Dave Chettle wanted to believe he’d smashed the world record by seven minutes. But deep down, he knew.

Chettle had stopped the clock at the unbelievable time of 2:02:24. As in, literally unbelievable.

The time was over seven minutes faster than the recognised world’s best at the time, held by fellow Aussie Derek Clayton. And the next 10 finishers all beat it, too. Something was clearly wrong.

“I wanted to believe it, the adrenaline was pumping and the organiser was excited,” Chettle recalled. “But then they had a police officer there on a motorbike, who was escorting us. He had a…