Rob Immel thought he was through with marathon dodgeball matches after setting a Guinness World Record in the sport one year, three months and 12 days ago.
But there he was on the Washington Avenue Armory court last Tuesday afternoon, 29 hours into another marathon to break his own record.
I feel and I sound like I look I’m just totally drained,` said the Ballston Spa School District physical education teacher.
Immel had already smashed his old record of 24 hours and two minutes earlier that morning, but he was still trotting himself onto the court to compete with his Hometown Dodgeball team against Albany Dodgeball as the clock ticked down to the 31-hour, 11-minute and 13-second goal set by Albany Dodgeball’s Jason Von Guinness.
`Rob just wanted to break his record at 24 [hours], but I said let’s go after 31:11:13 because I love palindromes,` said Von Guinness.
`I always knew we’d do that 31, but there were times where I thought why couldn’t we just stop at 25?` said Immel.
By the 29-hour mark, the term `playing` had taken on a different meaning. There were six players on each side, and they were throwing standard-sized rubber dodgeballs at each other, but not with any great velocity or accuracy. Players who were out trudged off the court.
`We started out too strong [Monday], which I think was the problem,` said Albany Dodgeball team member Chrissie Carino, who was lying on one of the air mattresses provided as a resting area for players taking a break.
`It kind of goes in waves,` said Von Guinness. `We’ll go after it for a while, but then we’ll take it easy. We just kind of know when to pick it up and when to take it easy. We feed off each other’s energy level.`
It was impossible to blame the 18 players for having a lack of energy. All of them were operating on the scant minutes they had to close their eyes.
`We didn’t get real breaks,` said Carino. `A half hour at a time is the most we got.`
`It’s really tough,` said Von Guinness. `If you can work the mind-body situation out and get the body to do what the mind wants it to do, then everything falls into place.`
One Hometown Dodgeball player, Kris Near (a.k.a. DJ Yosh), did his best to keep everybody going. The Glenville resident brought his DJ equipment with him and put together a 31-plus hour-long music mix on his computer.
`I knew it was a good way to get my DJ stuff out there and keep people entertained,` said Near, a former Scotia-Glenville High School soccer player.
The event wasn’t just about setting a Guinness World Record, though. Von Guinness, who heads up the Albany Society for the Advancement of Philanthropy, set up a donation bucket to raise money for his organization’s scholarship fund, which helps Albany-area high school students go to college.
`I throw these fun events like the Santa Speedo Sprint [which takes place in December on Lark Street], and then the charity just presents itself,` said Von Guinness.
Most of the people who stopped in to watch the dodgeball marathon donated out of their wallets, but there was a check in the bucket too ` one written by Congressman Paul Tonko, who dropped by after making an appearance at the Albany Public Library next door to the Washington Avenue Armory.
`I don’t know what we have in the kitty exactly, but I know we did well,` said Von Guinness.
Other people made donations to the players ` not monetary donations, but donations of food and sports drinks.
`Everybody keeps walking in with cases of Gatorade,` said Immel. `There’s a birthday cake ` it was Jason’s birthday [Monday] ` and there’s been bagels, cookies, coffee, water, fruit you name it.`
The food and the drinks were appreciated by the players, but not as appreciated as the rest they were looking forward to once the marathon match ended.
`I’ll probably go to bed around 7 p.m. and wake up at 9 a.m. ` probably pretty sore,` said Von Guinness.
`I’ve got all [vacation] week to recuperate, unless I have to go to the hospital,` said Immel.
And if anyone suggests the concept of breaking this dodgeball marathon record, Immel said he’s going to sit that match out.
`There’s no way,` said Immel. `If someone wants to break the record, go right ahead.“
