One high five at a time, a group of Winnipeggers attempted to break a Guinness World Record Thursday.

The idea started after a ‘National High Five Day’ initiative last year at Johnston Group.

“Everybody wrote down things that were good about other people in the company on these hands that were cut out, and put them on the wall,” said Brian Swinden, marketing and communications specialist with Johnston Group, an insurance company.

“That was great, so we thought, well, what do we do next just to pick it up one notch? And I said, ‘World record! How about that?’”

The group was trying to set the record for ‘most high fives in a relay in three minutes.’

The previous record was set in July 2017 by Brother UK in London. That group managed to high five 492 times in three minutes.

Over the last two months, employees have been using their lunch breaks to practice the fine art of high fiving.

“It took us a while to get a technique, and we realized, how can we be faster?” said Stacey Klassen, who is part of Johnston Group’s client services. “Every time we would try to better ourselves.”

Klassen said she runs a workout every lunch hour, which usually ends with high fives.

When Swinden approached her about the world record idea, it was a perfect match.

All their hard work came to fruition Thursday, which marks the annual ‘National High Five Day.’

After a countdown, the group of 33 was off high-fiving in a relay.

The first time around, they ended up with 494, which technically beats the old record, but Swinden knew they could do better. The second time, the group came up short, only high fiving 489 times.

As they say, the third time’s the charm – and in this case, it was.

After high fiving for three minutes, organizers gathered around the counters one last time to find out their final tally.

“On our last attempt for the day, we have just set the world record!” Swinden shouted to the crowd.

His coworkers erupted in cheers, and ran over to hoist Swinden into the air.

The final count came in at 509.

Of course, there were more high fives to be had after the big announcement.

Before the record can be officially handed over to the group, they have to submit video footage along with affidavits from witnesses. If Guinness is happy with what it sees, Johnston Group will take the record from the current record holders in London, England.