Author J.K. Rowling, who created the Harry Potter universe, has been criticized heavily over the last decade for her anti-LGBTQ+ tweets and support for various anti-trans organizations and personalities.
But despite her controversial stances, support for Rowling’s popular characters has not suffered much, with the latest Harry Potter video game, Hogwarts Legacy, becoming Warner Bros. Games’ biggest video game launch to date. Despite this continued success, many longtime readers have distanced themselves from the author herself.
One woman, however, is making her support for Rowling so public that she now holds a Guinness World Record for it.
Twitter user @EKaht, whose real name is Emily Kaht, has gone viral after sharing that she is now a Guinness World Record holder. Her accomplishment? She now holds the record for the “fastest half marathon time while dressed as a witch,” which she set at the Madison Half Marathon on November 13, 2022.
As part of her outfit, Kaht’s broomstick featured a message of support for Rowling, reading, “this witch doesn’t burn.” It is unclear if her half-marathon time of 1:55:04 while dressed as a witch is a new record, or if she has dethroned another runner. (According to Running Level, the average time for a half marathon is 1:50:15.)
Kaht posted an image of her record-winning look to Twitter and added the following message. “Inspired by @jk_rowling, I ran with a special message wrapped around my broomstick. #ThisWitchDoesntBurn #IStandWithJKRowling,” the caption read.
In a follow-up tweet, Kaht says she ran the race “in protest of witch hunts and in honor of those, past and present, who have been victims of them. After all these centuries, ‘witch’ is still the epithet hurled at women who have the audacity to stand up for themselves.”
Unsurprisingly, Kaht’s new record has caused backlash on Twitter. Her tweet has amassed nearly 2,000 replies and over 2,600 quote tweets—many of which are not exactly praising Ka at the time of this publishing.
Rowling herself responded with a retweet, saying, “Speedy Witches and Where to Find Them! Bravo @EKaht!”
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
