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Report: Minn. Man Floats 26 Miles On Pumpkin, Breaks Record

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The name of a Minnesota man might grace the pages of the Guinness Book of World Records after he battled through intense boredom over the weekend.

Rick Swenson, of Grand Forks, floated nearly 26 miles Saturday in a pumpkin down the Red River, the Duluth News Tribune reports. Swenson's journey shattered the previous pumpkin float record by more than 10 miles.

"It was getting boring towards the end," Swenson told the newspaper. "I mean it was beautiful, but you knew you were getting towards the end and you didn't want to stop and it was starting to get really boring."

Swenson's quest to break the world record started with a big setback.

When he set sail from Grand Forks, he and his team thought he just had to float 8 miles to make it into the record book.

But, as he was nearing the 8-mile mark, they released the record had been broken just 15 weeks ago. Swenson said the realization was "completely demoralizing."

Still, he pressed on.

On his sturdy pumpkin, which was decorated with orange lights, he slowly floated down the winding river to Oslo. The entire trip took about 13 hours and 40 minutes.

Swenson says he'll never do something like that again. His trusty pumpkin, meanwhile, will be put on display at a zoo before being fed to animals.

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