Broomfield – Don Claps has always done things a little differently.
The Realtor shows property in a limousine.
Instead of running the Bolder Boulder, the Broomfield man cartwheeled his way along the route – wearing two pairs of gloves cushioned with carpet on each hand.
Over the 6.2-mile course, he did 1,024 cartwheels in two hours.
“He’s always been real ambitious and is always setting goals for himself,” said his mother, Sue, 62, of Thornton.
Claps had hoped the producers of “Survivor” would notice his antics. They didn’t.
Now he’s hoping the people at Guinness World Records will.
“We knew what he did at Boulder was a lot of cartwheels,” his daughter, Tia, 15, said. “We thought it couldn’t be any fewer than the world record.”
The record-keepers told him there wasn’t one for cartwheels, but he could establish one if he did them in an hour.
On Thursday, the 40-year-old turned 1,076 in 60 minutes at the Paul Derda Recreation Center in Broomfield. He’ll find out whether that gets him in the Guinness record book after judges view his tape.
To accomplish the feat, he began running 3 miles three times a week, working out his upper body and eating lots of carbs.
“It’s more than just strength,” he said, after the hour of cartwheels, his hands shaking and wrists aching. “It’s endurance.”
His friend, Dale Risinger, has been with him every flip of the way, even counting those cartwheels in Boulder.
“I knew it’d be tough, but I knew he’d be able to handle it,” Risinger said.
Even Claps was surprised at how many times he turned Thursday.
“I can’t believe I did 1,076,” he said. “I was just hoping to make it to 700.”
Staff writer Daarel Burnette II can be reached at 303-820-1747 or dburnette@denverpost.com.