CrossFitter Sets New World Record With 16 Rounds of “Murph” in 24 Hours

May 27, 2020 by Patrick Clark

Photo Credit: Ed Brantley

While the CrossFit community set its eyes on Hunter McIntyre’s attempt to finish “Murph” in under 30 minutes, setting a new world record in the landmark Hero WOD, it was Lee Davis who might have had the most impressive record over the Memorial Day weekend. The 23-year old set an unofficial world record by completing Murph sixteen times in a 24-hour period.

The bottom line: Davis topped the previous record of 15 set by Belgian Pete Koopmans in December and will now wait for the Guinness Book of World Records to confirm his achievement.

He started his record-breaking attempt at 6:00 pm EST on Sunday, May 24 and completed his final Murph at 4:04 pm on Monday, May 25.
Davis performed his feat in Charleston, South Carolina as part of Rhapsody CrossFit’s “24-hours of Murph” to celebrate the reopening of the gym after the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to shutter their doors two months ago. He joined over 130 fellow members and supporters in the event that garnered local media attention.

Inside the numbers:

His fastest Murph time was his opening attempt, completing it in just over 54 minutes.
From there he turned it into an AMRAP as he would go straight into the next attempt, taking small breaks.
His slowest Murph was 1:47 which he started at noon on Monday.
He completed his first 10 in the first 12 hours.
His average mile time was 15:31 and he ran for a total of 8 hours and 11 minutes.
He did roughly a rep every five seconds when not running.
He did all 16 Murphs unpartitioned with a majority of his pull-ups being strict.
Davis completed his final “Murph” in 1:23.
In all Davis ran 32 miles, did 1,600 pull-ups, 3,200 push-ups and 4,800 air squats in just over 22 hours.

Preparing for the record: The Citadel Military Academy graduate is an avid crossfitter and runner who two months ago went on a 100-mile run for the fun of it.

Davis also started doing two Murphs a day for six weeks leading up to the record-breaking performance.
He also worked on strict pull-ups during that time to make himself stronger for the 1,600 pull-ups he knew he had to do to break the previous record.
“After doing a 100-mile ultramarathon in March, I was ready to go for a record,” commented Davis. “With Memorial Day coming up, the time was right. I threw the idea out to Rhapsody CrossFit Head Coach Alan Shaw and soon enough that idea became a plan.”
“Murph is hands down, one of the most challenging workouts in CrossFit,” said Shaw. “But it’s about so much more than being a tough benchmark. It’s what we as a community do to thank and pay tribute to those who gave their all for us.”
Named after Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy who was killed in action in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005, Murph is a commemorative workout done by athletes around the world every year on Memorial Day.
“I see military service as entirely selfless,” said Davis. “This attempt was the least I could do to honor them and show my gratitude.”