether. Scholey's Toronto mile now stands as the mark to beat.
