Everyone loves ice cream on a hot, summer day. And trying to break a Guinness World Record is about as American as it gets, especially on the Fourth of July. But when it came time to break the record for the biggest “human ice cream cone” ever, it seems the heat — just like it would with real ice cream — won out.

Following a parade along Capitol Hill, hundreds of people signed up to try to help break this obscure record. The goal was to group together for a picture looking like an ice cream cone.

Participants were excited to take part — at first.

“I’ve been standing for most of my life so I think I’ve got this,” said Stephanie Murray-Miller, who lives in Missouri but was in D.C. to visit a friend. “I’ve ate some ice cream before so that was another preparation.”

That sort of good humor, you might call it, among those participating would soon melt away in the heat, though.

You see, part of looking like ice cream cone involved putting on a poncho. In that heat, with no shade, patience melted away even faster inside that plastic bag. At least one participant even needed help from paramedics.

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The goal was to get at least 479 people to participate, and come up with a picture that was unmistakably a group of people forming a giant ice cream cone. More than 700 people had indicated interest online, but as the lift came down, Ready knew the outcome.

“Unfortunately I was not able to validate that this record met all of our guidelines,” Casson told those who stuck around to hear her decision. “We were not able to get a completely accurate count in the moment of the record attempt. Also, there was not a very clear image of the ice cream cone up to the caliber that we would require to consider this a broken record. But it was still a valiant attempt.”