Oslo, Minn. (KFGO) - Rick Swenson has broken a world record.
Swenson, of Fergus Falls, sailed 25.6 miles on the Red River, from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Oslo, Minnesota, in a giant pumpkin Saturday.
"We made it," Swenson said. "When we put it in the water, that was probably the biggest anxiety of all, to make sure it could handle in the current. . . It went really, really well. Actually, taking the pumpkin off the trailer yesterday, you could hardly even see that anything had happened."
The trip took him 13 hours and 40 minutes, almost four hours under his estimated time of 18 hours.
"I probably paddled about 90% of the time," Swenson said. "I was pretty well shot by the last three hours but to push through was pretty nice."
The previous world record was eight miles.
Swenson donated the pumpkins to the Chahinkapa Zoo in Whapeton, N.D. The zoo cuts the pumpkins up and feeds them to their animals.