Two students at Iowa State University have broken the Guinness World Record for longest hug — and it only took them 31 hours.

Alec Norem, a junior advertising major, and Amanda Nerem, a sophomore kinesiology major, set up shop in front of a campus library from Sept. 18 at 6 p.m. until 1 a.m. that Sunday with plans to break the standing 24-hour and 33-minute record for longest hug.

Norem added that as an advertising major he would have liked to have better promoted the hug — maybe by wearing promotional T-shirts around campus or by plugging companies. But the two said they didn’t break the record for any of those reasons. They were mostly just restless and bored while on break from school.

“There wasn’t really anything that inspired us; we were just kind of bored during the summer,” Nerem said.

With pizza, Netflix and extra layers of clothing at the ready, Alec and Amanda embraced while their friends and families bore witness close by. As best friends since fifth grade, Norem and Nerem had no problem chatting to pass the time.

That is, Nerem said, until the first real wave of exhaustion set in.

“We were just kind of laughing, having a good time,” she said. “And then kind of stopped as we both got tired.”

Both Norem and Nerem agreed that rock bottom arrived around 5 a.m. on Saturday morning and lasted until about 9 a.m., 4 hours later. It was at this stage that the combination of chilly early morning temperatures, lack of sunlight and sleep deprivation took a toll on the duo’s exhausted bodies.

“That’s the point when we were rocking back and forth on each other,” Norem said. “We pulled in our best friends for those hours. We didn’t really give them a choice.”

As a stipulation of the record-breaking process, two witnesses were required to stay with Norem and Nerem at all times, but each witness could only be present for a total of four hours. A plethora of friends stepped up as a result of this limitation, Norem said.

In addition to lining up witnesses, the duo had to secure clearance with university event management, library staff, and university security; rent cameras from the university; and film the entire hug from start to finish.

“We talked to so many people the last few days before the hug,” Norem said. “There were really no snags at that point. Everyone was really supportive the whole way.”

Now that they’ve hugged for 31 hours, Nerem and Norem agreed that they’re done shattering records — at least for now.

“Yeah, our Guinness days are over,” Norem said. “Except maybe to defend our title.”

Published on September 30, 2015 at 9:43 pm

Contact Brigid: brkenned@syr.edu